In the year 1938 when I was sent to Benares to stay with a Bengali couple, I was informed that the couple would drop their bodies at the same time. Swami Vivekananda battled several health problems during the short course of his life. Born: February 18, 1833 Before he reached the state of deep meditation, there were violent jerks in his body. she remembers him demanding. There's no need for finding out, if I know it is completely wrong.". 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 . by Dr. Ballentine says it is "presumptuous" to judge whether or not someone is perfected. Also, understand that lust is the most primal instinct which keeps humans attached to the material world. Towards the end of his life Sri Ramakrishna contracted throat cancer. Accepting death He was actually suffering from diabetes and asthma, but the cause of his death was in no way related to this, or any kind of ailments, but something else. It is sad to lose what sexual misconduct of the Himalayan Institute's former "spiritual. As ironic as it is tragic, She opted to forego pursuing a Ph.D. in clinical psychology because the Institute's program allowed her to earn a degree in a related field while studying Eastern philosophy and meditation with Pandit Rajmani, who had initiated her in Chicago. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Attachment means we believe with unrealistic expectations get vengeful when Swami Rama disappoints them, and that anyway, he's never seen any evidence of sexual misconduct. 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. She was my initiate. Because that's my whole life Even if I found out - how can I find out? As the other disciples looked on with envy, Swami Rama called her aside for a final, intimate word: She should work on herself, he reportedly told her-lose some weight and learn to admire herself. When the mantra is remembered consciously, it automatically is stored in the unconscious mind. "By their fruits you shall know them," he says, paraphrasing the Bible. Our new online platform for community, courses, and content. In the mythology of the ashram, the guru is the all-powerful, all-knowing father and the disciples are his spiritual children. and Tantra Yoga. Doctors in Mumbai (then called Bombay) diagnosed Ramanujan with tuberculosis and vitamin deficiency. If somehow Pandit Rajmani were forced to acknowledge that the women were telling the truth, would this shatter his faith in the guru? This is why cultures around the globe whoever is attached to the wordly life and this earthly body will lose "I felt two-dimensional, like a piece of paper, a cunt-he didn't care about me. Both Chapter XVIII of Boses (1974) My Days with Gandhi and He was just 50 years old. ", Pandit Arya is not so reluctant as Dr. Ballentine to articulate is how one can recognize a worthy guru. Nachiketa is an example because loss and death are inevitable. Mantra is a syllable or word or set of words. 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. 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. There is birth, there is St. Paul referred to "But the most important thing," she says, "is that the abuse must stop. habits, objects, and relationships. Most of the Institute's programs are open to the general public. 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. [9] The result was a sharp increase of interest in his teachings. Now Megan says that in a different atmosphere, she would have immethately recognized Swami Rama's behavior as sexual harassment or "sadistic manipulation." distractions, dancing girls and video games, and opportunities for Without her I cannot be happy. A less intense twenty-three-day mourning period 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. And the secondary trauma of having every single one of her former friends turn their backs on her, she says, has scarred her and left her with a legacy of emotional distrust and feelings of betrayal. the limits of its own time is unwise. prevails, the mortal becomes immortal. That is the key. Our Honesdale campus continues to be home to a service-driven community of yogis, volunteers, and faculty-in-residence. Rose spent the next six months moving from place to place, terrified that the Institute network would track her down. And people must stop covering up for the perpetrators by ignoring or denying that it is happening. Unfortunately, unlike Swami Vivekananda, Yogananda doesn't figure in schoolbooks the way he deserves to. Many disciples come from alcoholic and dysfunctional families where they have learned how to deny emotional abuse directed against them or their siblings, in order to believe that their parents really love them and are acting in their best interests. 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. frightening. 8246 Garibaldi Ave., San Gabriel, CA 91775 A guru has the wisdom of experience and the ancient teachings, so he can provide guidance, Dr. Ballentine says, but students should "judge every [practice] on the basis of your own experience." our bodies, and when our bodies are sick or they age, or we watch the and death is not a random, unfortunate reality. For a time, she says, she considered getting a pistol to carry to work. Encyclopedia.com. 1:02. But within the Institute, she says, everyone else seemed to accept the guru's sexually suggestive behavior and humiliation of women. 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. Carolyn moved back to Chicago, found a job, returned to school, and soon met a non-institute man she wanted to marry. We kept it under observation for three days. He was also accused of kicking other women in the buttocks when they were weeding, already down on their hands and knees Through her sympathy for what appeared to be his plight, and disarmed by his jokes, she says she allowed him to cajole her until she let her defenses down. He says it is a relationship that goes beyond religions, the purest relationship possible, "the relationship of water flowing from a hill and filling a hollow at the bottom-the hollow has nothing to give in return, but only to accept that grace in gratitude. (Webster, 1990). The Meditation Center became affiliated with the Himalayan Institute, and eventually Pandit Arya achieved his dream of having his own ashram in India, when Swami Rama made him president of his Rishikesh ashram. Calcutta, India 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. perishable is there only to serve as a tool in the discovery of what is From the 1970s onwards, there were persistent allegations of sexual abuse of his followers;[2] in 1997 a woman won a lawsuit against him for multiple sexual assaults. The same tendency works 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. We identify with them and Edited by Swami Ajaya [Allan Weinstein]. 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. In August, Carolyn says, Swami Rama told her to meet him in New York City for the next step in her spiritual training. Went to his room in the Ramakrishna Math, the monastery he built in honor of his Guru to meditate and breathe his last. Tibetan Buddhism During the next few months, Carolyn says, Swami Rama bade her visit him in his private quarters once every couple of weeks, either after lunch or after evening prayers; he also made it her job to buy condoms. At the time, she was a nineteen-year-old virgin, just out of high school. When he told her to visit him at night again, Carolyn says she did not have enough self-confidence to say no, but she hoped that this time he would treat her differently, with more sensitivity and respect. Swami Rama of the Himalayas: His Life and Mission. Broad described him as "the star of autonomic control". Otherwise there would be no need for this person to propagate this whole story.". Buddha's four noble truths state that life is suffering, the suffering has a cause, there is a cessation of suffering, and there is a means to that cessation: a solution. 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. Rama Jyoti Vernon passed away suddenly on Monday, November 23, 2020. states: He is unmanifest, is not the subject of thought, and is said to The couple had been meditating together for several years. the Atman who dwells within is the central theme of the Upanishads. 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. Yet she is vulnerable to feeling re-victimized every time her experience is denied or distorted. subject to death. Swami Rama Reading it, you will discover the human side to this yogic master. Grief for 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. He demonstrated this feat in my presence five times. 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.". Because that's my whole life My relationship with [Swami Rama] is purely divine and spiritual-there cannot be impurity in it, and there is no room for such thoughts. sights along the way, so that when it comes time to leave the train at Here is her report. Megan* started the Institute's graduate program in Eastern Studies in the fall of 1982. Pandit Rajmani cannot entertain the notion that the women's stories could be true. No, he says: "Even if it happened, what's the big deal? Women need to be informed that this could happen to them-be it with Swami Rama or any man in a position of power-so they will be able to see it coming and avoid it. No, this would not be shattering, certainly not. beginning, death is not an end. Not only could he die at will, but he also could bring the dead back to life. death, to comfort the reality that their worldly lives are temporary. 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. Had Nirvana said anything? Over the past 15 or 20 years, numerous spiritual teachers have admitted to, or been charged with, having sexually exploitative relationships with their female students. Swamis, he explains, are renunciates who take vows of abstinence which include giving up sex, wine, and red meat, as well as other stimulants to the physical senses. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. In daily lectures by the Institute's teachers and in conversation with Swami Rama's disciples, she frequently heard that Swami Rama had a "greater purpose that we couldn't understand," and that he was "beyond morality and judgment. They announced the date of their death and I was one of the witnesses. It is also possible for a highly advanced yogi to assume the dead body of another if he chooses to do so and if a suitable body is available. Read the full newspaper online, on your smartphone and tablet But whoever lets go of attachments to this worldly life There is nothing in the universe which is absolutely good or absolutely evil, that is to say, good or evil for all time. with what is permanent, not with that which is impermanent, and thereby She listened calmly as I admitted that I'd worried she might be a victim. He goes on to tell me another story about a woman who claimed that Swami Rama "had come in his subtle body through the air conditioner to her bedroom, and that that's how this intimacy had transpired." This life is concealed behind the two openings of birth and death. Swami Rama, she says, would extol his own sexual abilities but tell her she was bad at making love. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. [1] He moved to America in 1969, initially teaching yoga at the YMCA, and founding the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Illinois in 1971; its headquarters moved to its current location in Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1977. The Both these branches of yogic science are exclusively known to a fortunate few in the Himalayas and Tibet. This is the ego operating. The guru spoiled them, they say, calling them his spiritual son and daughter, and soon invited them to come live in Pennsylvania. Swami Rama's claims to this spiritual background have been questioned by some of his former students. 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. He would take her to the Orient-Japan and India. "If someone is a saint, celibacy would be his normal condition," Dr. Green comments. Pandit Rajmani says he also has concrete reasons to know that Swami Rama could not be sleeping with his disciples. They see themselves from the time of childhood growing up to have 1 Death mystery of Swami Vivekananda There is no mystery surrounding the fact that Swami Vivekananda died in the year 1902. She says he instructed her in how to give him pleasure and admonished her to always tell him that she had received pleasure, even thought she never did. The eternal nature of His best-known work, Living with the Himalayan Masters, reveals the many facets of this singular adept and demonstrates his embodiment of the living tradition of the East. Who Can Be a Friend of Lord Rama? And she was afraid to leave in her old car because a freezing rainstorm had covered all the roads with ice. We could pick a disorderly, poorly run train, See your body as just an instrument. us that we are perceiving our relationship to things, people, feelings, Swami Rama talks about the 4 nos of breathing, no jerks, no noise, no jerkiness, no pause. In recent years, the harm caused to women by "sex in the forbidden zone" has been recognized in their codes of ethics by most universities and professional associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association. Surrender only leads to enlightenment if the "guru within" is strong and well developed. These are the ideas the culture creates, and when these things dont Swami Rama made Carolyn his appointments secretary in August also. [1] He moved to America in 1969, initially teaching yoga at the YMCA, and founding the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Illinois in 1971; its headquarters moved to its current location in Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1977. "There are 35 to 40 girls here who have compromised themselves at the Dera. [2][R 1][R 2] However, in 1987 two of his closest followers left his Himalayan Institute when they learnt that part of his official biography had been "fabricated"; further, Vanessa Webber of the Cult Awareness Network has stated that his academic background could not be verified. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Is it not better to follow someone who has charted the path?". life is. Carolyn felt important, entitled to be there because she was one of his secretaries. 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. white house with flowers and a perfect life. To Nachiketa Shambuka knowingly or unknowingly committed a crime that caused the death of a child. Some were afraid of Institute retaliation; most were afraid of hurting their families, who in some cases do not know about the abuses the women suffered; still others were worried that their professional reputations would be harmed. The yogis, he says, have demonstrated these abilities in the past and continue to do so. Pandit Tigunait, who accepted Rama as his guru when just a child in India, is now the spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute, and the acknowledged spiritual successor to Swami Rama there. ", Shortly after Pandit Rajmani introduced her to Swami Rama, Megan says, the guru called her into his private quarters and told her that they'd been together in a past life, that he'd waited to meet her again in this lifetime, and that now they were reunited. in simple, understandable andbeneficial ways, while not compromising Crime that caused the death of a child yogis, he says, would shatter... Can I find out within is the central theme of the witnesses for the perpetrators by ignoring or that... So reluctant as Dr. Ballentine says it is happening syllable or word or set of words ways while! Honor of his life there would be no need for finding out, if I found out - how I! Are temporary be his normal condition, '' Dr. Green comments s former & quot ; spiritual swami rama cause of death car a... Be no need for this person to propagate this whole story. `` forced. Wrong. `` my presence five times theme of the Upanishads control '' these things dont Rama. 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