How can my mind be controlled by AoL like this?
by Sridhar
Since two days I have been reading the messages on this blog and I figured out who the sad swami being referred to is (by cross-referencing the other blogs). I found this blog after I realised I have been a victim of some kind of “mind control” in AOL. As instructed by AOL teachers, I have been regularly doing kriya for past 3 years and since 1 year I have noticed I am spending money from my wallet freely for AOL courses, publications, trips for events in different countries as if I am a controlled robot…
Doc and others on this blog, with your vast exp, could you please let me know how my mind can be freely controlled like this by AOL? Is it pre-planned and executed? I can clearly see that every 6 months my mind wakes up and again it goes into zombie state…how can I break this cycle? I don’t mind if I get nasty replies from the likes of Harshals’, I don’t care as they are doing their job…allocated to them. God bless them.
Recently my brain suddenly woke up again when I met a senior teacher who is also a board member in my country who pushed himself into my house (on pretext of volunteer meeting), and later forced my family to go for a unplanned dinner with him (fortunately he paid his share) and started speaking as if he is controlling my life…and saying things like Ravi is the present day Lord Sri Krishna and we are all Radhas (of Krishna) so we are attracted to him…blah blah blah…thank God he spoke to me like that so I know his true colours now (or maybe he is a controlled robot by now, and he doesn’t know that). Suddenly it flashed me that I was pulled into it for “stress free life by a simple breathing technique” and now I am listening to all this crap of present day Sri Krishna etc. I am sure if it were a different faith teacher, he would have said “present day Allah”, “present day Jesus” etc. I wonder if they teach their teachers to say these things but fortunately I didn’t fall in that trap.
You are doing a great service to humanity by exposing the true face of AOL. Please continue to do so. I will closely follow the posts and will be glad to help if and when required.
Comments are closed.
Beyond The Art of Living 
Any thoughts about this movie? – http://www.artoflivingshop.eu/site/products/product/birth-and-life-of-a-peacemaker-dvd0006,2491,0,0/
I would recommend it to people who have too much money to spare and love watching sales pitches (like those of timeshare condos, network marketing like Amway et al).
I guess at some point of time, AOL would preserve and sell SSRS’s everyday bodily refuse and the JGD zombies would buy and keep it in their homes
Hi,
Be strong in AOL. When u feel that its for good cause spend your time for seva or any activities, If not better busy with your job or other volunteer work.
Sudarshan kriya is the best technique for mind control, but attaching emotions with it is very dangerous and that is why people are not happy in AOL eventhough activities are very good for mind.
Be free from Brainwash,Keep Distance from Story Tellers and Donation Collectors and specially no. of fund raiser teachers who believes that all activities are only for Fund Raising.
Human Mind will always doubt which is hidden from it, I dont think so anyone in this whole world can change it even Guruji.
AOL needs to think about Sumeru Reality and Sri Sri University for their future since it seems completely business.
The vision of Guruji is good but the system to run AOL is completely wrong because Art of living is run by System ( which is based on the corporate company not the spiritual organization with Indian Ethics,) but system is not run by Art of Living and it seems out of control of Guruji.
I hope System will agree on Guruji’s wish to make SK free for all the people (He declared once in TRM ), that will definitely bring more volunteers to work for AOL.
Your life will be run by your soul, dont wait for any magic. work hard and reach your goal, but dont forget to do the Kriya regularly.
Wait and Watch. Be is Sakshi Bhav.
Jgd
Thanks for that wonderful unbiased reply. AOL requires more teachers like you…
This is not true — Ravi Shankar himself has always dictated the prices for the courses. When I taught, I even asked if it could be for free to people who had no money, and he gave me a long talk about how people don’t value things that are free, etc., and a basic ‘marketing’ way to get them hooked and to pay at least something. He is a businessman. The “System” as you put it is his, and is him. Period. Don’t be fooled.
“I hope System will agree on Guruji’s wish to make SK free for all the people (He declared once in TRM ), that will definitely bring more volunteers to work for AOL.”
Are you kidding me. I have attended quite a few TRMs and it has always been SSRS who insist on charging more money, except for some fringe donation courses that they do as a gimmick. Oh Strong volunteer, time to wake up. The practice of Sudharshan Kriya has put you to sleep.
Dayalu,
Guruji declared to make it happen once , but not allowed by big business men in AOL.
I am sleeping at all. I am still awaken and will be forever with / without sudarshan kriya in any case dear.
Regards
AOL is using “free manpower” in the name of seva, using you as a business tactic in getting more people to do their worthless courses, turning you into JGD zombies…
I agree with you. It is a good case study for a management course. I appreciate the success of this marketing strategy (100 % profit, zero loss).
If anyone wants to learn about the various brainwashing methods and technologies available and how normal trusting humans succumb to them. Pl go the below URL, they have some interesting posts.
You will find that a subset of some of what they talk about is deployed by AOL
http://www.project.nsearch.com/video/video/search?q=mind+control
To be clear, I love SSRS and AOL. I’ve been doing SK for over 20 years now and think its great. I also find the teachers in my area to very nice, good people. But when I hear reports of AOL teachers (usually they are Indian) speaking this way, that SSRS is the incarnation of Krishna, etc., I find it very disturbing. This is perhaps their personal opinion, hopefully based upon their personal experience, but this is not a good or helpful thing to say to people who are just starting and practicing SK. Nobody moves towards authentic spirituality based on concepts. I have had powerful personal experiences with SSRS but these are very precious experiences that would never be used as some sort of justification for another to practice SK or meditation.
The teachers calling him Krishna was precisely what really disturbed me too, its not only the teachers but also the Rishi’s especially Rishi NP who really pushes this line, also in the ashram the Satsang group specially time their Krishna Bhajans to time with the arrival of SSRS to make it seem that they were calling Krishna and he arrived. Earlier in 2005 SSRS had clearly told his devotees and teachers that he is not Krishna, but still somehow this propaganda has been really marketed and it seems SSRS is now okay with it.
Thanks Peter and OASCS for your replies.
“Earlier in 2005 SSRS had clearly told his devotees and teachers that he is not Krishna”
OASCS, can you clarify where this happened and what was SSRS’ exact statement of clarification? Coz, I have myself heard him a number of times making statements that directly imply that he is ‘Krishna reborn after 5000 years’.
What he does is look shy and say “how could I be Krishna”? and then stop denying it. Privately, he told me many times that he is in fact Krishna. He told other teachers that as well, and I’m sure he has told Rishi NP the same thing. It seems irreverant to say “I Am Krishna”, so he publically denies it. But he encourages teachers to believe the hype. He even told one devotee: “Don’t you remember when we were together so long ago in our other life, with the other 11, that there would be automobiles, with headlights…..” This was said to a Christian who then started thinking “oh, Guruji is Jesus”. Really! It’s totally sick.
But Peter,
SSRS himself told me himself, on various ocassions, that he is Krishna, Rama, and even Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and Brahmananda Saraswati reincarnated!
I too had powerful experiences around him when I was there. But so did those who followed Ravana. He was powerful, a Siddha, but was not good and was defeated by Lord Rama. Ravana, for your information, worshipped Lord Siva, and was given particular powers according to the mythology.
Those who are spreading these rumors are often told by the master himself that he is those things.
I clearly remember a satsang in 2001 when he was answering a question on ‘Rasaleela’, mentioning that Rasaleela is once again happening right now (meaning between him and devotees), after 5000 years. He also added ” I can also exactly tell you the dates when Krishna and Gopis did that, 50xx years ago” ( I don’t remember the exact number he said). Although he did not explicitly state that he is Krishna, everyone there took his words as proof that he is. And that was what he wanted everyone to believe.
Hi Anon,
Maybe SSRS is Krishna; maybe he is Jesus. What does that even mean? I don’t know. I clearly experience the Divine through SSRS. Amazing, incredible, extraordinary. But I still think it is adharmic to promote a spiritual practice by appealing to beliefs and concepts of the Divine. Let people engage in a practice and directly experience what they do and let that be their inspiration and guide. An authentic spiritual path is very subtle in many ways. Many people are caught in concepts and too concrete in their thinking. If anyone tried to promote SK or AOL through concepts of the Divine I would immediately make a comment to them why I feel this is very wrong. Even if SSRS did this I would argue with him and a deeper understanding on my part would ensue.
how on earth can i abuse you? one anonymous person abusing other anonymous on an anonymous forum?. Even if I do how can it affect you?
What is your problem? That the teacher took you for a dinner? Or that he said something about krishna? Truth is that you don’t have the balls to stand up for yourself and speak out what you think . It is ok to have doubts, as much as it is ok to have whatever beliefs people may have.If you dont want to spend money don’t spend it. Why cry like an idiot?
And then you have to come on forums like this and narrate your sad story.You talk about your brain walking up. you are wrong. Your brain is all messed up.
Thank you very much for taking time to reply and proving me correct by being abusive. Please continue being nasty and abusive while replying to the posts. It will in turn help people who come here to exit AOL faster. Let you get some peace of mind in return for this favour!
Did you notice you don’t have the habit of reading a post completely before replying and also you tend to assume too many things…read my post and your reply again. If you don’t get it, hey, you know what to do…post another offensive comment which you are good at…
You aren’t by any chance the same Harshal who posted the following are you?
“Subject: Want Guruji on Oprah show?
One thing we would love to see happen is for Guruji to be interviewed by
Oprah. As you probably know, Oprah’s show will be coming to an end this May,
to make way for her new Cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network. We are
sure that Oprah will love Guruji and and we would like to try and get the
attention of her producers. But we need your help!
Oprah is currently asking her viewers who they would like to see interviewed
on her final season. We would like to ask you all to suggest Guruji as a
guest. All you have to do is fill out this form:
https://www.oprah.com/ownshow/plug_form.html?plug_id=3337311
Please feel free to be creative and share your experiences with Guruji and
Art of Living, and tell the producers why you think he would be the perfect
guest.”
Because if you are, you’re dumber than any of us previously imagined. Do you really think those responsible for inviting guests onto Oprah wouldn’t have at the very least asked one simple question when they saw any of these requests:
“Who the f*** is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and why have so many people written in to recommend him as a guest ON THE SAME DAY?”
This alone would have raised alarm bells, and so they wouldn’t have bothered wasting any time with any screening process involving research into Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s background, which would only have confirmed their suspicions. And don’t you think that from that point on the show’s producers would have become very wary about this Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and would have probably told others about it?
Honestly what kind of an idiot are you? You are accusing someone else’s brain of being messed up, but how messed up must your brain be to even think for one second that a cheap ploy like this would have actually worked?
Hilarious message. Thanks for pasting it here.
Harshal,
AOLite needs to ask following questions to themselves.
1. When all of us are decalring him as our strong Guru in public (Including Social Networking Sites), Why Guruji is not declaring the name of his guru once in a public ?
2. If my Guru is God, Do we really need to pay anything to learn from him in advance ?
3. If all the teachers are pure and working for Humanity why do they not organizing the course even though the targets are not met.
4. Why they are always ready for the fund raising events or marketing propoganda and why not for doing course with few participants.
5. Do we really need to pay anything for doing Volunteering work ?
6. We are the only one who are responsible for seva having new no. of courses to attract the people ?
7. Do we really need to ask foreigners to pay more money for all this courses e.g. TTC for Indian is 10,000 and for Foreigners 5000 US $ – Is it spirituality ? Do we seriously working for Humanity.
8. Do you really think all other courses except basic one is really needs to be so costly ?
9. If we are on a path on Moksha and Purity , dont you think so we should be transparent in all financial aspects of organization with all employees and teachers and volunteers ?
10. Why do we need to start the project which are only for fund raising ? Sumeru Reality and Sri Sri university ?
Its enough for now i think. Wake up guys. Don’t allow them to control your mind in any matter. If you think you donate or doing seva for the Courses and have magic then your mind becomes more and more weak and you start loosing your confidence.
This practices are only useful when Human Mind is unhappy or in stress.
Do you allow someone to earn from your unhappiness or stress ?
Wake Up Sid.
JGd
Thanks each and every one for your time to read my post and to reply back. Please also treat this message as a token of thanks for future replies as well.
Recently on a visit to my hometown in Kerala, I visited the local chapter of AOL with my mother who has been a devotee of HHSSRS for the last 15 years. This local AOL ashram had been built by a rich devotee at a cost of one crore of his personal money.
At the entrance there is a large sign that reads “Temple of Knowledge”. Once you enter this temple, there is the sanctum sanctorum which is about 1600 sq. ft where on a cushioned sofa, sits a life size photograph of the chief deity of knowledge, HHSSRS decorated with flowers and garlands. The structure itself is a Visalakshi mantap lookalike. Within the precincts of the ashram i was able to count no less than eight photographs of lesser dimensions, including one over the “Divine” shop and on the sides of the ashram vehicles. It being new years day we were led into a midnight meditation in the sanctum sanctorum and then at the stroke of midnight which heralded the new year were asked to open our eyes and see the chief deity first thing before seeing anything else.
There was also a promotion drive going on and there were a lot of advertising pamphlets strewn about the place, all of them with pictures of HHSSRS smiling beatifically printed on them. When I stepped on one of them while walking, I was duly chastised by my mother for being disrespectful to the divine being and then when I pointed out to her the pamphlets of the “divine” being stuffed into garbage bins with the other trash, she was near tears.
“Recently on a visit to my hometown in Kerala”
That explains it all. bible thumper!
“That explains it all. bible thumper!”
Harshal amazes me with his general knowledge. He is so confident that everyone from Kerala is a Christian.
@harshal
Why do you hate those who put scriptural authority over personal experience as a means to worship. Even in Hinduism there are plenty of people who hold scripture but not personal experience as valid. Should I call them Gita thumpers then ??
@Sridhar
“Please continue being nasty and abusive while replying to the posts. It will in turn help people who come here to exit AOL faster”
Lets examine this crooked mindset of yours. First , there is no way an anonymous can abuse any other any other anonymous. Since I abused you, you want people to exit and AOL to close down. This is mostly the story with all this blog. Someone in the org hurt them and now all they want to is to take revenge. Since no balls to stand up and talk about it, write on an anonymous website.
If for example someone in WHO were to abuse you, you will want to WHO to close down. You wont care what good it is doing, as long as you get your sense of revenge. Where have you got this from? Next, You like to be a victim, you like to feel abused. See how in your post you expect to get abused!You just invite it for yourself.This is a crooked mindset.
@anonymous: Yes i am the same Harshal who posted that, because obviously there is only one Harshal in the whole world. What are you going to do about it?
Great reply Harshal. Amazing choice of words. Your character shows in your words. AOL has really brought about a great transformation in you. Keep it up.
Harshal must be unemployed (again).
Harshal,
Can you ask guruji to put Annual Report to published on site and forward it to all the employees of his organization who are working for him and AOL.
Jgd
Oh but Harshal, you ARE the same Harshal that tried to get your fake-Guru on the Oprah show. I know it, you know it, and everyone else knows it. Talk about having no balls Harshal, man up and admit to it!
But poor baby, it didn’t happen did it? The sad fact is that outside of his crooked organization, your fake-Guru is a nobody. No one has ever heard of him, and so people would be naturally suspicious when a whole bunch of his followers suddenly one day decided to vote him on to the Oprah Winfrey show, and the finale at that. Only a dumbass like you who is so heavily brainswashed in the Art of Living way of thinking could even conceive of this. And did it work? Oh, but that’s not what matters. What matters is that you tried, and everyone in Art of Living thought what a hero you must be Harshal for trying this! They didn’t and you didn’t see the obvious damage you did by doing this. As you can’t seem to see the damage your are doing to your fake-Guru by being on this blog.
It’s obvious from all of this Harshal that you’re so dumb you don’t realize how dumb you are!
what a stupid rant. . Ok I admit I am the one who sent that email. How does that help you? Now that I have owned up, can you show some balls and tell us who you are? You wont. Because you are a coward -just an anonymous loser coming from some ether.
If you really thought i was dumb you wont argue with me. If you thought AOL is not good, you wont keep writing about it. Think about it- If you know that someone is dumb you just ignore them because you know that there is no point arguing. If you dont like a place or situation you just leave it alone. Like for example, if you don’t like nightclubs you just don’t go there. You don’t start blogging about it under the pretext of saving those who go there.
Trouble is you are just in a conflict with yourself and with no balls to own upto it you start shitting here.
You think AOL is being hurt by this blog? Just look at the earlier post- how AOL is growing in bible thumpers bible belt.
@Harshal
It indeed is growing in Kerala by leaps and bounds. But fact of the matter is that HHSSRS calls his AOL secular and non religious in one breath and in the other calls himself an incarnation of Jesus and Krishna simultaneously. He converts people into AOLism even as he draws his teachings and meditation from Hinduism and Zen and fails to acknowledge either as being the source of his teaching, instead saying that he “cognised” this knowledge, since he was the “chosen” one.
What starts of as a secular, non religious path to stress relief soon proceeds to new year midnight meditations where the by now besotted devotee is to open his eyes at midnight and see the “enlightened” being first thing in the new year.
@ Harshal – “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” “its not your fault” … if you know what I mean… you are messed up bro… please seek help
Oh Harshal, I think we’ve really hit a nerve here haven’t we? You sound more angry and upset than I’ve ever seen you on this blog. I would recommend you practise Kriya 3 times today and also pray to Sri Sri, I’m told he’s an expert at removing stress.
So first you deny that it was you who wrote that Oprah email, then after I taunted you you finally admit to it … now who’s mind is confused, eh? Who’s mind is really in conflict?
But do you know what really cracks me up? It’s the fact that yesterday you left comments on this blog on no fewer than THREE separate occasions during the day, first in the morning, then in the afternoon, and again finally in the evening. Now honestly, how obsessed are YOU with this blog that you had to come here so many times? And this is just the number of times you left comments, you probably actually visited way more times than that.
And when you left the comment in the afternoon, you must have already seen my comment to you above, but you only replied to it much later in the evening. So I guess you spent 6 whole hours trying to come up with a response – and this was the best you could do?!
You’re losing it Harshal, now more than ever before. Honestly, I don’t think you’re dumb any more. Dumb people are WAY smarter than you are, and it would be insulting to them to count you amongst their number. To all dumb people worldwide, I apologize for thinking Harshal was one of you. I don’t think there even exists a suitable word to describe you, so the best thing is to coin a new word: Harshal. You are a complete and utter Harshal!
I really don’t give a shit if this blog is damaging AOL or not, but you seem to be obsessed with that. Many of us are here for many different reasons, though I’m sure one or two probably do want to damage AOL, and so what if they do? What’s the problem there? But if I were you I’d get your facts straight before you start making statements like this blog isn’t damaging AOL. At the very least, look at how much AOL has spent on the court case against this blog. And then you may want to ask someone senior in AOL (though I doubt they’ll let someone low down like you know about this) what the course attendance has been like over the last 2-3 years worldwide, you might get quite a surprise. And look at the pathetic turnout for the World Culture Festival – you were there remember?
And whilst you’re at it, you should also ask why the big courses like Bali and Arosa were scrapped after 2010. Probably you’ll get some silly justification like it was the 30th Anniversary Celebrations and Guruji didn’t want them to clash, but that itself is the dumbest answer in the world. Because we all know that nothing could have been more perfect than starting in Arosa then ending at the World Culture Festival. No, the real reason is far simpler than that, but no one will tell you what it is, and you are far far too dumb – sorry, I did it again, force of habit – you’re far far too Harshal to ever work it out yourself.
I periodically check this blog and I’m saddened that this poor soul Harshal is still as lost as he was last Winter.
Love how he says…
“If you really thought i was dumb you wont argue with me. If you thought AOL is not good, you wont keep writing about it. Think about it- If you know that someone is dumb you just ignore them because you know that there is no point arguing. If you dont like a place or situation you just leave it alone. Like for example, if you don’t like nightclubs you just don’t go there. ”
Harshy, If you thought this blog was dumb, you won’t argue with us. If you don’t like a place or blog, you leave it alone. So sad how blind you are, or maybe it’s just brain damage from all that kriya.
For the folks who missed it, Harshal broke down last Summer and wrote nasty messages about how hurt he was that we insulted/doubted his guru. He knows things are not all right in AOL, and that’s why he keeps coming back here. Keeps telling us to move on, yet never moves away from this blog…
Thank you to everyone on this blog that saved me a little over a year ago. I’ve felt far healthier and happier this year than any of the years I was in AOL. I have much more energy and clarity of mind. People are always commenting about how much better I look. I’m also glad to see they failed to shut this blog down (for now). A half a million hits and counting – think of all the lives you’ve saved.
Harshal, dude, we’re on the same “side”. Ease off. Too rajasic! How you relate is as important as what you say. I’ve posted some nasty cracks here too, but I learned my lesson. This blog, while it seems to be for “haters” is actually for “doubters”.
HHSSRS is nothing but a pure politician
He has no power especially after breaking his parambara /lineage of gurus. Soon after he removed MMY from the picture he lost the knowledge connection.
Now he has no choice other than show off and political power to maintain.
Those who lived with out lineage will sustain naturally.
SP, you sound like another ‘simble humble malayalee’ (I am one too). Or is it that I’m misreading a typo?
And lineage is nothing but copy and paste , that is the reason HHSSRS is always shaky and afraid of some one will do the same. So what ever copied ensure copy right so that he can now claim it belongs to his intellectual property :).
I noticed the same thing — vis a vis the parampara. When Maharishi Mahesh Yogi spoke, he always began by giving all credit to his Guru Dev, Brahmananda Saraswati. He never took any credit for himself, and certainly never put himself for worship at all. It’s not wonder that Ravi Shankar doesn’t give Maharishi credit — Maharishi himself told people that RS is “sugar coated poison” and to “stay away from him” because he was blind. I guess RS got so mad he just decided to erase the photo of his Guru! LOL
Harshal, by the way you talk against adversity to ther people is not at all, really not at all the Practise of Art of Living.
You may be well versed in SK and the Yogas, but the reply as such to others who do not believe is not at all how Guruji has spread the Knowledge.
Kindly read, understand and apply the teachings of Guruji and seek out the relevant Knowledge Sheets.
As for SK and AoL being brainwashing, I sincerely disagree to this.
We all have our own experience of SK and have been involved in AoL to various depth of interaction but what I can tell all of you here who think that they have been deceived, tricked, brainwashed or amalgamated into some kind of zombies is:
1) You mind is neither messed up nor is it clear – you are in a state of confusion. Confusion is growth, if you go through that experience of confusion, but for now, you are still in the eye of the cyclone.
2) You may have had some subconscious expectations and hopes as you joined AoL and regularly practised SK. and when at one time you have realised that neither of those expectations nor hope have been satisfied, SK and its benefits have been considered by you as a temporary sukha, and as the mind controls the body, the credit of SK disappears in your own .
3) If you are so upset about the system of corporate governance in AoL, kindly help us by raising the point with Guru Ji directly and come back here with an answer! You cannot change the law of a country while talking too the partisans of a Government but rather with the head of the government himself/herself, right?
Sorry if I have hurt anyone
Thank you for reading.
Jai Gurudev
IG, responses to your numbered arguments
1) Most of us went deeper into AOL because we were repeatedly fed the story that we were all confused and AOL is the only way out of the confusion. However, after spending years in AOL, we gradually realized that people within AOL (and that includes SSRS) were more confused than those outside of it.
2) The only expectation I had was honesty and a reasonable degree of ethical and moral rectitude. But it soon dawned on me that I have to compromise my own sense of integrity to continue in the organization.
3) Are you kidding me? How many times in Satsangs have you heard tough questions being asked and SSRS choosing to completely ignore or totally diverting the topic. Teachers and core volunteers are expected to go there with a ‘Yes mind’ and ‘unconditional surrender’. In TRMs, when someone raised such issues, he/she was isolated by the group and subjected to counter attack. I don’t know if that has changed during the last two years after I left the organization,…. very unlikely.
IG, you have not hurt anyone at all. This forum is for awakening people in AOL who are on the fringe, to give courage to question things happening around them and to get out before their lives are destroyed. For those who are deep into the illusory world of AOL, we can only pray for them and wish them good.
Harshal – this video is for you – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF1CzBzhDrs
@jr. “For the folks who missed it, Harshal broke down last Summer and wrote nasty messages about how hurt he was that we insulted/doubted his guru”
I challenge you to show me where I have said this.
I have always maintained that this blog is just a source of entertainment for me. It is the same for you but you are not decorous enough to admit it.
@ the anonymous who keeps track of how much , when and how many times I post on this blog. you seem to keep track of my activities more than i do. If you were ever looking for a job of a secretary, I will be happy to consider your application.
to IG,
When I got involved ‘more deeply’ in Art of Living, I did so because I believed in SSRS. In spite of what I began, early on, to see in his behaviors (imbalance of mind, fear about small, silly things, a need to control others), I attributed these things to his being a “great master” and so gave lots of slack. He often told me that it was very stressful dealing with other people, and that he took their stress on, and it affected him. After some time, I realized that even though that might be so, it was no excuse for his increasing abuse of people and power. When I confronted him privately about these things, he would become irrationally angry, turn red, and shout. When he would recover himself from these tantrums, he would say “I was taking your anger” or some other excuse, blaming me for his behavior. This got old in a hurry. I’m just a person looking for Truth. I have so many weaknesses. Why would I want a weak Guru/master? I wasn’t finding Truth, but more nonsense around him. I got tired hearing things from him like: “If people come to you and complain that I did (xyz) to them, it’s because you have dirty ears. Only a person with dirty ears could hear such things…” This, about some people actually coming to me, telling me things that happened to them in private with SSRS. Those things will go unnamed here because I don’t wish to be sued for ‘defamation’ of character. After hearing the same stories, and variations on them, from all sorts of people who did not know each other, and after having the master finally admit (yes he admitted the events, but, of course, blamed the other person in the room because of their ‘vasanas’, for them) to them, I finally walked away. After witnessing too many bizarre episodes with him, hearing too many rants over foolishness, after having one too many ridiculous excuse for his bad behavior with me and others, I walked away. But not without being lied about, not without SSRS trying very hard to spread rumors about me, with threads of truth in them so that they would be believable, to destroy any possible friendships I had in the organization. I found out that he did that to anyone who left who knew ‘things’ about him. Pre-emptive strike. IG, anyone who gets involved in AOL does so at their own risk. I comment here occassionally and am happy to see some people reporting that this blog saved them from further involvement, and they moved on with their lives. So did I. To Jr., I also get many comments from people that I look so much better, so much healthier, since I left the organization. (Not to mention how much better I feel, having left.) To people like Peter who say they have a direct experience of the Divine with SSRS, I would ask “How do you know it’s the Divine?” I thought the same thing, and I quickly found out that powers, energy transmission, are not, definitely not, reserved only for the Divine. Many of the “Divine” actions that SSRS performed when I was around him would land him in jail, if caught. At the very least, many people, especially Indians, would walk away from him, and never look back. But he is very clever and very energetic. He’ll likely never be found out publically until after he dies. Then everyone will scramble for a piece of the enormous pie he has baked. Jai Guru Dev (The Sadguru is always listening and speaking from our hearts if we just listen properly)
Here was your long, crazy breakdown on July 18th, under the Deconstructing Religion thread…
“@ The Doctor
There are a many more. Like when you apologised with reference to noble peace prize and stockholm. Or when you stood corrected wrt me not being a AOL teacher.
with particular reference to AOL
1) medical claims of SK damage without any proofs. From valve damage to what not SK can cause everything. No proofs were given- only big threads opened. You encouraged these threads even though personally you had good experiences. For example:Someone like our pastor to promote his evangelical aims can create multiple accounts and claim anything or some psycho girl like theartofliving, just beacuse she broke up with someone in AOL can make up stories.
2)wrt YLTP. The moderator realized that it was a mistake and was forced to remove the thread. Who is responsible for the losses incurred in the meantime because of the misinformation?
3)wrt misappropriations of funds in AOL. No proofs have been given yet. Just accusations
4)you were always eager to point out if anyone in AOL posted from multiple usernames. However, you NEVER corrected people when they thought that I was ‘corrector’ or that other funny guy. You wanted to hide the fact that many people speak for AOL.
5) blatant copyright violations by this blog. You guys were forced to remove stuff. This is criminal and illegal and by removing those you have accepted your faults. If you have the balls to think that you are right in putting those up, put those up again.
6) playing with peoples emotions. Knowing very well that founder of AOL is revered and respected by many. A guru in India is considered as a mother. Would you be happy if anyone opened a blog and abused your mother?
7)No attempt was made to keep a check on the language. All abusive posts were allowed.(including mine maybe).Abuse of Hinduism is everywhere on the blog even.
8) No attempt made to verify the authenticity of links posted. Anything anti-AOL isalways true, while anything pro-AOL is always false.
9) denying and trashing all the medical research on AOL, because of the suspicion that AOL people might be involved in the research.
10)abusive language to any pro-aol people visiting this blog. They are usually very humble and modest people who do not use harsh language. All of them are harassed (frequent referral as AOL zombies and brainwashed) and forced to go away so that more anti-aol traffic is visible.
11) refusing to have transparency on this blog. People have the right to be anonymous but they also have the right to make a informed decision based on the demographics of this blog. What if 90% people opposing AOL come from a particular demographic which raises suspicion about their motives on the blog? Attempts by people to have a anonymous survey was rejected.
Now don’t spend your time taking each one of them and writing a detailed response. It will just be a play of words, which will help you to spend you time.
For me these 135 posts, is some time less spent on contributing something towards the cure of an incurable diseases. This is what I have lost by visiting this blog, ‘time’ . however I do get my ‘entertainment’. And I have also realized the shallowness and hypocrisy of anti-AOL group.”
Your 6th comment shows just how angry you are because everyone on this blog has exposed your master and the cult. The rest just shows how angry/sad/confused you are….
darn it! Where do I say that I was hurt?
Just came across this AOL video in youtube. In this video the master speaks for just 30 secs in the beginning, and for the rest of the 5 mins, carelessly garlands his fawning devotees without so much as smile or a tender glance towards them, then prances and struts about soaking in the adulation of the boisterous crowd who probably were thinking about how lucky they were to have seen the master at his happiest.
And all of this in exchange for a breathing technique which was supposed to have relieved them from stress. Anyone aimimg at mind control should use ravi shankar as a standard of measurement.
And the people who were to receive the garlands were never even invited on stage. Seems that even though “oneness” with the universe is ravi shankars experience of enlightenment, he doesn’t wish to practise it in real life. Cos if its all about oneness then what guru and what shishya remains ??
SS:
I started to watch this video, then had to TURN IT OFF! Why? Another butchery of another great tune, this time one of my favorites! I guess all that energy made the guy singing think he was Rahat Fateh Ali Khan (NOT). Gross. Just couldn’t listen to it. Can’t they write their own music to ruin? LOL Oh! And the words would really be just what His Great Holiness would want to hear! LOL He really wants people to feel that way about him.
Kinda surprises me too. Why do they have to depend on compositions by Bollywood and classical singers like Uma Mohan to propagate themselves when they have talent like Vikram Hazra and Chitra Roy.
lol this bible thumper is so so ignorant! people were not invited on the stage so there is no oneness! What amazing logic! Pure unadulterated first class entertainment.
@Harshal
So what logic are you going to provide to show that there was oneness ???
@ bible thumper: This is the problem with you. If you read baloney, you think baloney and then your logic is baloney. What is the need to show oneness? It is just a matter of experience.
God loves everybody. And he sends to eternal hell anybody that doesn’t do everything his way. Explain THAT logic to me, please?
@Harshal,
And by what logic should I assume that such an “experience” has happened ??
And by what logic should I assume that such as “experience”, if it has indeed happenened, is of a divine nature ??
When Ravi Shankar was faced with such questions do you know what his answer was ??
To a devotee who complained that he wasn’t feeling one with the Guru, He said that even if duality i.e separation between you and me is your experience, take it for granted that “oneness” is the acutal, real experience, for which the devotee will need to keep up the faith and his practices for an indefinite period of time.LOL
So what HHSSRS says is that you make take non duality for granted even if it isn’t your experience, while duality may be regarded as being false even it is your experience.
With each passing comment of yours I’m growing in certainty that your guru is never ever going to codify his teachings, lest Ravi Shankars credibility suffers a real shock in the public domain.
And as for the Logic of god sending someone to hell or heaven, your ravi shankar himself says that God is beyond logic. So why do you commit sacrilege by going against his word.LOL
But if you don’t consider the biblical god to be the “real” God or the “logical” God, then take comfort from the fact that Krishna who in the bhagavad gita declares himself to be the “only one” with no second also sends unbelievers in his divinity into the wombs of the demonic and thus failing to attain him fall to the lowest depths.
However if you find Krishna to be illogical also then you can manufacture your own god who meets your criteria of logic since hinduism provide illimitable scope to the seeker to engage in personal Godhead. So why complain??
And somehow you always refer to me as a “Bible thumper” and not as a “Gita thumper” or a “Quran Thumper” or a “Zend Avesta Thumper” or even a “Granth Sahib” thumper, even though I’ve never even in passing made any mention to any biblical content.
Either you are assuming that since I’m a Keralite, I would be a christian or you are merely following in the footsteps of your fellow spiritualist “You Am I”, who used to grace this blog some time back. So in the first case I can accuse you of presumptousness and in the next of unoriginality both of which AOL it seems has failed to rectify.
@Harshal
And your remarks about me being a “bible thumper” seem apt for the kind of person that i am, since the bible being scripture, hence in black and white, opens itself readily enough to criticism and all kinds of scholarly analysis.
OTOH, the whimsical personal experience of your guru, that he wields as his scepter of spiritual authority must, by necessity of it being his personal experience, be beyond the scope of verification of any kind.
Fact of the matter is, your guru is yet to codify any of his teachings for scholarly analysis, and why would he ?
If he ever codified his teachings, the whole wide world would get to know that all of it is drawn from advaita vedanta or zen or from werner erhards EST or from TM. So much then for his claim for having all these programes from his “innate understandings” and “cognitions” of all kinds.
So for your guru its going to be his unverifiable personal experience, which one will have to take on faith, as his guru baton all the way. He did make an attempt though at cobbling together a lineage when he ousted his own Guru from the Shankaracharya lineage and nested himself in his guru’s place. Wonder if he felt oneness with MMY when he did that ?? Why don’t you ask him next time you meet him ?? I for one would like to know his answer. LOL
SS: To answer that question: I have heard him claim that he is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. What a joke. The man is deluded.
@ bible thumper: Dont write big essays. The lack of sense in your content cannot be compensated by the length of your content. The point if that you claimed that since people are not called on the stage there is no oneness- which is just plain stupid and there is no way you can justify it – your baloney doesn’t help.
I know that you are a bible thumper because we have seen your conversations with ‘you m I’ and how all of them were deleted from this blog since those did not help the original purpose of this blog – which is to defame AOL.
To the other guy who posted the US charity. Can you ask them to put their finance documents online for scrutiny? You claim that they are doing more work. What and where is the proof?
@Harshal
I’m sorry that I offended the sensibilities of his Royal Highness, His excellency Shri Harshal Maharaj.
But Shri Harshal Maharaj needs to understand that, apart from HHSSRS’s word, there isn’t any objective evidence at all, that he feels “oneness” with any of his devotees.Instead he asks all and sundry to take this “oneness” for granted as a face saving measure.This baloney doesn’t help when a devotee sees he is being fleeced at the altar of “spirituality”.
And as for “you am I”, he at one point called me an apologist for abrahamic religions and a leftist/marxist at another. Maybe he gleaned this from his meditative insights.And you might see some of his posts where he lambasts the AOL guru as nothing but a comic interlude before you accuse the Doc of taking down his “pro AOL” posts.
“… the original purpose of this blog – which is to defame AOL.”
Of course you’re right Harshal … which is why Art of Living’s own lawyers had to drop the defamation charge: because they couldn’t find one single thing which they could use to show that this blog was trying to defame in any way.
But of course you are way more intelligent than these lawyers so you can show us some proof of defamation can’t you? Or are you just going to prove once again that you are full of nothing but hot air?
My guess is that you won’t respond to this because you never respond to anything which catches you out and shows how much of an idiot you are.
@Harshal didi – Thanks for not letting me down , and for proving you are full of nothing but hot air which you seem to be able to fart from right out of your mouth.
@All
And here’s another gem. I stumbled upon this dude’s query in Yahoo answers. This dude it seems was asked to go door to door to peddle, it seems the Art Excel course and he went to yahoo answers, of all places, to get some pointers on how to do a decent marketing job.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArpfiHICr9a7WyxeVBWJQxfd7BR.;_ylv=3?qid=20091207220948AA651it
Hysterical answers in that link! Thanks SS. I especially liked “ask why you need to” (go door to door to peddle the Art of Living Course to kids. It’s just so depressing what passes for spirituality these days.
How can my mind be controlled? Because we let ourselves be controlled. AOL brainwashes people with the cult of personality. You *don’t* need to say yes to everything the teacher asks for. You don’t need to donate money, not a rupee or a cent. You *don’t* need to attend followup kriya. You don’t need to do anything you are not comfortable with. This would be common logic, something that usually flies out when you’re in AOL.
I learnt kriya and the aol yoga when they were just about getting organized, have been practicing it every day since the 1990’s and it has done me and many others a world of good, no matter what the naysayers on this blog keep shouting about. That is the extent of my AOL involvement till today. The teachers know they can’t push me around or get money from me, so they’ve given up. You should not be afraid or ashamed to stand your ground, use common sense and do what’s right for *you* not just what’s profitable for AOL. Take the good, throw away the junk and move on with your life.
@ Bhargav: You have hit the nail on its head, albeit partially. Half of these people are keralites and are talking for their church other half has a victim consciousness. They just want to blame something /someone for their miserable life.
@Harshal Maharaj,
Didn’t know your sadhana had deepened to such an extent that you could determine the ethnicity of someone over the internet.
And BTW AOL is doing ROARING business in Kerala. Furthermore, the sabarimala temple gets unimaginable amounts of money as donations while the padhmanabhaswamy temple is the richest religious denomination in the world. The various ayurvedic spas and rejuvenation centres are rolling in cash.
Thus all in all if you think hinduism is in danger in Kerala because of the christians you only need to check the bank accounts of the thantris of the sabarimala temple.
Harshal, You got some kind of problem with Christians and Keralites or something? Chill man! If you’re in AOL then you know it shouldn’t matter to you which scripture a person follows! Really, dude, you need to take a pill!
Bhargav,
The fact is that everyone does not have the ability to say ‘no’ like you do. They get sucked in before they realize, just like people getting sucked in to groups like Amway, etc. The blog helps such people not to get carried away and succumb to the pressures from sweet talking AOL teacher or those promotional videos of SSRS shown to them. This blog is to make such people understand that there is another dirty side to this organization. All of us here except Harshal have moved on, but still devote a small part of our time to post on this blog in the hope that it will help at least a few on the fringe to get out of AOL. This has been stated repeatedly on the blog, but some people miss the point. And you would notice that the main contributors of the blog keeps changing with time.
As to the benefits of AOL, diligent practice of any system of yoga including that of AOL will give you benefits. Having said that, the yoga they teach in AOL is elementary stuff, but even that when practised regularly with due diligence and discipline will give you some benefits. However, SK is a hotch potch, over-hyped, breathing technique. My experiecnce of teaching SK is that it benefits some but also harms some others. Personally it has benefitted me, but I am skeptical of the long term impact because it is just not a tried and tested technique and based on my personal experience I just don’t believe what AOL and SSRS claims about it. Also, I have seen some people’s health suffering as a result of SK. Ashthanga Yoga, on the other hand, have been tried and tested for ages. Moreover, most of the claims that AOL makes about SK and SSRS’ lineage are lies and they will go to any extent to sell themselves, thus doing irrepairable damage to the reputation of yoga and other indian traditions.
@Bhargav,
Bravo that you didn’t get involved! The fact that you didn’t do so speaks volumes about what you really think of Ravi Shankar and his followers/organization. Unfortunately for me, I did get involved. From the beginning with SSRS, I told him I didn’t want to be as involved, and actually, he kept pushing me. That’s right. He would say things like I would never get enlightened if I didn’t do thus and so, I should do whatever he said and never think about it or question it, that I should “doubt the doubt”, because he was a great master, blah blah blah. I fell for all of it, dumb me. But it didn’t last long, like some other poor souls, who are still trapped there to this day, and I escaped, against his word and wish. He told me not to leave, told me I’d be damned if I did, and he did his best to make sure I was disgraced as much as possible to anyone who knew me. I got over all of it pretty quickly, but it made me realize how dangerous such a person can be! Blaming the victims who are now left behind, who have made him rich, is silly. It’s not their fault they got trapped and didn’t get out.