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. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ramakrishna, IndiaNetzone - Biography of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York - Biography of Sri Ramakrishna, World Religious and Spirituality Project - Ramakrishna, Cultural India - Reformers - Biography of Ramakrishna Paramhansa. He studied with many adepts, and then traveled to Tibet to study with his grandmaster. People say that Mahatma Gandhi slept with women. But the University of Scranton didn't offer a degree program in Carolyn's area of study, so she saw a way to rationalize leaving the Institute while still saving face; she could still be considered a good disciple if she cold get the guru's blessing to go away to college. Had Nirvana said anything? A producer for "60 Minutes" was reportedly unable to complete her documentary on Swami Rama when the women involved backed out and refused to appear on camera. Sadhana Mandir Trust After six months she fell sick and became bedridden. It does not and cannot die because it is eternal. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Carolyn rationalized: Swamiji was her guru, so even though the prospect of having sex with him seemed morally wrong and physically revolting, he must be doing it for her own good. The next day, she says, Swami Rama called her to his office and asked her if anyone had said anything to her. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Tall and imposing, he had the sleek look of a successful man in his late 50s, at the peak of his power. Ramatirtha, also spelled Rama Tirtha, original name Tirath Rama, (born 1873, Miraliwala, Punjab province, India [now in Pakistan]died Oct. 17, 1906, Tehri, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh [now in India]), Hindu religious leader known for the highly personal and poetic manner in which he taught what he styled "Practical Vedanta," using common But he did not cure himself of the diabetes he took on from someone. Relationships are the first test of spirituality. Soon Carolyn noticed she wasn't the only woman being favored by the guru; he was also paying attention to Megan and Nirvana. ." No one can expand his consciousness if he remains egotistical. A small band of disciples, most of them Western-educated, gathered around Ramakrishna in the early 1880s, drawn by the appeal of his message and by his charisma as a guru and ecstatic mystic. We all wondered if we would ever see him again. He laughed, Megan says, and told her that the women didn't know what they were weeding. Carolyn has been in therapy for the past five years, trying to rebuild her self-confidence and heal the damage done by what she now calls her "sexual abuse" by Swami Rama. Arlington Heights, Ill.: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1978. The ant came back to life and started crawling. - Swami Rama, "Living With the Himalayan Masters". Following on the heels of Karen's and her friend's revelations, several other women and men left the Meditation Center in Minneapolis. . He warns against relying too heavily on the inner voice: "When we look for the guru within, we only end up finding our own samskaras-vagaries of the unconscious mind are mistaken for directions from the superconscious. Brian also received a threat, he says: a note telling him he "might get hurt," which was accidentally shoved under the door of a lawyer who rented the office next door to his in a Honesdale office building. mother Sita, that she split up the ground and was absorbed into the earth, but when the question was asked when Lord Rama died, Swami Satyendra Dasji says that the description of Lord Rama's going to heaven can be found in Valmiki Ramayana. [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". It is unknown whether he has other children. The letter is curt in tone. Those who do so," she says, "are responsible for the continuing abuse. In his enlightened state, they believe, he could never commit any selfish acts, which would create new karmic burdens. At some point, we ran into Swami Rama in a hallway. Perhaps during his visit to Asia Minor he learned these techniques from the yogis. She began talking about Swami Rama's exploitative behavior with anyone who would listen, especially women who she thought were being victimized. "Even if I found out-how can I find out? Dr. Ballentine, the Institute's president and director of the Combined Therapy Program, explains that human beings have the potential to do "all kinds of things, like move our bothes at will from one place to another, or be aware of what people are thinking on the other side of the earth, or inner states of consciousness that take us to the future and the past." Finally, she obtained his permission. The lawsuit I heard rumors about in New York City never materialized. But their encounters were exactly the same as before, she says-emotionally impersonal and sexually mechanical. We heard nothing from him after he left the USA. The surgeons at our hospital were happily surprised that when they asked for his blessing for a difficult surgery the surgery would go smoothly easy flowing. To view the video Swami Rama: Hansda Ashram, Nepal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHwDV9UeyfE, Why Did He Not Heal Himself? At a later date, he pursued a formal education at Oxford University, continuing his studies of Western psychology and philosophy in Germany and Holland for three years before coming to the United States in 1969. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. "Rama, Swami (1925-1996) Like incest victims, women who say they have been sexually abused by their gurus are sworn to silence by their abusers. Encyclopedia.com. Swami Rama's and the Himalayan Institute's mission is to create a bridge between East and West, spirituality and science, and ancient wisdom and modern technology. Since our interview, Dr. Ballentine has been sent at least two letters by women who say they were sexually abused by Swami Rama: one from Carolyn and one from Susan. Brian sued Swami Rama, and eventually the guru settled out of court for the full amount. Carolyn says she recognizes the positive work of the Himalayan Institute and has no desire to destroy the Institute's beneficial programs. Broad described him as "the star of autonomic control". Swami Rama created his first ashram near Kathmandu in Nepal, apparently in the late 1950s. He is held accountable only to the higher spiritual laws, which he is uniquely able to comprehend. There was no shortage of the teams of doctors and specialists around him. The capacity to leave the body consciously at the time of death is not restricted only to accomplished yogis. Encyclopedia.com. This was not true! (Sarada Devi was later deified and is still considered a saint by devotees who treat her as the Divine Mother. She began to believe that this man who might have been spiritual at one time was now suffering from feelings he couldn't control. I ask him. Who? Once when Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa was suffering from throat cancer, Swami Vivekananda could not bear His sufferings and planned to apply his yogic powers to cure him. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International. After dismissing the other workers, she says he repeated the familiar litany, but this time he slipped in a new message. At the same time, she felt anxious, because she'd seen how severe Swami Rama could be with those closest to him. Meanwhile, Carolyn says, Swami Rama began singling her out for special attention. Hughes wrote Dr. Ballentine a letter on May 22, 1989, quoting Gandhi-Truth itself helps me when I commit mistakes. Ramakrishna, now alone, prayed for a vision of Kali-Ma (Kali the Mother), whom he worshipped as the supreme manifestation of God. Mantra is a syllable or word or set of words. And people must stop covering up for the perpetrators by ignoring or denying that it is happening. Elmer and Alyce Green observed that Swami Rama could produce different brain waves at will, including theta and delta (sleep) waves, while remaining aware of his environment. 60614. His body was buried in Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vrindavan. "Nirvana is one," Carolyn says she told him. He was ready to embark on his project to build the hospital, but first he chose to establish an ashram in Nepal. In the year 1970 under the supervision of scientists from the clinic of Menninger in Topeka (Kansas) he demonstrated that he is able to control his autonomic nervous system. I transfer these 14 years of life to you so that you can complete your work.. . A Swami, or monk, is supposed to be "one who is master of oneself: senses, body, mind." Two months after Swami Rama left for India, Carolyn went to Chicago to visit her family for Christmas. Gurus were supposed to have conquered their desires, but in the spiritual literature they were often portrayed as contradictory, tricking their disciples into enlightenment. I said, Maharaj ji, then grant me the healing power and I will use it to heal you. Years later, Carolyn told me that four years of discipleship under Swami Rama had taught her to be a successful liar. No one had thoroughly investigated, until journalist Katharine Webster decided to spend two years researching their allegations. He was reputed to do the same thing Swami Rama did throughout his life, taking on peoples illnesses upon himself and dissipating them. Then she dropped her body in complete consciousness. As Rutter explains in his book, a sexual relationship between a man in a position of power-doctor, psychologist, mentor, or priest-and a woman who is dependent on him-as patient, student, client, or troubled soul-almost always involves an element of coercion and a betrayal of trust. Branch centers have also been established throughout the United States. Swami Rama taught yoga, meditation, spirituality, and holistic health as vehicles to eliminate the gap between human hearts and different religious and ethnic groups. 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. What a foolish woman! He is also supposed to have graduated from a homeopathic medical school in India, and studied at Hamburg University, the University of Utrecht, and Oxford University. He says it's only happened to him once or twice, but he asked the woman, "Are you really sure about this? Surrender only leads to enlightenment if the "guru within" is strong and well developed. In the mid-1970s, she and her husband George,* both students of Swami Rama, traveled to India and stayed at the guru's ashram in Rishikesh. Mr. Mitchell found background "whispers" with statements such as: " the poison is going down," " push real hard it is going down him," " poisoning for a long time," " he's gonna die," " yes, a heart attack time," " the poison is in you Srila Prabhupada," followed by, " he's going under," and so on and so forth. His poems reveal his creative genius and lofty ideals. Both women and men say they blamed themselves and their own spiritual obtuseness when they repeatedly failed to discern and follow the shifting rules. Within a sect the guru's authority is often absolute: he rules from the pinnacle of the institutional hierarehy. 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. In an early co-authored book, Yoga and Psychotherapy (1976), he presented Hatha Yoga with reference to western psychology. I am the one who has given the mantra!. In response to this, the sadhu just flashed a mysterious smile the reason behind it, which Lord Rama immediately grasped. 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. Rma is a Vedic Sanskrit word with two contextual meanings. Ex-members say he has counseled patients in the Combined Therapy Program, although he lost is license to practice psychology in Minnesota in 1979. Carolyn stayed at the Institute for three more years, working at a variety of jobs. Giving the empire to Luv-Kush Rama, apparently repenting for his sins, decided to give all his empire to Luv and Kush to rule. He says he was only directly confronted once-the rest has been hearsay. She thanked me, but assured me I had no reason for concern. And that was the first time I realized what all that stuff meant-the other women, the 'goofy' file, and the rumors about the lawsuit. In August, Carolyn says, Swami Rama told her to meet him in New York City for the next step in her spiritual training. Finally I found an opportunity to broach the topic of the lawsuit with Carolyn. One of my friends, Vinaya Maharaj, sent a messenger to my camp informing me that he was going to drop his body and I should come to witness it. Before the wedding, Carolyn and her fiance went to see a couples counselor both separately and together. This was to us a lesson in what total selflessness of a yogi means. Meanwhile Janet,* a Honesdale woman who worked as the couple's babysitter and housekeeper at the time, says she received threatening phone calls at Brian and Terry's house, asking if she was alone with the children. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. He was among the first notable teachers of Hinduism to lecture in the United States, travelling there in 1902, preceded by Swami Vivekananda in 1893 and followed by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920. Marston's lawsuit, he says, was an act of revenge. "A lot of people have confused the siddhis-the powers to control body, emotions, and mind-with spirituality. [CDATA[ He must see something special in me.'" If somehow Pandit Rajmani were forced to acknowledge that the women were telling the truth, would this shatter his faith in the guru? In March 1978, she says, Swami Rama came to Glenview and initiated her. Before leaving, Megan says, she tried to confront Swami Rama publicly-but he went into seclusion, claiming illness. At age 23 Ramakrishna married Sarada Devi, a five-year-old girl, but, because of his advocacy of celibacy, the marriage was never consummated, even though they remained together until his death. Many people, including the victims themselves, have trouble understanding how damaging such sexual contact can be, because the women are adults and no one is holding a gun to their heads. He is also supposed to have graduated from a homeopathic medical school in India, and studied at Hamburg University, the University of Utrecht, and Oxford University. Carolyn says she is at a loss to discern any positive reason behind Swami Rama's behavior toward her. Please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. As the scientific interest in yoga declined through the 1980s, Swami Rama lead the Himalayan Institute until his death in 1996. Brian and Terry say her family members at the Institute harassed her by mail and by telephone, with accusations that she had "a habit of inducing this sort of behavior from men.". Pandit Rajmani cannot entertain the notion that the women's stories could be true. "The person wanted something, and the other person did not agree to fulfill their desires," he says. So I visited the house and I discovered that the sound of her mantra was still vibrating there. Ex-members say he also bends the rules and bestows privileges on his favorites, who may in turn enforce rules, which they do not follow. Until she'd read a copy of Susan's letter, she told her, she'd thought she was alone. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. The Institute's program is no longer accredited by the University of Scranton. [2][3] Abuses alleged to have taken place against former students of Swami Rama in Chicago, in Minneapolis, in New York, and in India in the 1970s were documented by Patricia Ann Darling in a chapter of her 1987 University of Minnesota PhD thesis.

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