Relationships are the first test of spirituality. They would travel together to England. The Himalayan Institute is a good a good model on how to do a resort perfect. The Catholic Church may discipline a priest who has sex with a parishioner, not only because it violates his vow of celibacy, but because his parishioners must be able to confide in him without worrying that he will exploit their trust for his own gratification. Live online programs, on-demand courses, and hundreds of yoga and meditation classes. After a couple of months of this special attention, Carolyn says, Swami Rama came to visit her one-day at the book distribution office in Honesdale center. Meanwhile, Swami Rama had appointed her as registrar of the graduate program, replacing a long-time woman disciple who was being kicked out of the Institute for no apparent reason. Carolyn says she spent years blaming herself and trying to rationalize away what she now regards as sexual abuse. Such trickery is common in the legends about crazy saints, who aimed to teach their disciples that ultimately they had to surrender the illusion of external control. Its mission, according to the Articles of Incorporation, was "to make known to the members and people in general the real, synthetic, and harmonious view of world religions and philosophy in terms of modern scientific achievements and undertake researches for all around ethical, social, economical, and spiritual development of humanity to attain world peace, international integration, understanding, and spiritual awakening of the human race." Host to HI Mission Programs, seminars as well as private events, we offer five fully equipped practice spaces and comfortable, modern guest amenities. The Combined Therapy program and the outpatient branches of the Institute for Holistic Medicine combine Western medicine, homeopathy, Eastern medicine, psychotherapy, nutrition, yoga, and meditation to treat people with a variety of physical and emotional problems. 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. 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. Bikram Choudhury, one of several yoga gurus accused of sexual abuse, [1] assisting a yoga pupil in his own style. The Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy is an international non-profit organization, which promotes yoga and holistic health through yoga retreats, residential programs, health products and services, media publications including Yoga International magazine, and humanitarian projects.The institute's main campus is located on (1.6 km 2) in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern . "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. The daughter of an alcoholic, she longed for guidance from a spiritual authority figure. Select a topic to see what people are saying about different issues Mission and values Explore company values, community, the relevance of the mission and moving on. During my weekend visit, Carolyn and I took long walks on the Institute's wooded grounds while talking about her compulsive eating patterns and her disastrous relationships with men suggested as possible husbands by Swami Rama. To my relief, I could detect no flash of recognition, guilt, fear, or anger in Carolyn's eyes. she wondered. He is also head of the Institute's Holistic Studies (formerly Eastern Studies) program and has written a number of scholarly books on yoga philosophy. When they have contacted their friends and former colleagues at the Institute, they have been discounted as liars or labeled "emotionally disturbed." In May, Swami Rama visited the area again. She walked around New York City for hours, until it was time for her bus to return to Honesdale. The Institute's program is no longer accredited by the University of Scranton. She would live with him in the house he was buying. Several former students of Swami Rama granted interviews to Patricia Ann Darling, Ph. Had Nirvana said anything? We inspire, educate, and. Explore high-quality, unique, practice-enhancing products made for yogis everywhere. Megan remembers asking him why he was trying all this on her. ALL NEW! A world leader in yoga, meditation, and holistic health, the Himalayan Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving humanity through educational, spiritual, and humanitarian programs. He bragged about his sumptuous homes in India and Japan and about his shopping sprees for designer clothes, she says. Surrender only leads to enlightenment if the "guru within" is strong and well developed. Williams, however, did not sue Nuernberger himself; she sued the clinic where he worked, alleging that the clinic "knew or should have known" that Nuernberger was engaging in harmful sexual activity while treating her. His students believe he is able to read minds and manipulate physical reality with his advanced yogic powers; thus they believe he can heal sickness with the power of the "superconscious" mind. Under New York State law, according to Trescelli, a woman who does not get a medical exam or report the incident to police within a limited period of time has little chance of obtaining a conviction. But the purified ego is a means in discriminating real Self from not-self-real Self from mere self. Community, Courses, and Content. Two women wrote statements, which said they had discovered that Swami Rama was attempting to "seduce" both of them contemporaneously. Burnett is a postdoctoral fellow in Houston's department of education leadership and . But the victims of what Jungian analyst Peter Rutter, M.D., has termed "sex in the forbidden zone" (in his book of the same name) submit to sexual advances because of a powerful psychological threat. 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. [2] [ Join us in serving a tradition that has served the world selflessly for untold ages. Those who build boundaries around themselves because of their ego problems create suffering for themselves." Wisdom must show itself in action and lovingness." I just don't know that it makes sense to go run around trying to evaluate other people, when you haven't evaluated yourself.". The accumulated testimony of their personal experiences through the years exhibits a pattern typical of "sex in the forbidden zone," coupled with institutional mechanisms of defense and denial. This seemingly whimsical application of standards demoralized many of the ex-members I spoke with and led many to resent the members of Swami Rama's inner circle. When she questioned him, Megan says, he became angry and dismissed the women's suffering, saying that a little poison ivy could be good for them. The yogis, he says, have demonstrated these abilities in the past and continue to do so. And she would help him write books. They rarely had to do the menial chores performed by other residents; Brian was encouraged to study the sacred texts and write a book, while Terry got training as a Montessori teacher and started a school for the Institute's children. Rose spent the next six months moving from place to place, terrified that the Institute network would track her down. "I only needed one person to corroborate my experience," Megan says now. In order to believe in his perfection, they must rationalize behavior that others would judge to be tyrannical, cruel, or self-indulgent. No, he says: "Even if it happened, what's the big deal?& People say that Mahatma Gandhi& slept with women. Similarly, gurus in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions are supposed to be examples of self-mastery and right living. Brian, who was a member of the Institute board of directors and a major financial contributor, says he confronted Swami Rama shortly after Rose contacted him and told him what had happened-but the guru said Rose had seduced him. She renewed her acquaintance with her former meditation teachers and started taking classes in Glenview, Illinois, at the Institute's original headquarters. That one gesture unleashed a storm of long-suppressed emotions. 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. ", Pandit Arya is not so reluctant as Dr. Ballentine to articulate is how one can recognize a worthy guru. During this spiel, she says, he put his hand on her buttocks, but she told him she wasn't buying it. Carolyn and others say Megan caused a scandal in the Honesdale ashram by breaking the silence surrounding Swami Rama's sexual behavior. And Carolyn's residential Program supervisor told her that the scandal was "a big test for all of us and a cleansing for the Institute-we'll see who stays.". But Trescelli says she had to discourage her. Minneapolis was the site of another Institute-related scandal in 1981. But one by one, Trescelli says, the women backed down and decided not to pursue legal action. Enrich your practice through the wisdom of the Himalayan Tradition, found in our online community and digital library, with new content added every week. Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD, is the spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute and the successor of Swami Rama of the Himalayas. Then, later on, when the right man came along, she would marry and be very happy. Carolyn felt important, entitled to be there because she was one of his secretaries. Our new online platform for community, courses, and content. She recalls that he would repeat a series of affirmations and commands in a hypnotic monotone: She had done very well organizing the book distribution operation, Carolyn says he would tell her. And she was afraid to leave in her old car because a freezing rainstorm had covered all the roads with ice. His actions are rarely questioned by his followers, because his every deed is thought to flow from his union with godhead. He told her he was writing a book of poetry for her, and he offered to find her a husband. But the followers of such "enlightened" men are usually reluctant to find fault with them, since to do so could invalidate the students' own years of study and devotion. Ex-members say that Swami Rama also uses his psychological insights to manipulate people. In mid-autumn, the day came for Swami Rama's annual trip to India. When I asked Pandit Arya about the allegations of sexual abuse, he admits that he was very disturbed when he first heard them. A pearl necklace that Brian had bought from Swami Rama as an "investment" was appraised at roughly one-third of the $100,000 he had paid for it. She specializes in Myotherapy, Deep Tissue, Prenatal, Swedish Relaxation, Sports Therapy, and Hot Stone Massage. He laughed, Megan says, and told her that the women didn't know what they were weeding. The Institute also offers a dizzying array of education programs, including a diploma program for hatha yoga teachers. The Institute's "scientific" approach to yoga has made it a success, attracting long-term spiritual disciples as well as large numbers of people who merely want a boost for their psychological or physical well being. As the couple started making arrangements to move to England, they received another blow. But during the next three weeks, she says, she saw the Swami mistreating his disciples, especially the women, on a daily basis-yelling at them, ridiculing them, ordering them around, and occasionally kicking a woman in the buttocks when she was on her hands and knees weeding. 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. Unfortunately, there is some mystery surrounding its founder, Swami Rama, and possible connection with drug abuse and sexual indecency. 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. Anyone can read what you share. Pandit Rajmani says he did not feel any responsibility, as spiritual counselor to the women who had approached him for help, to investigate their complaints or question his guru. Immerse yourself in a life-changing course of study and get certified in the authentic teachings of yoga and meditation. 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. But after two unsatisfying years, she left college and returned to the Chicago area. 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. One spring evening a couple of weeks later, she says, Swami Rama called her aside to ask why she'd been avoiding him, and she tried to tell him she'd discovered his lies. But she says his attitude toward her underwent a dramatic change; he began to make her a target for his anger, issuing contradictory orders and then screaming at her for her incompetence in front of the other secretaries and disciples and gossiping about her behind her back. But as she spent more time around Swami Rama and his inner circle, Megan says, the guru subjected her to a barrage of sexual harassment. A system that encourages such vulnerable individuals to give up their own "egotistical" judgment to the arbitrary whims of one person is one of the key features of a totalist organization, or "cult.". Pandit Arya radiates calm as he speaks. Many of Swami Rama's followers are still young and nave, unskilled in comprehending and interpreting their own "inner experience"-and they entrust their spiritual yearnings to his care. At the same time as he dismissed her, Swami Rama also gave her a Sanskrit name. 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. A saint is a person who does what he says." During her first eight months at the Institute, Megan was able to pursue her studies, but her situation altered dramatically when Swami Rama returned to take up summer residence. Quick Links. Irwin Schneider, the lawyer for the Himalayan Institute, conceded that it was morally wrong for the Swami Rama to have sex with the woman from North Carolina, a 19-year-old student at the time. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Swami Rama's claims to this spiritual background have been questioned by some of his former students. In her lawsuit, the plaintiff said the swami sexually assaulted her 30 times while she was attending the institute in the spring and summer of 1993. At that, she says, he raged at her until she was sobbing, unable to speak a word in her own defense: No! 7,616 were here. Obedience to the guru's commands is implicitly expected of all long-term residents; former students describe him walking through the main dining room and ordering one person to move to the New York branch, another to change jobs. She began talking about Swami Rama's exploitative behavior with anyone who would listen, especially women who she thought were being victimized. They introduced her to the guru, and she remembers he made a fuss over her, slapping her cheek lightly and calling her a good girl. That was why he wanted her to be his secretary. She says Swami Rama began telling her that he had never had sex, that he was dreaming about her at night, and that he was experiencing novel physical sensations because of her. Sex with a guru is a form of spiritual incest. Yet she is vulnerable to feeling re-victimized every time her experience is denied or distorted. One of them, along with the other women from the tour group, attended the wedding of Swami Rama's son, although the guru is officially supposed to have been celibate since taking his Swami's vows. 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.

Connect 4 Best Move Calculator, Demising Wall Fire Rating Requirements, Articles H