Gurumayi Sticks Her Hand Out
File under: Gurubusting and The Siddhi of PR
She was the Queen of the shakti-infused peacock feather, one whose loyal subjects could always be counted on to turn their pockets inside-out to inch up to whatever next level of "consciousness" their org was putting on the end of the stick stuck in front of them that week.
Well, not any more:
Everybody on the mailing list just got a request for money to celebrate gurupurnima. The guru, Gurumayi, hasn't shown her face for 5 years! She is a total phony. Thousands of dollars were collected years ago to build a temple in Oakland which has never been built. Ashrams all over the world have closed. Siddha yoga has been dying for a long time.Not as long as there's shopping to be done!
Dear Siddha Yogi,Sounds like Gurumayi is gunning for a run at some new couture. New York Fashion Week is coming up, people. Mama needs a new Prada handbag, so y'all better get cracking!
On this auspicious holiday of Gurupurnima (July 17th), with great enthusiasm, I invite you to join me in celebrating the Guru's grace by making a special offering of dakshina. During Gurupurnima, I reflect on the transformation that the Siddha Yoga teachings, the Siddha Yoga path, and the grace of the Siddha Yoga Guru have brought in my life; for all this I experience profound gratitude.
Happy Gurupurnima.
With love,
Swami Ishwarananda
Siddha Yoga Meditation Teacher
SYDA Foundation
Labels: Gurubusting, The Siddhi of PR
posted by guruphiliac @ 9:04 AM
74 Comments:
Yeah, this is a big joke. I got one of these e-mails and was shocked at how blatant it was - right up front asking for $$. The only reason I'm on their mailing list is to see what's going on nowadays. What does Guru Purnima have to do with giving a donation? I hope people wake up and let Guru Mayi fend for herself.
Gurumayi has more money stashed away in her accounts than MOST working folks here in the USA! Asking for donation w/o showing her face for 5 years? She is so greedy that she has no shame. Where is she hiding anyway?
If she indeed wants to play guru, at least she needs to show her face and speak to her followers.
I visited Siddha Yoga Dham in Ganaspuri in 1990, saw Gurumayi in the ashram courtyard. Nothing special to my limited perception, nothing more than the fanfare around her.
The place was too commercial for my taste. I run after a few days. I never became her devotee. NEVER.
In earlier days (circa 1980, when I was part of the world Tour of Swami Muktananda, Gurumayi's guru), I don't recall such a blatant emphasis on raising cash.
I don't know what that means... I'm surely not suggesting that Mukt was a purer guru than Gurum. Maybe it was just that in the late 70s, the Guru business was new and booming and flooded with venture capital, and now it's hit a slump like the housing market.
Maybe it's that Mukt spend years as an ultra-simple swami wandering India, so it took less $s to dazzle his material desires. Gurumayi's like a 2nd-generation immigrant... who wants greater and greater fame and fortune to surpass her "parents."
I've got no problem with anyone being rich, it's just that people should also know that for sincerely pursuing meditation and the Big Questions of life... lots of money is neither necessary nor helpful.
Also: I see the appeal is made by Swami Ishwarananda, whom if I recall correctly, was a Zen student (before he met Mukt long ago). It makes me think about how Clear Mind is unguarded... that is, there's nothing ever stopping us from practicing simple attention to just-now, and there's also nothing ever stopping us from burying this simplicity under a mountain of concepts and wants.
Stuart
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
she really hasn't been seen in five years? wonder who she is holed up with? and i would bet anything there are people who know where she is, unless she is dead
I'm sure she's not dead, just past 50 and probably developing wrinkles. Or maybe the jaw lift is starting to warp.
One definition of sociopath is to not have a conscience about your affect on others....
I do remember one story I heard many years ago about a SY clone slevite being sent into NYC to buy the gold leafed dining set for HRC. Maybe the gold is starting to peel.
>>>"Also: I see the appeal is made by Swami Ishwarananda, whom if I recall correctly, was a Zen student (before he met Mukt long ago). It makes me think about how Clear Mind is unguarded... that is, there's nothing ever stopping us from practicing simple attention to just-now, and there's also nothing ever stopping us from burying this simplicity under a mountain of concepts and wants...Stuart"
Yes, he had his "big awakening" in a zen monastery before meeting muktananda. It's truly amazing to see just how much this very irritable swami has "progressed" along the path to total co-option. Probably if he "practiced a simple attention to the 'just-now' (man, I love that zen talk)", he'd wake up and realize that he's been swimming up a brackish yogic tributary for a long time now but the mind is a powerful ally in delusion. it almost makes me feel more sympathy for the siddha yoga swamis who "cut their losses and bailed out" during the past few years...almost.
Nothing wrong for being wealthy. However, it is pathetic that she should be asking for guru dakshina when she won't even show her face or playing the guru role. Absentee guru, her ancient videos playing.
She had plastic surgery to look good in her younger days. She may be too insecure to show herself growing older to the world. Many of these gurus are sociopaths, with little consideration for anyone other than the money & adoration the followers offer. They have been playing God for too long, and had forgotton their humanity.
Do you get to see God face to face? Since the guru is truly Divine, why should she show herself? You are suppose to believe her presence and influence when she went into hiding.
gregory said...
she really hasn't been seen in five years?
I've got no 1st-hand info... but I hear that the management of Gurumayi's org sends out exquisitely ambiguous announcements, written as if GM's whereabouts are always known to them, and that everything is normal and under control. But without specifically and clearly stating that they know anything.
Who knows, maybe there are long periods where GM disappears entirely, and the managers (to save their jobs) have to pull off a "Weekend at Bernie's."
This New Year's, GM did deliver a message to her devotees... but it was taped. Perhaps she should have appeared on video with a copy of the daily newspaper headlines. Y'know, like Osama bin Laden, or mafia kidnappers do, to demonstrate that the video is made in the present.
Stuart
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
Anonymous said...
it almost makes me feel more sympathy for the siddha yoga swamis who "cut their losses and bailed out" during the past few years
My original Zen teacher used to say, "When a porcupine crawls into a rat's hole, it's very easy for him to get in, but much more difficult to back out."
It may even be more than 5 years now. Read this by her lost followers:
http://ritualsofdisenchantment.blogspot.com/
>>" Perhaps she should have appeared on video with a copy of the daily newspaper headlines. Y'know, like Osama bin Laden, or mafia kidnappers do, to demonstrate that the video is made in the present...Stuart"
This is an excellent idea! Set it up like "Where's Waldo" and make it into a "spiritual practice"...can you find today's date..hidden in the video? "Those with eyes to see" will find the date; those who don't will need a "new prescription for their glasses"..lol.
This is so funny....I would not give her or siddha yoga one cent, even if she was she came to my door and begged! Any one who continues to give of there time or money to this Cult is a fool!
God may always reveal Her face. God doesn't ask for donation either!
This woman wants to play God hiding away but asking for donation.
I was invited to come celebrate GP
at the very last program to be given at the Sta Fe center. Must really
further knock the juice out to get one last request for Dakshina at this time of shutting down. So ironic it is that Ish mentions transformation brought by SY..My experiece with it was that I was mostly emotionally numb with occasional bright spots brought on by chanting & meditation.
It really wasn't enough & I was far less ready to be out in the world
than i am now, now that I'm rid of this lying, usurious path.
>>>"It really wasn't enough & I was far less ready to be out in the world
than i am now, now that I'm rid of this lying, usurious path.<<<
gurumayi is like the "Anti-'Bored Guru'"....or maybe, like a female doppleganger of Dattatreya Loon Guru. Well, Gurupurnima coming soon...this should be interesting..lol.
Gurumayi's last live public "appearance"--that was a satellite broadcast appearance--was 1 January, 2004, when she gave her "message" on the kundalini, which was recycled for a couple more years, to be superseded by this year's pabulum, the previously mentioned pre-recorded program (which cost as I recall $100 US). She may have appeared at an intensive in October of 04, not sure about that. She is seen often at the ashram in upstate New York, but any appearances at chants or celebrations there are only with specifically invited people, either big donors or trusted lackies. She likes Italy, she likes Ojai in California. She still looks good for a 52 year-old.
The big dakshina push at Gurupurnima is nothing new in SY--that has always been the most approved way to "celebrate" that holiday, and every other holiday in their calendar. How they justify the requests for more money now with every program that exists being funded entirely by the center or ashram that hosts it (with virtually no expenses recouped from fees), and most of the teaching being done by unpaid sevites and a few diehard swamis, with ALL the "registration" fees going to the SYDA foundation--it just boggles the mind. What do the sheep think their donations are supporting? It's ludicrous, really.
When it comes to 'hot' devis as gurus, one can always check out Isira Sananda.
"God may always reveal Her face... "
I think that's exactly the problem!! She may still look good for a 52 year old, but its not the same as looking 30 (which is roughly when she had the plastic surgery).
Ironic really - I remember her saying in a public program in 1983 or 84, not long after Muktananda died and when people were trying to make the transition (Gawd what BS when I look back on it), "You won't believe in me until I have grey hair".
I for one would like to see the lady with grey hair, a few wrinkles and a bit of sag on that well-worked body... make her so much more real... like the rest of us that have grown up a bit since the heady days of the late 70s and early 80s.
Wonder if she does botox too??
It's amazing how you only have to mention Gurumayi and you get such a large response to a really uninteresting topic.
Many people it seems still love Gurumayi....even if they love to hate her. I mean what other guru has a "I'm leaving my guru" bitch forum besides SY where the same people keep turning up to process their feelings about betrayal.
Perhaps Gurumayi is onto something and the guru mirror works better in her departing shadow.
Gee I love the angry ex SYers for their tenacity.
I used to be a devotee in the 90's. Great eye camps, I loved seva, meditation and the chanting in Ganeshpuri. Even then negative rumours were circulating. I ignored them. My attitude was, and still is, "it's the teachings (not the teacher), silly. If the teachings are sound I stick with it'. But I moved on after being disheartened by the 'health spa' atmosphere of Fallsburg. But I'm still curious about and amused by Gurumayi gossip - hence I'm here. It was once part of my life. But we who rant against GM and seem concerned about celebrity chat and oppressed by the money-grasping, or are simply nosey like me, should remind ourselves that the truth is to be found in the teachings not in the spokesperson.
I have now moved on,with tempered enthusiam, to Tibetan Buddhism and Sogyal Rimpoche (in France). It's refreshingly free of the aspect of 'awe' that GM seemed to cultivate. And its very logical and discursive ,which suits my western mind. Try a new celeb!
Ivan
well...every year there is a request for donations on guru purnima. This is nothing new. As to GM not being seen, um...I have seen her pretty regularly. The ashram is only open to people doing long term retreats or seva, but she is out and about. I will not comment on the other stuff, because everyone's opinions on the history remain their own and is usually pretty biased and unchangeable. But factually, I can attest to the fact that she didn't disappear and is continuing her work. She even comes to chants or has little programs. The ashram is more like it used to be many years ago.I am sure most people on this site will have a pretty strong opinion about that definition, but again, to each his/her own. I randomly came upon this site and just had to comment.
I'm not a devotee, nor have I ever been. It's not my fault. I was born in the west, and my mind is wired that way. I'd say I'm very spiritual, and yet not in any sense religious.
My S.O. is a lovely woman in many ways. She's been a devotee of Gurumayi and Adi Da for many years. She sometimes sits for hours, cross-legged on the floor, staring at photos in some sort of meditative state. It seems to give her some sense of peace, of tranquility. I have no issues with that.
From what I've learned here and elsewhere, Gurumayi seems to be missing in action. Adi Da isn't exactly that; he's holed up in his island paradise in Fiji. But in both cases their interactions with their respective communities seem to have dissipated.
And I really don't get it. I know, it's not in my tradition. I still hold open the possibility of there being something there that I just don't get. But frankly, I don't care if you're Jesus H. Christ, if your taken name ends in 'ananda', or if you're Joe the plumber; you've got to do SOMETHING to deserve respect. (Don't get me started on Christianity.) Gurumayi and Adi Da lately seem to be lacking in this regard. At least Joe the plumber fixes toilets—even if he hasn't got a proper license.
While I've felt the same sadness about her always asking for money, and I've given my share...intensives,books, donations, etc., I have to say that she's got something very powerful at her disposal. When I sent away for my 1st lesson, "In Search of the Self" back in April of 2000, I asked for shaktipat through sanculpa. When I finished reading it, then went to bed, I felt a prickling sensation at the bottom of my feet. Then ... wham!
I got the shock of my life. Whatever it was, it was intelligent
and powerful! I wasn't ready for this and fought back like a madman.
Later, I regretted not co-operating. The next night it was very gentle, a mild tingling up and down my spine. Guess it didn't want to freak me out again. I'm telling you the "truth from my heart". I wish I could connect with her again. It's a shame to know she has access to all that power and I can't utilize it as I would like to. I'm still hungry but don't feel something like that should have to be bought so I've faded away. Vern
Well, I still love Gurumayi, I spent years prior to marriage and children, then after marriage and children at my local Siddha Yoga Center in Philadelphia and also up in South Fallsburg when we could get there. All of my experiences were just beautiful. I have kept the teachings with me and all the beautiful gifts of enlightenment I received. I guess I just feel it and see it differently. Her words have lasted me since 1989 when I first met her. I am still learning from them to this day and always thankful that I met her. Mary Beth
Anonymous/Vern said...
I have to say that she's got something very powerful at her disposal. [...] I asked for shaktipat through sanculpa [...] I felt a prickling sensation at the bottom of my feet. Then ... wham!
I got the shock of my life.
FWIW, your story doesn't demonstrate that Gurumayi has anything powerful at her disposal. It in fact demonstrates that your beliefs, your thinking, your wants, your expectations... are very very powerful.
If you chose to superimpose over your experience this belief that the power came from someone outside... you can make that choice. But it is a choice.
Stuart
I love Gurumayi and all of you people that sound so angry and disappointed are probably disappointed in yourselves. She always said that the true guru was your Self. Stop thinking that she is a personal God and more of a guide or mentor. That woman deservges respect and she doesn;t have to show her face if she doesn't want to. When you are a realized being you can do as you wish and it's not to please you. I bet if she was out and about like you want, you would give her a hard time to. Stop persecuting. Go pick on Jesus or something.
I met Baba Muktananda in '82 but didn't return to S.Fallsburg till '91 for my first Intensive. My Shaktipat (Kundalini Awalening/Intitiation) experience was quite dramatic and it felt like anything was possible. i also know that Enlightenment is there for me and everyone else if we do our part (the practices). I have seen Gurumayi treated like a rock star in Fallsburg and Ganeshpuri and have always seen her reject and discourage this. However, the institution around an enlightened Master often projects our neediness and expectations on to the teacher.
If I had ever seen, with my own eyes, any sort of corruption or Ego from our beloved Gurumayi- I would have run, not walked away. Not once did I see anything remotely compromising from her. Just the opposite.
When first the decision was made that there wouldn't be Darshan on a regular basis- i knew I would miss this ritual as much as anyone and when this latest change was made 5 or 6 years ago- telling us to focus on our local centers, communities and seek out the Inner Guru within- this was hard as well but my faith in Gurumayi and ultimately my faith in myself as a sincere but discriminating seeker- also tells me that She knows exactly what we need at any given moment.
A true Guru encourages us to be skeptical as Gurumayi always has in my experience. O Ye of Little Faith- examine what this teaching is showing you of where you're at and what issues this is stirring up for you,
Speaking of Adi Da- i have heard that some Devotees either NEVER meet him and for others it takes many years,like some other "Crazy Wisdom" style teachers. We were quite spoiled with our virtually, unlimited access to Baba and then Gurumayi. This spoiled and self serving me, me ,me type attitude is very Western. Don't you think?!! try to see the bigger picture.
Om Namah Shivaya and Sadugru Nath Maharaj Ki Jai!!!
P.S. those who aren't certain that donations aren't well spent- shouldn't send anything. I have always questioned all authority, it's my nature but
I for one have total faith in this extraordinary teacher and never let my limited, conditioned, perspective get in the way of something that my Heart tells me is absolute and True. With Love, Trigger in NYC
Thank God for Lionel Sanchez and Steve(Trigger in NYC) and most of all thank God for Gurumayi and Siddha Yoga. It is a truly wonderful path and it is astonishing how mean spirited most of the other bloggers are.
Anytime I make donations, give dakshina to the Siddha Yoga Foundation, I receive much grace and blessings and return of financial increase in my business. This is how it works.
I receive much grace and blessings and return of financial increase in my business.
And do you greet Santa Claus with milk and cookies every Christmas?
It's worth noting that a donation made to increase your personal business, despite that increase having nothing to do with the actual donation, is not charity, it's greed.
Silly idea, of having another culture imposed superficially through elaborately designed ashrams, expensive saris worn by GuruMayi wannabees. No one is to blame, but each of us is born with a fallen oak in our path, so we are all the same. Calling yourself divine, chanting mind-numbing Sanskrit absurdities (is there a chant for children with leukemia, no--only selfish, obsessively narcissistic pampering that I have seen in the darshans, absolutely reprehensible, pagan idolatry. And there is no selfless service in these "Fantasy Island" retreats, since it is, pathetically, only done in the precious confines of these dreadful, obscenely lavish false paradises.
No human more than any other holds "rank". And if you want the truth "When you come across the guru on your path, vanquish him." She looks totally bull-dagger too. Who the hell is she kidding! I remind the true believers on these forums of Dante's Inferno, wherein an entire chapter is devoted to hypocrisy and the banality of evil.
Steven said...
it is, pathetically, only done in the precious confines of these dreadful, obscenely lavish false paradises.
People who set themselves up as more spiritually advanced than the common folk... are kinda asking to have their bubble burst. No problem there.
On the other hand... sometimes, if a child is crying, you give him a toy, and it pacifies his mind for a while. Not necessarily a problem there, either. Lavish ashrams exist because there are apparently lots of people who really want lavish ashrams, beautiful words, fancy costumes, tinkly music, and the rest.
The people who flock to lavish ashrams and puffed-up gurus... would they be more or less happy, more or less compassionate, in an alternate universe where such gurus and ashrams didn't exist, and they had to find pacification in other ways? It's way beyond my pay grade to speculate on the answer.
On the other other hand, sometimes people are ready to put away childish things, and giving them help and encouragement in doing so is fine too.
Stuart
The idea of giving a toy to a cranky infant is about as deep as all this tantric schmantric malarkey has gone, since ashrams are truly devoid of spiritual democracy and rife with inbred elitist pandering. I suppose we could draw a conclusion from this metaphor that ashrams are the shopping malls of the post Woodstock/Humvee owner/devotees of Guru Whatsherpuss.
Steven said...
The idea of giving a toy to a cranky infant is about as deep as all this tantric schmantric malarkey has gone
"I want" creates suffering. If you want a "deep idea," that's a problem.
Stuart
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
I lived in this "lavish" ashram for a year, right after college. I had no money. I had no fancy clothes. Regular people used to go there too, you know. All walks of live. All levels of income. I was never a big sari-wearer, but to each is own.
I don't think of calls for dakshina as coming from Gurumayi herself. I am guessing it's all from SYDA, trying to carry on some work.
Either you had amazing inner experiences around Gurumayi, or you didn't. Gurumayi is free to do what she wants, just as we all are. Sure, I wish she still saw the public. Her physical presence is undeniably powerful. But she did this thing for 20+ years. Read what she says in the book Remembrance. The talks in that book are pretty revealing.
Hasn't shown her face ... like she OWES anyone anything? Please. She gave initiation to thousands. She gave teaching and practices. What's important is the practice, and finding everything within yourself--which is all she ever taught. She never said, "Sit around and stare at me all day."
Some things you say have much truth, others, no. While preaching en masse to search only within, there was an absurd level of hierarchy, which she loved to toy with. The telltale dénouement to your comments was "You either had amazing inner experiences around her, or you didn't." Which is to say, you needed an outer stimulus whether a guru, a hit of crack, or a Mars bar, to feel "charged" in dharma, which is a pile of bull. That is what people in twelve-step call being "drunk and sober" at the same time. And as for regular people like you and me, in case you didn't know, by about 1996 South Fallsburg was closed to the public, and it became something other than its ambiguous beginnings had directed. All's well that ends well? Hardly. It's just another reminder from Christ in Matthew 1, "Pray behind a closed door and my Father in heaven will hear you." Pagan ashrams of devotion to the five senses were the entrails of the 60s, and hopefully we have seen the last of little twerps like GuruMayi and her designer brand of Hinduism cum Buddhist baloney.
Yogini said...
Her physical presence is undeniably powerful.
You can call anything undeniable. That doesn't make it true. There's zero evidence of any special power in Gurumayi's physical presence... apart from the belief and expectation etc in your own mind.
What's important is the practice, and finding everything within yourself--which is all she ever taught.
Gurumayi had followers chant each day, "Our lives at thy feet we surrender," while ceremoniously waving candles in front of her or her photo. This seems a bit inconsistent with the claim that finding everything within yourself is all she ever taught.
(If it were true that Gurumayi always taught "finding everything within yourself," then why would anyone even bother with these baseless claims that her physical presence is powerful?)
Stuart
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
Stuart's comments are very well-sliced, and truthfully practical. Yogini contradicts him/herself repeatedly, denying on the one hand that the guru favors idolatry while expressing her undeniable attraction to the guru's something-or-other. I am fascinated by these forums because I am beginning to develop more compassion for these new souls who wander from ashram to ashram in search of a spiritual awakening, but in truth are severely co-dependent and incapable of generating happiness for themselves. It is most assuredly an addiction, a hybrid guruista/consumer, very exotic, to be sure, but renders a body rather incapable of living a fully functional life, which is really all we have been put here for.
The best we can offer others is not charity but our own example of self-awareness and self-fulfillment. The rest is sentiment and typically just antiquated religious principles. Sentiment is all that our friend Yogini feels for the guru, mixed with adolescent romantic notions. Bless them, and pray that they find something truly useful to aspire to.
If Siddha Yoga hasn't ever or doesn't now ever...."float your boat," why waste time on something many of you feel to be worthless? I never understood that. You can dialogue it in many ways to DEATH. If it's not for you, cool; but move on. Folly to some, truth to others.
Peace,
Sonny Crockett
It's very interesting reading these comments. At least people who disagree with the negative sentiments aren't harassed and vilified as they are on the EXSY site.
I still believe in the spiritual teachings of Siddha Yoga. I miss seeing Gurumayi in her physical body but I always live by the words Baba spoke. "Your God dwells within you as you." He also said not to become attached to the physical form of the Guru.
I also never believed that the behavior of some of the people who ran the ashram, as obnoxious and egotistical as it could be, represented Siddha Yoga's core teachings. Everyone is at a different place in their sadhana and people wind up in the Guru's house for many reasons.
Blessings to you all on your journey, whereever it may lead you.
Gayle said...
It's very interesting reading these comments. At least people who disagree with the negative sentiments aren't harassed and vilified as they are on the EXSY site.
On the exSY Yahoo forum, the problem isn't so much that other group members may reply to you harshly. It's that exSY group claims (on its home page) that posts are unmoderated; this is a lie. The group moderator doesn't "moderate" a free discussion, but rather pushes his own dogma, and has indeed harassed and forcibly silenced people for not accepting his opinions.
The alternate Yahoo group does allow free open discussion. Find it at this link:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LifeafterSY/
I still believe in the spiritual teachings of Siddha Yoga.
Each teaching stands or falls on its own merits, depending on how that specific teaching works in your practical life. It doesn't matter what brand name you slap on an amorphous group of teachings. That is, to say "the spiritual teachings of Siddha Yoga" communicates practically nothing, as you can define that phrase pretty much any way you like.
Baba ... also said not to become attached to the physical form of the Guru.
Case in point: Baba may have sometime said not to become attached to the physical form of the Guru. So it is pure coincidence that so many of his followers did the opposite? Of course not. It's because at other times, Baba gave the opposite teaching.
More significantly, teaching also comes from how you live and act. The way that Baba ran his organization gave the opposite teaching from "don't be attached to the physical form of the guru." That's the teaching that so many long-time devotees followed.
I also never believed that the behavior of some of the people who ran the ashram, as obnoxious and egotistical as it could be, represented Siddha Yoga's core teachings.
Isn't it a core teaching that the guru is at a higher, god-like spiritual level compared to ordinary folks? Doesn't that create a belief in a fundamental spiritual hierarchy, that can contribute to obnoxious behavior towards those lower down on the ashram's implicit totem pole?
I mean, there was SOME reason why so many people surrounding Baba ignored or rationalized his diddling underaged devotees, with highly dubious consent. It sprang directly from Baba's clear teaching that he was a perfect being, untouchably above everyone else.
Stuart
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
How can anyone disagree with you Gayle, in such a heartfelt statement? Yes, my original impression of the ashram was complete astonishment, and a feeling of being welcomed, acknowledged, and very intrigued by the teachings. It had a simple air of atonement (a high compliment from me) representing the sense of abandon that people there seemed to be reconciled to. What happened in the mid-90s was rock-star groupies who were there for the wrong reasons. A former acquaintance confided in me that she and her husband were "praying for a home in Greenwich", and that really echoes so much of how the establishment degenerated. It is evil to worship the five senses, in whatever form, whether you call it witchcraft or satanism or Siddha. Another friend said his mother took him there for "shaktipat" and she forked over $8K right into the hands of the Guru, as Gurumayi waved her peacock feather on my friend and babbled some cockamamie Sanskrit mantra. My friend is no liar. How can you "long for the presence" of such an insipid individual? You must move on to higher ground, my dear, such as Calvinism or Rastafarianism, which the latter at least has great music to bless it.
Gurumayi's words and Baba's words are enough. They are yours for free. Dont try to see her or send even $1 - just listen with an open heart and live your own life in your own home happily. Thats enough. See God in others and realize that God dwells within you as you.
God dwells within me as WHO? ME? Wrong! Yet another pagan mal a propos! God dwells in us. What, do you think each of us has a little Divine Elf in our tummies? God is omnipresent, and there are no boundaries in His Kingdom. So sorry that your goofy teachers left that one out. You write like such a phoney anyway, it's called "dimestore serenity".
What is with all this cheap skepticism? Gurumayi has a "celebrity" type of personality/appearance and many people who aren't genuine seekers got pulled into the wrong path for them. Good for her for staying out of the limelight rather than attracting the wrong types. I believe SYDA to be valid spiritual path but let's say, for the sake of argument, it's not. Let's say it's another organization deluding themselves and their followers. Then what are you left with? So you go to another Guru and another teacher and always look for some kind of flaw and when you find it you pat your self on the back. What a clever little boy is Johnny. If you don't have the courage to take a leap of faith at some point - to accept a "Guru", then your own cynicism (or intellect if it makes you feel better) will become your Guru. And you'll pride yourself that no one will make you out a fool, what a clever little boy is Johnny. I don't give a crap whether you believe in Syda yoga or Jesus or the Buddha or Tom cruise but in the final analysis if all you have is your own doubts, your own pride then you're like the walking dead. Maybe that's why we've seen such a surge of movies about vampires and zombies. "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them". Don't let that be you.
Well, SYDA, the South Fallsburgh ashram, and the idiot rituals they perform like supermarket openings, along with paying $8,000 cash to the Guru herself for shaktipat and a wave of that execrable peacock feather with your very own mantra (wow, how cool is that?) are not worth being cynical about. However, they are good for a belly laugh, of which I have had many with ex-ashramites who finally came to their senses and realized it was not 1970. Bore, bore, bore.
1/31/2010 5:33 PM, Anonymous said...
What is with all this cheap skepticism? [...] I don't give a crap whether you believe in Syda yoga or Jesus or the Buddha or Tom cruise but in the final analysis if all you have is your own doubts, your own pride then you're like the walking dead.
Perhaps the truth is that "all you have is your own doubts." Perhaps every "leap of faith" leading to belief in the words/ideas of an old book, or in some authority figure on a high seat in a fancy costume... is a way to avoid looking at the truth that's apparent in your own just-now experience.
To doubt all ideas, opinions, assumptions, beliefs... is what Buddhism calls "Great Doubt" or "Great Questioning." The only way to know its value is to try it for yourself.
You say that maintaining Doubt will make you like the walking dead. That's just your claim. What evidence is there that it's true? The only way to get the evidence is to try. Even for a short time, sincerely doubt everything you believe about yourself and the world etc. What am I?! Then see for yourself whether the result is better or worse than believing in Tom Cruise etc.
Stuart
The 12 Steps of AA state "pain is the touchstone of all spiritual growth". They coined the phrase "Let go and let God". Gurumayi uses meditation and promotes its use like the drug dealers on the Lower East Side, as a pain killer. Just meditate with me in this wretched ashram and all your pain will be gone. Sounds like a hit of crack. And don't forget to scrub the floors in the cafeteria for me, little bitch, after you empty your wallets. Namaste and get lost.
Yes, Steven Yes!!!!
Interesting: GM in hiding since '04 while her staff begs money from the followers, and her organization implodes. Meantime her brother (who runs his own brand of SY pretty much the way Muktananda used to do) is working on completing his third ashram (in Walden, NY), is out every day among his people and they're posting YouTube videos for one and all to see and judge. No blatant cash calls, either. And don't forget, Muktananda named Subhash to be his successor before ANYTHING was mentioned about Malti. Makes ya kinda wonder... GM on the wane, Subhash on the rise...?
it is always being interesting to write anythng about anybody.well.. i thnk its all upto our experience.some people are saying bad for her and some are really blessed.but seriosly "GOD NEVER MIND WHEATHER YOU BELIEVE HIM OR NOT,HE WILL STILL LOVE YOU".it is totally different thing wheather you can see her or not...always its not necessary to be practical.. there are some people like me who love gurumai like anythng.infact the day we will see her; we will be somewhere across the sky.n we pay pity on those who cannot enjoy her blessings :) n yes,those who are not interested in giving gurudakshina.they are always welcomed to keep their money in their bloody pockets... JAI GURUMAI !!! SMILE SMILE SMILE
Take a hike back to the ashram, you dipshit. Guru Mucky-mucky has about as much contact with God as Bernie Madoff, our favorite swindler, has had. She has mesmerized you because you can't make sense of living without a human to idolize, which is the essence of paganism. My pockets aren't bloody, like yours are, and as far as giving guru her dakshina, her program of worship is made of dog-shit.
I was introduced to Siddah Yoga in 2007. I was incarcerated at the time and received Shaktipat. I paid absolutly nothing for it, they do a prison outreach program for free. So maybe that's wear some of the money goes. I have never met GuruMayi and probably never will. But I know the path of the Siddah is the correct path. And I beleive those who did not experience this, probably have too many Aharmkaras in their lives. Jesus said it best" to be my disciple you have to give up everything... It is easier for a camel to fit through an eye of an needle, than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God..." Remember you have a choice, so people askin you for money shouldn't bother the true seeker. Swami Maktunada said" We create our own heaven and our own hell... You choose to make a person a friend or you choose to make them an enemy... I am just like the rest of you. I do not know all the answers in life, I'm waiting to find out like everybody else. As the blind man said" We shall see!"
This is all very moving and humble, your little sermon on the Siddha path. But the proof is in the pudding, mister. Although the Siddha Ashram in South Fallsburgh, New York was at first an interesting place, within less than 6 years it had become just an ostentatious, elitist hierarchy of "Range Rover Gurumayi groupies"—a kind of millionaire's club for the marginally functioning shaktipat junkies. Your rationale for their obsession with "service through cash donation" is not the least bit convincing, particularly when you abuse and profane the words of Our Lord Jesus by comparing His parable of the eye of the needle with giving money freely to the Muktananda cretins and rogues. Believe me the rich nitwits who follow that pagan princess, Gurumayi, are not about to let go of their big wads, as a $2 million cash donation to Siddha Foundation is like me dropping a buck in the collection basket at Mass, which by the way is a hell of a lot more credible than those idiot darshans where everyone raises their arms like they're at a Springsteen concert and she sits on her ass on that platform to "lead the suckers" in "devotion", to what end, no one ever could really explain. You need to get honest with God, through personal dialogs with him. Start by asking him "Am I wasting my time following this hooey, God? Can you guide me to my true path without listening to other people's malarkey?" Then you will have begun your "journey" by setting yourself into conscious contact with Our Creator, and not a money grubbing asshole and her infantile followers.
i was in it for 18 years, make no mistake the greed became so apparent, so vile, anyone with a mind and heart had to leave --- with great sadness
also, you know what is really odd about hindu gurus, gurumayi no exception-- how they try to co-opt Jesus into their program. Remember the poster with her and then the siddhas all around the edges of the poster, Jesus included? Where do they get off?
among other things--
Jesus did not believe in endless repetition of mantra. (he recommended the lord's prayer and mentioned don't pray in that fashion -- over & over ...) I wonder why. Maybe karma/sin doesn't get removed by hours and hours of chanting.
sorghumcentury said...
Jesus did not believe in endless repetition of mantra.
Since Jesus has become very popular in the West, some people blindly follow whatever they think Jesus believed and said. That's OK if you want to follow like a sheep (it's no coincidence that Christian groups are often called "flocks"). If you want to think for yourself, it doesn't matter what Jesus believed or said.
When an Eastern guru tries to associate him/herself with Jesus, it's much like a beer company getting a famous athelete to appear in their commercials. By connecting their product to a celebrity, they hope to increase sales.
Maybe karma/sin doesn't get removed by hours and hours of chanting.
Karma/sin needs to be removed only if you make karma/sin. Karma and sin are made by thinking. Repeating a mantra cuts off thinking, so you get at least a little taste of what it's like before you make "karma" and "sin" and "good" and "bad" and "me" and "you" and the rest of it.
Stuart
You're right on the money, haha. Continuous prayer, although employed by mystical Catholic orders such as the cloistered Carmelites, Capuchin, and Trappist, but at very specific times in the liturgical calendar. The Carmelites fasted for months and months and died off by the dozen during World War II, lying face down in cold convent cellars, but with no chanting, music, or frivolous invocations to the five senses, which is an integral part of Wikken and Satanic cults, comprised of hundreds of thousands of wealthy, useless individuals.
The style of sy was never to ask for money. There was always wealth and I enjoyed how it flowed without uncomfortable requests. There was always more than enough wealth and I felt proud to be part of it because of the tastefulness it. I loved the beauty of NY state ashram. That took money and I felt it was clean.
Remember "mukteshwari" -- i think it mentioned not to ask for money. Also I liked that Muktananda said if you "are uncomfortable with the gold don't look at it". But there were no requests per se. The respect for $ wasn't hidden or a dual (hypocritical) teaching. It taught us to do the same in our life in a healthy way.
In the past I would go to intensives and put money in the box with blessing, I felt free about it because of no requests. But then the foundation did get involved in money, asked for it, taught about it etc.
And simultaneous to that, the Guru removed herself. And odd combination of timing. I feel that even though I assumed the Guru would remain there, if she wished to leave, she was free. But doing that while increasing and in fact starting requests for $ was just odd. I couldn't figure it out.
I remember the great affection of the guru for everyone for a long time. That feeling seemed to be gone as well.
anonymous aka sorghumcentury
There is nothing wrong with using a guru in your life for awhile; but the danger there is that Americans en masse do not know when to stop because addiction is the baseline for everything that takes root in our culture, and the same rule applies to "craving" spiritual enlightenment through the "teachings" of a guru. I was never impressed with her, Krishnamurti, Rajneesh, Ram Daas, or any of the others—least of all Gurumayi, who was a very theatrical, pretentious version of others who had perfected their image of holiness for even greater glory. As I have stated on this forum, an honest, true beginning to your enlightenment is achieved by getting on your knees one day and asking God to help you develop fearlessness and gratitude. That is music to His Divine Ears and that is all you will ever need to work on for the sake of your Enlightenment. The rest of this "siddha" nonsense and teachings is intellectual masturbation with a sari, a drum and a red dot on your forehead.
Max, I agree-- ultimately it is the heart between you and the almighty. Nothing public ...
The Gurus were meant to be or are the link between us and the almighty. Maybe it will work and link us and maybe not. Maybe alienate, or maybe link us and then we can leave the Guru and proceed, the Guru(s) having done their job(s) well.
One thing I won't do. Have a guru "represented" by an organization rather than the organization supporting the public work of a guru. Even if that scenario is seemingly sent in a benevolent way to "grow us up". Seemingly sent-- meaning with guilt trips saying we haven't done our job as students.
As I mentioned-- the guru wants to leave, then leave. Just don't leave the students a foundation as a proxy for the guru.
My learning ended a few years previous to the guru leaving but I hung on. I think at that time I preferred beer to a guru! Perhaps the it all was ok that she left! Maybe so many people, myself included, had received enough public teaching. A more advanced teaching would not be available because the bulk of us weren't ready for it.
Those statistics (not compiled but intuited) aren't my problem. I use this phrase "not my problem" because there were stories told by the guru evaluating Vashista vs Visvamitra and their teaching approach .... It's really obvious that the large group of students wouldn't be ready for a teaching given to the closer group. That is no reason to close up, what I now consider as a "shop" (and would never! refer to as such unless they started to become so obvious about their commercial approach). They? I don't know who they are. The game was to have it look like the foundation was "they", but "they" could be what you thought of as your "heart".
After 18 years of being told the importance of a live guru ... you just can't stop darshan in such a teaching context and call it a "living guru" without a PR machinery to delete all of the years of teaching stressing live gurus. You can't drop a teaching like you change a style. It either was true or isn't true. There really are other Gurus not alive, more powerful than the so called "live" gurus.
A live guru means available (to the masses) even if for the vision of the form only. The form alone would benefit all the people (again this is scriptural teaching according to sy), and if it isn't there then ? (my answer-- there is nothing there, nothing left).
But again I was bored too and would have left anyway because the teaching in many ways was overcome by a wave moving in a different direction from both ecstatic devotion and the new age-- something more radical is occurring than that or even "manifestation" (what a bore).
Hard to describe personally what that new feeling is, it isn't written or sold or verbalized.
Gurumayi's best book was probably "the yoga of discipline"-- words describing the of yoga of the discipline of the senses. It is a very interesting book. Someone who wasn't at a very high level couldn't have written or conceived of it.
Contrasted to pure philosophy which usually ends up being a mind game-- sy -- one part of it ... is the transmutation of senses, use of the "instrument" as actors say, or the body, senses and mind (including ego) for yoga i.e. "burning"/purifying "it" in a systematic way.
SY is a very important path. So much has been accomplished by it for so many.
Thank you for this forum. I sign off finally! and I will not have anything else to say. I think the moderator has provided a great forum.
anonymous aka sorghumcentury
the people who critices should spent more time looking in their own self. You think you are pretty smart by hurting other people whith your words,i invite you to have a better life, instead playing god and judge this organization and specially Gurumayi. is obvious you are not prepared to understand the real SY message.
do a better research next time! and get a life!
On rare occasions, it's important to judge strictly (but honestly) when one senses that there is a use of artificial coping devices which these sorts of programs encourage and are based on. There is nothing inherently wrong with the Siddha intention of an internal examination for spiritual growth; it's the lack of honest results I see in the people I've met who have used her process, the ones who are drawn to ashram life, who live in a candy-ass dream world that is not connected to outer reality. Her methods promote narcissism and self-adoration, not selfless service like she promises. And that is because her program is a hybrid buddhist-christian-hindu puff pastry version of spirituality.
True self-confrontation is a terrifying, extremely painful and lengthy procedure that absolutely excludes the use of money as a means to enlightenment, so along the way, whatever her foundations were in the teachings of the guru she studied with, she developed a very clever, extremely perverted and seductive school of materialistic meditation, a method that worships the five senses rather than a method of taking a fearless and searching moral inventory of oneself and one's weaknesses, (such as the postulants in the Carmelite order) and then asking Almighty God humbly to remove these weaknesses, which is a constant assault to the ego and therefore extremely painful and humiliating. SIDDHA methods build a false, cosmetic sense of humility which manifests itself in a haughty pious set of wispy and theatrical mannerisms that are repulsive and hypocritical, and hilariously transparent. Everyone I've ever met who has spent years at South Fallsburg has this veneer of kindness but are viciously protective of their material gains, and covet things like "praying for a home in Greenwich"; this is pagan worship, and not a true method of worship of the Creator based on a flawless and sincere gratitude for Life and its hardships. Gurumayi also intimated in those hideous satsangs that wealthy people were higher on the food chain than those who suffer, a fallacy that promotes the movement toward totalitarianism. That's the difference between you and me, BUB.
hi all! a special hello to stu-- i really like your colorful streaming-life-worms icon. it seems to have been inspired by some sage. :)
Gurumayi is back at Her ashram since june 2012.
Jai gurudev
GURUMAYI IS BACK AT HER ASHRAM SINCE JUNE 2012.
jay guru dev
From what I hear... Gurumayi made an appearance at the South Fallsburg ashram. Few devotees were invited to see her in real-life; for the most part, everyone was invited to watch it on video. It's a significant event (to her followers) that GM appeared at all... but it's not as if she's giving programs that are open to the public.
Oy vay! Mammy Guru Mayi is back in town! We shall go rejoicin', bringin' in the cash!
I just always go back to my experience of God that I received via Gurumayi and Siddha Yoga. Every organization or church that has a building needs money to continue. If one doesn't think its being spent "right" don't send it. I still go to the Oakland Ashram and always leave feeling uplifted and wonderful. No, its not the same as the big programs, and I loved those, but I remember once Gurumayi saying to a hall sevite who was fussing way too much during Darshan..."Relax, this isn't a Broadway show"!! I think SY got too big, and people were becoming too dependent on the physical form of the Guru. Everyone seems to forget she wrote, traveled, and gave her life to the people for over twenty something years. Maybe there are lessons on attachment, who knows. Don't send money if it bothers you. Take what you received with gratitude and continue to walk away if you want. Geeze.
People in the spiritual line of work go into retreat for many years sometimes- why does not knowing her business have to turn into strange speculation and then outright insinuations?
Hello. Just found this site. Years ago, I went up to the Ashram in upstate New York with a group of friends to attend the intensive. It was quite an experience. The week we were there, was the exact moment when the brother and sister were breaking up. Definitely tension in the air. At one point, the brother was playing drums during a program & said "Baba, help" -- not sure what that meant. I definitely felt something when receiving Shaktiput from Gurumayi. I was at the back of the room, yet felt a force touch my head. I haven't been back, although I spent some time in my local Sidda ashram. There were too many issues -- the lavish lifestyle of the two -- the brother was driving around in a Jaguar & Gurumayi was staying in a beautiful place, while the rest of the people were in rather humble hotel rooms at the ashram in Fallsburg. The food was pretty bad. The money to attend certainly did not go into the amenities. I did enjoy the chanting and loved the bus ride up to the ashram from Manhattan. I believe the business of the guru has corrupted it -- not sure if that's the fault of Gurumayi or the people around her. Probably a combination of both. Their endless asking for money plus $500 for a webcast is out of touch with reality. There was also no financial accounting as far as I can see. The one good thing I will never regret, is learning about Muktenanda. He was the real deal. I regret being a little too late to meet him personally. I think of him still today. These days, I am into Pema Chodron, whose common sense advice speaks to me in a way I can understand.
It is the first full moon of July, the second is July 30th I think. I'm celebrating two Guru Purnimas. I received spontaneous Shaktipat in May 1981 and thought I was going crazy. Thankfully, I was introduced to Siddha Yoga in July 1981, 34 years ago. It resonated with me because of the esoteric knowledge of Kundalini Shakti and Spiritual Practices. This was not available as it is now and was a tremendous blessing. I underwent a transformation that opened my heart and sharpened my intellect. I never agreed with all the teachings or went along with everyone. Living in the Indian ashram in 1983-84 and traveling in India and Nepal was miraculous and life changing. Gurumayi directed me to a live of service and I just finished a 22 year career in CPS. She gave me the spiritual name of Lord Krishna's adoptive mother, Yashoda, so it all made sense and gave me support in difficult times. I've gone on to another yoga master, Baba Hari Das of Santa Cruz, and a Buddhist practice. I think the thing that was missing for most of Siddha Yoga was the final step of the guru-disciple relationship -- co-creation. I am thankful to all my spiritual teachers and in retirement hope to devote more of my time to this aspect of my life. Om Shanti Om
Yashoda, I know another gal who did well with Gurumayi, so I think I know a bit of where you are coming from. In my opinion, it proves the point that functionally, a living guru who presented as Gurumayi does is not much different than a stone murti in actual effect, provided that the devotion is sincere. As a figurehead for the Indian tradition and what folks think that stands for, you couldn't do much better than her. However, as all the rest, she's just another person who found herself in a position and learned it had its benefits and came to be comfortable in that ease. Once she made her stake, she quit, other than to have a few devotees around her to perhaps remind her of the good old days.
But you don't have to lift the lid on the Siddha Yoga story very far before you catch some funny smells. This is also an illustration of my point, that living gurus are little more than animated Ishta Devatas, that they can misbehave badly, and often.
That all said, I hope your retirement works out fabulously for you. I'm afraid that I'll be working until Ma cuts me down, so hats off to you and good luck down the road. --jody.
Gurumayi woke the artist in me it was my Seva in South Falls-burg it was ego consuming which I am grateful for ! I have left Siddha Yoga I since have returned to my original faith the love
For Christ teachings I also during my time in Ganeshpuri where I met her then time in South Fallsburg learned much about myself and still am, I feel grateful for the experience of something so different from what I knew I feel that we all need to experience of "The peace which passes all understanding"
I do more now. I pray that Gurumayi will experience the Freedom and Peace she deserves after all like all of us She is only human!
God bless you Gurumayi ����
Kirti/Carmen
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