Guruphiliac: June 2006



Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Sri Sri To Conquer Sri Lanka

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Like the cock-of-the-rock he believes himself to be, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has been crowing to the press about how he is about to bring peace to Sri Lanka. Somebody better stick a pin in the man's head soon, because he's got so much ego inflation occurring there that what's left of his tiny brain is about to be shot out his ears:
Art of Living is about peace. We will train the youth, speak to them. They will become role models in removing misconceptions and prejudices among the people of Sri Lanka. I speak Tamil. The pride of Tamils has to be restored.
As usual, Sri Sri glosses over the complexities of the situation in favor of his facile stylings on morality:
The main reason for conflict in Sri Lanka is lack of communication between the two sides, a narrow understanding of issues - some basic mistrust and fear. In fact, there it is a lack of values...
So that little bitty issue of the wholesale slaughter of Tamil civilians by the Buddhist-dominated Sri Lankan army doesn't quite rate in Sri Sri's eyes. That's understandable. Such harsh realities don't play very well out of the mouth of the man who can solve all the world's problems by just making education fun again.

We imagine the Sri Lankan political machine and the Tamil Tigers both putting up with Sri Sri the same way they'd put up with the village idiot. Just smile at him while he's talking to you, but don't worry about paying attention to anything he's saying, because he never says anything worth listening to anyway (except to promote himself for the Nobel Peace Prize.)

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Ron Roth's "Q" To Wealth (His Own That Is)

File under: Satscams and Gurus Clockin' Dollars

Ron Roth was just another average New Age™ spiritual teacher until he met up with the Bhagavan Kalki. Flattered to within an inch of his life with a fusillade designed to inflate his spiritual ego, Roth has now proclaimed himself to be an "avatar of divine love" with the backing of those crooks at Oneness University. Change that to an avatard of psychotic grandiosity and you have a pretty good picture of where we feel Ron is coming from.

Lately, he's teamed up with a wealth-building shill named Annette Bau, creator of the "Millionaire Series." Together they have devised "The Power of Q's", a flim flam promoted as a "free" opportunity to ask Ron a question about those "Q's" (read: cues) in your life that can lead you to greater wealth, health, happiness, etc. You get to ask Ron your question for free, provided you queue up well in advance. But don'tcha know that if you arrive late – or just don't want to bother with arriving early – you can pre-purchase a recording of the event for only $9.97. That's half off the usual price of $19.97. There's a name for that kind of marketing where we come from. It's called a bait and switch.

Ron is taking deeksha down an even more blatantly acquisitive avenue than even the Kracki himself. We imagine the news of this advance in flimflamming percolating back up the chain of command to the head con man, resulting in orders to recruit "partners" who have authored get-rich-quick books to join the team of money-lusting satscammers already fleecing millions from dupes in both India and the U.S.

Ron Roth, Annette Bau and the Kracki are all counting on the ignorance of the masses for their next meal (and yacht, mansion, trip to Vegas, glorious monument to their ego, etc.), and with only our teeny voice among the clamor of the spiritually avaricious, we can't claim to have much hope there's really anything that can be done about it.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Sri Sri's Plan For Happy Kids

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Operating under the delusion that he is an impressive and inspirational public speaker, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar trots around the globe giving speeches at conferences while shilling himself as a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. But recently he brought it all home to his Art of Living center in Bangalore for a conference on education. And what is Sri Sri's solution to the complex problem of education in the modern world? Keep the kids happy:
'Aren't we making education so dry that children find it difficult to assimilate?' he queried, referring to increasing cases of suicides and dejection among school children. 'We should make education happier! We must ponder over this.'
Apparently, the problem has nothing to do with living in an increasingly complex society. We just aren't laughing enough:
'One says a child laughs about 400 times a day. By the time the child becomes an adolescent the number of times he or she laughs drops to just 17 times. And by the time adolescents become adult, they simply stop laughing.'
Besides being a crock of shit loaded with his characteristic hyperbole, the fact is that living in the world is sometimes serious business. But since folks throw money at Sri Sri like it was confetti, we imagine he's come away with a rather skewed point of view, allowing him (and those dumb enough to follow him) to believe that facile pronouncements like these are the highest wisdom on planet.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

TM™ Tries To Push Into Schools Again

File under: The Siddhi of PR

TM™ mongerers are once again mongering to get TM™ taught in secular schools, this time in Connecticut. Too bad it flies in the face of one of the few things left that makes this country great: the doctrine of the separation of church and state.

They may claim that they're a science rather than a religion, ad nauseum, but when they get described like this, it leaves little doubt about the true nature of the practice:
The practice is a set of Hindu meditation techniques introduced to the Western world by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The movement began in 1956 in India and is now worldwide, with more than 5 million followers. It became famous in the late 1960s, when celebrities like the Beatles, Mia Farrow and Donovan hung out in the Maharishi's ashram.
Fortunately, a local yoga instructor puts all the breathless mongering about TM™'s miraculous powers to heal body and mind into perspective:
She believed that any kind of meditation would have these benefits, not just TM™, which she called "just one particular brand name of meditation."
The old Madharishi is smart enough to know he has to reach the kids to get his Global Country for World Peace scheme off the ground. Too bad the wacky coot lacks the insight to see that it's just his runaway grandiosity – exacerbated by an encroaching senility – rather than his history-making turn as the savior of the world and bringer of the next Golden Age. He's going to have to get in line and knock over the Kracki, the Babaster and Big Adi Daddy first before he can lay claim to that title exclusively.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Prem Rawat's Wackadoo Critic

File under: The Siddhi of PR and Satscams

Peace profiteer Prem Rawat has a good number of detractors in the world, this despite his org's claims of thousands of satisfied customers. We were recently pointed toward yet another of his critics, one Henry See, although this may be a case of the cure being somewhat worse than the disease. Break out your tin foil hats for this one:
Our reality is embedded in a complex system of realities where we are not the ultimate of God's creations; we are not at the top of the food chain. Our reality is controlled by denizens of higher reality, and the forces at work in that reality are not all good. These are the wellspring of energy behind the evil shepherds referred to above.
This dude has a bad case of Theosophimania, the tendency to believe ridiculous fairy tales about so-called esoteric realities. That places him in the loony bin with the likes of Benjamin Creme, Ramtha and all the other New Age™ nincompoops trying to make a buck off the out-of-control imaginations of their easily duped followers.

So make sure you have a few pounds of salt on your desk when you read this critique of Rawat. The enemy of our enemy may be our friend, but that doesn't mean we're gonna invite the guy to a barbecue anytime soon.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Fundies Freak Out Over TM™ And Yoga

File under: The Siddhi of PR and Wackadoo Gurus

The fundies of Smith Center, Kansas are still whining to whoever will listen about the TM™ hordes who are about to invade their town. Their main beef is with the Madharishi's claim that TM™ is a science, not a religion. Not to worry... only TM™ folks actually believe such nonsense, anyway.

Seeing giant spiders in closets is a fundie tradition, and now the new bugaboo is yoga:
Dr. Larimore argued that because yoga has spiritual roots outside Christianity, the practice can be dangerous. He argued that “involvement with Eastern spiritual practices is known to cause psychological and emotional problems in some people.”
And becoming a rabidly fundamentalist Christian is a virtual guarantee of it.

Get used to it, folks. With so many expecting Jesus Christ to pop in at any second, there's no seeming end to the post-millenium millenialism. Anything not seen as sanctioned by that collection of fairy tales known as the Bible is gonna be bad, bad, bad for you. We're afraid it's going to be all downhill from here as ecumenicalism could one day die a horrible death at the end of a fundie's AR-15.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Guru Nibbles

File under: Satscams and Hands Where They Don't Belong

• "Enlightenment" harridan Nirmala Devi's Sahaha Yoga organization has won a court case against a Belgian government cult observatory for not being "objective" in its reporting. We guess the court hadn't caught wind of the myriad claims of misconduct against the nasty lady and her fascist yoga operation, not to mention the fact that what she claims to be self-realization is nothing more than a ruse designed to suck people into her orbit.

Sai Baba devotees in Fort Wayne, Indiana have turned up in the news there as "unsung" heroes. Too bad the reporter on the story failed to do his job and mention the U.S. State Department warning against their kid-diddling avatard leader:
U.S. citizens should be aware that there have been unconfirmed reports of inappropriate sexual behavior by a prominent local religious leader at an ashram or religious retreat located in Andhra Pradesh. Most of the reports indicate that the subjects of these approaches have been young male devotees, including a number of U.S. citizens.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Turbulence Persists At KS Peace Capital

File under: The Siddhi of PR

The good Christian folks of Smith Center, Kansas are still put off by the idea of being at ground-zero of the new peace era, in the new peace capital of the new peace world, where waves of "coherence" will bring peace to all mankind. This quaint yet completely unrealistic scenario is all the result of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's grandiose vision of ushering in the Golden Age, in direct competition with Kalki Bhagavan, Adi Da, Sai Baba and probably a 100,000 other wackjobs on this planet, although the old Madharishi seems to be pulling way out in front at this point.

The mayor of Smith Center is cool with it – smelling boom times just around the corner:
Boyum held out the possibility of an economic boost for the town: "Our intention is to funnel as much finances and work through the local community as we can. We all are consumers and will bring resources into the county."
What red-blooded American can argue with that? It's benevolent capitialism!

And TM™ has just been shown to cure heart disease!
The study found that patients who used TM™ had “improved blood pressure and insulin resistance components of the metabolic syndrome as well as cardiac autonomic nervous system tone compared with a control group receiving health education. These results suggest that TM™ may modulate the physiological response to stress and improve CHD risk factors, which may be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of CHD.”
What they don't want you to know is that any concentrative meditation practice would do the same exact thing. For this study, TM™ was put up against a "series of health lectures." What you won't ever see is TM™ put up against Vipassana, Zen practice or anything that could be called a relaxation technique. That's a race in which they know they can do no better than a tie.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Sri Sri Stakes Peace Prize On Sri Lanka

File under: The Siddhi of PR and Sri Sri's March on the Prize

Take one aggressive Hindu insurgency, add a former prime minister's plea for help, mix in a tenacious pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize and you have the makings of a potential PR miracle: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar could possibly bring peace to the ongoing ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

However, we suggest he tweak his message a bit before he embarks on the next of his perilous missions:
Our basic principle is that your action is based on the quality of your mind,' said the Swami. 'If your mind is irritated or angry, your actions will be like that. Our expertise is to help people handle their minds.
We don't imagine the committed revolutionaries of the Tamil Tigers taking kindly to that pabulum. It reduces the entire conflict to just some folks' bad moods rather than the struggle to improve conditions for a politically-marginalized ethnic group.

This is Sri Sri's big break, one that gives the appearance of being orchestrated by some bright political minds indeed. If he is able to bring about an agreement which holds, his chances to win the Peace Prize will skyrocket. Those chances are going up just in the anticipation of it, and a failure to secure the peace will not significantly hurt those chances. Whatever the outcome, Sri Sri will get propelled even further toward that wide avenue of global acclaim he believes awaits him.

At that point, his AoL organization will have to book two planes whenever Sri Sri flies, one for his body and support staff and one for his ginormous head. A developing story for sure.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Could The Babaster Be An Incest Baby?

File under: The Siddhi of PR and Hands Where They Don't Belong

Our compatriot Sai Baba Exposed thinks he may have uncovered the truth about the origin of the kid-diddling avatard, Sai Baba:
Kondama Raju's younger sister married Subba Raju, which makes the two of them brothers-in-law. The birth of Easwaramma as the offspring of Subba makes her Kondama Raju's niece. Her subsequent marriage to Pedda Venkama (Kondama's son) means that the two of them were cousins.
The Babaster's parents were kissing cousins. That would seem to explain a lot. We suspect the same research done on the genology of his devotees would turn up similar findings. It's the only reason we can come up with for why so people many fall so easily for his stupid con game.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Seer Of Kanchi Blurry To Some

File under: Gurus Doin' Time

A quaint quirk of the Indian news media is their tendency to give godmen the benefit of the doubt. The Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, is a kind of regional pope in South India who just happens to be under indictment for murder and assault. But you wouldn't know it reading this:
Kanchi seer Sri Jayendra Saraswathi honoured 113 musicians, harikatha exponents, Tamil scholars and Sanskrit students at the 113th Jayanthi celebration of Paramacharya Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi organised here by the Sri Kanchi Mahaswami Peetarohana Shatabdi Mahotsav Trust yesterday.
You can find this kind of soft-peddling whenever gurus are being covered by the papers in India. It reveals the power of the concept of guru as it is generally defined within Hinduism. This is the fallow field from which the fauxvatars enjoy their bountiful harvest. Apparently, the media in India don't want to mess with that yet.

That's ok. We'll keep doing it for them.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Kracki: At The Koca Plant Stage

FIle under: Satscams and Gurus Clockin' Dollars

Before he was refined into the high grade Krack(i) who now seduces millions into believing nonsense about enlightenment for the benefit of his own bank account, Vijayakumar was just a little koca plant teaching school in Andhra Pradesh, India. Then he and his buddy Sankar came up with their godman scheme, and the rest has been a history of the loss of spiritual understanding in sacrifice to name, fame and financial gain:
From now onwards Vijayakumar in collusion with his friend Sankar started to play his gimmicks to make himself ‘Kalki Bagwan’ the tenth avatar (incarnation) of Lord Vishnu in Kali Yug, the current era. The school was named ‘Jeevashram’. The blind belief of the Hindus as that of the Christians in Jesus Christ’s Second Coming was deftly handled by Vijayakumar & co to fool the gullible Indians both educated and uneducated. Vijayakumar attired in yellow robe covering his body and head. He called himself ‘Kalki Bagwan’ and started speaking mystically. Bewildered by his babblings and bewitched by his hypnotizing eyes behind a bushy moustache and beard, people began to throng round him begging for boons and gratification of their multi-faceted desires.
That quiet little con in the country turned into the international conspiracy of ignorance-for-a-fee flimflam that we find flogging the world today. God is just plain crazy, isn't She?

[Link via the excellent Sarlo's Guru Rating Service.]

Monday, June 12, 2006

Don't Call Him Guru: U.G. Krishnamurti

File under: Real True Gurus

Despite his best efforts to avoid the office, U.G. Krishnamurti is a real true anti- guru, and that's the best kind of guru there is. As far as we can tell, he is the absolute opposite of the Kracki in terms of his complete and utter denial of anything that the Kracki "teaches" about enlightenment. He is also the anti-Sri Sri in that he strenuously avoids any and all adulation... at every opportunity. This in the face of the fact that he is "the most talked about thinker in India, and his biography... has topped the best seller list for the last nine months." Sri Sri would dance in a tutu at the Taj Mahal on television for that kind of press.

We're feeling rather sheepish for not knowing more about the guy, because from what little we've just read, we should be hoisting his face on the home page as the patron saint of this blog, although he'd probably call us idiotic for doing so.

It's not that we haven't known about him at all. A mentor has been mentioning U.G. for years. But from what we can now tell, this dude is kryptonite to those occluding ideas which give this blog a reason to exist:
He claims that the reason people come to him and to gurus is to find solutions to ease their everyday real problems or for solutions to a fabricated problem, namely, the search for spirituality and enlightenment. He continues to say this drive is caused by the cultural environment, which demands conformity of individuals and places within them the desire to be special. Consequently, it is this need that is exploited by gurus, spiritual teachers, and sellers of "shoddy goods", who pretend to offer the way to reach that goal but never deliver and cannot since the goal is itself unreachable.
U.G. is now our new BFF... whether or not we ever speak a word to his face.

This is what brought our attention to him, and we're going to read this, this, this, this and this to find out more.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Kids, Throw That E Away, Kriya Will Save The Day!

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is in Goa, India, home of the hippy, happy beach rave, where he's naively telling folks there that kids will jump at the chance to breathe funny rather than have fun with drugs. He should remember that the next time he drinks bhang on Shivaratri.

Appealing to national pride, Sri Sri spoke of the "correctness" that India can bring to the world. As much as we love the mother of Vedanta and all that she has to offer, there's quite a bit about India that is far from correct, beginning with Sri Sri's grasping at name and fame wherever he goes... in addition to the blinding superstition, caste discrimination, anti-Muslim riots and the various other ethnic conflicts raging around that country.

Always the self-promoter, Sri Sri tells us that "only Indians can open the world's quality management institutes" just as he announced the opening of his own Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Foundation Management Training College in Goa, taking a page from both the Madharishi and the Kracki in his lust to establish yet another revenue stream.

We find it amusing that a guru who attempts to emulate Shiva is anti-drug and pro-business, the veritable opposite of where the Lord of Destruction is coming from. But that's the way the wind blows right now... and whichever way the wind blows, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is sure to go.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

No Peace At The Capital

File under: The Siddhi of PR

We already told you that the good Christian folks of Smith Center, Kansas, are not too happy about the Madharishi's TM™ers invading their turf. Now the story has been picked up by the Associated Press:
Folks became alarmed when the outsiders bought up large tracts of land. Nine local pastors warned the movement that it is encroaching on their spiritual turf. And when a TM™ representative started throwing around terms at a meeting like "waves of coherence" and "silent zero point," the farmers just shook their heads.
We are too. It's a monumental public relations blunder to show up in a Midwestern farm town speaking some gibberish only they and their mad leader can understand. The only reason they're in Jesus country anyway is because the Madharishi insists that his World Capital of Peace can only be built on the geographical center of the United States. In other words, the local fundamentalist Christian community is and will continue to bear the brunt of the TM™ leader's obsessive-compulsive disorder.

But since we're anything-goes when it comes to God, we've got to side with the TM™ers on this one. They are a religion – a fact they are always trying to deny – but they're a relatively harmless one, especially when you put 'em up next to the fundies. We don't think the old coot's mad peace plan is going get any traction, but we take the dust of his feet for putting it out there and in the face of those who would drag us back to the Dark Ages if they could.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Babaster Spawn Swim On

File under: Hands Where They Don't Belong and The Siddhi of PR

We happened upon this side-project of our compatriot Sai Baba Exposed the other day. It lists the various gurus competing for a slice of the godman-obsessed simpletons' pie by their association with and/or emulation of the inimitable Sai Baba, the boy-diddling godman extraordinaire.

Rumor has it he's coming to the States this summer, but there may be the little bitty issue of the U.S. State Department advisory against the manfruit-loving guru:
U.S. citizens should be aware that there have been unconfirmed reports of inappropriate sexual behavior by a prominent local religious leader at an ashram or religious retreat located in Andhra Pradesh. Most of the reports indicate that the subjects of these approaches have been young male devotees, including a number of U.S. citizens.
It's likely he may be denied a visa, which is just fine with us. We're not sure the North American continent can stand the weight of three holy avatars at the same time (Ammachi and Mother Meera being the other two.)

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Chopra Steps Up To Madharishi And Kracki

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Deepak Chopra is throwing his hat into the ring with the other world saviors, ready to take on the Global Country for World Peace and the Oneness Movement with his Alliance for a New Humanity. We really can't blame him for eyeing a bigger slice of the pie after seeing how much play (and pay) the Kracki gets lately.

The refreshing thing about Chopra's approach is that he's basically taking Gandhism global rather than proclaim himself some kind of divine savior with the exclusive on the Golden Age™, like Kracki and the Madharishi. Not that he isn't working it for his own gain as they do, but at least he's not obsessing over minutiae like the geographic centers of the continents or flooding spiritual culture with ludicrous and insane ideas about self-realization and enlightenment.

We probably should read Chopra's new book, but we won't. But we will keep an eye open for any signs of static between the AfaNH, the GCfWP and the OM as they each attempt to bring us all to a state of oneness... of one kind or another.

Monday, June 05, 2006

AUMost At The End Of The Rope

File under: Gurus Doin' Time

There's little time left for AUM guru Shoko Asahara, said to be "the worst criminal in the history of Japan," as her people demand to be delivered from the continuing horror of his existence. Straight out of the plot of a James Bond movie, he's Adolf Osama Bin-Manson to those affected by his terrorist villainy, which included forced druggings, commonplace murder and those terrible attacks on the Toyko subway, meant to foster the apocalypse and catapult Asahara into power as the supreme ruler of Japan.

Instead, he's about to come to the end of his rope... where there's a noose waiting. There's not much his defense lawyers can do after Asahara's jackadoo gambit failed, leaving almost no hope for the daughters who still grieve for him despite the fact that his notoriety has made their lives a living hell.

And to add the final insult, the community whose members stuck with him though it all is splitting to follow a new, living leader. It's a fitting exodus as the sun finally sets on the life and legacy of one of the most horrible gurus ever to curse the face of our planet.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Kalki Debunkavan

File under: Satscams

Have you seen the new "OM" site? Pretty clever: Oneness Movement. Hard to assail on the name alone. Too bad it's the equivalent of a large city's annual sewage output worth of occluding, ridiculous nonsense about enlightenment.

One of the Kracki's Western pushers, Kiara Windrider, sums it all up for us:
In a nutshell, Sri Bhagavan teaches that:

•There is only one Mind – the Ancient Mind. It is conditioned by separation and duality.
•Your mind is not your mind, but an extension of this Ancient Mind.
•Similarly, your thoughts are not your own thoughts, but downloaded from the ‘thoughtsphere’ associated with this Ancient Mind.
The contents of the mind are shaped by our conditioning and the conditions we encounter in life. They aren't our thoughts at all, ever. But these thoughts are produced by the neurobiological activity of what we call our brain, so in that sense they are our thoughts rather than that of an imagined "Ancient Mind," which seems like a convenient excuse to get folks into a dissociative state and thus make them more permeable to the flood of nonsense about "oneness," "enlightenment" and the Kracki's powers of spiritual transformation.
•The sense of a separate self is generated by the neurobiological structure of the human brain.
•This ‘self’, in experiencing itself as separate, generates cravings, aversions, comparisons and judgments, which are the core of suffering.
•When the self disappears, suffering ends. When cravings drop away, including the craving for enlightenment, you are enlightened.
That explains all the "success" they claim they're having. Push someone to believe they've lost all craving as the result of deeksha... and bingo! Another "enlightened" Krack(i)head has been minted.

We'll be fair and give the Kracki that the ahamkara is neurobiologically generated and that suffering depends on the idea of there being a sufferer. But self-realization does not obliterate the sense of being a person in the world. That's an outgrowth of evolution, not delusion. In order to keep going, it helps to know there are things that might eat you so you can watch out for them. Self-realization shows us that's not who we are, but that doesn't stop that sense of being an "us" from continuing.

Note that "comparisions and judgements" are on the list of delusions mentioned above. That's perfect cover for a Kracki pusher. There is nothing to question or doubt! That's just your suffering doing the talking. You don't want to be your suffering, do you?
•When the ‘deeksha’ is given, a neurobiological process begins, which leads to the dissolution of the sense of a separate, or fixed, self.
Any "neurobiological process" is entirely self-generated by way of the placebo effect, in its incarnation as faith healing. These claims have already been debunked on these pages. But it does provide a scent of authenticity as a transformational practice, despite the fact you don't have to do a damn thing except pay them to lay their hands on your head.
•When the fixed self disappears, you experience yourself as simply a dance of personalities continually arising and passing away.
This is dangerous nonsense and seems to be proof that the Kracki attempts to foster a dissociative state in his devotees and then tell them it's enlightenment. What he is describing here is much closer to abject psychosis.
•Your body is not your body. When the self disappears, your sense of ownership of the body disappears, and you experience it as a vehicle for the divine dance of consciousness. Eventually, all creation becomes your body.
More ludicrous nonsense designed to foster an "enlightenment" that is nothing more than a psychopathology.
•The mind, based in duality, cannot be enlightened.
•The self, which is an illusion, cannot be enlightened. The self is only a concept.
•Enlightenment is the realization that there is no self to become enlightened!
Enlightenment is the result of a life lived in self-realization. It's a process more than a discreet condition. Self-realization could be described as a condition, but that condition has nothing at all to do with anything experienced, including the ridiculous claims of billions of orgasms, visiting lokas, etc.

In short, the Kracki's crap about enlightenment appears to be nothing more than an attempt to replace his devotees' personalities by fostering a dissociative state and then dropping in his ideas about being enlightened and what that means. It's a mind control play, folks, whether or not anyone involved is able to admit that to themselves.

The Oneness Movement is the single worst source point of occluding ideas about self-realization in existence, and it does more to preserve ignorance about the nature of reality than every red light district around the world combined. It's a hulking monster of delusion made up to look sweet and helpful. God help the Kracki and those who fall for his nonsense. May they see through the manipulation and come to recognize that their own truth is a diamond, stuck for a moment in the dung that is the teachings of the Kalki Bhagavan.

Guru Critique Under Attack!

File under: The Siddhi of PR

It appears there's some wacki-folks attempting to whitewash the Wikipedia of guru criticism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru

There are attempts to remove Sarlo's website from the external link section in Wikipedia. Please let the Wikipedia editors know what you think about that at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Guru#Removal_of_critical_websites

Press the edit button

Also there are many attempts to move or to reduce criticism and assessment of gurus. Please let the Wikipedia editors know what you think about that at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Guru

Press on the edit button.
Thanks to Andries K.D. for bringing this to our attention. Now go let those lamers know you want the contrast afforded by both sides of the story rather than just being force-fed the hagiographic nonsense that passes as reliable information for some men and all sheep about the lives of gurus.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Ramdev Rachets Up His Rancor

File under: The Siddhi of PR and Gurus Clockin' Dollars

Yesterday Swami Ramdev roared with his trademark rancor at his imagined enemies, the multinational drug companies and the more rational among Indian politicos, who he claims are belittling his brand of ayurvedic medicine. You know, the kind that comes complete with powdered human skull and dog testicles.

We suspect this may have something to do with the fact that he got an innocent kid arrested – a kid he allowed on his own private helicopter – for being a terrorist a few days back. Rather than admit the mistake and thus reveal his own paranoia and/or perhaps resentment at having to field some tough questions from the kid, Ramdev just goes on another offensive to deflect the attention away from this latest imbroglio.

Like most bigtime gurus and politicians in India, Ramdev taps into the mythologically-inclined Hindu right as a way to cloak his own insufficiencies and that of his "medicines." It's always someone else's fault, for he's just a pure, innocent yogi, one who just happens to be fleecing millions with his repackaging of India's traditional medical arts for his own fame and profit.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Update: Rancorous Ravdev's Security Scare

File under: Gurus Clockin' Dollars and The Siddhi of PR

A 21-year-old man named Gaurav was arrested after he managed to get on board a helicopter carrying famous Indian tele-guru Swami Ramdev. Ramdev's people and Indian political officials are at a loss to explain exactly how the guy got on the flight in the first place, but they suddenly decided he was acting suspiciously and so they had him canned by the cops.

There is still a bit of confusion as to what exactly had happened and what the kid wanted to do. His mom says he's a harmless journalist with a few local papers who was given access to Ramdev by his people, yet the owner of one of those papers says he never worked there. Since Gaurav has apparently given the police conflicting stories, folks are concluding he was a militant terrorist on a mission to slaughter the Swami.

That's all sounding like a bit of a smokescreen to us. Since the kid managed to snag a helicopter ride with the rancorous guru, we believe it's likely he was invited. It could be that once the flight was underway, Gaurav may have started asking the hard questions. Or perhaps Ramdev made some kind of unwanted advance that was rejected by the kid. The dilemma posed by either scenario could have been mitigated by simply crying wolf and calling the guy a terrorist. With the media and politicians falling all over themselves to curry favor with the popular TV personality, it would have been quite easy to spin the spunky reporter as a deadly assassin bent on mayhem instead of a smart kid with balls and a desire to expose a name and fame-seeking and money-collecting Swami.

Update: It turns out Gaurev's mom was right. It makes one wonder what the poor kid said to get Ramdev and his powerful friends so pissed off, since they obviously felt comfortable enough to allow him on the helicopter... until they got into the air, that is. We may never know what the problem was or who was more offensive, but Ramdev got to play the almost-martyred in the press for a few days, so at least he comes out ahead in all this.

Sri Sri's Supreme In SA

File under: Sri Sri's March on the Prize and The Siddhi of PR

Sri Sri in Cape Town, South Africa last week. We can't decide if the slogan is more racist than our seeing it that way. Africa may need a lot of things, but a hyper-ambitious Peace Prize chaser is not one of them.