Chinmoy's Complainant

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

Gary Falk is the unrepentant class clown of the Guruphiliac discussion list. But just underneath his humor lurks a serious student of the nondual truth. He's been around the block a few times, once with Sri Chinmoy, the weight-lifting braggart who's also been caught with his hands in the cookie jar, so to speak.

Here Gary uses the False Guru Test to come to the conclusion that he wronged his former guru. It turns out Chinmoy isn't quite as bad as Gary thought he was:

For Immediate Release: An Open Letter To All Sincere Seekers

SWADHIN GARY FALK HEREBY ADMITS TO TRASHING THE NAME OF HIS OLD GURU, SRI CHINMOY!

Dear Sincere Seekers of America and Beyond,

When I first discovered the list below, I hurriedly scanned the categories depicting classic characteristics of phony gurus and false Avatars, to see just how many my old guru, Sri Chinmoy, had developed in his unbridled quest for spiritual "name and fame", not to mention, "woman and gold."

Because of the knowledge gained during my relatively close association with His Holiness Sri Chinmoy for 10 years, I almost immediately assumed he had at least 20 of the 26 Characteristic of the Phony Guru that are described below. I immediately and excitedly wrote to many of you and said that Maestro Sri Chinmoy, based on my deeply intimate personal connection with the Indian Spiritual Master and Spiritual Leader of the United Nations, had developed, over the course of the 10 years in which I was a disciple of Sri Chinmoy who claimed in my presence that he IS INDEED the promised and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu,i.e., the Kalki Avatar His very Self, as many as 18 of the traits and tendencies of the Classic Spiritual Charlatan and Phony Guru.

Well, Lo & Behold! Or, as they say, "Upon further review," I can see now, merely by scanning the full list, that the World's Strongest Yogi, Sri Chinmoy, and world record holder of the most weight ever lifted by one Avatar of the Age, 7,000 lbs. and there is even a video tape in Sri Chinmoy's possession that "proves" it, probably has less than 15 of the personal habits of your garden variety Spiritual Scam Artist.

In subsequent press releases, when I have time, I will go down the list one by one, and JUST IN CASE you're interested, and describe my OWN and not ANYBODY ELSE's, experience of living in close association with a man who not only claims Enlightenment, God-Realization, Self-Realization, and every other kind of Realization anyone could POSSIBLY have, but that HIS "Transcendental" brand of Divine Consciousness is far BEYOND anything that has gone before it, and the likes of which will not be Gracing the planet for another 500,000 years at least. And YES, folks, that is a quote, you can't bet the ranch on it.

Oh I almost forgot: The Alo-Devi Story, or How The Mother of the Universe lost both Her Divine Realization and position as co-head of Sri Chinmoy Centre Church, Incorporated, a non-tax-paying "religious and educational" organization, in ONE FELL SWOOP!

But enough for now. I see it's getting rather late.

Thanks for the rant. I always enjoy setting the Record straight. To the best of my ability of course, allowing a LOT of wiggle-room for the fact that ALL things are filtered through the mind of an apparent entity and therefore are both totally, if necessarily, subjective.

Let me just throw in one more thing, just in case you're still guru shopping. I have found, in my 35 years or so as an off-and-on seeker, that ABSOLUTELY the GREATEST GURU that I have EVER met, is the one that's right inside my mind.

The guru within is what this blog is all about, folks. If your guru isn't helping you to find yours, dump the clown and move on. It might be the best thing you ever do for yourself.

Chinmoy Exploits Obesity For PR Stunt

File under: Satscams and The Siddhi of PR

Strong-man fauxru Sri Chinmoy is up to his usual attention-seeking antics again. This time it was to lift Michael Hebranko, once known as the 1000-Pound Man. You may remember hearing about some guy who was so heavy in 1999 that they had to remove the side of his house to get him out. He's down from 1100 lbs. to a more manageable 450 now, which is what Chinmoy "lifted" with the help of "an elaborate contraption":

Chinmoy, seated in an elaborate contraption with Hebranko standing on a platform above his head, lifted the 458-pound man with his arms. The lift was almost imperceptible - Hebranko probably moved less than inch - but the move delighted the 300 or so Chinmoy followers watching the event...

It's a good thing Chinmoy packed the audience with sycophants, because it doesn't sound all that impressive to us.

We're sure Jack LaLanne could easily kick his ass.

Strongman Guru Strokes Out

File under: Final Satsang

Famous health nut guru Sri Chinmoy often performed public feats of "strength" with a group of his devotees around him to reflect back his glory just in case the regular folks didn't get how awesome he was. He also messed with Carlos Santana back in the day. And he's been busted with his hands where they didn't belong. Now he's showing off in heaven, or wherever look-at-me-type gurus go when they die:

Chinmoy Kumar Ghose known as “Sri Chinmoy,” died this morning from a stroke at the age of 76.

Not surprisingly, he's turned a few folk off in his time. One of them happens to be famous cult-buster Rick Ross, who isn't very sentimental about the fact Sri Chinmoy is with us no more:

No doubt the guru’s dutiful devotees will want to canonize him or somehow lionize their dead leader. But the legacy that the man has left behind is dubious at best.

There is certainly a residue of sizable assets though, which Chinmoy’s loyal lieutenants will be vying over.

However, wouldn’t the best use of whatever money and property the guru left behind be setting up some sort of fund to help the many people and families he reportedly hurt?

It's all in Rick's farewell to a man he considered a manipulative cult leader. It's hard not to agree, yet we still feel we should take off the turban for a sec to honor the passing of Sri Chinup. He may have been a dirty old man who loved to show off, but he did establish a sizable movement around himself which he promoted effectively. As misguided as this effort may have been at its worst, Sri Chinmoy has surely left an indelible print (some might call it a stain) on the fabric of yoga culture in the U.S. today.

Sri Chinmoy Cooks Up Some Good Ones

File under: Wackadoo Gurus

Strong-man showoff guru Sri Chinmoy must have popped a few blood vessels in his brain from lifting all those weights. From his new book, The Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy:

“When one disciple’s father died, he was asked if he had known any spiritual people in his life. He said, ‘Yes, I know my daughter’s friend,’ who happened to be me. When my name was said, he was then able to leave the world of torture and go to a very good higher world.”

“One of my sisters died when I was 18. I followed my sister’s soul for about three hours in the world of death. With your consciousness you are flying like a kite. I was fighting with three death forces that wanted to snatch away three of my close disciples…”

“A young wife was terribly afraid of staying alone at night, so the Master said to the husband… I shall take care of her. That night she saw the Master in a corner of the room, not the Master’s physical body but his luminous subtle body. The Master said to her, ‘My child, until your husband comes back, I will be here to protect you.’”

“If one enters secret domains where the inherent powers of the cosmic realities exist, one can get the capacity to do anything” but he basically believes, “My teaching is not a kind of miracle-mongering. My business is to help the aspirant to reach God.”

A name that takes souls to heaven? Chasing ghosts in the afterlife and fighting with Death? Bi-locating in a luminous form to comfort the wife of a disciple? Er... last time we checked, those were all full-blown miracles... or symptoms of acute psychosis. Yet it's just your standard holy man hyperbole, courtesy of the Hindu mythology concerning godmen and their own desire for name and fame.

Chinmoy is playing a very well known tune. But it's just so goddamn old. And more importantly, it's basically just a fairy tale. Gurus use this fairy tale to dress themselves in the drag of a fantastic being and thus make themselves more attractive to potential devotees, at least those who are willing to believe in this nonsense. [Ed.note: We once did ourselves. See where we are coming from?]

We suppose the guy is getting old and looking for one last hurrah. Who can blame him for pumping some fantasy into his story as a way to kick up the adoration and adulation around him... before he says his own name and goes on to his own "higher world".

It would almost be quaint were it not for the fact that these ideas are preventing his devotees from becoming self-realized themselves. Instead of pearls of wisdom, Chinmoy is serving up hot, steaming plates of stinking occlusion, the sewage of gurudom. Out of his need to be a big man, his devotees suffer yet more delusion; their own awakening delayed by what they've been led to believe by the likes the lying Sri Chinmoy, and quite a few of the rest of those you could call big time gurus today.

Sri Chinmoy's World PR Run

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Sri Chinmoy's World Harmony Run has made its way from New York City to Philadelpha in the last week. The annual torch relay is slated to cover 25,000 miles in 70 countries. "Running under the hot sun is a great feeling, especially when you're doing something really big for the world. There's an intense energy," enthused one of the torch-bearers. That sounds vaguely sexy to us—in a pound-nails-into-your-skull sort of way.

While we'd like to think the World Harmony Run will actually result in some world harmony, we're a bit more realistic than the idealistic runners. What is certain to result is Chinmoy getting mentioned in most of the local papers of the towns the run passes through. That's quite a PR harvest for the muscle-head guru this year.

And Lord knows he needs it. With an active anti-Chinmoy community sharing his penchant for special workouts with female devotees, Chinmoy needs to do a lot more than fake an association with the U.N. and get some photo-ops with the pope to shave off that bad PR shadow of his.

Chinmoy Aborted Carlos' Kid

File under: Blind-As-A-Bat Devotion

Deborah Santana (wife of Carlos Santana,) in her memoir, "Space Between the Stars: My Journey to an Open Heart," reveals a tragedy wrought by her former guru, Sri Chinmoy:

As they plunged deeper into their spiritual lives, they were introduced to the guru Sri Chinmoy by guitarist John McLaughlin, and soon became disciples. At the guru's urging, Deborah opened a vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco, Dipti Nivas, that she ran for a decade with her older sister, Kitsaun, who still works with Deborah in the Santana office.

When she became pregnant and Chinmoy believed that a baby would detract from her devotion to him and her spiritual quest, she ended the pregnancy. Disillusioned, she and Carlos broke off relations with the spiritual leader in 1981.

Had she decided to be disillusioned by Chinmoy's selfish advice before she got her abortion, (he obviously didn't want the kid cutting into his slice of the Santanas' net worth,) her child could have made Page Six hundreds of times by now, perhaps even giving the Goddess Hilton a run for her money-maker. Or more likely, a pounding on her money-maker, regardless of the sex of the would-have-been child.

What To Do After A Dead Guru

File under: Backroom Gurudom and Final Satsang

There's a nice article in the Village Voice about the sizable community of devotees that Sri Chinmoy left behind. We were especially entertained by the author's initial experience covering the guru most famous for showing off:

Two decades ago, when I was writing for USA Today, I was dispatched to the Aspiration Ground to watch Chinmoy lift a house. Instead, I saw what looked like a garden shed connected to a calf-raising machine. To add to the domestic aura, there was a flickering television inside, among other items. With his followers gleefully chanting, the guru scrunched his shoulders under the mechanism's padded arms and stood on his toes, tipping the structure slightly.

With the all-powerful guru gone, an ad-hoc committee of senior disciples is going to take over:

"There will not be a successor to Sri Chinmoy," said the spokesperson, "because no one has the same spiritual height, the same realization."

Ultimately making Sri Chinmoy an utter failure as a guru.

Pogo Gogo Disciple

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Meet Ashrita Furman. He holds the world record for holding the most world records:

In the last 30 years, Furman has climbed Mount Fuji on a pogo stick. He has somersaulted the entire length of Paul Revere's ride. In Cancun, Mexico, he played 434 games of hopscotch in 24 hours. He ran seven miles in Cairo while balancing a pool cue on his finger. And in 2002, the Guinness company invited him to London, to set his 100th record: spinning a 16-foot-diameter hula-hoop around his waist three times.

What got into him to do all that, you ask? A world record breaking guru, of course:

His talent and inspiration, he said, comes from a spiritual quest for joy that began under Indian guru Sri Chinmoy's tutelage in 1970. When Furman tells his story, his face takes on a childlike animation; his eyes sparkle as he remembers the day he realized his dream.

We guess that must have been to become an obsessive fitness freak, because no matter how many world records one may possess, it all has as much to do with the truth of the Self as our dog's ass.

Frankly, we're a bit shocked Chinmoy let his devotee blow him away in the spiritual he-man category. Perhaps Ashrita is being groomed for Chinmoy's sweat pants after the old man lifts that last barbell. We suggest Ashrita wash them before putting them on. Chinmoy's been known to have been dirty in them more than once.

Muscle-Head Guru Works The Pope

File under: Hands Where They Don't Belong and Back-Room Gurudom

That weight-liftin', macho-man fitness coach and guru, Sri Chinmoy, was quite busy during the reign of pope John Paul II. Chinmoy was granted 6 audiences with the pope, which resulted in 6 photo-ops, which now allows Chinmoy to present himself as a world spiritual leader.

We say nice job, Sri C. This has us wondering if he gave the pope any tips for "working out" the nuns at the Vatican. It seems that Chinmoy likes to workout his "love muscle" with some of his female devotees, so it makes good ecumenical sense that he'd share that wisdom with the pope.

By way of [Cult News]

Sri Chinup's Media Send-Off

File under: Mahasamadhis and The Siddhi of PR

We find it perfectly fitting that a guru who used the press to self-promote as much as Sri Chinmoy gets a mention in an end-of-the-year article about those who've left this plane, appropriately entitled: "Artists, Entertainers Who Died in 2007."

Sri Chinmoy, 76. Indian-born spiritual leader; inspired followers to perform various athletic feats.

We can't say we found his rigged lifting as being very artistic, or even that much of an entertainment. It certainly had nothing to do with self-realization, Chinmoy's or anyone else's.

A Childhood Hell In Chinmoyland

File under: The Siddhi of PR

This is much like what you'd expect from a guru whose primary claim to fame was performing elaborately-staged demonstrations of the fact he was a musclehead:

Tamm... depicts a charlatan who masqueraded as a god and convinced hundreds of thousands to worship him. Her parents were among the first disciples. Chinmoy arranged a "divine marriage" between a Yale-educated hippie and a single mother, then told them to practice abstinence. (Most disciples, however, were directed to remain single.) When Tamm's parents disobeyed and conceived her, Chinmoy invented a myth to explain her birth. He declared her the "Chosen One," a miracle child he'd selected to be his most devoted follower...

She also says the guru controlled his pupils by pitting them against one another. He created a caste system that allowed him to demote or promote members at will. He encouraged members to keep tabs on one another and turn in rule-breakers. Tamm says he once held a fundraiser where disciples paid $25 apiece to hear him describe their worst qualities. At one meditation session, he held a contest for the ugliest girl--a young member with a boil on her face won the distinction.

That's some crazy kind of karma, your "Chosen One" being the instrument of your life's true rendering. Sri Chinmoy clearly made the right choice in Jayanti Tamm.

Chinmoy's PR Run Hits Steeler City

File under: The Siddhi of PR

It's been a while since we've been aware of that muscle-head mac daddy Sri Chinmoy's World Harmony Run (and media visibility effort) as it winds its way around the 48, now in Pittsburg, Penn.

Frankly, we're a bit surprised at how little coverage of the 11,000-mile event has surfaced online. It would seem that the U.S. media has little interest in a guru who isn't female and hugs people for completely different reasons than Ammachi.

We applaud the basic message of the effort, let's help instead of hurt, but doubt that a group of faux-olympic torch carriers is going to make much of dent. But Chinmoy's name is getting in at least some of the papers, so harmonious or not, "progress" is being made with each media exposure opportunity to bring a bit of positive change for world transformation.

Crazy Pat's Miraculous Feat

File under: Wackadoo Gurus

Examining a Christian fundamentalist preacher, in this case Pat Robertson, is a first for this blog. We normally wouldn't pay him no mind, mostly because he believes he works for the Lord rather than believes he is the Lord. But he's certainly a wacky dude who always seems to be apologizing for saying something stupid or making lame predictions after his little talks with God. He recently revealed that God told him hurricanes and possibly a tsunami would hit the coast of the U.S. this year. Needless to say, a five-year-old with a minimal understanding of meterology could have prognosticated that one.

What put Crazy Pat on our radar was his recent claim to have leg-pressed 2000 lbs. This was apparently made possible by drinking an "age-defying" protein shake made with soy protein isolate, whey protein isolate, flaxseed oil and apple cider vinegar. We're not seeing which of those ingredients would allow an old man to do what some claim is impossible. And as you might expect, it's all a bit dodgey anyway:

One of the photos Vasko released had a digital date stamp of 1994, although she said Robertson performed the leg press in 2003. Vasko said that perhaps the date was not set properly on the camera.

The fact that they didn't tell us about Robertson's Herculean feat when it happened makes it all seem even shadier.

Making claims of superhuman strength has pretty much been the exclusive song and dance of Sri Chinmoy. With Pat stepping up on stage with him, could a rivalry be in the works? If so, it's Chinmoy's turn to impress.

Pat's got a little bit of the Madharishi in him as well, but in reverse. He fully expects the end of the world any day now. You know, Gideon's trumpet blowing, four horsemen destroying. And then Jesus throws Satan into hell and Heaven comes to Earth and Pat gets to hang with the Lord. At that point it becomes as quaint as the Kracki's little 2012 pipe dream.

We don't think so, fellas. Maybe some shit is going to go down, but none of us knows exactly when or how. Poor old Pat seems to be losing his mind over the fact that Revelations ain't quite kicking in. With a mountain of failed predictions piling up in his backyard, perhaps these claims of awesome strength will keep that halo spinning over his head for just a little while longer.

The Varieties Of Space-Daddies

File under: Gurubusting

We've told you before, and this won't be the last time you'll hear it from us: the commenters here rock! There is just so much good information in the comments sections of this blog that it makes us positively giddy. (The 10" of snow on the ground at Guruphiliac HQ may have something to do with that as well.)

Today, David "The Blade" drops his science about space-daddies and mommies, a term we coined to describe the make-it-all-ok with a [insert your guru's shtick here, be it a look, gaze, glance, hug, squeeze or whatever other nonsense they've come up with]-type gurus that are making the rounds in the world today:

The Blade's Space-Daddy/Mommy Glossary with Examples

Space-Daddy Explicator:
Makes it pretty clear that he is to be your space-daddy, and if you know what's good for you, you'll be his little chela.

Examples: Adi Da, Andrew Cohen, Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy, ...

Space-Daddy Silent Cultivator:
Never claims space-daddihood explicitly, but cultivates it through his organisation

Example: Maharishi, [Ed.note: And Sri Sri!]

Space-Daddy Repudiator-Cultivator:
Explicitly tells you not to make him a space-daddy, then makes himself a space-daddy by cultivating it through his life and organization, just like the silent cultivator.

Example: J. Krishnamurti, [Ed.note: And Swami Nithyananda.]

The above show people whom I believe fit decisively into those three categories. Other people skirt the categories, in certain aspects or times behaving as if they belong to one category, then moving into another category in another aspect or time.

Most space-daddies these days (except the extreme explicators) have some element of 'repudiation'. If you are getting into the game, this is important to know because many people think that when they hear a little repudiation of space-daddihood from their space-daddy, that he isn't a space-daddy. Don't be overly impressed when you hear something like 'You mustn't put me up on a pedestal. You must think for yourself'. Or credit being given to your own nervous system or Guru Dev. Think again! Think like a woman thinks when she hears 'I don't go after women for their bodies'.

The lower down they are in those categories, the deeper is the denial of the followers that the person they are following a space-daddy.

Now we have a taxonomy of space-daddies & mommies. As soon as we read the description of the space-daddy repudiator-cultivator, Swami Nithyananda's noble, yet somewhat comically stereotypical Hindu visage jumped into view. A perfect example of what "The Blade" has shared with us today.

So today the turban comes off so we can take the dust of the feet of "The Blade".

Guru "Tests" The Brides

File under: Hands Where They Don't Belong

Ex-Moonie fugitive guru Jung Myung Seok likes to copy his former mentor Sun Myung Moon by holding mass weddings as a way to increase cult membership and filiality. He also likes to make sure the brides are in good working order before their marriages:

Members are required to submit the results of health checks. Women are personally interviewed by Jung and asked about past romances.

Jung sometimes sexually assaulted the women during those interviews, former cultists said.

Speaking of randy gurus, the world-record busting Sri Chinmoy has found another badge of honor to stick on his pride-filled chest; he just completed the composition of his 13,000th song in Bengali. That's 13,000 songs hardly anyone will hear, but we're sure their din fills the mind of their boastful composer and the devotees who unfortunately get subjected to listening to them.

Hurricane Opportunity Attracts Sri Sri

File under: Back-Room Gurudom and The Siddhi of PR

Not one to pass up an opportunity to increase his name and fame, our favorite self-glorifying soothsayer, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, has landed in Texas to recruit devotees provide disaster relief for the survivors of the recent Gulf Coast hurricanes. His trauma relief mini tour is keeping him and his entourage mighty busy:

Over 20 trained trauma relief experts of the two organisations are providing relief workshops for over 500 people who survived the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina...in Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Baton Rouge and Louisiana.

We wonder if these "workshops" involve learning how to breathe properly, and where to go to learn more about these important life-enhancing techniques.

Sri Sri seems to have quite a talent for making self-promotion and grandstanding look like disaster relief and peace-making. Not unlike the acts of the muscle-headed Sri Chinmoy or private jet-flying Prem Rawat. Even Ammachi makes an occasional appearance on this stage, although her $22 million-plus tsunami relief blockbuster and $1 million hurricane relief production make their combined acts look like a 3-year-old's basement puppet show.

Fave Guru Stories

File under: Reference Library

We came upon Our Favorite Guru Stories today, a collection of ex-devotee accounts of their experiences with Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy, Swami Muktananada, Swami Chetanananda [Ed.note: Definitely not the Swami Chetanananda of the Vedanta Society of St. Louis.] and Guru Maharaji, aka Prem Rawat, who has been on a bit of a tear trying to rehabilitate his image lately.

Sri Sri's D.C. Building Buy Dies

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's effort to expand his Art of Living Foundation into the nation's capital has been dealt a fatal blow by D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams. It seems the Mayor thinks the Old Naval Hospital would make a "wonderful" mayoral residence, and so he nixed the plans of the two restoration bidders, one of whom was Sri Sri.

Could this be a maneuver by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon to protect his Washington turf from a competing world spiritual leader? Already the owner of the Washington Times and having deep connections to the political machine, it makes sense for Moon to keep alternative spirituality at bay in the D.C. environment. He's probably having a very difficult time maintaining his own credibility as a world spiritual leader in an arena now overrun by the Christian Right, most of whom surely look upon the World Unification Church as a Satanic play for cultural influence, although we imagine they still have their hands out to Moon when reelection time comes round.

It looks like Sri Sri's been outplayed on this one. As a heathen Hindu, he has even less credibility than Moon. Unless he starts throwing major dollars around, he's going to remain just another Hindu guru working an association with the U.N. into recognition as a world spiritual leader, as Chinmoy and Ammachi have done. But that U.N. association is another strike against him with the current regime, and in this country it's three strikes and you're out. Sri Sri's going to need a mountain of money, a major media outlet, and a faux-Christian front like Moon's to gain any traction inside the Beltway next time.

When Bhakti Breaks: Ex-Devotee Websites

File under: Reference Library

Ex-devotee groups were among the first to use the net effectively as a means to drop their message into the global mind. The gurus they were dropping dime on soon followed with their own websites, and the battles have raged ever since.

• www.leavingsiddhayoga.net
Ah, Gurumayi! She is certainly a rare flower: the hot guru. But sometimes folks decide she's not for them and they want to leave. Then the poop hits the fan. That's common when people think their guru is God. Why would a rational person leave God?

• www.chinmoycult.com
Sri Chinmoy is the macho-man guru, often quoted bragging about his athletic feats. He apparently exercised his love muscle on a number of his female devotees, among other alleged abuses.

• www.sahaja-yoga.org
This lady has always frightened us. If the site is to be believed, Nirmala Devi is a classic example of borderline personality disorder. She claims that her simple meditation technique results in instant self-realization. Classic satscamming as well.

• www.kashiashram.com
Ma Jaya is another iron-fisted lady according to her ex-devotees. We hear she arranged a beat down on Bhagavan Das, so we're inclined to believe them.

• www.ex-premie.org
We remember seeing flyers for this guy when he was a 14-year old guru. He's been doing it since he was eight, so Prem Rawat has had a long time to collect ex-devotees and be accused of the usual: sex, coercion and a lavish lifestyle.

• www.saiguru.net & www.exbaba.com
Sathya Sai Baba is now more famous for being a pedophile than he is as an avatar. There's even been a BBC expose, yet he still rakes in millions with a few simple parlor tricks and the overly-wishful thinking of his devotees. Having his hands in the pockets of the Indian government hasn't hurt either.

• www.yoganandarediscovered.com & www.anandaanswers.com
versus
• www.anandauncovered.com & www.anandainfo.com
These dueling, double hatchet-jobs are the result of a struggle that had its genesis in Daya Mata's successful 1962 coup at the SRF, when she took control and ejected Swami Kriyananda. He founded and now runs Ananda as Donald Walters. They've been playing arch-nemesis for one another ever since.

• www.saibaba-aclearview.com
And then there's this curiosity. This site belongs to a Sathya Sai Baba devotee who believes the stories of sexual abuse, and yet still regards his guru as an avatar. We find this approach refreshingly modern. It reflects a truth that we've come to recognize ourselves. Gurus are always, first and foremost, people. They don't always do the right thing, but they may still know the real truth.