Finally, on 13th November 1996 he left his body. The other was at Kanpur. Dr. Ballentine denies sending out copies of Hughes's letter: 'I didn't do that. At a young age, Swami Rama is supposed to have been appointed Shankaracharya of Karvirpitham, an exalted spiritual post. Ramakrishna, now alone, prayed for a vision of Kali-Ma (Kali the Mother), whom he worshipped as the supreme manifestation of God. Yet the Institute's success comes at a high cost for many of those involved. It is sad for him, and for those who cared and were so deeply hurt by him, that his behavior has been allowed to continue with such devastating results to people just looking for help." [8], Swami Rama authored dozens of books, published in India and America,[10] which describe the path he took to become a yogi. He claimed that he was raised somewhere in the monasteries and holy caves of the Himalayas by his personal guru or master Sri Madhavananda Bharati. "But the most important thing," she says, "is that the abuse must stop. All of them had something to offer, but no spiritual path inspired her to make an exclusive commitment. Megan*, a former graduate student in the Eastern Studies program, wrote a letter to the Jesuit administration of the University of Scranton saying that Swami Rama was subjecting women students to sexual exploitation. [7], Swami Rama has been accused and convicted of sexual abuse. He called on 16th December. He is supposed to have been raised by Sri Madhavananda Bharati in the sacred caves and monasteries of the Himalayan sages. His actions are rarely questioned by his followers, because his every deed is thought to flow from his union with godhead. Indian religious leader and mystic Swami Rama Tirtha believed that his creative ability did not lie in his speeches which enthralled his listeners, but in the poems and articles he wrote in the solitude of the Himalayas. Boyd, Doug. In March 1978, she says, Swami Rama came to Glenview and initiated her. But he did not cure himself of the diabetes he took on from someone. This was sometime in September 1980. Pandit Arya has many profound and beautiful things to say about his relationship to his guru when I interview him at the Divya Jyoti yoga center in Napa, California, in May 1989. Calcutta, India The Swami, she says, bragged to a crowd of disciples that the woman would do whatever he told her, then put his dog's collar and leash around her neck and walked her back and forth, while the others laughed. The last few months of his life were filled with accusations of sexual assault and harassment from several women against himself and the Himalayan Institute. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. To the ordinary mind this seems like a fantasy. Then, after a few weeks I saw him in Delhi. She did receive an anonymous letter from "a friend" in May 1990, warning her that the Institute had contacted "one of the most vicious lawyers in New York City" and that it planned a defamation action against her if she continued her "harassment." The Swami also continued to teach and write from his centers in India. "By their fruits you shall know them," he says, paraphrasing the Bible. The two women who wrote statements for the Cult Awareness Movement were among those involved: One stated that she was a patient at the Institute's holistic health center in New York City, and the other stated she was 17 years old when Swami Rama initiated a sexual relationship with her. Two months after Swami Rama left for India, Carolyn went to Chicago to visit her family for Christmas. Swami Rama created his first ashram near Kathmandu in Nepal, apparently in the late 1950s. [7] He then produced the longer theta waves of dreaming sleep, and finally the slow delta waves of deep sleep, staying aware throughout and able to describe accurately what had happened in the laboratory although he had been lying in the laboratory "snoring". It is my firm conviction that people living in the world can practice the higher steps of yoga and meditation even while doing their duties and leading normal lives. When the couple confided their resulting marital troubles to Karen and George, Karen confirmed her friend's experience by revealing that she, too, had had a supposedly exclusive and spiritual sexual relationship with Swami Rama before her marriage. The Healing Network (former Himalayan Institute members), BO. When they have contacted their friends and former colleagues at the Institute, they have been discounted as liars or labeled "emotionally disturbed." He told her to lie to the residential program director and say that she planned to visit a relative, and he gave her $100 to cover the cost of the trip. Those who do so," she says, "are responsible for the continuing abuse. When she asked him what she should do with the love letters, she says, Swami Rama would laugh and say, "Oh, these goofy women! . The teachings contained in the sacred texts cannot play any meaningful part in judging who is a good guru and who is not: "How could they? And then he departed, accompanied not by Carolyn, as he had promised, but by another "gorgeous" devotee. Yet the women never seemed to complain about such treatment, Megan says. Whenever she has communicated her experiences to former friends at the Institute, she says, they have responded with a series of rationalizations: "That's your experience, but we all have to make our own decisions based on our own experience with Swamiji, and he has positively redirected my life. She was thrilled; it was commonly believed at the Institute that the fastest way to reach enlightenment was to spend as much time as possible in the presence of the guru. Shortly after they returned to the U.S., Karen and George say that they and all their correspondents received a bizarre, defamatory letter containing an implicit death threat. Marston, however, testified that Nuernberger had "hugged and kissed her and fondled her breasts," according to an article in the Minneapolis Tribune (Jan. 24, 1981). Only adepts know this technique. [2] She wrote that their statements, two of which were on file with the Cult Awareness Network in New York, fitted a pattern of what she called "sex in the forbidden zone", with a guru, "coupled with institutional mechanisms of defense and denial". The people Bob had referred to were Carolyn, Susan, Brian and Terry, Dr. Edwin Funk, a former member of the Institute board of directors and physician on its stafT. He started saying, My Gurudeva is calling me. Hughes, who ran East West Books Chicago and then worked as publicity and sales director of Himalayan Publishers and Distributors, now has a masters degree in counseling and hosts a successful TV series in Memphis, Tennessee: Total Health and Relaxation: An Ounce of Prevention." She began to believe that this man who might have been spiritual at one time was now suffering from feelings he couldn't control. Brought up by authoritarian parents-one of whom was of the other women who say they have been sexually abused by Swami Rama, as well as men who feel their spiritual trust was betrayed, have organized an informal support network to help each other heal. "The real guru is within," Dr. Ballentine says, "that still small voice within you." Instead they deny the experience of the "unenlightened" women who are the guru's victims. No definite diagnosis could be arrived at. This was not true! . But for a man of Pandit Arya's background and beliefs, the relationship with one's guru is more momentous than any merely temporal bond. These are also available through Lotus Press in USA. Please read the series At the Feet of a Himalayan Master. Otherwise there would be no need for this person to propagate this whole story.". Years later, Rose contacted Patricia Trescelli, hoping to support a lawsuit by other women working with Trescelli and hoping to press charges against Swami Rama in her own sexual assault. There was no shortage of the teams of doctors and specialists around him. But Megan and Carolyn both say that Swami Rama would dismiss Pandit Rajmani and other members of the inner circle after an evening of socializing in Swami Rama's private quarters, while asking them alone to stay behind. He is widely respected in the East, where he held, and later renounced, the office of Shankaracharya, Indian's highest spiritual position. At a young age, Swami Rama is supposed to have been appointed Shankaracharya of Karvirpitham, an exalted spiritual post. He says that Swami Rama has been his guru since he was a child in India, and that he came to the U.S. at Swami Rama's request to head up the Honesdale ashram. His best known work is Living With Himalayan Masters; the cultural historian Alistair Shearer calls it "an influential autobiography". Two of the guru's most devoted disciples left the Institute three years ago because they had learned while in India as part of an Institute tour group that parts of Swami Rama's official biography were fabricated. Although the jury entered a judgment against Nuernberger, it also found that the clinic was not liable for his actions, so Williams failed to recover damages. The victim's confusion and loss of trust are compounded when her community refuses to acknowledge her suffering. Pandit Arya reportedly alternated between disbelieving and believing the growing number of his female students who told him that Swami Rama had sexually harassed or abused them. Shri Swami Rama clearly understood that Health, Education and Livelihood skills form a triangular primacy and that holistic development . They are instructed to have "no emotional relationship inside or outside the Institute," and residential program directors are charged with monitoring disciple's behavior and attitudes to make sure they conform to Institute expectations. Carolyn moved back to Chicago, found a job, returned to school, and soon met a non-institute man she wanted to marry. "Until you get your priorities straight and your head clear, I would request that you refrain from attempting to represent the Institute or its teachings in any way.". He and Pandit Rajmani say that a guru is "that which dispels darkness." At 7:00 p.m. Vivekananda went to his room, asking not to be disturbed; he died at 9:20 p.m. while meditating. I don't have access to those files." Born in northern India, he was raised from early childhood by the Himalayan sage, Bengali Baba. But ultimately he chose to believe Swami Rama. //