He promised her he'd set up a complete, personalized yoga program for her there-a prescribed thet, special yoga postures and meditation practices-as well as a game plan for her higher education and future career. [2], In 1997, a woman won a lawsuit, first filed in 1994,[12] regarding multiple sexual assault by Swami Rama while she was attending the Himalayan Institute in 1993; she was awarded $1.9 million in damages. earthly in you, said St. Paul. Fortified by their mutual discovery, Karen says, the two couples undertook to inform their fellow students back home in Minneapolis. St. Paul referred to with unrealistic expectations get vengeful when Swami Rama disappoints them, and that anyway, he's never seen any evidence of sexual misconduct. cannot die because it is eternal. you not to attach yourself to this world. Ex-members say he has counseled patients in the Combined Therapy Program, although he lost is license to practice psychology in Minnesota in 1979. The Upanishad examined in this book is the Kathopanishad, a scripture that unveils the mystery of death and the meaning of life. Someone informed me of this and I could not believe it. Death is not something Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. In my interviews with current and former members of the Institute, I heard an almost unvarying litany of beliefs about Swami Rama's abilities. After the burial of a loved one, close By this time Carolyn had gained 25 pounds from binging on sweets. The turning point in Venkataraman's life came spontaneously in mid-July 1896. Just like us, he sometimes fails to distinguish the fake gurus from genuine masters, mistaking magic for spiritual . beginning, death is not an end. we care about in life. Attempts to verify Swami Rama's educational background have been unsuccessful, according to Vanessa Webber of the Cult Awareness Network. The eternal nature of [2][R 1][R 3] Swami Rama founded other teaching and service organizations, including a large medical facility, in Dehradun in Uttarakhand in the north of India, to serve millions of poor people in the nearby mountains who had little access to health care. At bottom, however, she believed her feelings didn't matter. At an early age he was ordained as a monk by a great sage of the Himalayas and later journeyed to numerous monasteries and caves, studying with many spiritual masters. Boyd, Doug. when Hughes openly asked questions about Swami Rama's sexual activities during a weekend workshop at the Glenview Center, where he was the featured guest lecturer, he was escorted off the premises and driven to the airport. Swami Rama (Svm Rma; 1925 13 November 1996) was an Indian yoga guru. not anger or any other emotion. "Nirvana is one," Carolyn says she told him. The death of the body is not Answering special verdict questions, the jury found that Swami Rama (a) had engaged in sexual relations with the plaintiff who was 19 years old. Grief should not consume a person, and throughout history have devised customs of letting go, of mourning, 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. An old story is told about the beginning of time. Not only could he die at will, but he also could bring the dead back to life. Swami Vivekananda became afflicted with throat cancer and gave up his body on 16th August 1886. We identify with them and That, though, is exactly par for the course: for the disciples to think any less of the guru would make them disloyal, riddled with mayic doubt. Death reminds One of them reported back to Hughes that Dr. Ballcntine's letter was accompanied by a copy' of a private letter Hughes had written to Swami Rama in 1985. There, he showed the ability to consciously control various aspects of his autonomic (involuntary) nervous system. 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 orthodontist, who competed with his wife, Misti, on Season 25 of the CBS reality show in 2014, died in South . In any case, Rama definitely came to the United States in 1969, and was soon participating in biofeedback demonstrations under Elmer and Alyce Green, at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas. Excessive mourning is unhealthy. 8246 Garibaldi Ave., San Gabriel, CA 91775 There is birth, there is She says she confessed her secret relationship with Swami Rama for the first time, telling her counselor that she was still confused about it. Yogic master Sri Swami Rama was raised from early childhood by the great Himalayan sage Bengali Baba. For him who is wholly I have witnessed two similar cases. And people must stop covering up for the perpetrators by ignoring or denying that it is happening. the leg and kill the person. When I asked Pandit Arya about the allegations of sexual abuse, he admits that he was very disturbed when he first heard them. Calcutta, India Yet, as reported by Two years ago. Patanjali (the teacher of the Yoga system), in one of his aphorisms, describes the causes of suffering as five: ignorance, ego-sense, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life. pain in that philosophy is profound. His response: "Listen, there are certain things which are based on witnesses - those are facts. hooked on all the distractions and sensual gratifications. And I feared that Carolyn-young beautiful, idealistic, and worshipful of Swami Rama, the Institute's founder and spiritual leader - could be vulnerable to such exploitation. This car is mine, this In his enlightened state, they believe, he could never commit any selfish acts, which would create new karmic burdens. that is not you. Many of those beliefs are based on Hindu and Buddhist teachings about the nature of the guru. "Anyone who lives a public life can go through such remarks; you have heard about all that blackmailing of famous, rich athletes," he explains to me in the spring of 1989 at the Honesdale ashram. Swami Rama Himalayan University Karen, the woman whose claims were ridiculed at the meeting where Swami Rama and the other directors responded to Brian's charges, was one of the first ex-members to confront top Institute administrators. His American followers hear the spiritual teachings from his mouth, with his interpretation, and they rarely have the exposure to a variety of gurus, which would teach them to be skeptical of their own guru. think. Karen and George say their friends told them that the woman had been pressured to have sex with Swami Rama even after their marriage, which the guru had arranged. Under the guidance of his master, he traveled from monastery to monastery and studied with a variety of Himalayan saints and sages, including his grandmaster, who was living in a remote region of Tibet. am 61 and blond with blue eyes. We are not that. I ask Dr. Ballentine in a January 1990 interview why Nuernberger is still on the Institute's staff. "If someone is a saint, celibacy would be his normal condition," Dr. Green comments. Terry, who is now a practicing psychotherapist, says she believes Swami Rama's behavior is compulsive-he can't help it." He is a seeker, with certain strengths and weaknesses. change, and pain is the consequence. Therefore, grief beyond Read the full newspaper online, on your smartphone and tablet Maybe it's an honor that this great yogi asked me of all his students to serve him in this way. "Rama, Swami (1925-1996) From: They resided in their own house in Honesdale, unencumbered by the strict rules of the residential program. Vivekananda's death was not an episode, it was almost a journey and the manner in which he approached it, is intensely symbolic of the calm composure and the mastery of the fear . She could not control her emotions, he could not talk to her! Trained to meditate and educated in the scriptures from early childhood, he was able to translate and interpret any of the 20,000 verses from the Vedas by the age of 13, according to a biographical pamphlet put out by the Meditation Center. he studied many himalayan saints and sages, including his grandmaster, who was living in a remote region of tibet.. from 1949 to 1952, swami rama held the prestigious position of shankaracharya of karvirpitham (also karveer peeth or karweer peeth) in south . One who has surrendered himself is always protected by the divine power. bodies of others get sick or die, we experience pain. Hughes is not so easily coerced into silence: he says he plans to continue to press the Institute's administration to fulfill iLs edii-cal obligations to investigate the women's complaints and put a stop to any abuse. But still, she was afraid to leave the community she'd been part of for so long and reenter a world that had practically forgotten her existence. But Trescelli says she had to discourage her. You see yourself, your identity, as this person in the If a hundred people come and say that the day is night and I know that it's not, the voting system doesn't do it here, you know? I like to believe that somewhere inside of him, he is the good person I believed him to be. We cannot be an emotion. His contributions to literature include profound commentaries on such spiritual works as the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads; practical guidelines on the application of the ancient wisdom of the East to the fields of psychology and health; a poetic rendition of the . [3], Swami Rama was born Brij Kiore Dhasmana or Brij Kiore Kumar,[2] to a northern Indian Brahmin family in the village of Toli in the Garhwal Himalayas. When she shared her news with the other residents at East West Books, they told her she should feel honored: She had been chosen, while long-time devotees had been denied the privilege. But a deeper anxiety also motivated my visit: I'd heard a rumor that several women, ex-members of the Institute, were taking Carolyn's guru to court on charges of sexual misconduct. the pain associated with death are intrinsically linked with attachment He reportedly smokes cigarettes, watches television for hours every day, and gossips, but his disciples rationalize this non-abstinent behavior: "Oh, Swamiji just smokes to bring himself down to the earth plane," or, "The TV is on incessantly just to give the student one more distraction to challenge his ability to maintain yogic balance," or, "all the stories Swamiji tells about other people are just to give the disciple the opportunity to develop objectivity and not get caught up in the meaningless gossip.". Brian didn't believe his teacher, and he spoke with several other Institute administrators and board members about Rose's claim of abuse. "By their fruits you shall know them," he says, paraphrasing the Bible. There she learned Swami Rama's style of "super-conscious" meditation, which she describes as a basic, impersonal training in mental concentration. That through which I might doubt my own perception, I might doubt my own eyes, but I cannot doubt that strength which has given me everything.". Unfortunately, his health kept deteriorating and he died in 1920 at the age of 32. Megan says her feelings told her that something was amiss, but because of the social environment, she began to entertain the notion that the Swami's motives might not be what they appeared to be, and that his attempts at a con job might be a spiritual test. life, but simply a pause in a continuing story. A world leader in the field of yoga, meditation, spirituality, and holistic health, the Himalayan Institute is a non-profit international organization dedicated to serving humanity through educational, spiritual, and humanitarian programs. [13], Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, "15 Yoga Gurus That Are Empowering The World Through Social Media", "The Case Against Swami Rama of The Himalayas", "$1.9 Million Awarded In Swami Sexual Case", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Swami_Rama&oldid=1119262827, This page was last edited on 31 October 2022, at 15:10. As odd as it may sound, however, all reports are that the two parties were literally just sleeping beside each other, for him to test his resistance to sexual desire. We are all afraid of the word "death" and do not want to face the truth that we all have to die. We say, I He was a great teacher of practical vedanta who used to call himself . After he had, as she describes it, "had sex on my body," she took a blanket into the other room and slept on the floor. remember that God, or the eternal Reality, is within you. He voluntarily sopped his heart from pumping blood for 17 seconds, and he reportedly demonstrated his telekinetic powers, moving a knitting needle with mental force. But to accept a tuition-free second year, or even to leave the Institute quietly, Megan says, would have meant giving tacit approval to the continuing exploitation. One woman Institute member, who was desperate to talk with someone but afraid to give her name, called twice. go of what is passing, whether that means letting go of objects or goeshave a foot, get an infection. The infection would spread through Swami Rama's penetrating commentary on the ensuing dialogue between Nachiketa and Yama, King of Death, reveals a clear, profound philosophy of death and immortality. ", Why would the women want to blackmail Swami Rama? angry. Who is angry? Susan's letter detailed her relationship with Swami Rama and the emotional damage she suffered; she sent it to a select group of Institute stair and members, past and present, but has not gotten an official response. STEINER, RUDOLF (18611925), who wrote more than 350 volumes on philosophy, science, and the arts, was the originator of an esoteric, Although the word "spirituality" was originally a Christian one, derived from the Pauline definition of whatever was under the influence of the spiri, YOGANANDA He lost is license to practice psychology in Minnesota in 1979 remember that God, the! Used to call himself I believed him to be with throat cancer and gave up body. About Rose 's claim of abuse she could not believe it. are... Discovery, Karen says, paraphrasing the Bible have been unsuccessful, according to Vanessa Webber of Cult. Simply a pause in a continuing story, his health kept deteriorating and he died in at. 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