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Hi Joe,Yes it is very insulting. But by placing the first sentence with words like '70's drug culture' immediately before the sentence about ashrams, it's clearly suggesting that ashrams were set up to help victims of the 'drug culture'. What I particularly dislike about this false implication, is that it makes it appear as if M set up ashrams out of the kindness of his heart, in order to help drug addicts. Whereas they were set up so that premies could have the opportunity (we were so lucky, by his grace) to dedicate their lives to him. I don't know why M has such a problem with his past and why he's trying to run away from it, lie about it, put twist and spin on it. And always in such a way to try and make him look good, and premies look bad. Why is M so frightened and seemingly ashamed of the simple truth? For premies, ashrams were a place where they could live a life of dedication to the living lotu. A life of abstinence, poverty, chastity and obedience, in the service of the lord. That's what it was for premies. When will EV and M be honest and tell the truth, and have some respect for premies, for ex-premies and for our shared history? I just do not understand why they find it necessary to blatantly lie as they do.
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I was an ashram housefather in two different cities. The ashram residents turned over all their income to me, and every single month, without fail, I sent 10% of that income in the form of a check (cheque for you Brits), made out to Maharaji and mailed to a PO Box in Malibu, as directed by Elan Vital. Then, at every "festival" I took as much money as the ashram could spare, got cash, put it in an envelope, and dropped it into the bin in the darshan line. I then filed through the "tunnel of love," and kissed Prem Rawat's feet with thousands of others. That money also went to Maharaji, personally, and I recall conversations at Elan Vital when I worked there, that Rawat regularly got over a quarter million dollars given to him in such darshan lines. So, the ashrams were indeed great cash cows for Maharaji, until, of course, the ashram premies started to get older, needed medical care and the like, and were going to perhaps be more of a liability than a cash cow. At that point, Maharaji just closed the ashrams with no explanation whatsoever. The ashrams premies were stuck with any ashram debts. I know one ex-ashram premie who had to work for years to pay off her portion of the debt after the ashrams closed, in her case $20,000. Rawat even reportedly got very angry when he heard that when one ashram closed, each premie was given $100. He thought that was outrageous. You can find that little anecdote on the www.prem-rawat-maharaji.info website. And, in addition to all of that, the ashrams provided a pool of free, (shall we say "slave?" labor for Maharaji's personal needs, like residence servants, nannys and caretakers and tutors for his kids, and a small army of people to "recondition" a Boeing 707 aircraft done at his personal direction and for his personal use. And that was only part of it, the ashrams also sent 10% of our income to the local EV community, which in turn, sent 65% of that income to Elan Vital International. All of this, as well as going to festivals, was why the ashrams were often in debt, why ashram premies didn't get adequate medical or dental care, and why we often wore underwear with holes in it.
Modified by Joe at Wed, Jan 04, 2006, 12:21:58
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Our food budget was $10.00 a week per person. Recently someone said that I can make dirt taste good. This is where I learned to do that. I not only went around with holes in my underwear, I also had holes in my shoes. Karen
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The spin and dismissal of the ashram "gripes" as being from people who couldn't handle the transition away from Indian cultural trappings. Or in this instance, the spin of how out of M's beneficence ashrams were created to shelter premies from the drug culture of the '70s. How many times did M refer to ashrams as being the backbone of the community and a central part of his vision for exploiting, er, saving mankind? Cripes, I even remember attending an ashramee meeting with his lewdship in Kissimee whereby he put the voodoo kabosh on anyone entertaining thoughts of leaving . . . not unless you wanted to invite Mr. Mind to just walk right in and deliver you into eternal damnation. And who can forget the "break into a million pieces" satsang for ashrammers and initiators. Yes, he actually had meetings with the 'shram gang to keep 'em in but nary a peep from him regarding the closures. Nope, this was handled by the community coordinators as orders from above. No thanks and no debt relief. Someone like myself was fairly typical. Entered the asylum at age 20 left at age 30 with no real career prospects, socially inept and a real bad feeling about how this situation was being handled by our so-called caring, and loving master. Rawat expects his current team members to be responsible and accountable and yet these are the precisely the qualities that he is obviously sorely lacking. I told this story before on a previous forum and it is worth re-telling here. I attended the impromptu get-together on Tierra del l'amor in Argentina. This was the parcel of land he acquired north of Buenos Aires which was to Amaroo what the Boeing 707 project is to his current Gulfstream. A make-work slave labor camp that disappeared from his horizon quicker than you can say land flip. Anyway during one of his rambling outdoor discourses out in the blazing sun (while he sat comfortably shaded) he related the story of some former ashram resident in L.A. who actually had the temerity to complain to the great Maha about how the closures were handled. I sat there frying and sweating like a stuck pig as Rawat related how he felt like telling this ashram premie (who had probably also just pissed away 10 years of his life) to just stick his head in the toilet and flush it. The rest of this so-called festival was spent in a state of cognitive dissonance. A long and strange drip indeed. And I know, I know, the thoroughly modern pwks are snickering: whut, listen to those guys so stuck in the past, complaining about things so long ago, get a life. And yet for those of us willing to be unblinkered about what Rawat actually said and did instead of being numbed down and neutered in the face of all the revisionist blather . . . well, I do believe we have emerged not unscathed but a wee bit wiser about self-styled saviors and morons alike.
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Hi Dr. Wow, I sat there frying and sweating like a stuck pig as Rawat related how he felt like telling this ashram premie (who had probably also just pissed away 10 years of his life) to just stick his head in the toilet and flush it. Jesus Christ. That's old fashioned, cruel, mean, psychological mental and emotional abuse. I know, because one of my Dad's favorite sayings from early childhood was "I should have flushed you all down the toilet when you were born." Any reputable psychologist would have a field day with that one. Man. What a total loser Rawat is. He's so mean and cruel to people and they lap it up like it's nectar. Goes to show you what being in a cult is like.
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Hi Cynthia: Yeah, at that program I couldn't help but finally question the wisdom of the "master". That comment just cut way too close to be brushed aside as some lila. It spoke of an insularity and arrogance that pierced my premie hide.
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