And yet another TM survivor memoir hits the press, planned release spring, 2010.
Robes of Silk, Feet of Clay "is the true story of a love affair with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian Guru made famous by the Beatles, Donovan, Mia Farrow, Deepak Chopra and David Lynch."
"In this book Judith Bourque describes the love affair she experienced with Maharishi when she went to India as a young woman to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation."
15 comments:
This one should be interesting! Can't wait to hear how the TMO explains away this one, though I imagine the author will be labeled deluded and unhinged.
What is exactly the point? That MMY was not a true monk or something? And if not, so? If Einstein was a womanizer would gravity stop working? Of if MLK was found to be more horny then holy should we make some people sit on the back of the bus again? Oh, I think I see now, since MMY was not "enlightened" anything associated or what he created sucks. Still not logical.
Yea, people were duped with the holy guru bit. Isn't obvious by now that only monks isolated and watched with no contact with the opposite sex can "act" holy. Once you get a wiff of pheronomes all that internal energy wants to get out thru the same ole mischevous portal. For anyone still entranced with the guru melodrama or waiting for the real thing, the whole thing, check out "Stripping the Gurus" book, http://www.strippingthegurus.com/
JB wrote: "<span>What is exactly the point? That MMY was not a true monk or something? And if not, so? If Einstein was a womanizer would gravity stop working? Of if MLK was found to be more horny then holy should we make some people sit on the back of the bus again? Oh, I think I see now, since MMY was not "enlightened" anything associated or what he created sucks. Still not logical.</span>"
I undertand what you're saying, and agree with it to some extent. For me, there was always the TM practice (on the one hand) and MMY/the TMO (on the other) - as nearly different realms. I had lots of TM (over 20 years) and just a little of MMY/TMO.
As basically an outsider to the TMO (never a teacher, never visited the big centers like MIU/MUM, etc), within six to eight years after my TM initiation I had concluded that the TMO was mostly ridiculous, regimented, restrictive, and unreliable. I continued to do TM as a practice because I wanted a regular practice to "go inward" - and because I found it centering, emotinally stabilizing, and refreshing.
However, after many years - although I still felt peaceful and centered whill sitting doing TM - I began to realize that the effect of doing it was having a dubious effect during the rest of my waking hours. As these ill effects became more obvious and serious, I slowly tapered out of TM practice. Now the TMO had been of no help in this experience & process. So, in the end, it is not so easy to see the two things as unconnected, JB. You seem to see MMY as merely a discoverer - pretty much like a scientist.
But I'd suppose many of us must ask ourselves if MMY and the TMO can be seen as separate? We can say that MMY, TM, and the TMO are each an isolated phenomenon... and while this may be true in some ways, in others ways it's not true at all.
JB wrote: "<span>What is exactly the point? That MMY was not a true monk or something? And if not, so? If Einstein was a womanizer would gravity stop working? Of if MLK was found to be more horny then holy should we make some people sit on the back of the bus again? Oh, I think I see now, since MMY was not "enlightened" anything associated or what he created sucks. Still not logical.</span>"
I undertand what you're saying, and agree with it to some extent. For me, there was always the TM practice (on the one hand) and MMY/the TMO (on the other) - as nearly different realms. I had lots of TM (over 20 years) and just a little of MMY/TMO.
As basically an outsider to the TMO (never a teacher, never visited the big centers like MIU/MUM, etc), within six to eight years after my TM initiation I had concluded that the TMO was mostly ridiculous, regimented, restrictive, and unreliable. I continued to do TM as a practice because I wanted a regular practice to "go inward" - and because I found it centering, emotinally stabilizing, and refreshing.
However, after many years - although I still felt peaceful and centered whill sitting doing TM - I began to realize that the effect of doing it was having a dubious effect during the rest of my waking hours. As these ill effects became more obvious and serious, I slowly tapered out of TM practice. Now the TMO had been of no help in this experience & process. So, in the end, it is not so easy to see the two things as unconnected, JB. You seem to see MMY as merely a discoverer - pretty much like a scientist.
But I'd suppose many of us must ask ourselves if MMY and the TMO can be seen as separate? We can say that MMY, TM, and the TMO are each an isolated phenomenon... and while this may be true in some ways, in others ways it's not true at all.
JB wrote: "<span>What is exactly the point? That MMY was not a true monk or something? And if not, so? If Einstein was a womanizer would gravity stop working? Of if MLK was found to be more horny then holy should we make some people sit on the back of the bus again? Oh, I think I see now, since MMY was not "enlightened" anything associated or what he created sucks. Still not logical.</span>"
I undertand what you're saying, and agree with it to some extent. For me, there was always the TM practice (on the one hand) and MMY/the TMO (on the other) - as nearly different realms. I had lots of TM (over 20 years) and just a little of MMY/TMO.
As basically an outsider to the TMO (never a teacher, never visited the big centers like MIU/MUM, etc), within six to eight years after my TM initiation I had concluded that the TMO was mostly ridiculous, regimented, restrictive, and unreliable. I continued to do TM as a practice because I wanted a regular practice to "go inward" - and because I found it centering, emotinally stabilizing, and refreshing.
However, after many years - although I still felt peaceful and centered whill sitting doing TM - I began to realize that the effect of doing it was having a dubious effect during the rest of my waking hours. As these ill effects became more obvious and serious, I slowly tapered out of TM practice. Now the TMO had been of no help in this experience & process. So, in the end, it is not so easy to see the two things as unconnected, JB. You seem to see MMY as merely a discoverer - pretty much like a scientist.
But I'd suppose many of us must ask ourselves if MMY and the TMO can be seen as separate? We can say that MMY, TM, and the TMO are each an isolated phenomenon... and while this may be true in some ways, in others ways it's not true at all.
I don't have no doubts about this here story. Wonderin how the big shots, or should I say "fat shots" like Bevan and Haglin feel about forced celebacy while the Mug was able to get his on the side! Followed a few of Judith's links to find she is a pimp for the Kalki Avatard, givin "oneness deeksha". Also teaches vedic type meditation for $, so I guess rollin in the hay for one fake messiah wasn't enough for the gal. Still I think its good she tells her story. If it comes to my local lendin library, I'll read it. Couldn't be any more self servin than the goofy one Donovan put out! ;)
Tanemon:
[wow, your posts are getting duplicated. Is it a browser thing? I'm using FireFox.]
I agree with your perspective on this. I too have good and bad effects from even plain old TM practice and tapered it off.
As to whether one make separations between a leader and parts of an organization. Thats probably a personal question. Like if the Pope is really culpable in mishandling sexual abuse that does mean the Catholic religion is junk, or due to papal infalibility God is bunk?
If I knew MMY was a "fake" in terms of monk hood and real biography I would have stayed away from anything TM. But, discovering that after the fact, later, is seeing him as a discoverer or repackager of a unique, at the time, yogic approach a valid way to understand things? To come to terms with it?
I don't know, and really is it that big a deal? I guess it is if you were deep into the TMO and TM was your key to heaven, you really purchased that brooklyn bridge. Or you see others as victims of the TMO. All valid.
All I gotta say is that the though of having sex w/MMY at any age makes me want to hurl up my lunch.
What is the point? The point is MMY's calculated deception and hypocrisy in enouraging or even demanding celibacy of others while he carried on repeated clandestine sexual liaisons himself. I wonder how many people are bitter about having wasted their youth and sexuality pursuing a goal that never materialised, only to later find out that MMY did not even practise what he preached? Oh well, as he kept sayng...'Even a sick man may open a healthfood store'.
<span>I believe that we can criticize Mahesh for a lot of things, but remember that Hare krishna, Siddha yoga ect, lived in celibacy and they lived under a much harsher rule. We who was TM ers was privileged in that sense that Mahesh did not demand more than you could give.</span>
As soon as the Mug started demandin more than I could give, I give him up!
Indian Police arrest "holy man" over sex scandal
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BANGALORE, India (Reuters) – Police have arrested a Hindu holy man with thousands of followers across <span>India</span> and abroad after video footage emerged last month allegedly showing him frolicking with two women.
Nithyananda Swami, whose devotees include politicians and movie stars, was arrested in the resort town of Shimla in northern India late on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.
Swami, head of Dhyanapeetam, or "knowledge center," was forced to resign last month after the video that was allegedly shot in his center outside the southern city of <span>Bangalore</span>.
The leaked video aired by news channels angered hundreds of devotees who ransacked his center and tore down his posters, forcing him to go into hiding.
"He will be brought to Bangalore for further investigations," D.V. Guruprasad, an officer of the <span>Criminal Investigation Department</span> said.
The 32-year-old, who denied any links to the women and said the tapes were doctored, is being investigated for rape, cheating and criminal conspiracy, police said.
The last few months have been bad for India's self-styled holy men with police arresting a swami for running a brothel involving air stewardesses and college students, while charging another with kidnapping a minor.
Nithyananda Swami has spiritual centers in Europe and the United States and Dhyanapeetam runs free medical centers and supplies food to the poor.
(Reporting by Habib Beary; Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Miral Fahmy)
The above article was posted this morning on Yahoo! One of the reader's comments even obliquely mentioned our own "Sexy Sadie" and The Beatles. Some scandals seem to live on forever.
there is no excuse for hypocrisy. what else did he preach but not practise? how could we trust the maha effect? what happened to all the donations and the absurd fees?
Here's an interesting question to kick around:
Brahmacharya is sometimes tranlsated as "bachelorhood", though it has religious overtones too. MMY was never made a swami, but was initiated as a brahmachari. In the mainstream yoga/vedanta traditions of India, during youth it's generally expected that brahmacharis will try to remain self-controlled and chaste.
Our word celibacy does not necessarily equate to chastity, but to "unmarried" status. Certainly in the trditions of the Catholic Church, a European tradition, the celibate status of priests, nuns, and monks was conventionally interpreted to mean a life of chastity, as well as an officially unmarried life. Indian trads may be different.
Okay, having taken the long way around to the kernal of the question: is it possible that in his middle age and older years that MMY was 'within his rights' so to speak to occasionally break the habit of chastity? Afterall, he did continue to remain celebate (unmarried). Plus, he was never ordained a swami.
For the moment, I'm ignoring both Western proprieties and legal issues in asking the above question.
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