Community, Courses, and Content. Or maybe he needs to have sex just to release energy so he can meditate better. His disciples believe he knows them better than they know themselves, and that if they want to achieve their spiritual goals they should do exactly as he says. At bottom, however, she believed her feelings didn't matter. Once there, Carolyn devoted herself to her yoga practices and threw herself into her assigned jobs. Carolyn had sought a consultation with Pandit Rajmani, who told her that Megan was either lying because she was "on an ego trip," or fantasizing a sexual encounter that had never taken place. Swami Rama called a meeting to defend himself. 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. Shortly after they returned to the U.S., Karen and George say that they and all their correspondents received a bizarre, defamatory letter containing an implicit death threat. The Institute also offers instruction to counselors and psychotherapists in the application of yoga and meditation techniques to therapy. 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. Ex-members say he has counseled patients in the Combined Therapy Program, although he lost is license to practice psychology in Minnesota in 1979. 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. The Institute's program is no longer accredited by the University of Scranton. Dr. Ballentine, who says he studied psychology at the Sorbonne and completed his training in psychiatry at Louisiana State University, defends Nuernberger. His response: "Listen, there are certain things which are based on witnesses-those are facts. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. To my relief, I could detect no flash of recognition, guilt, fear, or anger in Carolyn's eyes. But something, which is truth, cannot be falsified by having one hundred witnesses. Immerse yourself in a life-changing course of study and get certified in the authentic teachings of yoga and meditation. Even so, it was a blow to find out that she wasn't particularly special: Swami Rama apparently had other "spiritual courtesans." Join us for studies in the true meaning of yogaincluding asana, meditation, mantra, tantra, sacred scripture, and the art of joyful living. Within a sect the guru's authority is often absolute: he rules from the pinnacle of the institutional hierarchy. Swami Rama made Carolyn his appointments secretary in August also. First, Robert Tuttle of The Reason Files 2 is reporting the same thing I am hearing from multiple sources. Education Advocacy Carolyn is not alone. Residents staff the Institute's administration, bookstores, and other small businesses, including Himalayan Publishers and Distributors and an elementary school. Fortified by their mutual discovery, Karen says, the two couples undertook to inform their fellow students back home in Minneapolis. Given a mantra but little guidance, Carolyn dutifully performed her assigned practices, hoping that Swami Rama's "scientific" approach to yoga would eventually yield results. The women's fears have aborted projects intended to expose possible exploitation to a wider audience. University of California System Bans Fully Online Degrees. In the mythology of the ashram, the guru is the all-powerful, all-knowing father and the disciples are his spiritual children. In some states, a patient has the right to sue her doctor or psychotherapist for malpractice even if she originally consented to sex, because people under psychological or medical treatment are considered too vulnerable and dependent to give free and full consent. When Swami Rama returned from India two months later, Carolyn resumed working as his appointments secretary during the day, and, she says, as his sexual servant on some nights. 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. "If someone is a saint, celibacy would be his normal condition," Dr. Green comments. The Institute also offers a dizzying array of education programs, including a diploma program for hatha yoga teachers. Rose, they explain, was not a disciple of Swami Rama, but had been invited by family members in the Institute's administration to come to Honesdale for medical treatment. RFP & Business Plan for Dairy Processing Investor/Operator. Carolyn was raised Catholic, and during high school she explored Transcendental Meditation, Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, and the "Jesus freak" movement. Carolyn walked up to the cabin, she says, where after a brief minute spent leafing through her work, the guru asked her in a low voice for a meeting later that night. But after two unsatisfying years, she left college and returned to the Chicago area. HIT ranked 39 th under Best Hotel Management Colleges in All India by The Week 2022.; HIT ranked 23rd under Top Private Hotel Management Colleges in All India and 11 th in North Zone by The Week 2022.; HIT is ranked as one of the most preferred Hotel Management Colleges . In the spring of 1983, Swami Rama began to court her again, she says: He told her that she would help him prepare a book of sacred poetry he was writing, and he assured her repeatedly that he would take her to India the following autumn. He must see something special in me.'" * "Nirvana was up at his cabin, walking his dog at 5:30 in the morning, and Megan was with him day and night." As an enlightened being, he is thought to be beyond the judgment of ordinary mortals, their laws and morality. Rajmani explains the basic goals of the Institute's tradition of yoga: "The most important part of the practice is nonattachment." Since the early 1970s, women have been claiming sexual abuse at the hands of this prominent spiritual teacher. But one by one, Trescelli says, the women backed down and decided not to pursue legal action. Rather than being a saint, according to Green, Swami Rama is an advanced yogi and "a mortal with some ego problems.". Now Megan says that in a different atmosphere, she would have immediately recognized Swami Rama's behavior as sexual harassment or "sadistic manipulation." No one can expand his consciousness if he remains egotistical. 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. Most rapists threaten women with physical violence. A spiritual center should pay close to $1.9 million to a woman who says she was sexually assaulted 30 times by the center's leader, a jury decided on Thursday. His disciples generally agree that the only reason his soul still inhabits a physical body is because he wants to help others achieve liberation from maya, the realm of illusion. Many of those beliefs are based on Hindu and Buddhist teachings about the nature of the guru. 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. Mission Membership is an invitation to put your spiritual values into action by supporting our shared commitment to service while deepening your study and practice in the living Himalayan Tradition. She was dreamy! Still, she felt she had no right to question the guru's actions. She became outraged at the residents and the professional staff who enable and legitimized the Swami's behavior. Rose spent the next six months moving from place to place, terrified that the Institute network would track her down. She began talking about Swami Rama's exploitative behavior with anyone who would listen, especially women who she thought were being victimized. Those who build boundaries around themselves because of their ego problems create suffering for themselves." In March 1978, she says, Swami Rama came to Glenview and initiated her. In 1969, Pandit Arya met Swami Rama, who gave him "one of the highest meditation initiations," in which he experienced himself "as a being of light." Years later, Carolyn told me that four years of discipleship under Swami Rama had taught her to be a successful liar. She loved him like "a second father," she says, "and the real tragedy is that this is how our relationship ended. In the presence of others, we spoke only of positive or spiritual matters, in the deliberately modulated tones all the residents used. 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. 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. Early the next morning, she says, he announced to her that she was going to leave; he never set up the promised program. The original creator of the neti pot, the Himalayan Institute has been offering traditional and modern products for health and spirituality since 1971. He reportedly sat down on a chair next to her bed and proceeded to make sexual advances. 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. 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. Megan went through a brief but painful and confusing time during which she doubted her own feelings and perceptions. 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. How could she be the only one who realized what was going on? 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. He must also vow that he will not harm any living being. He backed off, Megan says, while telling her that sex wasn't necessary-she could be his special student. The core of HIs service mission relies on a community of volunteers and karma yogis, and the generosity of its members and donors to fulfill its mission. Shortly after they started studying with Pandit Usharbudh Arya at the Meditation Center in Minneapolis, he introduced them to his guru, Swami Rama. He would call her to his office for a private audience, and as she hung anxiously on his words he would paint a flattering picture of her future with the Institute. Swami Rama, she says, would extol his own sexual abilities but tell her she was bad at making love. Carolyn says she feigned shock and tried to mask her distress as Martha told about a woman at the Glenview center who was confused and distraught about her alleged sexual relationship with Swami Rama. The teachings contained in the sacred texts cannot play any meaningful part in judging who is a good guru and who is not: "How could they? Now Carolyn is more articulate: "When I finally start listening to myself, and I tell him I know he's sleeping with other women-and this is the man I came to, to help me learn how to listen to my inner voice, and then he tells me not to listen to it just as I'm starting to get some confidence in it-that's when I realized, this isn't yoga, this isn't truth, this is abuse.". 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