A Word About the Tone on This Blog
To Everyone Posting here,
Of late, it can’t have escaped people’s notice that one or two posters are creating a great deal of tension and animosity where there really shouldn’t be any.
This blog was originally set up with the goal of providing alternative viewpoints about Art of Living to those which the organization itself presents to the world, to allow individuals to freely discuss any issues, reservations, doubts and anything else they feel they wish to contribute to any given discussion.
Although we encourage people to contribute here openly and freely, to express themselves in whatever manner they see fit, some individuals are becoming unnecessarily provocative and downright vindictive.
It has NEVER been the intention of this blog to create any us versus them dynamic, or to encourage any sort of pro- versus anti-AoL division. If there’s one thing the majority of people contributing on this blog will agree to, it is that they have got at least some good from their time in the organization and that AoL is doing at least some good in the world. I really don’t want this turning into a forum where people who have certain issues with AoL are trying to portray it as a purely evil organization, and SSRS to be some kind of demon. Those of us who were involved with AoL know that this is anything but true. Yes, it does have its many faults, and yes there are many individuals in AoL who are anything but perfect, but that is no reason to just lash out at everything and everyone connected with AoL.
Which brings me to a final point I want to make. One of the recurring themes in this blog is that AoL brainwashes its devotees. This is something I happen to strongly believe, and we have already produced a lot of evidence which supports this claim. However, if someone is brainwashed, it means they have been manipulated into thinking and acting the way they are. Lashing out at these individuals and calling them “brainwashed zombies” really isn’t going to help them or anyone else. Please show some sympathy and compassion towards these people, and don’t try to create animosity towards them because of their beliefs. If you have a point to make, make it without having to resort to flaming or name-calling or any other form of aggression. These things will just weaken any argument you have to make.
I really don’t want to start moderating comments, so please just bear these things in mind in future.
Thanks for your understanding.
How Can a Divine Revelation Be Defective?
by The Seer
[In response to this comment]
Proud Teacher, I really appreciate you responding to the criticisms in a civil manner and your respect for the criticisms. You represent a point of view I myself possessed until a few months ago.
Now let me respond to your comment.
You say,
“But, I would like to ask you a simple question, have you seen any bad or wrong in Guruji or his intention.”
I’m not sure if you have read all the posts in this blog. Yes, there are too many and it’s not possible to read everything, but you should at least read all the recommended posts you’ll find the links in the sidebar. You’ll find people asking all kinds of questions about Guruji’s intention and there has never been a satisfactory response.
One question that everyone asks is regarding the financial aspect of the organization. Why does AoL claim to be a non-profit org while it really operates business like? And where does all the money go? Why is it so very difficult to trace the money trail of an org that claims to be non-profit?
But I don’t want to go into the financial allegations, I’ll discuss something that’s very obvious . Please read my previous comment here and I’d appreciate if you can share your views.
I have something to say about the Sudarshan Kriya and the way it is ‘given’ to people, I’d really appreciate if you can sincerely discuss about this as an individual, thinking for yourself, not going by what you have been told by the org.
You say,
In SKY, I know few people have faced problem due to this, hence the tape itself has revamped three times from the inception.
From what you say it’s obvious that the original version of SK is defective. Now, the AoL says the SK has been divinely revealed to SSRS. How can a divine revelation be defective? And can a divine revelation be revamped and progressive versions be released? From what you say, it’s possible that the current version too could be defective and maybe this version too will have an upgrade. Don’t you think it’s unethical to offer a possibly defective process to people who come with high hopes that their problems would be healed?
While SK could be problematic in some cases, I’ll admit it does solve many health issues, I myself have experienced that and have seen a number of people benefit. It’s good if it’s ‘taught’ to people so that they can do it themselves. But it’s not really ‘taught’ to people, I feel there is something very wrong in that it can by practiced only by listening to a tape. Even doing it by listening to the tape once or twice is okay, but if someone feels the need to do it every single week by going to a follow-up class and listening to a tape, they are hooked, they are bound, there is something seriously wrong with this approach. You are really not freeing people from their problems, you are only binding them more.
And haven’t you read in the posts from this blog and elsewhere in the internet that SK is similar if not same as hyperventilation? What do you say about this?
You know, when you live breathe AoL and spend a lot of time in AoL circles, it’s very easy to conclude the criticisms are unfair. I recommend you take a break and spend sometime completely away from the AoL, maybe 3 months, or at least one month. You will begin to see that it’s not what you believed it to be, you’ll get a completely different picture. We are not forcing you to take our point of view. Take a break, look at the whole thing with a different perspective and decide for yourself.
AoL Teachers Finally Waking Up and Asking Questions
by Ex-AOL Teacher
Teachers Refresher Meet or Sales Seminar? My cousin who is an AOL teacher in Singapore shared the happenings in the recent TRM in Bali. I motivated and inspired her to become a teacher but have left the AOL scene since the last six years.
She is one dedicated teacher who would not hear anything negative about AOL though very subtly I have tried to talk to her to read this blog and get an objective view of AOL. But good to say that this TRM has opened her eyes and mind to what AOL actually is.
The TRM was just a platform to brainwash the teachers – each teacher paid USD500 to attend this TRM, my question is why should teachers pay when they work so hard to fill the coffers of AOL. The first day Guruji was apparently justifying the existence of this blog – he said that there was a lady who threatened to post negative articles on a blog if she was not paid USD3000 a month.Guruji said she was a bipolar and that she should not have been allowed to do the course. AOL refused to pay the money and hence this blog was born. My cousin said it seemed like Guruji was doing a lot of damage control.
According to my cousin, the rest of the TRM was talking about challenges – some countries talked about lack of transparency, AOL was a fraud organisation and a cult etc. Guruji debunked all this and in his smart and witty way made the teachers feel guilty of even thinking of AOL in these terms.
Countries talked about their achievements – applauses and accolades like it is done in an annual multi level marketing sales seminar.
Planning for the ensuing year – all talk was about numbers,no discussions on how to improve teaching skills or how to genuinely take up service projects – everything was to do with how to increase the number of participants in every country.
When I heard this, realisation dawned upon me that AOL is slowly loosing its clout – people are beginning to question and debate the claims, one cannot cheat people all the time, the truth is bound to prevail, AOL is dying a slow death and its just a matter of time when its glories will be a thing of the past.
I accept that the organisation has a lot of faults,having said that I still have a very soft spot for Guruji
He Just Lies, and Devotees Innocently Perpetuate His Lies
by IO
[In Response to this comment by The Seer]
Based on my observations I am attempting to qualify and quantify some of these figures.
AOL retention –
Background – Lets say I was a much above average AOL teacher and for most parts actually walked the talk. I have been teaching for 5 years. I teach once a month on a average of 20 new students in a batch. In 5 years I would have taught about 1200 of them.
This is assuming that as a teacher you operated in a fixed geography.
Now lets take the Definition of a retained AOL person :
a1. Folks that come for weekly long kriya regularly (80%+ attendance) – Typically about 40 of the 1200. Thats 3%. (This is for the better than average teacher). If you are among the “fluffy teachers” which today they are producing a dime a dozen…..then folks will avoid your follow-up sessions. It could go to as low a figure as 2 or 3. The 2 or 3 that come will be devotees that come only because the venue is in their own building….or for some other distinct material comfort.
a2. Folks that come for Satsangs. This number usually stays constant. Irrespective of growth. Folks that come for Satsangs are typically Hindus by birth. The rest invariably drop out. Hence its usually a very small number. In anycase if you do not serve prasad (food) after satsang the number will drop down even further (at least by half). The Satsang people and the weekly follow-up people will have different crowds. (More women and kids in the Satsangs…….this has been my experience and observation). The Hindus observation is quite valid even for the USA, UK, Canada, Middle East (Where you many many Indians of Hindu Origin). In other countries Germany, Poland and son…this does not apply.
b. Folks that do advance courses every year. About 8 of the 1200. Thats 0.67%.
c. Folks that are regular in Seva (same as above, above 0.67%)
After 10 years the same scenario as above (half the above)
Approximate Time period – 1999-2008.
From my experience I have also noticed hat the core team of dedicated volunteers that do work does not change much whether it was 5 years, 15 years or 25 years after the 1st part-1 course. Its the usual suspects that always pitch in. The Geography will get split into many smaller geographies with similar numbers. However, when all the geographies attempt to get together to do one large project…. it rarely ever takes off (Classic case – Berlin fest). The patterns are very interesting.
Each AOL faction (Chapter) develops its own identity and ego….depending on the lead teacher. They cannot get along with the other teams / chapters. Most AOL teachers have one common lament. “I do not have enough volunteers”. Volunteer grabbing is the norm. In fact many AOL teachers will host Satsang’s and food parties in their homes just to entice other teacher’s volunteers into their fold.
In geographies outside India, a Senior visiting teacher would for a short period be successful in integrating the local chapters ….but only for short periods (read weeks). Once they leave there would be more dis-integration and disharmony than anything else. However, these days this is dwindling as DSN, Sahaj and Advance course teachers are now available locally. And thats usually not charming for a new aspirant and an existing aspirant wanting to do a new course (they already have a flavour of the teacher).
If you watch carefully, very few Sr teachers have managed to keep their charm in a sustained way with their older students. Simply because over a period of time the students will wake up and see through the hypocrisy. Hence to get their energy fix, Sr teachers are often greedy / hungry for fresh faces in their courses. Hence the need to travel out of their home territories.
However, typical AOL volunteer’s number representation will be as follows……
1. Any number that SriSri throws will be repeated verbatim until its even published as the truth (We have 2.5 Million people for Silver Jubilee, We have adopted 30,000 villages, We had 50,000 attendees at Berlin….to understand what this means please google what a packed Eden Gardens Calcutta or a Chinnaswamy Stadium Bangalore looks like and then take a look at the Berlin Photos). Then make up your minds about the 50,000 claim.
2. I have seen Sri Sri himself claim some amazing numbers. He just makes them up. While that was happening, it would sound very incongruent as I would have been involved in the fund raising and organisation at all levels. There are times when I even thought that the Master was demonstrating that it was important to magnify and highlight positivity when negativity was being so hyped and magnified by the rest of the media. While it would not come naturally to me to do the same thing…..I felt that maybe I was handicapped and that I needed to look at things at a larger perspective which I was not doing. After Krishna is also known to have been a consummate liar. I ended up feeling down and defeated, even though some amazing work had happened.
Much later, when I started to listen to myself more and back myself more…..I realised I was attempting to mask and bury my disappointment that my taken on Master was a liar. I was so desperate to protect my earlier decision to take him as my Master that I would rationalise it any which way to explain the situation to MYSELF. Do this once and you will do it again…..it becomes easy the 2nd time around. Once you lie to yourself, you will not stop other’s from believing the same lie. For most AOL devotees, they like to perpetrate the same lie again and again. Just average human tendency…to pass stuff on. Then it gets into emails, fliers, facebook and folks such as those on the blog now will question it and provide a counter rationale.
Things are much more pacier now than 10 years ago. So, if you have been with them for a few years, then, only those that are able to live with their own compromised integrity will find it easy. Otherwise, if you still find yourself inside, you are probably totally blind and stupefied to what is really happening right under your nose…..or your self esteem has taken such a beating that you feel you cannot survive without the backing of the cult. However, thats the mistake, the cult backs no one…..everyone is expendable.
Lets watch the fun when the severe financial mishandling and misappropriation and reporting of Sumeru Ayurveda and publicly listed Inwinex pharma gets highlighted. The reports clearly point a finger at Banu’s hubby and 2nd son. What will take priority…..family or the business ? I wonder what is happening with all the real estate cases in court ?. Have they managed to buy them off again ….and simply quell any new articles ? In the Bangalore city circles, the average jack openly talks about how AOL has been paying the Times of India for all the coverage it gets.
by VSS
@ Anonymous [April 10, 2012 4:39 pm]
“Accept people and situations as they are.”
Well said. Your entire comment and observations therein are very valid.
In fact, it seems to me that the only problem is that though these words are parroted in AoL, the exact opposite is practiced. Actions speak louder than words and the actions of Mr. Ravi Shankar and company breed nothing but intolerance. Intolerance can only lead to lack of personal peace along with the lack of the ability to peacefully co-exist with people with a different point of view.
I find that those who are in AoL or still suffer from the hangover of being in AoL are sitting on hot bricks just because of a blog (which is probably one of many million blogs). If a blog is all it takes to make them lose control and become abusive and enraged, then they are actually distanced from any kind of enlightenment whatsoever in AoL. They are, in fact, susceptible to getting stressed out by the mere hint of disagreement.
How does it matter if some people are posting some words that they don’t like? So what? What is the big deal? For any idea that exists in the world, at the very least — there exists a set of people who agree, another set that don’t, and, yet another who probably don’t even think about that idea.
Continuous and relentless expression of abuse and ridicule by AoL supporters will not and cannot in any way silence those who don’t like the idea of a religious cult which has and continues to deceive, exploit, and, abuse the faith of several people.
If AoL was not a religious cult, but a school of thought or a philosophy that facilitates and ensures the general well-being of people, the first evidence of that would be the fact that AoL supporters would have absolutely nothing to say on a blog like this. They would read what critics have said and simply think that the critics are people with a different point of view.
However, the truth is that the very name “Art of Living” is symptomatic of utter intolerance. How can one person possibly think that only he knows the “Art of Living” and all others who disagree don’t know the “Art of Living”. This is an anti-diversity line of thought — it is anti-acceptance, anti-pluralism, and, hence, anti-democracy and anti-people.
AoL supporters should meditate in a relaxed setting about how it would be if there was an outfit called the “Art of Giving” that claimed that it alone knew the art of giving.
Similarly, what if there was an outfit called the “Art of Writing Poetry” that claimed it alone knew the art of writing poetry?
What if there were outfits like the “Art of Composing Music”, the “Art of Painting”, the “Art of Sculpting”, the “Art of Movie-Making”, etc. etc. ?
Wouldn’t everyone have to follow what the leader of each of these cults was saying? Wouldn’t there be a complete loss of freedom and creativity? Wouldn’t human beings become robotic in every dimension of life?
Isn’t any art a celebration of an individual’s creativity as well as an individual’s creative interpretation?
How can the “Art of Living” be about the art of living if it not only imposes one individual’s creative interpretation on all followers, but also incites and reinforces intolerance in those followers towards other interpretations?
Further, don’t we celebrate the excellence of different artists in different fields? While someone excels in painting, someone else excels in sculpting, someone else in music, and, someone else in making movies.
For someone who excels in painting, the art of living is different. For someone who excels in music, the art of living is different. For someone who excels in a sport, the art of living is different. Different people are inspired by different things — different things inspire different people to achieve greater excellence.
Can you imagine what would happen if say Sachin Tendulkar, A.R. Rahman, Narayana Murthy, and, Amitabh Bachchan were made to live in exactly the same way from morning to night — day after day, week after week, month after month, and, year after year ?
They’d go crazy.
For that matter, if different cricketers were made to live identical lives, they’d go crazy. Each individual is different — even two successful people in the same field are not alike.
The uniformity and conformity that is imposed in AoL is disastrous for individuals because it simply does not cater to individual creativity, and, it is disastrous for society, because it makes the individuals in AoL intolerant towards all those who are not following the AoL way of life and are critical of it because of the uniformity and conformity it imposes.
For me, the biggest evidence of brainwashing, and that too, successful brainwashing, is the fact that AoL claims to stand for world peace and a violence-free society and defames the one man (Mahatma Gandhi) who is known for literally embodying the ideal of world peace and non-violence like no other.
And, while they exercise their freedom to do so, they cannot tolerate the freedom of those who disagree and stand by Mahatma Gandhi because he seems to them to be the one man who actually gave the philosophy of non-violence to the world without demanding money, worship, or, anything else as a fee.
This is indeed Kalyuga.
Those who make money by selling peace have a problem with those who didn’t make money by selling peace. That is why the followers of a “spiritual businessman” do a verbal tandava in rage the moment someone supports one of greatest leaders mankind has ever seen — the one man who personified non-violence and peace — the one man who achieved way more than what Mr. Ravi Shankar can achieve in a million lives with a million volunteers without enslaving people, without brainwashing them, without battering them, without asking for a fee, and, without abusing and ridiculing his critics.
I find it absolutely ridiculous that those who claim that they stand for peace and non-violence defame Mahatma Gandhi. Only fools would do that — headed by a supreme fool — with a biographer who projects foolishness as greatness.
The Art of Living is nothing but the art of being foolish. It is sad that many of us have been fooled skillfully, but what is inspiring is that some of us have not been turned into permanent fools because we have realized that ignorance is not bliss and foolishness is not enlightenment.
A Disturbing AoL Brainwashing Video
by Stupidseeker, Doctor
stupidseeker
(Submitted on 2012/04/05 at 5:44 pm | In reply to VSS)
@VSS,
If anecdotal reports are to be believed then Khorshed Batliwala a.k.a Bawa is the closest to guruji after his blood relatives.Here’s a link to how bawa defines skepticism, what he/guruji thinks of them and how to dispel skepticism.For the last, he delivers the punchline at 3.15.
Watch parts II an III for more “knowledge”.
@The Doctor,
You Judas, @ 4.50 in the above.
Doctor
The following is a transcript of part of the above video:
Ignorance is being a skeptic and not knowing it. If you think you are a skeptic, you are no longer a skeptic. You already have a clue of something beyond, so in reality you can never know when you are a skeptic. A skeptic is stuck in a paradigm that closes off all other possibilities.
What is a skeptic? A skeptic says “Look, life is like this, everything else is nonsense. So a skeptic is stuck in a paradigm, a way of living which closes off all other possibilities. My way is the highway, is the right way. Everybody else will go to hell, I will go to heaven. If you follow me you will go to heaven, otherwise you will also go to hell. A skeptic.
But this creation contains all possibilities. As you understand how paradigms shift, skepticism drops. A real scientist cannot afford to be a skeptic because skepticism cannot probe into unknown areas of existence.
Skepticism is an I-know-it-all attitude, and this attitude is unscientific. Skepticism is dis-spelled by knowledge. Do not recognise someone’s skepticism and try to argue, arguments only strenghten skepticism.
[…]
Fear of losing one’s freedom brings more resistance and causes more skepticism. […] Deep inside every human being there is faith and love. Skepticism is only a thin layer. If you hold in your mind “This person is a skeptic”, you empower their skepticism.
[…]
Your silence and a smile in your heart will dispel any skepticism.
Let me say upfront: this is the BIGGEST LOAD OF HORSE SHIT I have ever heard. There isn’t a single grain of truth in any of the above.
Anyone reading/hearing this who has the faintest idea what skepticism means must realize that both Bawa and SSRS are talking out of their backsides.
What this ignorant psychopath is actually referring to is close-mindedness, NOT skepticism. He is deviously twisting something which is actually beneficial to mankind to make it sound like something undesirable. He is wrong on EVERY single account above. All good scientists are first and foremost skeptical. They do not blindly accept anything on faith without finding evidence for it.
Skepticism is healthy, not undesirable. And being skeptical will go a long way towards preventing people from falling into the clutches of a religious cult like of Art Of Living. Which is why this is obviously another sly attempt to bypass devotees’ critical-thinking circuits, in a similar to all the BS about having doubts and dropping them which we have already discussed ad nauseam.
The fact that Bawa is blindly parrotting what SSRS has written in a so-called “knowledge” book just goes to show that even those in the senior-most positions in AoL are so badly brainwashed that they not only accept any nonsense which SSRS speaks as truth unquestioningly, but they in turn try to pass it off as some kind of enlightened spiritual wisdom.
And the most disturbing thing is that young, impressionable minds actually believe this nonsense, because it’s coming from a purported authoritarian figure, who in turn learnt it from a purported enlightened being. An “enlightened” being who can’t even use a dictionary.
This video is a perfect example of the sort of BRAINWASHING that goes on in AoL, but there is so much more.
by VSS
“My dream is to see a violence-free Pakistan and I’m sure it is possible” he said addressing a gathering of dignitaries in Lahore, which was attended among others by Former Finance Minister of Pakistan, Mr.Sartaj Aziz; Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid leader, Ms. Humaira Shahid; Secretary General of Tehrik-i-Insaf, Mr. Omar Cheema, and Pakistan Today Editor, Mr. Arif Nizami.
He even offered to talk to Taliban to bring peace in Pakistan. “I am ready to go and talk to the Taliban. I want to talk to them, understand them and give them my opinion. We can definitely make a difference. We should try it again and again even if we have to try it 100 times,” he said during an interaction with the public and media in Islamabad on Tuesday.
In almost all his interactions, Sri Sri dispelled the notion that majority of Indians are polytheists and hence not compatible with Islamic Pakistan. “Like Allah has 99 names, there are over 1,000 idols but God is not in them. God is one. Hindus also worship one God,” Sri Sri said.
http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/sri-sri-ends-3-day-visit-call-indo-pak-peace
http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2012/03/13/sayah-pak-spiritual-solutions.cnn
Mr. Ravi Shankar is very smart.
He knows no one takes him seriously, especially not Former Finance Minister of Pakistan, Mr.Sartaj Aziz; Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid leader, Ms. Humaira Shahid; Secretary General of Tehrik-i-Insaf, Mr. Omar Cheema, and Pakistan Today Editor, Mr. Arif Nizami. None of them took his offer to negotiate with the Taliban seriously. They must have had a hearty laugh at his expense after he was out of sight!
He is claiming he can solve all the political problems of the world, when he can’t even get Harshal, Satya, Naren et al to stop inflicting verbal violence on this blog.
His diagnosis of what is causing Pakistan’s problems and the solution he recommends has been completely ignored. Here’s what he said:
Emphasizing the importance of a calm and collected mind, he said, “When decision-makers are stressed, they will project the same thing in their decisions. They should do some meditation and relax, especially when they have to make a serious decision that will impact a lot of people.”
But no one was listening. The joke doing the rounds in AoL centers must be that Pakistani leaders are dumb. The joke doing the rounds in Pakistan must be that Mr. Ravi Shankar is dumb. We all can decide who to laugh with — the Pakistanis or AoL members.
More importantly, at least, Harshal, Satya, Naren et al need to listen to their “guru” — Mr. Ravi Shankar. They sound so stressed out. I don’t think either of them knows the meaning of meditation. They don’t seem like they know the first thing about being at peace. They should lead by example in showing how peaceful AoL’s tools and techniques make them instead of behaving like absolute bullies. After all, who is their “guru” — is it the Talban or is it Mr. Ravi Shankar? So far, it seems they believe in the philosophy of the Taliban.
Mr. Ravi Shankar should realize that charity begins at home.
He should start by fixing the minds of those AoL members who visit this blog — he should begin by ridding them of stress. These people sound super anxious, intolerant, agitated, foul-mouthed, derisive, and, mean.
From their behaviour, it is clear that AoL and the tools and techniques deployed by AoL simply do not cause any stress relief. They induce a tendency for verbal violence. They also cause crude and insensitive behaviour. Above all, they encourage complete ignorance. People like Harshal, Satya, and, Naren, are simply not aware that the reason why their comments are not deleted is because their comments show AoL in a pathetic light. They have simply lost the ability to see this simple truth. They don’t know the difference between behaving themselves and misbehaving. They cannot zoom out, take an aerial view, and, just see how they shame AoL.
I didn’t think brainwashing could slaughter the ability to be discerning about the simplest of things. So sad. Poor fellows are completely clueless. But as Mr. Ravi Shankar says “behind every perpetrator of bad behaviour is a victim crying for help”. Hope he can hear the cries of Harshal, Satya, Naren et al and wipe their tears. These people need to be at peace more than anyone else who posts on this blog. Time will tell if Mr. Ravi Shankar has the ability to make these people behave themselves or not.
Good luck, “Gurudev”!
Art of Living: A very UN-spiritual organization
by VSS
@ anonymus critical [March 25, 2012 4:36 pm]
Thank you, infinitely, for your supportive words.
I’ll definitely share my story with readers soon. For now, here’s a summary:
There were many reasons why I contacted AoL and decided to relocate to the Bangalore Ashram. However, I found this blog just a few days before I relocated, and changed my mind. I do not regret my decision. I changed my mind and do not regret my decision because I am an ordinary human being — I could see very clearly that AoL and Mr. Ravi Shankar are fully capable of demolishing me in the way that they have demolished other (far more exceptional) human beings.
I am also not cynical — in the sense that I don’t think that the world is such a terrible place that no matter what I do and no matter who I seek help from — that person would have deceived, abused, and, exploited a few people. I noticed that many who defend AoL and Mr. Ravi Shankar on this blog (and related blogs) feel that it is okay to harm a few people as long as the majority benefit. This, to my mind, is severe cynicism.
The fundamental basis and essence of any religion is love and compassion for all. Cruelty and humiliation towards anyone is not justified in any religion. So, I found Mr. Ravi Shankar and AoL, irreligious. Since I work in the realm of education, I also knew that saying things like “you have low prana”, “your ego is too massive”, “you ask too many questions”, etc. etc. does not facilitate education — it causes the demolition of a learner’s confidence. Some learners recover from demolition of this kind sooner than others — but that doesn’t mean that demolition is not demolition. Hence, I learnt that AoL and Mr. Ravi Shankar are not spiritual.
One of the things that I would look for in an organization that trains adults is a knowledge of adult learning approaches and techniques. A phenomenal amount of research has been done in this field and it teaches us many things that we must know when we’re teaching / training adults. It doesn’t matter if we’re teaching meditation or teaching leadership skills. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learnt from this research is the fact that adults must not be humiliated. Any kind of humiliation is counterproductive. Teaching is considered a noble profession because of the sanctity associated with it. I found that in AoL, learners are not treated properly and the sanctity of the teacher-learner relationship is not respected. I read many comments from people who had been hurt by the insensitive and cruel attitude of teachers, and that this insensitivity and cruelty was justified as being “needed” by certain people. In the world of education, this line of thinking would be considered regressive and archaic as also damaging and arrogant.
In fact, this is why there is a widespread furore in India about the recent comments made by Mr. Ravi Shankar. Journalists, activists, and, educationists, are shocked at the sheer arrogance in the comments made by Mr. Ravi Shankar. He has, of course, further axed his own foot by not apologizing to the people who he hurt. The sentiments of those who have been hurt are of no consequence to him. If he had issued a simple statement that said something like “I am sorry for hurting the sentiments of those who study in and have studied in government schools — I didn’t mean to hurt anybody and it was unintentional — I admit that my choice of words was unfortunate and shall choose my words more carefully in the future”, I am pretty certain that all television channels would play his apology all day and there would be a queue of people outside all AoL centers in India. The majority of people in India are not members of AoL today because they do not associate any greatness with Mr. Ravi Shankar.
However, if he would have apologized, people would associate greatness and enlightenment with him, and he would not have to spend any money on promoting AoL for the next 30 years. Let’s look at both situations — one in which he made comments intentionally and another in which he made comments unintentionally. If he made comments intentionally, it is intentional bad karma to hurt so many people. If he made comments unintentionally, then it is unintentional bad karma to hurt so many people. How does one deal with bad karma ? One can’t deal with bad karma by meditating and yoga. One deals with bad karma by facing the people who have suffered as a result of the bad karma. If he had apologized to the people he hurt, he would have gained the respect of even those who are critical of him. One deals with bad karma by doing what one can to relieve the pain of those one has hurt. Therefore, an apology would have been appropriate — it would relieve those who were hurt by his statements. It would also have ended the potential for more bad karma.
Instead, he didn’t apologize. Many of his followers went on a rampage — abusing the media and all those who criticized them and a lot of bad blood was generated. (How can Mr. Ravi Shankar and AoL possibly claim that they know anything at all about conflict resolution ?)
The point of mentioning this being that when I was thinking of going to AoL, one of my motivations was to get rid of bad karma. I read on sites and blogs promoting AoL that meeting Mr. Ravi Shankar, meditation, yoga, and, charity work for AoL projects, rid people of bad karma. When I read this blog, I realized that there are quite a few people who have not only not gained from being in AoL, but have been deceived, abused, and exploited by AoL. So, I decided to face myself and those who had been at the receiving end of my bad karma, and tried my best to do what I could to apologize and make up for my wrong actions.
Last but not the least, I wanted to join AoL because my ex had joined AoL. However, once I’d read this blog, I knew that if I went to AoL, I would not be honest about AoL with him, and I did not want to deceive him in order to be with him. He is still in AoL and has moved on. I have moved on too. Although I am not seeing anyone and don’t intend to either, I have started working on something that requires twelve to sixteen hours of work in a day. I have absolutely no time for anything else. The only other activity I create time for is posting on this blog as I think it is a privilege to post on this blog, and try and help the blog that helped me.
[Still, if those who are reading this post wish to join AoL, they should join AoL. I am not here to stop anyone from joining AoL.]
Parents demand Sri Sri’s apology
Originally published at this link on the Deccan Herald website. Thanks to Vickram for posting this.
New Delhi, Mar 21, 2012, DHNS :
Members of All India Parents Association (AIPA) in Delhi demanded a public apology from spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for labelling government schools as the breeding grounds for Maoists.
Shankar had said on Tuesday: “It is often seen that boys from government schools are into Naxalism and violence. Those from the private education system are not into these things. They move ahead with an ideal and teachers are responsible for it.”
The spiritual guru had added that the threat of spreading extreme ideologies stemmed from lack of quality education.
But following a controversy over these remarks, on Wednesday he said he has been misunderstood.
“I did not say all government schools should be privatised. I only meant that all government schools in Naxal-affected area should be privatised.”
However, parents are outraged with the spiritual guru’s previous remarks. “We hope and expect that the spiritual leader must have realised that such a statement is not only factually incorrect but also goes against the spirit of the Constitution,” said Ashok Aggarwal, national president AIPA.
“It is the children of ordinary people, like us, who go to government schools, as only the well off can send their children to public schools. It is inappropriate to say something like this. Sri Sri must apologise,” said Sita Ram, a parent from Shalimar Bagh.
Amusing Video
UPDATE:
Web Seva Warrior
March 23, 2012 9:29 am
Everybody,
Please help to promote this video by doing any or all of the following:
1) Go directly to the Youtube link for this video:
and click on the Like icon underneath the video.
Sure, Art of Living will try and counter this by asking as many devotees to dislike the video, but if they do that’s great because it will mean more people in AOL will see the video and the link at the bottom and that should drive a huge amount of traffic to this blog and raise awareness 🙂
2) If you don’t have any problems doing this, share the above link on Facebook, Twitter and any other social media sites you are a member of, and also ask people you know to Like it. You can also email it to them if you’re ok to do this.
3) If you know any radio or even TV stations especially in India, please email them with a link to this video, people are always on the look out for funny material and you never know, they may play this!
Let’s everyone do whatever we can to promote this, it could go a long way especially given Sri Sri’s recent disasterous blunder!
by anonymous
Q: Dearest Guruji, what are the signs that I am growing on the path? I did my first course 10 years back. I have done 10 advanced courses and I am a teacher. However, I still get angry. Sometimes I feel people who don’t do any practices are better when compared to my behaviour. Please guide.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You got it all wrong. You think that just meditation is going to do it all for you. You are just enjoying meditation. Why would you get upset if you are deeply soaked in knowledge? You think keeping quiet for ‘sometime’ is going to do everything for you and you forget the knowledge and wisdom.
Knowledge is glaring on your face saying, ‘accept situations and people as they are’, and you are not doing it.
I have said so many times, anger is a sign of attachment to perfection. If you are dispassionate why would you get so upset? Listen, you may do ten advanced courses and you may be just hearing things, but if you don’t take it in then it is not the fault of the course or the meditation or the knowledge or wisdom.
It is like one of those rubber suits that people who go for scuba diving wear when they go into the ocean. You may get in to the water, but when you come out of it you are dry. Not a drop of water has gotten into your body because you are in that wet suit.
In the same way, you may do ten or twelve advance courses but if you don’t have dispassion, which you hear so many times then you are bound to get angry. Dispassion is the second pillar of knowledge. If that is not there, then you are bound to be angry and upset, you are bound to be possessive and jealous. No dispassion.
I have said so many times, ‘So Hum, and So What!’ You haven’t heard ‘So What’. Many times you take it for granted. ‘Oh! So what, I have heard it, okay.’ For now you just sit and meditate, and then you go and never remember. Recollect, let it soak into you. It is not the wisdom that is to be blamed. It is your inability to live it, to take it in and soak it into your soul.
Do you see what I am saying? You can’t say, ‘I have all this attachment and still I am going to be spiritual’, no!
Spirituality is to relieve one from the obsession of perfection. Spirituality is being centered. In spite of ten advance courses you are getting angry. Just imagine if you had not done any advance courses, what would have been your status.
Q1: How many more “advance” courses does the person asking this question need?
Q2: Doesn’t this exchange reveal that ten “advance” courses are not effective?
Q3: Doesn’t this exchange prove that “Guruji” does not know if teachers are enlightened or not, and that therefore, many un-enlightened people are becoming teachers?
Q4. Doesn’t this exchange prove that the only way he knows if a teacher is un-enlightened or not is if the teacher tells him?
Q5: Doesn’t “Guruji” sound frustrated, agitated, and, angry?
Q6: How many “advance” courses does “Guruji” need to overcome his own anger?
Q7: Most importantly, doesn’t this exchange reveal that we’re all human, including “Guruji”; no one has special powers; and, the art of living is nothing but the art of selling “advance” courses?
Q8: Doesn’t this exchange prove that even if “dispassion” is the goal, neither the teacher asking the question nor “Guruji” have achieved it yet?
Please feel free to add to the list of questions, if needed.
The Price of “The Knowledge”?
by Jai Ram
I recently got this email from AOL:
Upanishads 2012
SAVE THE DATES
Upanishads with Guruji is tentatively set from April 13-16, 2012
We invite you to reserve these days for UPANISHADS 2012, a precious time of incomparable knowledge and commentary on the Upanishads by Guruji at the Los Angeles Center.For those of us who attended last year’s Katho Upanishad discourse with Guruji, it was an unforgettable experience. Guruji expounding on the secrets of death, just as Lord Yama did to Nachiketa ages ago, was definitely an experience to behold!
Stay tuned for the registration announcement with the confirmed dates and session times. Watch our website, http://www.artoflivingla.org , for up to date information, as it unfolds.
Jai GuruDev,
Art of Living Center, Los Angeles
I remember the first time this was announced in 2010, when I still was active with AOL. It was hailed as the highest knowledge to be given by Guruji. It was the most expensive 3 day course ever ($1500 a pop) and it was sold as ‘THE KNOWLEDGE’. During the conference call with Rajshree Patel when I raised the issue of excessive course fees, she got angry and just flipped with the usual excuses, “do you know how much it costs to run an ashram?”, “do you even know how valuable is this knowledge?”, “It’s a blessing to have a Live Satguru impart this knowledge”, “only a few will be selected by Guruji to be in here” and all the crap. Now it is 2 years now and I am wondering, if this is really “THE KNOWLEDGE”, how come the DVD’s are not out there or even better why is the video not on Youtube.
I know better now, and I think this is how this will play out
- Milk this as much as possible, lure teachers/volunteers/devotees with all these special knowledge and charge 1500$ per course. Reduce the course fees for future courses to lure more people (this will again be advertised as special gift from Guruji to share this knowledge with as many people as possible).
- Once the # of suckers (volunteers/AOL devotees) dwindles for the courses, then release the DVD’s of course at exorbitant prices (200$ at least)
- Once that DVD market also dwindles, then release snippets of it on Youtube to advertise other AOL products and how much AOL is doing to bring ‘THE KNOWLEDGE” to the general people.
Also to top it all off, they were offering TAX savings (out of the $1500 or so, $900 will be treated as a donation) and the rest as course fees. They also figured out a way to milk the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS). So in effect the people of the United States of America are footing the bill for ‘THE KNOWLEDGE”.
They were also spreading all these stories of volunteers working long hours in gas stations to make it to LA for this “THE KNOWLEDGE”. What an outrageous way to cheat these sincere volunteers of their hard earned money.
Any volunteers/teachers who plan on attending this session, ask these questions to AOL directors/Rajshree Patel or Guruji and see they have to say?
- You claim this knowledge to be very precious, why don’t you share this with the rest of the world, what happended to Upanishads – 1 and Upanishads – 2?
- Now since almost $2million has been raised in Upanishads – 1 and Upanishads – 2, why do you still charge these outrageous prices? (No one knows for sure, how much was spent for the LA ashram. In Upanishads – 1, there were 1008 people registered and including some freebees, I estimate an average revenue of $1000 a pop, which makes it a min of $1million, estimating the same for Upanishads-2)
For those of you who are not aware, Upanishads 3 day course was first started in US in 2010 in Apr and again in Apr 2011. The prices for these course were set to $1100-1200 for early bird and $1500 for regular (I might be off by a few dollars).
I have also started wondering, why is Guru Poornima always in the US? How come the devotees in other countries are not given the priviledge to host this great event? The real answer is “It’s all about the moola, stupid!”. July/Aug is when Guru Poornima falls, and it is summer time in the US, when devotees can travel with their family and when the most money can be made. The cost for an advance course is atleast $700 and all the other courses also suddenly become expensive.
So in short, I think it is all about the money. How sad and disappointing. I am finally awake from the clutches of AOL and able to see the truth. Wanted to share this with all of you so that the AOL devotees can also ask these questions and figure out the truth.
Spread the Truth
Jai Ram
Concerned Boyfriend – Please Help
By Concerned Boyfriend
Hello,
I am currently dating a really nice girl from India whom I care about rather deeply. I kept my distance of the AOL activities as they weren’t frequent and she seemed to accept that I was not interested. I did attend one AOL event and was instantly turned off by the people I met there and honestly felt that they were not my kind of people. Well, push came to shove and I was asked to look into it.
When you look for any information of substance it leads to the critiques of the AOL as opposed to the meaningless fluff of the official venues. The critical versions of the art of living seem much more true than the fluff versions and so I thank you for creating and maintaining this blog and for all of the contributors, the pro-AOL folks as well as they provide the fluff that instantly turned me from my single AOL event. Any person that will lie to themselves about being happy can and will lie to me and so I can’t trust them. True happiness is easy to see.
I would very much like to extricate her from this cult and am willing to invest the time for her and for myself but I am not sure how to do it. What are the pressure points? What is it that will create the crack of doubt in his Holiness and all that BS grace talk? I feel that the truth and sense will win with time but I realize it will take time and a critical mind on her part. How can I trigger the critical thought? What is it that helped others? I guess I am just asking for help because most of what I see is about convincing yourself whereas I want to convince somebody else. Any help would be appreciated.
Excellent Response to “Spiritual Council” Post
by VSS
If “in-house” journalists are coming up with such BIZARRE suggestions, it can only mean that AoL has no vision. No organization, spiritual or otherwise, can survive without a practical and rational long-term goal. There will never be a “Spiritual Council” of this nature, nor will it have a head like SSRS. Spiritualism does not require administration, policies, rules and regulations.
AoL has been successful in tapping into anxiety in people — through shrewd marketing strategies and fake sweet talk. But that’s not working. If anything can revive its fortunes, it has to be actions that are less bizarre and not more bizarre.
SSRS needs Hinduism. It’s not the other way round. It would be a colossal mistake on his part to think that it’s the other way round. No individual can be bigger than any religion. Nor can a cult take over a religion. It has never happened.
If it had to happen, it would have happened a long time ago, and, it would have happened all over the world. We would have countless examples of different cult leaders taking over different religions.
AoL is in need of a make-over, if it has to survive. If this is the make-over, then it has failure written all over it. Perhaps “in-house” journalists need to come up with better strategies. It seems like they’re simply not doing their work properly. If they were doing their work properly, first those who have left AoL would be inspired to return to it, and then, new people would be inspired. At the very least, a new idea or suggestion must at least inspire those who are reading it.
This entire idea of a “Spiritual Council” is not just bizarre and impossible, but boring, uninteresting, and uninspiring too. It’s not even an eloquent ode to megalomania. I don’t think Francois Gautier is enjoying his work. He sounds bored. He sounds like he has run out of ideas and is just looking for a way to somehow complete his work so that the people he reports to don’t get suspicious. It just doesn’t seem like he put his heart and soul into his words. He might even be depressed. Maybe his depression is making him delusional. Who knows.
Most AoL defenders, at least on this blog sound delusional. They ask for proof when everything posted on this blog is so obviously heartfelt that it is moving beyond measure. They say that SSRS does not indulge in unethical practices even when he’s selling “enlightenment” for a fee to anyone who can pay. It’s almost as if enlightenment is a product — like a shampoo or a deodorant. They say he cares for his people, when in over 30 years, the only people who are visible (other than him) are Bawa and Dinesh, and his sister. They say he doesn’t force Hindu rituals on people from other religions when on Mahashivaratri, there was 24-hour chanting of Hindu mantras in his ashram, at a time when several people from several religions were visiting. They say AoL makes better people out of people when all that they do is misbehave on this blog because they are so stressed out! It never seems like any of the meditation etc. works for them. They sound like they have never known any peace. None of them ever sound compassionate or sensitive or humane. On the contrary, they’re ill-mannered and offensive. I used to think that whatever AoL might or might not do, at least it’ll make people more courteous and better-behaved. But I was wrong.
Now, in response to this comment too, someone from AoL will post some offensive comments. Someone who claims to be involved in the task of making society “stress-free” will create stress. The disconnect between words and actions in AoL is so colossal that I often wonder if AoL stands for anything at all.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to head “Supreme Spiritual Council”?
by anon
http://hinduawaken.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/
HINDU LEADERS UNITE, IF YOU WANT HINDU DHARAMA TO SURVIVE!!!—Francois Gautier
The following is taken from the above article written by AOL in-house journalist. Read it and see the intention of SSRS to become dictator to 850 million Hindus in India and another 150 million Hindus living outside India. He wants the SSRS fatwa (dictat) to be binding also. WOW !!!
The Catholics have their Pope and his word is binding on all Catholics. Muslims have Prophet Mohammed’s words and that binds all of Islam together. Indian Communists have the words of Marx and Lenin, even if it has become irrelevant in Russia, Germany, and also in China. But the poor Hindus have nobody to refer to, so as to defend themselves.
Yet, if you take the combined people power of Satya Sai Baba, Amritaanandamayi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Swami Ramdev, Guruma of Ganeshpuri, the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, and so many others I cannot mention here, it runs in hundreds of millions.
Again, in all humility and conscious of the limitation of mind compared to some of these great gurus whom I have met, I propose that a Supreme Spiritual Council, composed of at least seven of the most popular Hindu leaders of India, be constituted, maybe under the leadership of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the most travelled of all these, the one who has disciples and teachers of all religions, both from India and the West.
It should be a non-political body, and each group would keep its independence but nevertheless. It could meet two three times a year and issue edicts, which would be binding on 850 millions Hindus in India and one billion over the world.
Then and then only can this wonderful spirituality which is Hinduism, this eternal knowledge behind the outer forms, the wisdom to understand this mad earth and its sufferings, be preserved for the future of India, and for the future of humanity.
Living in Denial in the Comfort of the Cult
by VSS
I’m not a part of AOL nor ever was. But I can tell you that it’s FRIGHTENING to see the effect it has had on my former significant other. I have written about him earlier on this blog. Recently, I had a few conversations with him. It was EXTREMELY DISTURBING to find that not only has he NOT BECOME a stronger and more compassionate human being after joining AOL, he has become far more weak-willed and closed than he was. He was extremely depressed when he joined AOL. He didn’t have a job and he had lost all hope. Someone he considers a close friend encouraged him to join AOL, promising him happiness and a new life. I was pained by my break-up but I thought that if there was anything good about AOL, it would definitely help him, and he would emerge a more empowered individual.
I tried my best not to look back for a few months. I tried my best not to wonder about anything. I disconnected from him and thought that he would learn his own lessons and that AOL would not harm him. When I spoke to him recently, I got the shock of my life. Fortunately, I am emotionally disconnected now, so I was able to recover. He was saying exactly the same things that he said earlier. He was behaving in exactly the same way. He was sounding as depressed. The only difference was that he was insisting he was happy. Then came the more alarming shocker. He said that everyone in AOL was happy because they had no pain. I asked how that was possible as life is about happiness and pain. He said it was possible because SSRS said that one had to kill one’s mind every moment and live life as if one is born again every moment.
I wondered aloud if that was a tiring process. I wondered if it was even possible to forget everything. He said it’s easy. He said if you can’t forget things actually, then you pretend to forget till the time you can actually forget. I thought maybe he was right. I thought maybe it was me who couldn’t accomplish such a simple thing. Just then, he started talking about the past. He began to blame everyone he always blamed. He began to speak in anguish like he always did. He began to pronounce judgments as usual. After he finished, I naturally asked him why he hadn’t forgotten the past and killed his mind. He said he had. I asked why he was speaking about it. He said he wasn’t.
I could hardly believe it. Then he said I was talking about the past and he was listening. This startled the hell out of me. I thought I was talking to someone who isn’t sane. I tried to take the conversation in another direction. I asked him about what else SSRS said about killing one’s mind. He told me about a site called happified.org and a new year message posted on it. I read the message. Still, I couldn’t get over the fact that he said things and denied saying them a minute later. I knew that I hadn’t imagined all that he said about things in the past.
I asked him what the best part about being in AOL was. He said it was KNOWING WHAT TO SAY ABOUT EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME. He said THAT MADE LIFE EASIER. He said that he was happier because HE KNEW WHAT TO SAY TO HIS FAMILY, TO HIS FRIENDS, AND TO HIS RELATIVES. I asked him what it was that he said. He said he TOLD EVERYONE THAT HE WAS HAPPY BECAUSE EVERYONE IN AOL IS HAPPY ALL THE TIME and now NO ONE ASKED HIM ANY QUESTIONS ANY MORE. I was stunned for a bit and then I asked if that meant he had successfully silenced everyone. He laughed and said yes. My jaw dropped. I tried to smile and then, within a couple of minutes, I left.
On my way home, I kept wondering why it was that I didn’t run to a world from where I could silence everyone who ever cared about me just because they asked me uncomfortable questions about my being in pain ? After all, I was often in a lot of pain and unable to cope with it. I often spoke about my past in anguish and I often blamed something or someone. I realized that it was because I could tolerate the concern of those who expressed concern, even if they expressed it in a way that I did not like. So, I continued to live in the real world, with my pain, with my family and with my friends. My former significant other, on the other hand, quite obviously stays in a CULT which successfully INSULATES him from the real world. If IGNORANCE IS BLISS, then i suppose cults are great. If not, then isn’t THE REAL WORLD BETTER ? …
Be Blessed By SMS!
First, we had Be Blessed Online!. Now, we have …
Full details can be found at http://bit.ly/uUckDD
To those who accuse this blog of being outright “negative”, doesn’t the fact that we’re giving free marketing to Art of Living show that we’re actually being quite positive here? 😉
What I really want to know is how does one acquire the ability to bless in the first place? And once they do, how are they then able to bless someone just by looking at an SMS, email, or name on a piece of paper? Please can someone in the know explain the science of blessing to me, if indeed there even is such a thing, I’m really intrigued by this now?
Thank you!
To those who ask for proof
On so many occasions people have asked us to provide proof for this that or the other that has been written in criticism of Art of Living. The following comment left recently by an anonymous contributor in response to this comment sums up everything any of us could ever possibly say on the matter beautifully.
“Please help. thanks.”
Dear Healer,
Really, what kind of help do you think people here can give you? You have to help yourself. Some have shared their experiences in aol here. Take it or leave it. In fact, I would say, *leave it*. Use your own judgement and think through what happens to you and others in AoL and conclude what you may.
At the time of experiencing all those incidents, i dont think anyone here was ‘collecting proof’ to later start a blog and provide it all to the likes of you.
Those of us who have had similar experiences, it helps to share and get validated by others. No one forced you to read or believe all that is said.
And why should i reveal my identity? Have left Aol and moved on, and certainly wouldn’t like my employer and friends to know i was part of a cult (yes, believe it or not, out in the real world, outside your aol circles, there are many who think its a cult)!
What is the guarantee that my name, address, aol post(s) etc, would convince you that my experiences were true?
Debunking “Guruji’s Grace” – Part 2
Two very interesting items came up in in the post Debunking Guruji’s Grace which deserve to be highlighted here.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar – just another Snake Oil Salesman
Ok, not quite snake oil, but pretty damned close: Shakti Drops, the latest scam from Sri Sri Ayurveda. Art of Living even produced a video demonstrating its purported effects, however for reasons which will soon become obvious, the video which was previously publicly available on Youtube was set to private, meaning we can no longer view it.
In the video, Mr Shankar asks for a volunteer from the audience, and when one steps up he is asked to hold out his arm. Mr Shankar asks the volunteer to tense his arm and try to resist, then proceeds to pull down the volunteer’s arm with very little effort. Next, he tells him to hold out his arm again, and this time he applies a few drops of the aforementioned Shakti Drops. Now when he tries to pull the volunteer’s arm again, he is unable to. Everyone in the audience applauds since they have been led to believe that the Shakti Drops are responsible for this amazing feat.
(By the way, if anyone managed to save this video, please do email me at doctorfrombeyond@yahoo.com since the above description really doesn’t do it any justice whatsoever and I really want to show the video first hand. )
UPDATE: Thanks to Monkey for this:
See Shakti drops miracle starting at about 42 minutes into the video “Shri Shri Ravishankar at IIT Kanpur” posted by sivachandrasekharj
UPDATE: And thanks to Rina for the following video showing yet another demonstration this time in Islamabad, Pakistan. Demonstration starts at around 3:30 minutes:
So why was the original video taken down? Well, maybe the following may shed some light on this matter:
And here’s another such demonstration from 0 – 1.58
Note the lack of any Shakti Drops in the above video 😉
Obviously, Mr Shankar was blissfully unaware that the technique he was demonstrating was well known to hypnotists, NLP practitioners and self-help gurus amongst many others. It is most likely that someone in Art of Living who follows this blog saw the above video posted here which alerted them to this fact and made them realize what a horrific mistake they had made. Otherwise if they truly believed that what the way they were trying to market this product was completely ethical, why on earth did they bother to take the video down?
Thanks to Monkey and Stupidseeker respectively for bringing this to our attention and for helping to debunk it.
Spontaneous Healing
The second item relates to comments made by Quaff the Koolaid Lads!, the main gist of which I have summarized here:
The Grace of the Divine is quite real. What others say is fine. I can’t judge it. But what happened/happens to me and my wife is quite extraordinary and very, very real. I’m not into mood-making or pretending. Grace is real and true and transcends all karmas. Never doubt it.
…
You have a documented medical condition. It causes you great pain. You communicate through a letter to Guruji about this condition and ask if it can be healed. You awaken in the middle of the night with a powerful experience of being with Guruji. The condition is instantly gone. Your doctor tells you the condition is no longer present. It is absolutely amazing.
The following responses were left to the latter comment:
From stupidseeker:
If true then certainly a compelling reason to be a devout follower of Guruji. But someone very close to me did not have this good fortune and had to suffer a great deal and take a great deal of medication before stabilising. This despite being an unquestioning devotee of HHSSRS.
From Anonymous:
I really think these “spontaneous” cures are either exaggerated, or imagined, or simply because they believed they would be healed. I would never attribute it to SSRS or any other person. If the person having this miracle is you, I’d take a long look at the whole incident.
From myself:
I believe, just as Anonymous above has alluded to, that you experienced this healing simply because of your faith in SSRS and not because he actually has any mystical healing powers.
If SSRS really had any healing powers, surely he would use them to go around the world and treat the sick and otherwise infirm? But you see, this isn’t happening at all. So either he is being extremely selfish with his wondrous gift, in which case he really isn’t the beneficent saint that he and his followers are portraying himself to be, or he simply does not have any powers.
And wouldn’t he and Art of Living use his miraculous powers to reinforce the view that SSRS is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, a man who himself is reported to have the power to heal people miraculously? Ever wondered why they aren’t doing this?
Since these comments were left, we still haven’t heard back from @Quaff. I sincerely would like a response from him/her, especially what he has to say about SSRS only sharing his wonderful gift with devout followers and not the public at large. But as has become common on this blog, whenever we debunk anything which someone from Art of Living puts forward to support anything surrounding SSRS, we never hear from them again. @Quaff – if you’re reading this, I would love to hear back from you.
Conclusion
I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, so if you want to believe in Shakti Drops and that SSRS has healing powers, you are quite welcome to do so, but I strongly recommend you never try to use critical thinking as it might suddenly shake the very foundations of what you believe in and cause you to rethink these things through. Stick with blind faith and best of luck to you.
If on the other hand you are reading this blog because you are having doubts, I strongly encourage you to consider everything written above, think them through for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
Debunking “Guruji’s Grace” – Part 1
Shortly after the inception of this blog, WhistleBlower wrote a post entitled Original Sin in AOL & the final Salvation in which he discusses one of the most powerful techniques which Art of Living employs to ensare its followers. This technique goes by various names throughout both this blog and AoL, but here I will refer to it simply as “Guruji’s Grace”.
In his original post WhistleBlower defines “Original Sin” in Art of Living as follows:
What is this Original Sin? Simply put, it is attributing the student’s healing, spiritual experience or insight, gained through some spiritual practice or knowledge, to the guru, in this case Ravi Shankar. This happens in AOL, right from the word go & continues throughout & it gets hammered into conscious & subconscious of the students by so many subtle & not-so-subtle ways & means.
As an interesting sidenote, if you re-read the article you will note that WhistleBlower predicted “By the end of this year [2010] Sri Sri has to think of more effective damage control measures than his two current counter-blogs or sending threatening legal letters to those whom he suspects are the authors of artoflivingfree blog”. Lo and behold, barely had the New Year started when Google and Automattic (owners of WordPress) were served with subpoena’s demanding that they reveal the identities of a number of key contributors to these blogs.
Another interesting thing mentioned in WhistleBlower’s post is that those who unwittingly fall victim to Guruji’s Grace become completely blind to all the wrong-doings in the organization and will in fact exonerate the guru from these happenings. Since that post was written, we have seen so many Art of Living devotees on this blog who even though they have admitted they are aware of some of the wrong-doings going on in Art of Living, find it almost impossible to believe that SSRS is responsible for them. So intense is the power of this mechanism for enslaving people.
In this post, I’d like to cite a number of examples which I feel go a long way towards debunking “Guruji’s Grace” and verifying what WhistleBlower wrote about it previously. In a future post I will go into detail into some of the psychological techniques which Art of Living employs to make people believe in Guruji’s Grace.
Long Kriya
Anyone who attends a Basic Course and asks if they can take the tape or a copy home with them is inevitably told that the tape won’t work for them, that it will just be silent or contain static, or some variation of what we now know is a complete lie told to participants who want to take the tape away. This lie is part of bigger lie surrounding the Kriya tape, and that is that the tape will only work when a teacher is present to conduct the session.
We know this is a lie because many of us have tried listening to the Kriya tape with no teacher present and can verify that the effects are exactly the same. But Art of Living followers are led to believe that those who undergo TTC become channels for “Guruji’s Grace” to flow through, and that it is Guruji’s Grace which is responsible for any positive effects received during Kriya. As a sidenote, shouldn’t Guruji’s Grace also be responsible for any negative effects received during Kriya???
So, if no teacher is present, how can the Kriya tape possibly produce the same effects as if a teacher was present? How does “Guruji’s Grace” make its way to the participant? Furthermore, what about the short kriya? This is done in the privacy of one’s own home, usually by oneself. Again, how does Guruji’s Grace come to the home practitioner? If they happen to live with a teacher then I can understand it, but for the majority who don’t, there doesn’t seem to be any way.
From this we can conclude that the effects of practicing Kriya, both positive and negative, have nothing whatsoever to do with Guruji’s Grace, but are entirely due to the technique. The lies told are simply to enslave people to the tape, the organization and ultimately to SSRS.
Reviving the dead, but unable to prevent accidents?
There have been various rumours that SSRS had once brought back someone from the dead. The following was posted on esatsang last year and provides a good example of this:
Date: 7 February 2011 22:03
Subject: Guruji’s GraceWhen we are all in bliss still trying to come out of 30th Jan 11. I wish to share the news as how Guruji’s grace has flown and we have seen a Miracle during Naadhavaibhavam. While I am writing this I am getting goose pimple all thru my body.
One of our Pillars of Nanganallur Centre, Mr K M Subramanian, (Facilitator-Nanganallur) affectionately called as KMS mama was brought back from the jaws of death. We all have been working in the Musicians Volunteers team for nearly 1 month at his residence. He works like an 18 year old boy with full of enthusiasm.He has been an inspiring figure for all of us.
on 16th Jan Sunday KMS had some pain in his Left shoulder and left hand. But he ignored it considering the work load. More over he had similar muscular pain few months back. He got treated and came out of that. Probably that has made him to think that it may be due to physical strain. He used some balm and other methods to reduce the pain,
The next day (17th) morning as usual he was on Nadhavaibhavam duty though the pain did not subside. He went to handover the donor pass to one of the devotees place .Came back and did his regular Pooja at home and after having Brunch he went to the nearby Sri Chakra Hospital for check up. He took his wife Smt Gomathy along with him in his own Scooter. Smt Meenakshi another Seva warrior of Nanganallur Centre helped him to get the emergency appointment with the doctor. ECG was taken and doctor did not see anything unusual . But within a few minutes, in the hospital itself KMS mama collapsed.He had a massive Heart attack. Immediately he was taken to the ICU and started the treatment. Few minutes later the Doctor (Dr.Satyanarayana) called up Mrs Meenakshi to tell her that Mr Subramaniam is no more. But she said a person who does Guruji’s work tirelessly cannot leave and requested the doctor to do everything possible to bring him back .The doctors have put in their best efforts to revive his heart pumping again. This is when Guruji’s grace was seen by everybody. The doctors have started giving us a ray of hope. Every hour passed by he has started responding to medicines.Though his heart started functioning,the doctors had put him on Ventilator and termed his condition as critical . Only after 24 hours anything can be decided they said. By this time the news reached all the volunteers and we all surrendered to Guruji and prayed for his speedy recovery. Guruji answered our prayers. Guruji says YOU DO MY WORK AND I DO YOURS. Even today the doctor says its a Miracle that he survived. Thank You Guruji Its all because of you.
It was a set back but with KMS Mama’s Inspiration and Guruji’s Grace ,Tambaram Zone had done fairly a good Job during Naadhavaibhavam.
The Cruel fact is that KMS Mama lost his both the sons few years back. We the Volunteers in Nanganallur are all his sons and daughters. When we say that our eyes become wet. Its true we are one world Family. Dear KMS Mama and Gomathy Mami. You are not alone we are there with you.
JAI GURU DEV.
N.MANIKANDAN
The following story, taken from artoflivinglifestories website also bears mentioning here:
Sanja Kordić, Croatia
International Art Of Living Teacher, CroatiaI am an international full time teacher from Croatia. In April last year, I had a terrible car accident in Bulgaria. I was injured very much. Art of Living people from Bulgaria found the best hospital for me, came every day to see me in numbers that was problem for the staff in the hospital, bringing me everything what I needed.
From the very beginning of this story, from the accident, I had a very strong awareness of Guruji’s presence all around me. He phoned me twice in the hospital and helped me so much. Also at least more than 10 young Art of Living Bulgarians gave their blood for my operation. A girl from Art of Living Macedonia, came daily from Macedonia to take care of me, and after 15 days came Snježana. Art of Living full time volunteer from Croatia and continued to take daily care until the end of my stay there. I’ve got so many cards, SMSes, from satsang groups all over Europe.
Love Beyond Anything I Knew
After coming home, I was completely immobile and I live alone. So, Art of Living Croatians had a list where they put their names to cover me 24 hours a day. I had full care from them and it wasn’t just bringing me a tea, remember, I was immobile, I couldn’t do anything for myself, even toilet or washing. Still I wonder how they could do this. It was love beyond anything I knew. They gave me so much love, care, attention, service, that for all doctors, my recovering was a miracle. After one year, I started to walk. Ayurvedic doctor recommended 28 massages, 14 Marmas and 14 Abhyangas, you know how expensive that is. Then one couple, both Art of Living teachers from Slovenia took me to their house and during 3 weeks they gave me massages and special Ayurvedic treatments just for seva. After that, I could walk without crutches.The security and feeling of being protected
I was twice in Art of Living International Center Bangalore to see Guruji. Every time I’ve got the best accommodation and nobody ever asked me for any money. Now, everybody treats me as a miracle. I’m walking, I still have some problems with my body, but Art of Living family saved my soul. From the very beginning of this story,from the accident, I had a very strong awareness of Guruji’s presence all around me. He phoned me twice in the hospital, but I don’t mean just that. It was just a feeling of being protected and security that I’ll have place in his life whatever happened. However this ends, he will give me the meaning of life, include me in spreading of the knowledge. My body was suffering, I was in pain, but my soul was very relaxed. This is the secret of my recovering.For a year and a half, I was not able to work, but they, the Art of Living Foundation pays me regularly. God bless them all, my gratefulness is unlimited.
I fell so very grateful to Guruji. It is just a feeling of being protected and the security that I’ll have place in his life whatever happens.
One thing that pains me when reading Sanja’s account is that although she acknowledges that so many people gave of their time to look after her and to be with her when she needed it the most, she is strongly hinting that it is because they are Art of Living people, and she gives the impression that ultimately it is all because of SSRS and his purported grace that these people helped her. Otherwise why would this story even have appeared on the Art of Living Life Stories blog? This again is just another example of how the mechanism of Guruji’s Grace is employed to make people feel indebtedness to SSRS by attributing all the good things in their life to him.
Now, going back to the first story above, those who were present clearly believed that Guruji’s Grace was responsible for bringing back the gentleman mentioned from the dead. Likewise, so too did those who saw fit to publish the account in esatsang. And this is what they would rather believe than any other explanation, for instance that it was the doctor’s which brought him back to life or that they might have been wrong in the first place. No, they would much rather believe what they have been conditioned to believe from their time in Art of Living, that those who work hard for Guruji are somehow protected by his grace, and that nothing short of a miracle took place.
Ok, but let’s look at the second account.
Sanja tells us that she was in a terrible road accident, that she couldn’t walk at all, and that “From the very beginning […] I had a very strong awareness of Guruji’s presence all around me. ” Indeed she also tells us “It was just a feeling of being protected and security that I’ll have place in his life whatever happened. ”
Although she doesn’t refer to it by the same name, Sanja here is beyond any doubt talkiing about what we are referring to as Guruji’s Grace here. So the first question is, when she says “From the very beginning […]”, when exactly does “the beginning” refer to? This is absolutely crucial here. At what point did Sanja begin to feel Guruji’s Grace? If she has been with Art of Living for over 10 years and has obviously worked tirelessly given that she is a full time teacher, then surely she must have felt this grace ongoing throughout her experience? And so, surely then, she would have felt the grace prior to the accident happening? If this is indeed the case and that Guruji’s Grace is so omnipresent and powerful, how on earth was it that Sanja wasn’t protected by Guruji’s Grace when she had the accident? In other words, why was Sanja involved in a car accident at all?
On the one hand, we have a story of Guruji’s Grace being able to revive someone from the clutches of death, whereas on the other hand this same grace was not able to save poor Sanja from being involved in a terrible car accident.
If Guruji’s Grace were real, then surely Sanja would have been saved from this terrible accident which left her incapacitated for over a year? But it didn’t. Which begs the question, outside of devotees’ heads, is there really such a thing as Guruji’s Grace?
You decide.
Beyond The Art of Living 