Reasons To Leave Ammachi

File under: Amma-All-Over-The-Planet and Satscams

These are the reasons Gail Tredwell, Amritananda Mayi's (Ammachi's) closest personal assistant for 20 years, felt she needed to escape the ashram:

1. Loss of faith
   
2. Not happy for years
   
3. No harmony amongst seniors
   
4. No manners from the seniors
   
5. Too much politics between the seniors
   
6. No love between the seniors
   
7. I felt extremely unloved
   
8. And unsupported
   
9. And untrusted
   
10. Absolutely worn out on every level
    
11. Too much stress
    
12. Routine too gruelling
    
13. Never any concern given for physical well being nor emotions which are also a very important part of spirituality
    
14. Partiality shown between the men and women, east and west, rich and poor
    
15. Swamis arrogance, back stabbing, cruelty, hatred, power struggles.
    
16. Amma's obvious favouritism towards them
    
17. Giving too much money and gold to her family members and at the same time denied Suneeti private hospitalisation.
    
18. Too many secret things going on.
    
19. Too much scheming, plotting, planning and suspicion
    
20. No sweet spiritual feeling of love or compassion from amma behind the scenes only anger, gossip, criticism, revenge, suspicion, business, violence or secret meetings with the swamis.
    
21. Terrorism - in a subtle sense not with guns or anything.
    
22. Violence (mental, emotional, psychological and physical.
    
23. Horrible yelling and shrieking like a demon
    
24. Constant accusing me of being a good for nothing and always angry at me which always would make my guts cringe and constantly putting me down.
    
25. Not allowed to feel happy, if you do you should be guilty
    
26. Guilt if you rest, laugh, take care of your body
    
27. Money, money, money that is the main aim and you are good if you try and make as much as you can for the ashram even if you squeeze. Amma used to praise people for this
    
28. Lying, cheating
    
29. Copying from other writers and books then using amma's name on them and calling it her teachings. Also none of the speeches which were made at U.N. or Chicago were her own, they were Swamijis from some books or possibly his head that I don't know.
    
30. Having to tell untrue miracles in talks, she herself would make them up for us.
    
31. Worn out from heat and crowds and the culture of India, also the jail like lifestyle in the Indian ashram
    
32. Suppressed and oppress and even hit and abused constantly by the swamis.
    
33. Too many institutions and projects but not enough capable people to run them, therefore endless problems which would then fall on my head.
    
34. Never been understood, or acknowledges for any participation which I had in the ashram. Never been considered in any major decisions to be made even if it was which girls should get yellow. Even that swamiji would try and decide, until I would put my foot down.
    
35. Not enough protection given to girls sent to branches. Just go! Whether they have a place to stay or not no problem, whether they are by themselves in a huge school overnight, no problem.
    
36. No questions allowed. Just shut your mouth or you will be considered for treason, betrayal and a cheat, you are unloyal to amma and the ashram.
    
37. Scandalous the way the flats have been built, so much money charged, no maintenance even though the people pay the same. D block has been built right in the face of A and B. The buildings were not even finished properly with cracks everywhere and sloppy cement everywhere. Plumbing stinks and leaks all over the steps. Try and maintain and keep clean the existing ones before starting more skyscrapers.
    
38. The residents i.e. Indian are not fed properly. They are also overworked. Even amma would criticize that some girls were drinking milk, she would tell to sell all the fruit and not to give the residents. I would still give it now and then. They all look so anemic.
    
39. Amma's obvious revenge and hatred towards anybody who has left the ashram. Getting even with them, not allowing them to move on or get a job `let them suffer for a while' her famous quote. Where is understanding and forgiveness, compassion that she teaches so strongly about. Okay, yes she doesn't want to encourage anybody to leave but is keeping them in the ashram by fear of the future or the consequences healthy.
    
40. Only Hinduism is any good, narrow minded attitude of the swamis against Christianity. Only your guru (Ammachi) is any good.
    

As some of you may suspect, we are not surprised by any of this. The org could not have grown as much as it has without a ruthless monster at its head.

Ammachi is no Kali, she is Godzilla.

Ammachi Thinks You're A Bug

File under: Amma-All-Over-The-Planet and The Siddhi of PR

There's a great article in Rolling Stone about Ammachi. As it turns out, if you don't care to believe she is God, she thinks you're a mosquito or beetle:

"A mosquito will never get milk from the udder of a cow, only blood. The bee draws honey from the flower, but the beetle only drubs through the dirt."

Cult psych-ops, in our opinion, right out of the cow's (or flower's) mouth.

She's Not Perfect, World Still Turns

File under Amma All-Over-The-Planet, Hands Where They Don't Belong, and The Siddhi of PR

You didn't know this, because Amma's little helpers are very efficient at disappearing the truth:

Rishi Taavi Kassila, top promoter, tour organizer, meditation instructor and ashram resident of the Amma Mata Amritanandamayi Devi Hugging Saint cult [in Finland] has been accused of sex addiction, abuse and dishonesty. Embarrassing testimony, posted by authenticated witnesses, challenged Kassila to defend himself in court. Publicly, the Amma cult responded with a single online statement denying their connection to the accused, Taavi Kassila. Secretly, Amma's helpers were scrubbing their internet servers, erasing all evidence of Taavi Kassila's long history of public service within the Amma cult.

While it maybe not be the fault of the hugging devi herself that her org's leader in Finland allegedly got handsy with the devotees, it's certainly her fault to order a coverup. What does this prove? That Amma is a businesswoman first and foremost, and that she and her org went into high gear to protect their source of revenue. The truth, meanwhile, gets hacked to death and left in a ditch to die.

On Ammachi

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet

Amma is a symbol of the Shakti, but she herself is nothing more than a woman who seemingly cares about others and found a way to do that. The idea that she has special powers is what draws the most people to her; their faith is based on the belief that being in her presence is being in God's presence, and that their problems might be solved as a result. It's on her website. You could call it a crass manipulation, but even if she honestly cares about these people, their folk ideas of enlightenment—endorsed and enjoyed by Amma—translate into occluding notions that kill understanding rather than promote it.

The fact that she hugs so much is no proof of her divinity. There are folks who can run a hundred miles in a day. Amma's talents as a hugger are comparable to those of any leading athlete. We may treat them as gods, but nobody in sports is actually thought of as God. Is a simple white dress, good endurance, and a smile for most all it takes for a talented human being to be seen as God? It actually takes much less … just look at Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. ;)

CotHS Comes Back All 'A Bluster, But With A Bit Of Sputter

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet, Blogs of Note and The Siddhi of PR

There's more than enough hysteria to go around in the battle between the person who writes the Cult of the Hugging Saint blog and an as of yet unconfirmed action by alleged activist Ammabots.

It began with the original CotHS suddenly dropping off the grid for no reason whatsoever a few weeks ago. Google/Blogger's policy of completely ignoring any inquiries or complaints from its users has left a few folks wondering if it wasn't the work of hackers, or lawyers. We think it was a failure to respond to a notice from Blogger regarding spam blogs.

This venue was similarly inquired recently, perhaps at the behest of an army of Ammabot complainers. We imagine it would have been quite easy for them to generate a diverse selection of originating email addresses by enlisting the upper level members of the org across the world to complain about CotHS, and perhaps this blog too, as being spam sources.

But whatever the cause of the mysterious disappearance of the original blog, the new version comes out swinging for McCovey Cove:

The media image of the “hugging saint” is an entirely different story than the one that begins to reveal itself once an even moderate indoctrination into the cult occurs. Throughout the media and the various propaganda materials of the Mata Amritanandamayi mission, we are presented with the image of a tireless humanitarian, a living saint, and a compassionate woman who spends her days doling out hugs free of charge and establishing charities. Within the cult, Ammachi is worshipped as a living God, an omnipresent guru, and the embodiment of the Supreme Consciousness. Devotees believe she is intervening in their daily affairs and controlling even the smallest details of their lives. Bhajans are sung in praise of Mata Amritanandamayi, a living incarnation of God. She is often referred to as the direct reincarnation of Krishna, the Goddess Kali, and Jesus Christ. Ammachi has also allegedly claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

Amma isn't any more Kali, Krishna or Jesus Christ than any other being on this planet. Get that straight, people. She's just a girl who worked a miracle into a world-wide business and a place at the very top of the heap of big-time gurudom. She got there by peoples' own notions about the presence of divinity and suddenly found herself surfing on a wave of spiritual ignorance. She's been riding that wave across the world annually for at least two decades now.

We're throwing our turban down in admiration for the author of CotHS, despite some unfortunate chatter about psychic attacks. The only agency of any such "attack" is fear, not spiritual truth. We usually recommend certain chill-out-inducing herbal treatments for this sort of thing... or recommend that people stay away from said treatments. And while a little bit of reason can go a long way, unfortunately, wrong reason often goes bad in a big way.

Amma will answer to the Ma she emulates, just like everyone else. She has no more "in" with Kali than any other being on the planet or elsewhere, and the rabid devotion she encourages around herself may very well come back to bite her in the ass.

The Cult of the Hugging Saint blog is just as much an expression of Mother Kali as anything that has ever happened at any Devi Bhava that Amma has fronted in. Ma belongs to everyone, not just the slavish satsang junkies, not just folks from India, and not just a person who found herself being worshipped one day and decided she liked it.

UPDATE: Ammabot Gang Slanders On Full Auto

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet, Gurubusting and The Siddhi of PR

Joining the Cult of the Hugging Saint is like joining the Eight-Trey Gangsta' Crips, 'cause you're in it for life, Cuzz. If you do decide to get out, you better be ready for some South-Central L.A., Boyz 'N The Hood-style drive-by character assassination:

I became an ex-Amma devotee over a year ago, and these people are still talking about me and trying to ruin my name. I was mortified when someone sent me a link to the group and suggested I take a look at the prayer list and there were the names of my partner and I. I posted that I would like to be removed from the prayer list, and this infuriated her devotees.

Both my partner and I work with at-risk youth, most of whom have life threatening drug addictions. In most of our work (she is a clinical therapist and I am a volunteer) we still use our "spiritual" names and we are known within the community by these names. It recently was brought to my attention that in the Ammachi forum they were posting slanderous remarks that I am a drug addict. I don't even know who these people are, as I have never associated socially with devotees even when I was one. You can imagine the negative impact this type of libel could have on both of our work. If any of our clients happened to Google our names and read all of these false rumors of drug addiction, the end result would be a disaster. I have requested that these posts be removed immediately, but the moderator so far has refused to take action...

This type of behavior is also indicative of the way they try to malign people who leave the cult. This is why most ex-devotees leave silently with their tail between their legs and you never hear from them. I am not one of those people, and I plan to raise holy hell in any and every way possible for every minor and major issue that arises from the sickness that is Amma.

So here we have another stellar example of Amma's love in action. Ourselves being the victim of an almost identical slander and libel campaign online, we can relate. Unfortunately, it appears that only lawyers billing hundreds of dollars to draft letters, motions and subpoenas seem to get anything done with the big context providers these days. Until you are willing to shell out those kind of shekels, you just have to learn to suck it up and take it.

Ah, the joys of online living, brought to you this time by the Goddess of "Love" and her (not the funny kind of) hysterical minions.

Update: The CHS Dope-Ay Rollin' Ignorant gang is still on the attack:

Over the past two days, I have received no less than 20 e-mails from devotees, most of them anonymous. Of all of these e-mails, three of them threatened physical harm to myself and my family, they claimed to know where I live and one claimed that they could easily find out personal information on me from my old Amma retreat registrations. The gist of this was that basically Amma "protects" her devotees and that I am slandering Amma by speaking up about these people launching character assassination on me.

I've also received e-mails accusing me of being a fanatic and wanting to know why I am visiting the Amma Yahoo groups if I am no longer a devotee. As I explained, I visited this group when I was told that they were involving me in their prayer list and making accusations of drug addiction. The Cult Of The Hugging Saint website has also had to delete handfuls of e-mails regarding this situation. As you can see, the typical reaction of devotees towards those who speak up is in full swing.

The new theme song of the Ammachi org:

The "Hug" That Killed A Blog

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet, Gurubusting and The Siddhi of PR

For the supreme Goddess of the Universe, Ammachi seems somewhat overly concerned with her less-than-glowing online press, because it appears that Blogger has pulled the plug on the Cult of the Hugging Saint blog. Gurubuster Bronte Baxter contacted the author this morning to inform him that his site got disappeared:

Thank you SO MUCH for e-mailing me this. I had no idea there was anything wrong with the site. Now I see that the site has been completely removed. It is deleted entirely from the web and even when I log into my Blogger account, it does not show in my account. I am very upset about this and cannot imagine how this could have happened. I suspect foul play. There is no way to get in touch with Blogger, but there was an option that said "Restore a blog that I accidentally deleted". I am hoping that by submitting this, someone will get in touch with me and/or restore the blog. I know that I didn't accidentally delete it because I hadn't even logged in recently other than to post the last post that I posted.

The only other thing I can figure is that somehow the blog was reported for a bogus "terms of use violation" of some sort. Like if they tried to claim "hugging saint" was copyrighted or libelous or something and then Blogger removed it. I can't imagine that...and it sounds pretty far fetched. I wouldn't put anything past her organization. The reason why I think it is something like that is because I can still log into my blog account. Besides, they would have had to hack my actual computer to get the login and password for blogger.

Is Ammachi really so petty as to squash what amounts to a mere drop in the ocean of manic devotion to her? We'll let you know as soon as we hear just who it was who hugged the Cult of the Hugging Saint to death.

Amma Crosses Picket Line For Second Year

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet and The Siddhi of PR

For the second year in a row, Amma has ignored the plight of Los Angeles' working poor:


Nice way to show us how to love, Amma.

Gurubuster Works It Out On The Stage

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet, Gurubusting and The Siddhi of PR

Sujit Saraf appears to be a kindred soul to any reasonable gurubuster:

Concurrently with Amma’s tour, I inaugurated my annual hand-wringing ceremony, asking myself as I do once every year: What am I to do about all these gurus? After all, one does not even have to be an atheist to recognize imposture, but merely possess a scientific temper, one that tries to explain physical and natural phenomena on the basis of generally accepted scientific principles and, in the absence of such an explanation, refuses to believe in them. Should I grin and bear it while Sathya Sai Baba produces gold chains from his sleeves? Do I make no comment on the Art of Living courses, Ammachi’s hugs, or the hundred other babas and matas who will touch you with their feet, hands, tongues, tongs, poles, prods and tridents? Perhaps I had best keep quiet, for everyone knows that our gurus count prime ministers and presidents among their followers. We have heard of physics professors dutifully following Sai Baba to the airport in October 2007, when he was about to manifest himself on the moon. We know of CEOs who skip board meetings when the “call” comes from Ammachi. And we know, of course, that so many powerful people cannot be fooled at the same time, even less than they can be induced to part with their money without getting good value in return...

Now, I know the question has risen in many minds, and the usual answer is: Why do anything at all? The gods who walk among us, offering ashes, bananas and hugs, are harmless snake-oil salesmen. If, while peddling a useless product, they untruthfully extol its virtues, they are merely practicing the art of marketing. Which businessman would not? And any liberal will tell you that people are free to worship whom they want in a free society: Ammachi or armadillos. Besides, you never have to hear of the hullabaloo in Castro Valley if you don’t want to, so the foolishness around you does not exist unless you look for it. Sure, our godmen induce a collect retreat into infantilism, and discourage the notion that self-fulfillment can be achieved without surrendering your intelligence and common sense to a fallible human being, but they do not plan to fly planes into buildings. So let them enthrall those who would be enthralled, and let us thank God (if we are not atheists) that we are not the suckers in line.

Thus ends, usually, my annual hand-wringing ceremony, but this happy conclusion is becoming harder to reach with each passing year. My days of blissful isolation — when I could pretend that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was the guy who tugs at sitar strings — have ended with the Internet. And mailing lists. And spam. And desktop publishing. And Facebook. And the “Aasthaa Channel” on television. The empires of our godmen have grown and are growing yet larger, harnessing the Internet to such effect that it has become impossible to escape their benevolence, bestowed on you through posters and postings wherever you are, whatever you may be doing. An innocent lunch at Bhavika’s in Sunnyvale is now an Amma experience: she beams at you from a dozen posters, hugging, force-feeding bliss. Now what is a person of scientific temper to do?

In this case, write a play. Mataji will be staged by Saraf's theater company, Naatak, in July and August around the San Francisco Bay Area. It's the story of a certain nice, round Indian lady who dispenses hugs, named Mataji. We see the gal behind the glory, the fog of self-induced hagiography lifted to reveal the ordinary going-ons of human interaction in a close-knit, authoritarian-led group.

This is nothing less than a grand-slam home run for clarity for the folks of the Bay Area. We've got our eye on Sujit now, and hope to see more of his contributions to a much-needed critical understanding of gurudom inside Hinduism-based spiritual culture in the West.

Amma Satire Sets Hindu Bees Buzzing

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet and The Siddhi of PR

A comedy send-up of Amma set to air on TV tonight in South India has conservative Hindus buzzing like angry bees:

We take this opportunity to request all Hindu brothers who have legal background to file a case against Kairali for misusing AMMA's bhajan CD without consent as per the copyright act and demand strong punishment against Marxist media thugs for hurting millions of Amma’s followers.

If anyone finds this show on the Youtubes, please pass it along.

Ammachi Collects Another Movie Star, New Delhi Ashram Still Amok

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet, Ammachi's Goongate, Gurus to the Stars and The Siddhi of PR

Ammachi got another world peace award recently, this time presented to her by cougar hottie movie star Sharon Stone from the "the renowned French film organization Cinema Verite." We have to admit, these two look cute together.

Meanwhile, her gangster-employing New Delhi ashram is still taking legal action against the Green Avenue neighborhood residents for letting themselves get beat up by crowbar-wielding Ammachi devotees. A New Delhi ashram violence victim's update:

I am making a commitment that I shall not breach the peace and tranquility of the neighborhood and in case I do, I will be penalized to the extent of Rs.10,000/-which means roughly 250 USD plus a surety of the like amount implies that I produce another person who undertakes to pay another penalty of Rs.10,000/- in case he can not ensure a good behavior on my part.

Anyways, that process for which I was called has begun and we expect that it will reach a logical conclusion soon and justice would eventually prevail.

With the silence from Ammachi's home office cranked up to a deafening nothing, it appears their head-in-the-sand approach is going to be their final word on the matter.

The lady just won a global peace award despite the fact her employees in New Delhi are known to hire violent goons to accomplish surprisingly trivial goals. What a crazy world this is!

Apparently, Ammachi has two faces; one for the West and one for those who get in her way in India. Like her newest rich and famous Western devotee once said: "If you have a vagina and an attitude in this town, then that's a lethal combination."

The Green Avenue residents now know that truth all too well.

Ammachi New Delhi: The Al Qaeda Of India

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet and Ammachi's Goongate

A Green Avenue resident's wounds, courtesy of Ammachi's devotees.

Back in April this year, employees of Ammachi's New Delhi ashram placed an illegal sign in the Green Avenue neighborhood of New Delhi, India. The local residents didn't mind the sign being up for the duration of Ammachi's visit, but requested that the sign be removed after the visit was finished.

But instead of taking down the sign, employees of Ammachi's ashram violently attacked some of the Green Avenue residents in an act that was nothing less than attempted murder. With the local police department completely in Ammachi's breast pocket, the Green Avenue residents turned to the internet to get some justice. The vicious attack also got coverage in Society magazine, the Indian Vanity Fair.

After receiving no official apology or communication at all from Ammachi's home office, the illegal, offending sign was finally removed. Case closed, you'd think... Think again.

The harridan who runs Ammachi's New Delhi ashram, fronted by someone calling themselves S.K. Nair, is bringing a suit against two of the Green Avenue individuals who were viciously attacked by a bus load of Ammachi goondas. That's like being sued by the terrorists who attacked you for being attacked by them. Put another way, you tell your linebacker friends to hurt your ex-boyfriend, and then you sue your ex-boyfriend for getting in the way of their fists:

Another shocking revelation to all of us in Green Avenue Vasant Kunj are the attached notices received by Vikas and Ashwani.

Can lies ever get more blatant!!

Just when one starts believing that Amma must have put some sense into her Delhi Ashram, they again revive our memories of their vicious deed of 19th April this year when my husband was nearly killed.

Since the law enforcement and judicial establishments near Green Avenue appear to be wholly-owned by the hugging "saint", the Green Avenue residents who were viciously attacked and almost killed have to put up $250 each, just because they've been public about the fact that they were almost murdered.

Would you want a hug from this person?

Another twisted tale portending the end times? Who knows. But it does reveal that Ammachi's organization in India has a lot more in common with Al Qaeda than most of her American devotees are aware of.

Is Amma About To Get Nic'd?

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet and Gurus to the Stars

Two Australian newspapers are reporting that mega-movie star Nicole Kidman attended a satsang given by Swami Ramakrishna, a member of Ammachi's global infantilization squad. Fortunately, Nic doesn't appear to have been regressed as much as the other Ammabots, according to reports.

Garnering such a famous movie star as a devotee would be quite a pretty jewel in Ammachi's devi bhava crown. Nic would certainly trump other famous Ammabots like the Beastie Boy's Mike D. or the eternally macking Bhagavan Das.

We imagine there are feverish devotee seduction pujas being performed all over the world at this instant to help bring Nicole into the fold. It could mean millions of more dollars for Ammachi's world babyification scheme, as well as more cash to help pay for those goondas when she needs them.

Sri Sri's Latest PR Assault & Amma's Anti-Feminism

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet and The Siddhi of PR

The Art of Living's crack PR squad somehow got Reuters news agency to release another toilet bowl's worth of propaganda to the world press. This particular piece, trumpeting Sri Sri's efforts to create customers from the citizens of the Arab world, including – it was breathlessly noted – 50 people hand-picked from Iraq. The story was picked up by no less than 12 different news organizations today.

It's the usual AoL PR pabulum pimping Sri Sri to the high heavens as the neatest thing since holes in donuts. It just goes to show that a shrewd business sense, long black hair, a beard and flowing white robes worn by a monster of self-aggrandization is just about all you really need to be regarded as a saint by the media these days.

In other news, Amma has come out against admittance restrictions in Hindu temples... except the one temple that won't allow women between the ages of 10 and 50:

'With regard to entry of women of all age groups to Sabarimala, I would like to reserve my comments because if I make any statement then I would be branded a feminist,' Amma, as she is popularly known, told reporters here at her ashram.

Way to stand up for your gender, lady.

The real reason Amma won't comment on this issue is because it would enrage her supporters in the Hindu version of the Ku Klux Klan, known in India as the RSS. Allegedly, many RSS members are also members of her ashrams. It's a smart political move for the professional hugger, but once again exposes the utter hypocrisy of her movement in India, where she is much closer to a Hindu version of Pat Robertson than a white-robed Oprah.

Mamma Gets Another Whitewash

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet

CNN has just designated itself an official Ammachi hagiography supplier with this puff piece about the so-called "hugging saint." We blame the sad state of affairs that presently mires big media in the West for this latest piece of suck up journalism. Just think of a police department that is in business to aid and abet criminals, and you get the general idea. [Ed.note: From what we can tell, that sounds like a lot of police departments in India, as well as sounding quite a bit like the current executive branch of the U.S. government.]

What that means is: no discussion of Amma's involvement with rabid, racist, rightist nationalists in India, no discussion of her New Delhi ashram's love of violence, and little discussion of the millions of dollars she brings in and exactly where it all goes.

It's all just more of the same boilerplate about hugging and motherhood, and a nice, tidy denial about her own supposed divinity:

Although Amma shies away from describing herself as psychic or magical, some followers think she is divine.

That's because Ammachi is a repudiator-cultivator space-mommy. She denies her divinity while she has every single person who works for her promoting it instead. She gets to appear humble and enjoy the benefits of being seen as a living goddess.

It's just too bad most of her devotees are getting jammed up the ass with useless, superstitious nonsense about their own nondual truth. She may know very well how to act holy, but when it comes to the meat of being a guru – dispelling the darkness of delusion – she may as well be the captain of her own international streetlight demolition team.

Very Minor Victory For Amma-Violence Victims

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet and Amma's Goongate

We're a little late in reporting this, but one of the Green Avenue residents has informed us that the local cops have climbed out of Ammachi's breast pocket long enough to enforce the local community sign covenant in the suburb of New Delhi, India that saw a bus load of iron bar-wielding goons tear through the neighborhood last April:

But for one small direction board to the Amma Ashram, all the illegitimate boards have eventually been removed/got removed. The M.C.D.(Local Municipality) did enforce the law, albeit late.

Let us hope and pray that good sense prevails upon the ungodly men of the Delhi Mata Amritanandmai Ashram and nothing untoward happens again.

It kinda has us wondering, where is the good sense their Mamma was supposed to be bestowing upon them at her ashram? Or perhaps it was Mamma's "good sense" that sent them on a riotous mission in a murderous frenzy in the first place...

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anti-Ammabots Go Online

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet

We've just received notice about the creation of the Cult Of The Hugging Saint website, a much-needed critical look at Ammachi:

Welcome to cultofthehuggingsaint.com, a place for alternative views on Mata Amritanandamayi (commonly known as "Amma" or the "hugging saint" in the Western media.) We hope to be able to provide information and views that have been censored or omitted from the mainstream press, allowing visitors to make an informed decision before jumping into a potentially damaging group.

Along with the recently-initiated ExAmma Yahoo! discussion group, folks are beginning to wake up to the fact that the overly-perfumed portly lady in white isn't much more than an Indian version of Pat Robertson.

Coming soon to this blog: a time-line of the events surrounding the Green Avenue beatdown by Amma devotees in New Delhi.

The One Where We Get Accurately Quoted On Salon.com

File under: Amma All-Over-The-Planet

A few weeks ago we got a call from Erik Davis, a chronicler of those sorts of things we find ourselves interested in. He wanted to know what we thought of Amma, so we told him:

As a fan of alt-dolls and vinyl figures, I'd have to say the Amma dolls are pretty cool. But for some observers of the spiritual scene, they incarnate nothing so much as spiritual infantilism. Jody Radzik, a 48-year-old graphic designer who writes the muckraking and funny Guruphiliac blog, calls Amma a "space mommy," which he defines as a guru who fulfills "the function of a cosmic parent for insecure, self-loathing devotees." A "spiritually informed skeptic," Radzik nonetheless considers himself a devotee of Kali and a follower of Vedanta, the non-dualist summa of Hindu thought. "Vivekananda described Vedanta very simply. Everyone is God. That means that a single person can't be more god than any other person. Gurus like Amma pay lip service to the Vedanta while also presenting themselves as special beings who wield magic powers because of their divinity. But self-realization is the opposite of magic -- it's the most mundane thing in their world. It's always right there right on the end of your nose. These gurus have people looking everywhere but the tip of their nose."

Actually, we said a whole lot more than that, but Erik did a pretty good job distilling our rhetoric down to the essentials.

But we certainly don't think that every Ammabot is an "insecure, self-loathing" devotee; just those who believe she can solve all their problems with a perfume-saturated hug:

Amma herself seems to wear her robes lightly; she is a cheery woman of little education who makes no divine claims and carries an air of good-humored humility. But the lore that surrounds her -- much of which derives directly from her tight-knit group of core disciples -- is redolent with the miraculous. Many devotees, East and West, believe that Amma's divine shakti can give them children, or fix their marriages, or make them money. One of the first Amma videos that comes up on YouTube shows a reenactment of a young Amma miraculously transforming water into pudding.

You can't go back to the womb, folks, and Mommy's magic is nothing more than your own power projected onto a spiritual authority figure. Stand up on your own two feet and make your own way though life. It's what you're all doing anyway, despite your self-inflicted beliefs to the contrary. The Lord helps those who help themselves. Remember that and know that you are every single bit as divine as Amma.

Every. Single. Bit.

Amma Vs. Green Ave: Mommy Is Deaf

File under: Amma All-Over-The-World and Ammachi's Goongate

Another Green Avenue resident speaks up:

Dear All,

'Society' Magazine issue of June 2007 carried an article about the vicious attack on Vasant Kunj, New Delhi Residents, aptly titled by the 'Times of India' as 'Godwoman's ungodly men'.

Attached are two 'letters to the editor' published in the July edition of the 'Society'. One Sangeeta Prakash from Bangalore has written that Amma can not be held responsible for the misconduct of any of her millions of followers. My response as Ashwani's wife who was nearly killed on 20th April 2007 is that it was not a mere attack by Amma's followers, it was a pre-planned attack by the inmates of the Delhi Ashram/Muth and was personally supervised hands-on by a Brahamcharini named 'Rasamrita'. She is not only the incharge of Delhi Ashram but also the Principal of 'Amrita Vidyalayam' Saket, New Delhi. The most eerie fact of all is that in order to pre-empt the Police action, Rasamrita and other female inmates alleged molestation charges on Ashwani and others, knowing well that in this day and age this was the simplest way to corner a man as the onus of proof kind of shifts on to the person alleged. This would mean that the people who were brutally attacked would have to prove beyond all doubt that they had not molested but also that they were actually attacked with the intent to kill. Unfortunately, the way the Indian police & Judicial systems work, need much to be desired.

If this lady and the other ashramites truly had such high reverence for Amma and a proper well maintained hoarding/board was symbolic of their love for Amma, then why the mangled board at their Delhi ashram roof top has not been got repaired for over 2 months??. This board got mangled by a storm a few days after the goons attack on Ashwani as if it was nature's way of telling them that God above was watching and was not too pleased by what they had done!!

And the latest is that the Ashramites have removed the monsoon plantation along the colony roads leading to the Ashram on the 10th June 07. The only reason one can guess is that they want the roads to remain as wide as possible so that the followers who decend to this place in thousands during her annual visit for 3 days should be not inconvenienced due to the road loosing a wee bit of its width due to our stupid landscaping plantation.

Thanks and regards,

Anki Khurana