Ammachi Goongate: Mommy Hates Green Avenue
File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet and Ammachi's Goongate
It's been just about 3 months since people who live in Ammachi's New Delhi ashram put a major beatdown on the residents of the Green Avenue neighborhood next door. Other than a couple of half-assed letters from a "concerned" devotee, absolutely nothing has been done while the ashramites continue to break the law by maintaining an illegal sign. Since the local police seem to be in Mommy's back pocket (perhaps with their hands in Mommy's purse), they've been 100% ineffectual at bringing any justice or closure to the situation.
While her Kool-Aid numbed devotees here in the States can't believe it's true, the Green Avenue folks were lucky to escape with their lives. That's how Amma's love seems to work in India. If you can't get with her, you are going to get your ass beat to a pulp if you get in her way.
In the interest of keeping information about this horrible manifestation of cult violence out in the open, here is a brief chronology of exactly went down when Ammachi's love was delivered with canes and crowbars:
1. Ashramites put up the original sign for Amma's visit on March 23 - 24, 2007. This was in violation of the local sign covenant, yet the Green Avenue residents decided to allow the ashramites to display the sign for the duration of the visit.Ammachi's head-jammed-in-the-sand strategy reminds us of a 3-year-old with her fingers stuck in her ears, saying, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, I can't hear you". Or perhaps she has simply lost control of her organization altogether.
2. Amma's visit ends on March 30, 2007.
3. Green Ave. makes first contact with Amma's ashram about taking the sign down.
4. On April 2, 2007, an association staffer was sent to the ashram to request them to remove the board. He volunteered to bring it down himself and deliver it to the ashram. Rasamrita, the lady in charge, rudely turned him away. He was warned of dire consequences if anyone dared touch the board because Amma was revisiting Delhi next week. When Green Avenue confirmed from their ashram contacts that Amma "returning next week" was a lie, the association decided to remove the board themselves.
5. The Green Ave. association sends a message to the ashram by the association president, Mr. Romesh Bhandari, explaining that there are a couple of schools, 2 Indian temples, a church, as well as 5 ambassadors living down the road, each wanting to put up their direction boards. None of these had been allowed, making it clear to the ashram that they were in violation of the same rules and that they should abide as the other parties had done.
6. On April, 19, 2007, at about 8 PM, at least 20 men and women had accumulated at the street corner along with some workers. They insisted upon putting up a fresh sign and were about to get violent when they were stopped. This led to a retreat by the Green Avenue staffers.
7. Green Ave. resident Ashwani Khurana went to get the board removed early the next morning along with another resident and some staff when the vicious, premeditated attack occurred.
8. When police refused to act against the violators, Green Ave. decided to organize a peaceful protest on April, 29, 2007. Over 500 people attended and it was widely covered by the top TV channels, newspapers and Society magazine among others.
9. On May 30, 2007, the controversial sign, now with the red scarves tied on it to whip the Amma ashramites into a violent frenzy, was discreetly removed.
10. A new sign was fixed 2 days later under police protection, still in violation of the local law. Ironically, as per court orders, the police are supposed to enforce the law and ensure no illegal boards are put up.
11. There has been no official response or even the slightest bit of recognition from Amma's home office in Kerala or the screeching harridan who runs her ashram in New Delhi.
Whatever the reason, it seems to prove that Mommy's love is thinly-disguised hatred in New Delhi. If you don't fall in line with the wishes of her org – as illegal as they may be – you better learn to bob and weave, because you may find yourself having to avoid the flying iron and wood being wielded by a bus-load of Amma's goons.
posted by guruphiliac @ 2:14 PM
16 Comments:
That's the way it goes around Amma, and that's the way it's gone since the very beginning when she first started her Devi show and people who "got in the way" (probably including her own brother) were quietly offed, killed or "mysteriously" disappeared. Look at the Sreeni Pattathanam case. Same thing. Don't talk shit about our Mommy or we will smack you down. Unfortunately it will continue on this way. All of the major Western news networks and newspapers will continue to report on the hugging saint and her humanitarian works, her life changing hugs etc. etc. and everyone who knows the truth of the stinking underbelly will be relegated to small chat groups and websites like this where it ultimately makes no difference at all in reaching the general public who need to hear these things. People will continue to flock to her in droves. She will maintain her image. Many minds, lives and sincere spiritual seekers will be stunted or destroyed in the process. There are billions of dollars invested in maintaining all of this, and likely no amount of muckraking will change it. It's the very sad truth.
I've observed that many blissaholics just don't pay any attention to reality. To them that is the definition of enlightenment. They avoid all responsibility, for anything negative . Watching Amma in videos, it looks as if she is just out there all the time. Do you want this person in charge of your soul?
Yomomma wrote concerning guru devotees:
"I've observed that many blissaholics just don't pay any attention to reality. To them that is the definition of enlightenment. They avoid all responsibility, for anything negative."
Its no different than for persons heavily addicted to crack or speed or heroin.
All that matters is getting high. The damage done to your friendships, the people whom you ignore or rip off in order to get money for that next packet of bliss-powder--they dont exist.
To active addicts, people who dont value getting high are written off as nerds and killjoys.
If you get people hooked on bliss by selling them bags of smack,crank,or Tina/crystal, you're liable to go to jail==that's considered illegal.
Get people hooked on bliss that's generated through social engineering and religious trappings, and you get rich.
But whether its generated by street dope or guru behavior, its still addiction.
The tip off is the utter ruthless indifference to the harm done to others--one's personal bliss is all that matters.
So what if others are beaten up or ripped off?
Your personal guru-high is all that matters.
That's not enlightenment. Its selfish heedlessness.
At least dope addicts are up front about what they're doing. In my neighborhood, the panhandlers have signs that straight out say 'I want beer'.
That's more honest than the guru racket.
It is very disheartening to see a person spending there time making vastly uninformed statements that simply attempt to take away from the undeniably massive amounts of good that have been created from Amma's organization.
To say that you err on the side of the 'dramatic' would be putting it quite mildly. To be clear here, your article is in reference to A SIGN. Please, is that the best you can do? And to go on and say that 'they are lucky they escaped with there lives', are you serious?
Anyone with half a brain will be able to think for themselves and do the real research. I am an executive professional living in the United States & I have witnessed and been blown away by the numerous amounts of charitable outpouring that all of Amma's organizations have offered.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for ones entitlement to opinion, but before we start red flagging guru's as delivers of kool-aid and false promises perhaps proper research is the more prudent source of valor, rather than leading your own sheep (those reading this blog) to believe that your outlandish opinions are true.
I am appalled and disheartened that you would take the time and effort to try to suck out the beauty and phenomenal unending selfless service that Amma has always offered to the world.
Perhaps rather than being sucked into a story about a sign being posted illegally, you should go and visit the hundreds of thousands of homeless and destitute living in India who now have homes and a future thanks to Amma.
Here’s to the hopes that your blog may find a future rooted in truth and integrity.
Ashley
ashleyelisabeth108@yahoo.com
To be clear here, your article is in reference to A SIGN.
No Ashley.
To be clear here, the post is in reference to a wanton act of organized group violence, perpetrated by Ammachi's ashram at the behest of the ashram's leadership.
Ammachi's ashram manager ordered up 50 violent men to attack the Green Avenue residents. That's what we are talking about.
Ashley said...Anyone with half a brain will be able to think for themselves and do the real research. I am an executive professional living in the United States...
..............
This Ashley sounds awful smart! Maybe she just hasn't seen middle aged women talkin to their Amma dolls or maybe it's her Amma doll who told her to comment here! Since she's an "executive professional" maybe there ought to be an "Ashley doll" that we can get told of and pray to!
you should go and visit the hundreds of thousands of homeless and destitute living in India who now have homes and a future thanks to Amma.
I'll be really impressed by Amma when she can get the rich in India to help their own people rather than siphoning off millions from the US--- and when she doesn't take any credit for it and stops pretending to be God Almighty.
I dont respect beauty when it is used to distract from thuggish behavior and police inaction.
In such a case, beauty is not longer beauty. Its applying cosmetics to cover a sickly complexion.
Here's my idea of spiritual beauty.
Gopi Krishna, an Indian civil servant, married and lived as a householder with his wife and children. He was a dedicated practitioner of yoga.
In his autobiography, Living With Kundalini, GP experienced a very intense surge of energy during his yoga practice that widened his perceptions, but disrupted his health for many years. He survived thanks to the dedicated home nursing he received from his wife and children.
Krishna stabilized his health, and became more and more aware of how Indian famlies were suffering because they had to pay for expensive weddings and dowries.
Gopi Krishna came to feel that this ancient custom of expensive weddings and dowries was cruel and oppressive. This was all the more painful for him, because he admitted how much he had once enjoyed participating in such lavish weddings. But he was newly sensitized the the human and economic burden of these celebrations when they were made too expensive for most families to sustain.
So for the rest of their lives, Gopi and his wife created a social movement to try to persuade people to celebrate weddings that were cheerful but affordable and to abandon the custom of demanding dowries. Gopi and his wife also sheltered women who ran away from brutal marriages.
I would like to see gurus like Amma use their spiritual authority to combat bride killing, excessively expensive weddings and end the dowry system in India.
Its not wrong to have a nice wedding--but it should not lead to debt bondage.
That would be a real breakthrough of Divine Love.
Note: Gopi Krishna's book is worth reading for another reason. In it, he described how word got around that he'd had some sort of breakthrough in his yoga practice.
People lined up at his house, trying to turn him into their guru.
Gopi and his family were poor and he could easily have exploited this and made himself a rich man.
Instead, he refused to become anyone's guru. He listened to people's woes, wept with them, but he refused to be anything other than an average fellow whom one could visit and confide in.
Gopi refused to be a guru because his own father had impovrished the family by supporting legions of gurus and mendicants. Gopi's mother was the one who kept the family on track, and her son never forgot it--which is why he wanted to see women get a fair break and not be broken by the Indian wedding and dowry system.
Here's my idea of spiritual beauty.
Gopi Krishna, an Indian civil servant, married and lived as a householder with his wife and children. He was a dedicated practitioner of yoga.
In his autobiography, Living With Kundalini, GP experienced a very intense surge of energy during his yoga practice that widened his perceptions, but disrupted his health for many years. He survived thanks to the dedicated home nursing he received from his wife and children.
Krishna stabilized his health, and became more and more aware of how Indian famlies were suffering because they had to pay for expensive weddings and dowries.
Gopi Krishna came to feel that this ancient custom of expensive weddings and dowries was cruel and oppressive. This was all the more painful for him, because he admitted how much he had once enjoyed participating in such lavish weddings. But he was newly sensitized the the human and economic burden of these celebrations when they were made too expensive for most families to sustain.
So for the rest of their lives, Gopi and his wife created a social movement to try to persuade people to celebrate weddings that were cheerful but affordable and to abandon the custom of demanding dowries. Gopi and his wife also sheltered women who ran away from brutal marriages.
I would like to see gurus like Amma use their spiritual authority to combat bride killing, excessively expensive weddings and end the dowry system in India.
Its not wrong to have a nice wedding--but it should not lead to debt bondage.
That would be a real breakthrough of Divine Love.
Note: Gopi Krishna's book is worth reading for another reason. In it, he described how word got around that he'd had some sort of breakthrough in his yoga practice.
People lined up at his house, trying to turn him into their guru.
Gopi and his family were poor and he could easily have exploited this and made himself a rich man.
Instead, he refused to become anyone's guru. He listened to people's woes, wept with them, but he refused to be anything other than an average fellow whom one could visit and confide in.
Gopi refused to be a guru because his own father had impovrished the family by supporting legions of gurus and mendicants. Gopi's mother was the one who kept the family on track, and her son never forgot it--which is why he wanted to see women get a fair break and not be broken by the Indian wedding and dowry system.
I'll be buying the book. Thank you for this heartfelt commentary.
The world needs to know about those who are humble, loving, awake, and never loose their humanity, just a fellow human being sharing the walk on this planet. How beautiful is that!
I also know a few, so I know it IS possible. They, too, have never and I believe never will, allow anyone to think of them as anything but an equal human being, as they see others.
I look forward to reading the book, thanks for sharing.
Gopi Krishna was born early in this century and died in 1988.
His book, Living With Kundalini, was printed by Shambhala and should still be in print.
The entire book is very rich in descriptions of life in old India, and deserves to be read for that reason alone.
What is interesting are descriptions of how Krishna's father and at least one friend incurred severe harm by excessive and strenuous practice of unbalanced yoga and other meditation techniques.
Gopi described his own wedding and said that Indian brides are put through such strenuous obligations, and are under heavy, unforgiving scrutiny throughout the lenghty ceremony. Krishna said that if Indian men had to go through this same ordeal, probably none of them would willingly marry.
Krishna described how scared, shattered and exhausted his young bride was when the ceremonies finished and the young couple were finally alone together on thier wedding night.
This was the woman who saved Gopi Krishna's life when, years later, she diligently nursed him and fed him during the time his health was wrecked by his yoga induced energy surge.
The book is most interesting because Gopi loved his Hindu tradition, but gave many examples of how people, including his own father, were harmed by using traditional spiriutal practices in ways that were unbalanced.
Gopi himself said that he knew he wanted to be a yogi, but decided to do it as a family man. He disliked the traditional option of becoming a sadhu, because Gopi felt that so long as he was healthy and capable of employement, no one else should be forced to take care of his physical needs.
Gopi Krishna was born early in this century and died in 1988.
His book, Living With Kundalini, was printed by Shambhala and should still be in print.
The entire book is very rich in descriptions of life in old India, and deserves to be read for that reason alone.
What is interesting are descriptions of how Krishna's father and at least one friend incurred severe harm by excessive and strenuous practice of unbalanced yoga and other meditation techniques.
Gopi described his own wedding and said that Indian brides are put through such strenuous obligations, and are under heavy, unforgiving scrutiny throughout the lenghty ceremony. Krishna said that if Indian men had to go through this same ordeal, probably none of them would willingly marry.
Krishna described how scared, shattered and exhausted his young bride was when the ceremonies finished and the young couple were finally alone together on thier wedding night.
This was the woman who saved Gopi Krishna's life when, years later, she diligently nursed him and fed him during the time his health was wrecked by his yoga induced energy surge.
The book is most interesting because Gopi loved his Hindu tradition, but gave many examples of how people, including his own father, were harmed by using traditional spiriutal practices in ways that were unbalanced.
Gopi himself said that he knew he wanted to be a yogi, but decided to do it as a family man. He disliked the traditional option of becoming a sadhu, because Gopi felt that so long as he was healthy and capable of employement, no one else should be forced to take care of his physical needs.
7/30/2007 8:27 AM
All the more reason to read the book. I am very appreciative of you taking your time to share what you have.
For anyone who may be suffering from any form of consequences to "unbalanced" kundalini, due to practices, you are not alone. The spectrum of ailments which can hit people ranges quite a bit.
Some have had to go onto some pretty good Western medical medications to stop the kriyas (unwanted movements and other side effects, continuous loss of sleep, etc.)
The West, for the most part, did not know about these things, when these people started to arrive here. The consequences of involvement can be "many"; some pay a "huge" price, in many ways for being a follower.
I will be ordering the book this week.
This man is a light to the world. His work and words obviously continue to give and light the way to awaken people all over the world, not just in India.
yomamma said...
I've observed that many blissaholics just don't pay any attention to reality.
When I first went to an Amma program, one thing that struck me was that when Amma herself (not to mention her followers) would talk about "God" or similar topics, their eyes would at least subtly roll upwards. That bugged me from the get go. Why the hell you looking at the ceiling?? I'm down here at eye-level!
Stuart
http://home.comcast.net/~sresnick2/socalled.htm
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
There are many perspectives posed here as there will be around any Guru.
First of all for those expressing about the intense yoga practices and their detrimental effects. Ammachi herself also comments on how these practices can be perverted if not done properly and without bhakti. She does not require this. She expresses just having that bhakti alone is enough of a practice.
She expresses the need that we care our health and be in the world engaging in activities that are benifitting others, selfless service while being blissful and not just escaping by oneself, " mingle, don't be single" is one such expression she shares to her children. She also states it is very important to be exactly where u r in life and not to run away from ur situation as u have everything u need and as growth and god is there in your life presently, it is important
to bring more love compassion And awareness in life.
As far as devotees are concerned there are many from many walks of life and at different stages of their spiritual progress. A master should not be judged by what their devotees are like as the lightest of the light and the darkest of the dark are attracted to the guru to be purified, it is a process and each are working out their samscaras. And it is not for the master to interfere always. They have the power to stop war by will but that would be wrongly interfering with nature and free will and growth of others. Of course when one surrenders she can work through them and make them more conscious and she too scolds those near who have gone astray from this but she cannot interfere. It is sad like with many masters we judge them because of off devotees. Many masters in this time actually suffer because of their devotees but it is their love that keeps on giving with an open heart. It happens to every master but esp in kali yuga, more ignorance is there, with sai baba, osho even buddha, these masters attracted many who even partook in their suffering and who went against them. It is because of a masters surrender and union with divine that these things even death they take and do not fight, constantly sacrificing for our growth.
As far as work is concerned Amma is in the world and works more than any guru, she does not keep anything for herself except simple dress and place to rest, all her staff work also often forgoing sleep to continuously serve others. Amma herself participates in physical work but her biggest is spiritual, being present and hearing others woes and offering resolve and solace through her words and actions and presence, that is what a therapist does but a therapist makes more, shares to less people works for less hours and spends on all their selfish desires. Amma is like a thousand therapists and that is only one of many hats she wears in the day. She also provides education, food, clothes, shelter, work, healthcare solace for millions and many who help her do it volunteer so that those less fortunate can to be supported and the money filters back into these things, relief work for many countires such as haiti and japan are included.
If one can say they are doing this much can they say they are doing this much, maybe they should try it to see how difficult it is. Even on a small scale. And get so many people helping with so many personalities to do it with love and joy and harmoniously. And to inspire so much love and gratitude all over the world... She must be doing something right eh?
She one of the only masters immersed in the world embraced and accessable to millions, more than any other master she has reached out to soothe not only spiritually but comfort physically through her body not much more in the world u can get than that she is real, not alone in some mountain cave. And because of this her body suffers much, but her love ever flows tirelessly unaffected she continues and will til her last breath.
Though Amma herself is celebate she does not expect this of her debotees in fact she embraces more than any many other master the differences in desire and loves each person equally despite their vasana's
Sounds like all you critics just need a hug:)
T
Sounds like all you critics just need a hug:)
Like it or not, and despite all the love mythology that has constellated around her, Ammachi is a close equivalent to Pat Robertson in the U.S. Much of her support in India comes from the BJP, who are like the Tea Party here, and the RSS, whose equivalent is the KKK in the States.
While she's got great PR and a hard-to-assail shtick, the fact is that the idea of her being an incarnation of God is all that is required for those "effects" to manifest. Folks make their own "miracles" in her presence because they believe, not because she has any power of her own.
I'll give her credit for helping Kerala through the tsunami, but that was also very self-serving for her business. That's pretty much all she is, a businesswoman who is in the God business.
"That's pretty much all she is, a businesswoman who is in the God business."
Well, I'd like to see another businesswoman (or man) capable of staying sit for more than 20 hours/4 days a week at least and listening to thousand of people's own misery with the same attention for each and everyone of them. And by this having no personal life, destroying her/his own body and of course no time to spend any money. I'm not talking about performance but about patience.
I'm waiting for any other name Lol.
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