Excerpts from: Minutes of Community Services Committee, City of Armadale, Australia... Shri Ram Chandra Mission Application for "non-rateable" status under the "education" designation ... See PDF file, Pages 15-19 of the Minutes ... see legal advice on page 18-19 of PDF file
Comments by 4d-don are in "red italics"...
As a "Charity" receiving "tax-exempt" or "non-rateable" status under the classification of "charity" or "education", those who oppose this "gang" at SRCM (California-1997) are paying from their tax dollars for the proselytizing and the spreading of their Mission (business) in our towns and countries. Here are some legal opinions on their status. These legal opinions were gathered by the city of Armadale, Australia, where the council denied the application of SRCM (Australia) for "non-rateable status".
You can let your "Revenue and Taxation" services know about this ruling. (your e-mail will begin a review) ... don't pay for what you don't support!! In a "Direct Democracy", it's "Power to the Participants" ...). They have fooled our national "Revenue" agencies long enough, under the "education" banner.
"Obedience to a "foreign Master" at the head of a well-funded gang of international businessmen, and nationalists, coming behind a front which is really "spiritualism", or "spiritism" with egregores, and messages from the spirits of the dead", but which claims to be a "modified Raja Yoga", (the legitimate "eightfold" path of Patanjali), but asserting that their method begins at step #7 (of 8), is not "education"!! It's can be called "recreation", a private club, or an "invasion of foreign capitalist markets" by using and selling "Spirituality" and then denigrating "all RELIGIONS" as if they were not a "religion" ... and all in the name of "brotherhood", attempting to drape themselves in the UN flag with its ideals!!
The family of the founder, and many senior preceptors of SRCM (see legal documents and court cases here) do not consider themselves "brothers" of this gang who have allegedly usurped their grandfather's name and his society by re-registering the name in "California", in 1997, and allegedly placing themselves on the Board of Directors of the National SRCM associations around the globe. (see on Youtube: Exposing Sahaj Marg...)
See what is being taught about Religion (in the name of "brotherhood"), at their school:
VBSE (Value Based Spiritual Education) at LMOS (Lalaji Memorial Omega School) of SRCM (Calfornia-1997) (Shri Ram Chandra Mission) .
To see SRCM (Canada)'s financial statements and the members of the Boards of Directors: Canada Revenue Agency, Charities listings
Enter:
Shri Ram Chandra Mission
North York, Ontario
City of Armadale (Australia)
COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE
24 FEBRUARY 2004
COMMITTEE – Business Services
Rates
RATES EXEMPTION APPLICATION –
SHRI RAM CHANDRA MISSION AUSTRALIA
WARDS
Seville
FILE REF:
A239380, RAT/13
DATE
11 February 2004
REF
JEAH
RESPONSIBLE
MANAGER
Executive Manager
Business Services
In Brief:
• Non-rateable status application from the Shri Ram
Chandra Mission Australia for Lot 30 Champion Dr,
Seville Grove.
• Recommendation is that the application be declined
for the Yoga Education and Training Centre.
Strategic Implications
Long Term – to achieve a better quality of living for the people of our City.
Legislation Implications
Local Government Act 1995
S6.26 Rateable land.
(1). Except as provided in this section all land within a district is rateable land.
(2). The following land is not rateable land –
(g) land used exclusively for charitable purposes;
(6). Land does not cease to be used exclusively for a purpose mentioned in
subsection (2) merely because it is used occasionally for another purpose,
which is of a charitable, benevolent, religious or public nature.
Council Policy/Local Law Implications
Current practice is to apply the rate exemption from the date of the application, where
applicable.
Budget/Financial Implications
This rate exemption equates to a reduction in rate revenue of $2,263.00 for 2003/2004.
BACKGROUND
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission Australia purchased the property on 7 December 2001 with
the purposes of providing Raja Yoga in the transportable building on the property.
COMMUNITY SERVICES
24 FEBRUARY 2004 COMMITTEE – Business Services
Raja Yoga is Yoga of the mind/mediation/spiritual. Currently sessions are held on
Wednesday evenings and Sundays. Individual mediation sessions are offered on a Saturday
fortnight.
A sign at the entrance of the property invites new participants to come along and partake in
the “Raja Yoga”. Membership is open to all persons subject to the approval of the President
or the President’s appointed representatives.
The objectives of the Mission (as set out in the Mission’s Articles of the Association) are:
a) To operate as a spiritual seeking entity, providing meditation, discussion and spiritual
education for all, irrespective of race, religion or social and education standing;
b) To educate and propagate among the community the art and science of yoga, through
appropriate training and education programs developed to suit the present day needs;
c) To conduct research in the field of yoga, including the granting of assistance to
persons interested in carrying out this work; and
d) To establish and maintain a reference library to aid in social, moral and spiritual
development.
Clause 11 of the Articles of the Association of the Mission:
11.01
To encourage social, moral and spiritual development of the public, the
Committee of Management, with permission of the President, will
establish Branches and Training Centres of the Shri Ram Chandra
Mission at its discretion.
11.02
When a member is considered capable of imparting spiritual training, is so
authorized, and is deemed fit to carry on the work of the Mission, the
President may at his discretion appoint him or her or her in writing head of a
Branch or Training Centre as the case may be, to carry out the programme
of the Mission under instruction from the President and the Committee of
Management. Such heads of Branches and Training Centres will be
called Preceptors and Prefects respectively.
Membership is divided into two classes, being active and inactive:
An active member is one who remains regular in practice, including morning and
evening meditations, attendance at group meditations when possible and shows
interest in progressing the Sahaj Marg System.
An inactive member is one who has shown interest in the system, but does not
regularly practice. The preceptor is to determine the class of each member.
The purpose of the Mission is also stated in the by-laws as being to provide a means whereby
all interested persons seeking spirituality in the Sahaj Marge philosophy of Raja Yoga can
come together in the name of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission and its branches for meditation, discussion and education.
From the foregoing, the Mission considers itself to be a training or educational body. If the
use of Lot 30 is consistent with the objects of the Mission, it may be held by the Mission as a
training or education centre for Raja Yoga.
COMMENT (1)
Legal Opinion
Relevant extracts from past legal opinion as to the term ‘charitable purposes’ as regards to
Section 6.26(2)(g) are as follows:
• The term ‘charitable purposes’ is not defined in the Act.
• Whilst there is a definition of the term “charitable purpose” in the Charitable
Collections Act, that definition relates expressly to that statute.
• Prior Australian case law has categorized “charity” to include:
1.the relief of poverty;
2.the advancement of education;
3.the advancement of religion; and
4.other purposes beneficial to the community.
• The ambit of “charitable purpose” is extremely wide and it is almost
impossible to define the boundaries of the term. It is impossible to provide a
prescriptive list of what might or might not be charitable purposes.
• The rate objection and appeal provision of the Act are explained as follows:
“The method of objection to a decision by a local government not to
grant an exemption would be under Section 6.76 of the Local
Government Act i.e. make an objection to the Local Government with
42 days of the service of the rate notice and, if dissatisfied, appeal to
the Land Valuation Tribunal under Section 6.78” Insofar as “other purposes
beneficial to the community”, the Courts have construed the same as follows:
“The community be a definite community or section of the community, it must be identifiable as such; it must be of appreciable importance; and it must not depend on any personal relationship to a particular individual or individuals”.
and
“The benefit of a charitable trust of this class (i.e. other purposes beneficial to the community) need not extend to the whole community provided that the class to be benefited is substantial enough to give the trust a public character. What is a sufficiently substantial class may vary according to the nature of the benefit to be provided, and it is particularly important in considering this category to keep in mind the necessary element of public general utility.”
COMMUNITY SERVICES 24 FEBRUARY 2004
Rates
Legal Opinion (2)
A legal opinion was sought from Mullins Handcock Lawyers to further expand the
above legal option under “charity” in relation to the Shri Ram Chandra Mission
Australia:
• Prior Australian case law has categorized “charity” to include:
1. the relief of poverty;
2. the advancement of education;
3. the advancement of religion; and
4. other purposes beneficial to the community.
From the above, (1) and (3) are not relevant.
In relation to (4) above, when the case law is considered it becomes apparent
that something more is needed to quality for the exemption other than simply
offering yoga and meditation to the community at large through a sign on the
front of the property. To satisfy this ground of exemption, the ‘benefit’ to the
‘community’ must have some element of public benefit or of community
betterment.
In relation to (2) above education is more generally associated with a public or
private primary or secondary school. There may be some element of education
in the sense of the imparting of knowledge or information, but Raja Yoga is not deemed educational.
Even though the Shri Ram Chandra Mission has an income tax exempt charitable
organization status from the Australian Taxation Office, this is not relevant for the charitable purposes exemption in the Local Government Act.
CONCLUSION
It is therefore recommended that Council declines the request for exemption from rating as
the use of the land for yoga and meditation to all comers without following any continuous
systematic programme of instructions, which has more of a recreational flavour to it, seems remote in objects, organization and procedure from anything which may be supposed to fall within the denotation of the expression ‘education’.
RECOMMEND
That Council declines the application received from Shri Ram Chandra Mission Australia on A239380 Lot 30, Champion Drive, Seville Grove under S6.26 (g) of the Local Government Act and advises them of their right of appeal.
Moved
MOTION CARRIED/LOST ( )
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
The REAL Shri Ram Chandra Mission History (Part 5)
Taken and Translated from a research article by Alexis on his French blog: Le Projet Sahaj Marg
Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
A Vast Enterprise of Seduction
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission has started a vast enterprise of seduction of the public in the mid-90s, with the research institute founded by Dr. K.C. Varadachari as its spearhead. Spiritual psychiatry was the first theme, since abandoned because of criticism leveled against it by the media. Internal training and personal development have quickly taken over, but its favourite theme is still spiritual education based on the values of Rajagopalachari. The creation in 2005 of a school (Lalaji Memorial Omega International School-LMOIS) responsible for embodying these values is the highlight. The same year, linking with the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI) gave the Shri Ram Chandra Mission the status of international NGOs. After a sluggish start, it has exploited this recognition to its best interest, including its theme that has been the most successful, spiritual education. Thus in India in 2009, it organized a national essay contest in collaboration with the U.N. Information Center for India and Bhutan. An undeniable success of communication it hopes to expand to other continents.
* SMRTI, a Research Institute Becomes a Laboratory for Ideas
* On the path, Spiritual Psychiatry is finally abandoned
* Internal Training and External Consciousness Raising
* Provide values in Children's Education
* From Humanitarianism to the doors of the U.N.
* An apotheosis in the form of National Essay Contest
SMRTI, a Research Institute Becomes a Laboratory for Ideas
Everything started with the research institute founded by Dr. KC Varadachari. This famous Indian Professor of Philosophy, holder of the Chair of the centenary of Sri Vivekananda in Comparative Religion, Ethics and Philosophy at the University of Madras (Chennai) directs the Sahaj Marg Research Institute (SMRI) from 1965 until his death in 1971. With this institute, he brings a certain fame to Sahaj Marg, particularly in southern India where it's profile is still low, and he provides strong credibility with his personal reputation, even though Babuji and he tend to reduce it (Sahaj Marg) to a simple refinement of the Hindu Raja Yoga. (starting at step 7 of the eightfold path)
At his death, the SMRI falls slowly into oblivion, but in 1989 the institute is reborn from its ashes under the leadership of the son of Dr. Varadachari, K.C. Narayana. But he is angry with Rajagopalachari and resigns in 1991 to found a dissident organization of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission (The Institute for Shri Ramchandra Consciousness (ISRC)). And the institute sinks back into the shadows.
While an Indian (female) abhyasi takes over the leadership of the institute in India in 1997, various personalities at the heart of Sahaj Marg in turn create local variations which are more or less independent of the institute. In Switzerland, the psychiatrist Wulliemier Ferdinand and his wife launch the Western European branch of the SMRI which will become the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation in 1994. An American (female), a figure in the personal development movement, takes over the direction of the Sahaj Marg Research & Education Institute (SMREI) in the United States. This Indian (Indo-American female) director renames it the Sahaj Marg Research & Training Institute (SMRTI).
An Institute for research and education or for formation and training according to the different locales and the sensitivity of the personalities which direct it, the SMRI takes on a nebulous form in the 90s. So much so that Santosh Khanjee, the "eminence grise" of Rajagopalachari and chief organizer of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, puts things in order in January 2000. He has just created the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation Inc.. (SMSF), and registered it in Austin, Texas in 1999. He becomes the secretary of the institute, and ties it legally to this new foundation, and officially renames it SMRTI (Sahaj Marg Research & Training Institute).
Rather than a school of philosophy, the new SMRTI thus becomes a global network. The various personalities are put in line, serving as 'faculty members' of this new institute, provided they have made many studies in languages, history, philosophy, psychology or even in education. Led by Santosh Khanjee, their expansion initiatives are supervised and funded by his Foundation and the SMRTI becomes the think tank for Sahaj Marg. The only condition being, that any ideas that emerge from this suggestion box be exploitable and have promotable results.
The challenge is to create tools which are easily appropriated by the followers in their daily family, social and professional life, and to insidiously spread the ideology of Sahaj Marg into the heart of society. These tools must be scientifically and morally irreproachable and become the new communication vectors that allow the international recognition of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission and its spread around the world.
The areas of expertise, the fields of activities and the channels of communication are many and varied. This can touch on psychiatry as well as training, education, personal development and well-being, or on humanitarianism ... This concerns the executives of Sahaj Marg such as the medical professionals and para-medical teachers and their students, the entrepreneurs or the business executives ... The channels for diffusion are the broadcast media, the web, schools, the directors and the administrators of businesses ...
On the Path, "Spiritual Psychiatry" is Finally Abandoned
Shortly before this major reorganization of SMRTI, Rajagopalachari and a few hundred of his followers attend a seminar of the International Association of Spiritual Psychiatry (IASP) on http://essence-euro.org/aips/ May 8-9, 1997, in Tel Aviv, Israel, entitled: "Love and Religion - Transcending the healing power of love."
During the first morning, the only speakers at the podium are three followers of Sahaj Marg. The preceptor and Irish psychiatrist Ivor Browne begins, followed by the French full preceptor, Patrick Fleury, and the Swiss psychiatrist, Ferdinand Wulliemier. The next morning, Rajagopalachari himself closes the seminar while the host of the IASP, Jean-Marc Mantel, announces that Rajagopalachari is ready to host such a seminar for professionals at his ashram in Delhi, and maybe perhaps, close to Boston, where the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is very developed.
Shortly after, the SMRI website says that the seminar was co-organized by the IASP and itself (SMRI). It is Ferdinand Wulliemier who is the architect of this merger. The Swiss psychiatrist, who discovered the Sahaj Marg in 1985 at the age of 40, quickly became a preceptor and created the Swiss foundation Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation in 1994. Meanwhile, he practiced for 35 years as a therapist and lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and at the Center for Family Study in Lausanne, Switzerland.
He is a member of IASP and participates for the first time to its Journal, and to the Congress in 1995. On January 19, 1997, he gives a joint conference with J.M. Mantel on the theme "The impact of meditation on medicine, psychology and psychiatry" at the Congress on Medicine in the Third Millennium, organized by Strategique, in Paris. Naturally, the Israeli seminar in May following, is jointly organized by the SMRI and the AIPS. Wulliemier wastes no time ...
As a forerunner member of the current spiritual psychiatry during the 90s, Ferdinand Wulliemier introduces to the field of psychiatry, the concepts of invertendo (involutive evolution) and the "central region" so dear to Sahaj Marg, adding it to the stages of psychological evolution of the individual, a last state said to be trans-personal or spiritual. Through this "new concept of psychiatry," he explains that the spiritual path is what is best for mankind.
He especially tries to justify certain behaviors, such as that of the spiritual aspirant, falsely dependent innocent and naive, regressing into infantile behavior. Likewise, an amoral behavior by the spiritual master may look like a psychological regression, but would in fact be nothing but an expression of wisdom that eludes us, a trans-morality (excerpts from "Our evolution or involution of invertendo our growth "- IASP, Vol.3, 1995). All the mechanical sectarianism of Sahaj Marg is thus psychologically justified according to him, by spiritual psychiatry and the existence of a final evolutionary stage said to be trans-personal.
At the Congress on the "Medicine in the Third Millennium", Ferdinand Wulliemier still speaks of a state of "active passivity" to describe the behavior of followers of Sahaj Marg, after quoting their total surrender to the spiritual master. But he also reported the results of a study he conducted over a period of 8 years between 1988 and 1996, in a psychotherapy with approximately 54 of his patients, who either began to meditate, or were already meditating under the system of Sahaj Marg.
He admits to proselytizing among his patients involved in psychotherapy. But some French media outlet are concerned about such practices of psychotherapists involved in sectarian movements. Ferdinand Wulliemier is not the only follower of Sahaj Marg in question, far from it, but he is the most famous in his field. So it is the one revelation "too many" that will eventually trigger a reversal from Rajagopalachari, or his master Babuji if one believes the words from beyond the grave. (by the anonymous French Lady Medium, author of the channeled "Whispers from the Brighter World".)
This happens effectively in "Whispers" on April 10, 2001 which (according to the channeled message allegedly received by this anonymous French Lady Medium) quotes Babuji (who died in 1983) as saying:
« Be wary of the confusion that is being made between the workings of our spiritual method and all psychoanalytical practices that are currently springing up. It is not desirable to make connections between them. Criticisms currently made by the media against Sahaj Marg in France, allude to leaders who manipulate our candidates by involving them in both disciplines. It would be necessary to stop mixing it all up by considering abhyasis as potential clients and vice versa. Therapist preceptors are not serious enough on this point, hence numerous problems are already caused by this lack of vigilance.»
(for complete text of the channeled Whisper see: Persecution! Cried the Persecutors!)
Rajagopalachari has thus ordered Ferdinand Wulliemier to put it "on hold", and SMRTI ceases its activities in the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy. But never mind, the institute will quickly rebound by recycling these concepts in the fields of personal development and well-being, perhaps also more fashionable than psychiatry.
Now retired, Ferdinand Wulliemier comes out of his long period of media hibernation, but without ever making any direct reference to Sahaj Marg as he did plenty of in the past. To occupy himself, he creates a website (http://www.psychologie-therapies-spiritualite.ch) where he sells more or less spiritualized seminars, lasting 2 to 8 days, for 380 to 800 CHF (Swiss Francs) (240 to 500 €) . Then in October 2008, he co-organizes a symposium on the relationship between astrology and the therapies (http://www.symposium-astrologie-therapies.ch/) with some other prominent Swiss members of Sahaj Marg who actively participate. Thus, on the organizing committee of eight people, there are at least five members of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission.
And on May 14, 2009, he revives his favorite theme in a speech entitled "Depression and Opportunities from the Crisis" before the 20th Congress of the: Goupe Romand d'Acceuil et d'Action Psychiatrique, in Lausanne. For the psychiatrist, depression is an opportunity to rise to new evolutionary spiritual dimensions (http://www.psychologie-therapies-spiritualite.ch/articles/articles_pdf/correct_articles/ART-GRAAP.pdf). It is obviously not easy to drop such a passionate subject ...
Internal Training and External Consciousness Raising
In parallel, the SMRTI decides to invest heavily in the training of practitioners of Sahaj Marg. It rapidly develops a wide range of training tools on its website (http://www.spiritualityfoundation.org/smrti/rc/rc.html). The first of them is training online of preceptors, from October 12, 2001, soon followed by a process of certification for the programs that are offered, ensuring strict compliance with the teachings of the masters of Sahaj Marg (Chari??).
But the training tools are judged inadequate and then the institute invests directly in internal training, for those responsible for the maintenance of the ashrams, and for the newcomers to Sahaj Marg or their management. Thus, an Indian consultant is placed in charge of training maintenance workers and the managers of the Indian ashrams of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission.
Under the direction of European exiles, training courses are also offered to followers from the South, newcomers to Sahaj Marg. This school of Sahaj Marg, which Rajagopalachari nicknames his "Little United Nations", is actually called the Scholarship Training Program (STP). This is a six-week program at the Manappakam ashram, on days that begin at 5 am and end at 22 hours, and whose activities are punctuated by a bell provided by the SRCM (France). A good indoctrination, reminiscent of the Residential Schools of another age, with days where extended individual and group meditations are connected at a frenetic pace for a highly effective indoctrination of persons responsible for developing the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in regions of the world where it has little presence.
Executives of Sahaj Marg are no exception. Rajagopalachari inaugurated his first Center for Research, Education, Sadhana & Training (CREST) in the summer of 2006. Its goal is to facilitate the training of followers of more than five years, in a one month training program. Here, the hours are even more drastic: Sunrise 4:30 am, breakfast 8 am ... and evening prayer at 21h. Situated at Kagalipura, which is located some 23 km from Bangalore (Karnataka), on nearly two acres, CREST is a property of the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation and can accommodate more than sixty people. It is headed by a preceptor, a retired Indian policeman, who accounted for 183 seminarians, 542 visits per week and 400 visitors, in the report of his first year's activities.
And this is only the beginning of an intense training effort. In June 2008, Rajagopalachari opened CREST to the young public, between twenty and thirty years, for programs of six days. In September 2009, he opened the Training Scholarship Program for Indians, which was not previously the case. And he has just opened a second CREST on September 28, at Kharagpur, 130 km from Kolkata (West Bengal) at the foot of the first Institute of Technology of (decolonized) India, created in 1951. Very symbolic ...
Internal training is an important focus of the activities of the institute, but it's far from being the only one, Rajagopalachari looks forward to a strong return on his investment. All these "adherents", are now properly formatted and must in turn spread Sahaj Marg to the surrounding society, so as to justify the merits of their training.
Thus, the "open doors" organized to accommodate new entrants are subject to strict regulations by the SMRTI. The meditation sessions are strongly prohibited and only administrators have the right to answer questions from visitors. Professional coaches even offer their services to adepts to help them present Sahaj Marg in various situations, at seminars or at open houses, or even to the family. In France, some coach those so desiring since 2006.
The business world is not forgotten either, far from it. In India, where meditation is an institution and a tradition, the influence of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is stronger than elsewhere, allowing it to intervene in its own name in management training and personal development, in particular around stress management through meditation. Elsewhere, there are followers of the Mission who are professionals, carefully avoiding to mention the name of the Mission.
Thus, according to the newspaper Times of India of July 23, 2000, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission has organized an international seminar of three days, called "management of life" and involving over 10 000 delegates at Calcutta: "[The meditation] is very helpful for policemen and other government servants as well. While, at Barrackpur, we started a workshop for policemen (...). The training program still goes on at Barrackpur. Elsewhere, CISF [Central Industrial Security Force] and RPF [Central Reserve Police Force] staff and bank officers are also undergoing this training. The mission has been Recognized by the Ministry for Human Resource Development as a teaching institute for yoga (...). Ethical Management is now being taught at IIM (Calcutta) [Indian Institute of Management] with the help of the mission. "
Since then, the SMRTI interventions have increased dramatically in many Indian companies and institutions, and even with students, always under the cover of stress management and management ethics. It is true that Rajagopalachari delivered a speech entitled "Spirituality in Corporate Management" on February 2, 1990, where he was being an apologist for the leadership and management of some businesses which he has known, provided they are ethical, that is to say "spiritually" inspired by Sahaj Marg.
In the West, the institute initially preferred to target the media, including the female (targeted) media, where it talks about the benefits of yoga and meditation. The message is very simple: Sahaj Marg is a meditation technique ideal for modern family life. Some followers are responsible for collecting testimonials in this direction. Some other followers are incessantly attempting to have articles published, so as to make it known.
Provide Values in Children's Education
The SMRTI also became very rapidly interested in the young and very young audience. It developed fables and nursery rhymes to develop the "Culture of Sahaj Marg" from early childhood and developed a range of services for youth, and programs for their teachers. It also encouraged the formation of meditation groups in universities, particularly in America.
Many teachers, followers of Sahaj Marg, refused to accept that the values of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission should remain at the door of the school. All this has prompted the Institute to create a sort of values guide for the education they called spiritual (Value Based Spiritual Education, VBSE), intended for educators, teachers and parents. And it was soon used in the education and training of children and young people by the followers of Sahaj Marg.
But this is still not sufficient for Rajagopalachari. The son of Babuji founded his own school in Shahjahanpur, the Babuji Memorial Public School. That being as it may, Rajagopalachari announces the creation of the Lalaji Memorial Omega School (LMOs) February 28, 2005 and inaugurates it the following June 22. The project of this school is thus born from the conjunction of the need for recognition of Rajagopalachari, the SMRTI which would place its VBSE there, and the desire of the followers who were teachers.
Its ambassador, a (lady) school principal, undertook an extensive international tour to sell the project to the followers of Sahaj Marg and collect the necessary funds, but she did not find the necessary funds alone. The school was first launched with a loan of one million dollars from the Allahabad Bank by the Shri Ram Chandra Mission and its foundation, but it has also especially benefited from the donation campaign organized by Rajagopalachari during 2005 around the book "Whispers from the Brighter World". The SMSF apparently would have managed to collect almost two million dollars, mostly in the United States and in its community of Indian origin. Including the largest donation ever received by Rajagopalachari, who did not fail to brag about it, of a little over one million U.S. dollars.
He then explained that there were no worries to be had, as he was the guarantor of the transparency of the financial transactions, and that the school is to be led by the Baal Vatika Educational Society and funded by the Baal Vatika Educational Trust, which later becomes the Lalaji Memorial Educational Society & Trust. This school has been able to accommodate 128 children the first year, the goal for the next year is set at 800 students, which required an additional three million. There were only 573 students, but the goal for the third year was still fixed at one thousands children ...
The school is located Kolapakkam between Chennai and Manapakkam, 5 km from the Babuji Memorial Ashram. Its administrative offices are opposite the ashram, at Garden of Hearts (http://www.omegaschools.org/). Its curriculum is obviously based on the VBSE of SMRTI and that developed in collaboration with the Government of India and the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training).
The school then develops to become the showcase of excellence which Rajagopalachari called for in all his wishes. It is forging links with business, government and education officials from all sides. By 2005, it acquired the ISO certification and participates in the Intel Awards competition for integrating information technology in education. It participates in a video conference on climate change and human rights organized by the Department of Public Information United Nations, in December 2008.
For fall 2007, it acquires the International Certificate of Secondary Education, from the University of Cambridge (IGCSE, International General Certificate of Secondary Education of Cambridge). It thus is given an "I" for "International" on December 27, 2006, becoming the Lalaji Memorial Omega International School (LMOIS), to the delight of the well-to-do, ( Indian or not) who place their children there because it attracts the children of Westerners who come to settle near Rajagopalachari.
The VBSE is now used by more than one hundred other schools in India, according to the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. And it is not just in schools but is also an animation tool to be used during the holidays. Thus, Echoes of India in July 2008 focuses on summer camps for children and youth, citing no less than eight examples: "ashrams around the country were abuzz with activity during the holiday season. In Bangalore it was 40 children from 3 to 18, Jaipur 40 children from 3 to 17 years, Hyderabad 9 to 17 years in Kerala 52 children of which only 12 were from the families of abhyasis.
What did they do? "The morning started with reciting of Mission's prayer", "The day commenced with introductions and was followed by Yoga", "The plays carried the message, 'Religion divides, Spirituality unites' and 'God is everywhere'. The children had been preparing for this day since long (ago) at the children's centre every Sunday",
or at a workshop for teenagers: "the need to manage one's anger, frustration and negative emotions. Very exciting was the budget exercise where the teenagers were asked to plan a monthly budget of Rs. 10,000".
Without getting the children and the teens to meditate, which Babuji prohibited before the age of 18 years, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission has managed to circumvent this rule and instill its culture and values through the VBSE and at its very first school. Beneath a very humanistic exterior, the VBSE is a vehicle for the teachings of Rajagopalachari, which is often lackluster. Thus, on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2007, the SMSF organized an essay competition for children on the theme "What is the purpose of a guru?". Instead of teaching spiritual values to children, they teach the fundamentals of the cult of the personality.
From Humanitarianism to the Doors of the U.N.
Many followers of Sahaj Marg are involved in NGOs, but the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is disinterested, more concerned with spirituality and money than to the world's misery. Yet the poverty of the Indian masses does not leave all Westerners completely. Upon the occurrence of the earthquake in Gujarat in January 2001 which claimed over 20,000 victims, the Indian emigrant communities around the world started mobilizing ...
Cornered, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission organized a fundraiser specifically for collecting donations from its members, Rajagopalachari always assuming the right to use this money for other purposes. And the success of the operation is such that now, with each new cataclysm in the world, the mission is involved in a fund-raising campaign. Then some of the larger centers of the Indian Missions opened their doors to the destitute, providing them food and free health care, from the voluntary caregivers from among its followers. A new showcase for respectability, and the "Centers of Light" are born.
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission is thus involved in humanitarian work and education. It's not very far removed from the status of international NGO recognized by the UN. The mission benefits thenw the occupation of some of its members who work within various UN agencies. And on December 12, 2005, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is finally accredited to the Department of Public Information (UNDPI) to spread around the world the message of the United Nations, as are more than 1,500 other NGOs. Indeed, each year new NGOs were accredited, while others are excluded. Thus, the Mission is on a list of 25 newly associated NGOs and at the same time, another 48 are excluded.
Jacques Attali, who calls for the creation of a genuine UN NGO, acknowledged in his speech of September 2004 at the 57th Annual DPI, that "(...) under this name, sometimes slips in, people who have nothing to do with this, such as sects, or even terrorist organizations (...) ".
Thus, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (World of Jehovah's Witnesses) had been accredited to the DPI from 1992 to 2001, when it openly considered the UN as "the beast of the Apocalypse" fighting against Jesus . This could be a special case, but it is not. In the list of NGOs associated with the UNDPI, is or was also found sects such as Brahma Kumaris, Sri Chinmoy and Sokka Gakkai.
Normally, these NGOs are committed to helping the UN in its work and promote its principles and activities, and that's all. But the Shri Ram Chandra Mission profits greatly from this so as to practice its appearance of amalgamation and maintain the confusion with the much more enviable status of NGOs that are associated to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and enjoys consultative status. The Miviludes (French Interministerial Mission of Vigilance and fight against sectarianism) does not say anything different. The association with the UNDPI does not in any way confer consultative status, but only access to the premises and the UN Information:
"(...) The UN system is highly complex for the general public retain nothing but its role - promoting ideals such as world peace, development and respect for the rights of Man - and an easily identifiable logo. Any reference to the UN is a sign of respectability and some movements do not hesitate to use it, even for some to abuse it. This is the assertion of the "consultative status" which itself contains several categories to "prioritize" the NGO affiliates. This status should not be confused with the association of an NGO with the Department of Public Information United Nations, which only allows access to the premises of the UN, to receive information but not to participate in conferences (...)." - Excerpt of the 2008 report of the Miviludes (pp 53-54) in Strategies of International influence in 2008: the example of the actions of the cult movement at the United Nations.
In late 2006, leaders of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission fear that the UNDPI will withdraw their accreditation. Terrified, they decide to mobilize the resources of the Mission for the December 10, 2006 World Human Rights Day. And to be sure of having some people in attendance, the word is given to move the monthly open house at the center to December 10th.
The program revolves around the day of signing the "golden" guest book, reading an old letter from Babuji addressed to the UN in 1957, and the presentation of a report of the Mission's activities between 2000 and 2005. The sample of events selected around the themes dear to the UN shows and four events were attended by no fewer than 930 people over a period of six years. As for the Day of December 10the itself, it would have mobilized 25 countries and 7,500 people, while the Mission is said to be present in over 90 countries and representing 200 to 300,000 abhyasis.
Once its accreditation was barely re-gained, by the end of 2006, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission organizes. In October 2007, it creates a new periodical entitled "One World, One Humanity" in which it recounts its sometimes painstaking efforts to cooperate with the UN. On May 20 it celebrates the International Families Day, on June 5th, International Day of the Environment, on August 12th, Youth, on September 21st, Peace, on November 16th, Tolerance, on November 22nd, Children and on December 10th, Human Rights, etc...
Efforts are sometimes laborious, because it is not always easy to celebrate the Family, Reconciliation, Peace and Human Rights when the Mission destroys families faster than it welcomes new members or when we consider the legal cases that opposed it to the family of Babuji for years, the take-over of ashrams by force, to eventual (allegations of) attempted poisoning. Tolerance is not always its primary virtue.
So much so, that in India, the Mission chose to celebrate Youth Day around the concept of leadership, somewhat diverting the UN objective. Celebrated in 23 cities in India on August 12, 2007, this event would have affected 4,000 young college students, the well-to-do class, the privileged. In bulk, the topics of the discussion focused on "an ideal leader"," the need to develop leadership qualities", " or even " the characteristics of the leader". This reminds one of the ethical management or stress management. (mentioned earlier)
However, these efforts are gradually bearing fruit. The partnership between the two structures, UN and SRCM, is gradually emerging. As in Sydney, the Director of the United Nations South Pacific Information Center, Abdullah Mbamba, opened the Mission's Seminar for the Day of Commemoration of the 62nd anniversary of the UN, in October 2007.
For Rajagopalachari's 81st birthday anniversary celebrations in Lucknow, the spokesman of the UN for India and Bhutan, Rajiv Chandran, made a speech on July 23, 2008 where he said: "There are many commonalities between the Shri Ram Chandra Mission and my organization, the United Nations. Both defend universal values, values of peace, tranquility, development, brotherhood, equality and dignity in every individual. "
Rajagopalachari is about to get what he wanted recognition and respectability.
An Apotheosis in the Form of a National Essay Competition
All these efforts are realized last August 12 in a National Essay Competition offered to youth at all schools in India to mark the International Youth Day of, organized by the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in collaboration with the UN for India and Bhutan Information Center (UNIC).
The UN has declared that 2009 would be the International Year of Reconciliation. What the Shri Ram Chandra Mission divided into three competition categories by age of participants, from youngest to oldest: "Give Love Get Love", "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you", " Love has hope, Hatred is hopeless. " And the thoughts suggested to competitors by the Mission are: "How does peace and friendship in society benefit the individual? Can there be Irreconcilable differences if everyone accepted this? R. Ingersoll has said," Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself. " What do you think? Can Love be a potent instrument of reconciliation?"
According to the Mission, this action has been undertaken since 1989 and has already mobilized nearly 75,000 children and youth participants from 10 to 24 years in 2008. But this year's novelty is that it is organized in collaboration with the UNIC. So, how many participated this year? According to SRCM, they have mobilized the teachers from 10,000 institutions, and 500,000 students would have participated.
Rajagopalachari has talent. Let us recognize this, once will not hurt, he has achieved a master stroke! This event is indeed a great advertisement for the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Master stroke of genius of communication, that the accreditation of the Mission from the Department of Information finely worked. It is a huge success as it presents to the eyes of the teachers, the pupils and the parents, the SRCM, the SMSF and SMRTI, all closely related to the UNIC and to the UN in the minds of the people, not to mention the reporting from the news media. The communications of the Mission was not always that remarkable, far from it. But this time, the operation was a successful seduction beyond all expectations. In Indian public opinion, the name of Shri Ram Chandra Mission is now associated with that of the very prestigious United Nations.
So this is a dream come true for Rajagopalachari. His perseverance has paid-off for his long-term investment in the SMRTI, the VBSE, the LMOIS and UNDPI which in turn will finally see come together with this action. He is poised to win his bet, and to exploit to his own personal ends, this small accreditation of his movement to promote Sahaj Marg ™ and gain recognition and respectability from the Indian public opinion.
And lo and behold, wouldn't one know it that Ajay Kumar Bhatter (Chari's chosen successor, another businessman) has announced that it is time to develop spiritual education based on values throughout Europe. All coordinators should introduce and develop VBSE activities for the followers of Sahaj Marg in their respective countries, he said. So, the first European meeting was scheduled on this subject at the ashram of Berlin from October 16 to 18, 2009 ...
Is this really what we want for Europe?
(Or for North America? Or for our already troubled World? One more divisive "ism" under the guise of "spirituality", just another divided group claiming to be the "only" Path to our multi-faceted or multi-dimensional ONE-ness?? ... REALLY!! )
See VBSE curriculum
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Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
A Vast Enterprise of Seduction
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission has started a vast enterprise of seduction of the public in the mid-90s, with the research institute founded by Dr. K.C. Varadachari as its spearhead. Spiritual psychiatry was the first theme, since abandoned because of criticism leveled against it by the media. Internal training and personal development have quickly taken over, but its favourite theme is still spiritual education based on the values of Rajagopalachari. The creation in 2005 of a school (Lalaji Memorial Omega International School-LMOIS) responsible for embodying these values is the highlight. The same year, linking with the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI) gave the Shri Ram Chandra Mission the status of international NGOs. After a sluggish start, it has exploited this recognition to its best interest, including its theme that has been the most successful, spiritual education. Thus in India in 2009, it organized a national essay contest in collaboration with the U.N. Information Center for India and Bhutan. An undeniable success of communication it hopes to expand to other continents.
* SMRTI, a Research Institute Becomes a Laboratory for Ideas
* On the path, Spiritual Psychiatry is finally abandoned
* Internal Training and External Consciousness Raising
* Provide values in Children's Education
* From Humanitarianism to the doors of the U.N.
* An apotheosis in the form of National Essay Contest
SMRTI, a Research Institute Becomes a Laboratory for Ideas
Everything started with the research institute founded by Dr. KC Varadachari. This famous Indian Professor of Philosophy, holder of the Chair of the centenary of Sri Vivekananda in Comparative Religion, Ethics and Philosophy at the University of Madras (Chennai) directs the Sahaj Marg Research Institute (SMRI) from 1965 until his death in 1971. With this institute, he brings a certain fame to Sahaj Marg, particularly in southern India where it's profile is still low, and he provides strong credibility with his personal reputation, even though Babuji and he tend to reduce it (Sahaj Marg) to a simple refinement of the Hindu Raja Yoga. (starting at step 7 of the eightfold path)
At his death, the SMRI falls slowly into oblivion, but in 1989 the institute is reborn from its ashes under the leadership of the son of Dr. Varadachari, K.C. Narayana. But he is angry with Rajagopalachari and resigns in 1991 to found a dissident organization of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission (The Institute for Shri Ramchandra Consciousness (ISRC)). And the institute sinks back into the shadows.
While an Indian (female) abhyasi takes over the leadership of the institute in India in 1997, various personalities at the heart of Sahaj Marg in turn create local variations which are more or less independent of the institute. In Switzerland, the psychiatrist Wulliemier Ferdinand and his wife launch the Western European branch of the SMRI which will become the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation in 1994. An American (female), a figure in the personal development movement, takes over the direction of the Sahaj Marg Research & Education Institute (SMREI) in the United States. This Indian (Indo-American female) director renames it the Sahaj Marg Research & Training Institute (SMRTI).
An Institute for research and education or for formation and training according to the different locales and the sensitivity of the personalities which direct it, the SMRI takes on a nebulous form in the 90s. So much so that Santosh Khanjee, the "eminence grise" of Rajagopalachari and chief organizer of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, puts things in order in January 2000. He has just created the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation Inc.. (SMSF), and registered it in Austin, Texas in 1999. He becomes the secretary of the institute, and ties it legally to this new foundation, and officially renames it SMRTI (Sahaj Marg Research & Training Institute).
Rather than a school of philosophy, the new SMRTI thus becomes a global network. The various personalities are put in line, serving as 'faculty members' of this new institute, provided they have made many studies in languages, history, philosophy, psychology or even in education. Led by Santosh Khanjee, their expansion initiatives are supervised and funded by his Foundation and the SMRTI becomes the think tank for Sahaj Marg. The only condition being, that any ideas that emerge from this suggestion box be exploitable and have promotable results.
The challenge is to create tools which are easily appropriated by the followers in their daily family, social and professional life, and to insidiously spread the ideology of Sahaj Marg into the heart of society. These tools must be scientifically and morally irreproachable and become the new communication vectors that allow the international recognition of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission and its spread around the world.
The areas of expertise, the fields of activities and the channels of communication are many and varied. This can touch on psychiatry as well as training, education, personal development and well-being, or on humanitarianism ... This concerns the executives of Sahaj Marg such as the medical professionals and para-medical teachers and their students, the entrepreneurs or the business executives ... The channels for diffusion are the broadcast media, the web, schools, the directors and the administrators of businesses ...
On the Path, "Spiritual Psychiatry" is Finally Abandoned
Shortly before this major reorganization of SMRTI, Rajagopalachari and a few hundred of his followers attend a seminar of the International Association of Spiritual Psychiatry (IASP) on http://essence-euro.org/aips/ May 8-9, 1997, in Tel Aviv, Israel, entitled: "Love and Religion - Transcending the healing power of love."
During the first morning, the only speakers at the podium are three followers of Sahaj Marg. The preceptor and Irish psychiatrist Ivor Browne begins, followed by the French full preceptor, Patrick Fleury, and the Swiss psychiatrist, Ferdinand Wulliemier. The next morning, Rajagopalachari himself closes the seminar while the host of the IASP, Jean-Marc Mantel, announces that Rajagopalachari is ready to host such a seminar for professionals at his ashram in Delhi, and maybe perhaps, close to Boston, where the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is very developed.
Shortly after, the SMRI website says that the seminar was co-organized by the IASP and itself (SMRI). It is Ferdinand Wulliemier who is the architect of this merger. The Swiss psychiatrist, who discovered the Sahaj Marg in 1985 at the age of 40, quickly became a preceptor and created the Swiss foundation Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation in 1994. Meanwhile, he practiced for 35 years as a therapist and lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and at the Center for Family Study in Lausanne, Switzerland.
He is a member of IASP and participates for the first time to its Journal, and to the Congress in 1995. On January 19, 1997, he gives a joint conference with J.M. Mantel on the theme "The impact of meditation on medicine, psychology and psychiatry" at the Congress on Medicine in the Third Millennium, organized by Strategique, in Paris. Naturally, the Israeli seminar in May following, is jointly organized by the SMRI and the AIPS. Wulliemier wastes no time ...
As a forerunner member of the current spiritual psychiatry during the 90s, Ferdinand Wulliemier introduces to the field of psychiatry, the concepts of invertendo (involutive evolution) and the "central region" so dear to Sahaj Marg, adding it to the stages of psychological evolution of the individual, a last state said to be trans-personal or spiritual. Through this "new concept of psychiatry," he explains that the spiritual path is what is best for mankind.
He especially tries to justify certain behaviors, such as that of the spiritual aspirant, falsely dependent innocent and naive, regressing into infantile behavior. Likewise, an amoral behavior by the spiritual master may look like a psychological regression, but would in fact be nothing but an expression of wisdom that eludes us, a trans-morality (excerpts from "Our evolution or involution of invertendo our growth "- IASP, Vol.3, 1995). All the mechanical sectarianism of Sahaj Marg is thus psychologically justified according to him, by spiritual psychiatry and the existence of a final evolutionary stage said to be trans-personal.
At the Congress on the "Medicine in the Third Millennium", Ferdinand Wulliemier still speaks of a state of "active passivity" to describe the behavior of followers of Sahaj Marg, after quoting their total surrender to the spiritual master. But he also reported the results of a study he conducted over a period of 8 years between 1988 and 1996, in a psychotherapy with approximately 54 of his patients, who either began to meditate, or were already meditating under the system of Sahaj Marg.
He admits to proselytizing among his patients involved in psychotherapy. But some French media outlet are concerned about such practices of psychotherapists involved in sectarian movements. Ferdinand Wulliemier is not the only follower of Sahaj Marg in question, far from it, but he is the most famous in his field. So it is the one revelation "too many" that will eventually trigger a reversal from Rajagopalachari, or his master Babuji if one believes the words from beyond the grave. (by the anonymous French Lady Medium, author of the channeled "Whispers from the Brighter World".)
This happens effectively in "Whispers" on April 10, 2001 which (according to the channeled message allegedly received by this anonymous French Lady Medium) quotes Babuji (who died in 1983) as saying:
« Be wary of the confusion that is being made between the workings of our spiritual method and all psychoanalytical practices that are currently springing up. It is not desirable to make connections between them. Criticisms currently made by the media against Sahaj Marg in France, allude to leaders who manipulate our candidates by involving them in both disciplines. It would be necessary to stop mixing it all up by considering abhyasis as potential clients and vice versa. Therapist preceptors are not serious enough on this point, hence numerous problems are already caused by this lack of vigilance.»
(for complete text of the channeled Whisper see: Persecution! Cried the Persecutors!)
Rajagopalachari has thus ordered Ferdinand Wulliemier to put it "on hold", and SMRTI ceases its activities in the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy. But never mind, the institute will quickly rebound by recycling these concepts in the fields of personal development and well-being, perhaps also more fashionable than psychiatry.
Now retired, Ferdinand Wulliemier comes out of his long period of media hibernation, but without ever making any direct reference to Sahaj Marg as he did plenty of in the past. To occupy himself, he creates a website (http://www.psychologie-therapies-spiritualite.ch) where he sells more or less spiritualized seminars, lasting 2 to 8 days, for 380 to 800 CHF (Swiss Francs) (240 to 500 €) . Then in October 2008, he co-organizes a symposium on the relationship between astrology and the therapies (http://www.symposium-astrologie-therapies.ch/) with some other prominent Swiss members of Sahaj Marg who actively participate. Thus, on the organizing committee of eight people, there are at least five members of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission.
And on May 14, 2009, he revives his favorite theme in a speech entitled "Depression and Opportunities from the Crisis" before the 20th Congress of the: Goupe Romand d'Acceuil et d'Action Psychiatrique, in Lausanne. For the psychiatrist, depression is an opportunity to rise to new evolutionary spiritual dimensions (http://www.psychologie-therapies-spiritualite.ch/articles/articles_pdf/correct_articles/ART-GRAAP.pdf). It is obviously not easy to drop such a passionate subject ...
Internal Training and External Consciousness Raising
In parallel, the SMRTI decides to invest heavily in the training of practitioners of Sahaj Marg. It rapidly develops a wide range of training tools on its website (http://www.spiritualityfoundation.org/smrti/rc/rc.html). The first of them is training online of preceptors, from October 12, 2001, soon followed by a process of certification for the programs that are offered, ensuring strict compliance with the teachings of the masters of Sahaj Marg (Chari??).
But the training tools are judged inadequate and then the institute invests directly in internal training, for those responsible for the maintenance of the ashrams, and for the newcomers to Sahaj Marg or their management. Thus, an Indian consultant is placed in charge of training maintenance workers and the managers of the Indian ashrams of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission.
Under the direction of European exiles, training courses are also offered to followers from the South, newcomers to Sahaj Marg. This school of Sahaj Marg, which Rajagopalachari nicknames his "Little United Nations", is actually called the Scholarship Training Program (STP). This is a six-week program at the Manappakam ashram, on days that begin at 5 am and end at 22 hours, and whose activities are punctuated by a bell provided by the SRCM (France). A good indoctrination, reminiscent of the Residential Schools of another age, with days where extended individual and group meditations are connected at a frenetic pace for a highly effective indoctrination of persons responsible for developing the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in regions of the world where it has little presence.
Executives of Sahaj Marg are no exception. Rajagopalachari inaugurated his first Center for Research, Education, Sadhana & Training (CREST) in the summer of 2006. Its goal is to facilitate the training of followers of more than five years, in a one month training program. Here, the hours are even more drastic: Sunrise 4:30 am, breakfast 8 am ... and evening prayer at 21h. Situated at Kagalipura, which is located some 23 km from Bangalore (Karnataka), on nearly two acres, CREST is a property of the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation and can accommodate more than sixty people. It is headed by a preceptor, a retired Indian policeman, who accounted for 183 seminarians, 542 visits per week and 400 visitors, in the report of his first year's activities.
And this is only the beginning of an intense training effort. In June 2008, Rajagopalachari opened CREST to the young public, between twenty and thirty years, for programs of six days. In September 2009, he opened the Training Scholarship Program for Indians, which was not previously the case. And he has just opened a second CREST on September 28, at Kharagpur, 130 km from Kolkata (West Bengal) at the foot of the first Institute of Technology of (decolonized) India, created in 1951. Very symbolic ...
Internal training is an important focus of the activities of the institute, but it's far from being the only one, Rajagopalachari looks forward to a strong return on his investment. All these "adherents", are now properly formatted and must in turn spread Sahaj Marg to the surrounding society, so as to justify the merits of their training.
Thus, the "open doors" organized to accommodate new entrants are subject to strict regulations by the SMRTI. The meditation sessions are strongly prohibited and only administrators have the right to answer questions from visitors. Professional coaches even offer their services to adepts to help them present Sahaj Marg in various situations, at seminars or at open houses, or even to the family. In France, some coach those so desiring since 2006.
The business world is not forgotten either, far from it. In India, where meditation is an institution and a tradition, the influence of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is stronger than elsewhere, allowing it to intervene in its own name in management training and personal development, in particular around stress management through meditation. Elsewhere, there are followers of the Mission who are professionals, carefully avoiding to mention the name of the Mission.
Thus, according to the newspaper Times of India of July 23, 2000, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission has organized an international seminar of three days, called "management of life" and involving over 10 000 delegates at Calcutta: "[The meditation] is very helpful for policemen and other government servants as well. While, at Barrackpur, we started a workshop for policemen (...). The training program still goes on at Barrackpur. Elsewhere, CISF [Central Industrial Security Force] and RPF [Central Reserve Police Force] staff and bank officers are also undergoing this training. The mission has been Recognized by the Ministry for Human Resource Development as a teaching institute for yoga (...). Ethical Management is now being taught at IIM (Calcutta) [Indian Institute of Management] with the help of the mission. "
Since then, the SMRTI interventions have increased dramatically in many Indian companies and institutions, and even with students, always under the cover of stress management and management ethics. It is true that Rajagopalachari delivered a speech entitled "Spirituality in Corporate Management" on February 2, 1990, where he was being an apologist for the leadership and management of some businesses which he has known, provided they are ethical, that is to say "spiritually" inspired by Sahaj Marg.
In the West, the institute initially preferred to target the media, including the female (targeted) media, where it talks about the benefits of yoga and meditation. The message is very simple: Sahaj Marg is a meditation technique ideal for modern family life. Some followers are responsible for collecting testimonials in this direction. Some other followers are incessantly attempting to have articles published, so as to make it known.
Provide Values in Children's Education
The SMRTI also became very rapidly interested in the young and very young audience. It developed fables and nursery rhymes to develop the "Culture of Sahaj Marg" from early childhood and developed a range of services for youth, and programs for their teachers. It also encouraged the formation of meditation groups in universities, particularly in America.
Many teachers, followers of Sahaj Marg, refused to accept that the values of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission should remain at the door of the school. All this has prompted the Institute to create a sort of values guide for the education they called spiritual (Value Based Spiritual Education, VBSE), intended for educators, teachers and parents. And it was soon used in the education and training of children and young people by the followers of Sahaj Marg.
But this is still not sufficient for Rajagopalachari. The son of Babuji founded his own school in Shahjahanpur, the Babuji Memorial Public School. That being as it may, Rajagopalachari announces the creation of the Lalaji Memorial Omega School (LMOs) February 28, 2005 and inaugurates it the following June 22. The project of this school is thus born from the conjunction of the need for recognition of Rajagopalachari, the SMRTI which would place its VBSE there, and the desire of the followers who were teachers.
Its ambassador, a (lady) school principal, undertook an extensive international tour to sell the project to the followers of Sahaj Marg and collect the necessary funds, but she did not find the necessary funds alone. The school was first launched with a loan of one million dollars from the Allahabad Bank by the Shri Ram Chandra Mission and its foundation, but it has also especially benefited from the donation campaign organized by Rajagopalachari during 2005 around the book "Whispers from the Brighter World". The SMSF apparently would have managed to collect almost two million dollars, mostly in the United States and in its community of Indian origin. Including the largest donation ever received by Rajagopalachari, who did not fail to brag about it, of a little over one million U.S. dollars.
He then explained that there were no worries to be had, as he was the guarantor of the transparency of the financial transactions, and that the school is to be led by the Baal Vatika Educational Society and funded by the Baal Vatika Educational Trust, which later becomes the Lalaji Memorial Educational Society & Trust. This school has been able to accommodate 128 children the first year, the goal for the next year is set at 800 students, which required an additional three million. There were only 573 students, but the goal for the third year was still fixed at one thousands children ...
The school is located Kolapakkam between Chennai and Manapakkam, 5 km from the Babuji Memorial Ashram. Its administrative offices are opposite the ashram, at Garden of Hearts (http://www.omegaschools.org/). Its curriculum is obviously based on the VBSE of SMRTI and that developed in collaboration with the Government of India and the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training).
The school then develops to become the showcase of excellence which Rajagopalachari called for in all his wishes. It is forging links with business, government and education officials from all sides. By 2005, it acquired the ISO certification and participates in the Intel Awards competition for integrating information technology in education. It participates in a video conference on climate change and human rights organized by the Department of Public Information United Nations, in December 2008.
For fall 2007, it acquires the International Certificate of Secondary Education, from the University of Cambridge (IGCSE, International General Certificate of Secondary Education of Cambridge). It thus is given an "I" for "International" on December 27, 2006, becoming the Lalaji Memorial Omega International School (LMOIS), to the delight of the well-to-do, ( Indian or not) who place their children there because it attracts the children of Westerners who come to settle near Rajagopalachari.
The VBSE is now used by more than one hundred other schools in India, according to the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. And it is not just in schools but is also an animation tool to be used during the holidays. Thus, Echoes of India in July 2008 focuses on summer camps for children and youth, citing no less than eight examples: "ashrams around the country were abuzz with activity during the holiday season. In Bangalore it was 40 children from 3 to 18, Jaipur 40 children from 3 to 17 years, Hyderabad 9 to 17 years in Kerala 52 children of which only 12 were from the families of abhyasis.
What did they do? "The morning started with reciting of Mission's prayer", "The day commenced with introductions and was followed by Yoga", "The plays carried the message, 'Religion divides, Spirituality unites' and 'God is everywhere'. The children had been preparing for this day since long (ago) at the children's centre every Sunday",
or at a workshop for teenagers: "the need to manage one's anger, frustration and negative emotions. Very exciting was the budget exercise where the teenagers were asked to plan a monthly budget of Rs. 10,000".
Without getting the children and the teens to meditate, which Babuji prohibited before the age of 18 years, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission has managed to circumvent this rule and instill its culture and values through the VBSE and at its very first school. Beneath a very humanistic exterior, the VBSE is a vehicle for the teachings of Rajagopalachari, which is often lackluster. Thus, on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2007, the SMSF organized an essay competition for children on the theme "What is the purpose of a guru?". Instead of teaching spiritual values to children, they teach the fundamentals of the cult of the personality.
From Humanitarianism to the Doors of the U.N.
Many followers of Sahaj Marg are involved in NGOs, but the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is disinterested, more concerned with spirituality and money than to the world's misery. Yet the poverty of the Indian masses does not leave all Westerners completely. Upon the occurrence of the earthquake in Gujarat in January 2001 which claimed over 20,000 victims, the Indian emigrant communities around the world started mobilizing ...
Cornered, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission organized a fundraiser specifically for collecting donations from its members, Rajagopalachari always assuming the right to use this money for other purposes. And the success of the operation is such that now, with each new cataclysm in the world, the mission is involved in a fund-raising campaign. Then some of the larger centers of the Indian Missions opened their doors to the destitute, providing them food and free health care, from the voluntary caregivers from among its followers. A new showcase for respectability, and the "Centers of Light" are born.
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission is thus involved in humanitarian work and education. It's not very far removed from the status of international NGO recognized by the UN. The mission benefits thenw the occupation of some of its members who work within various UN agencies. And on December 12, 2005, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is finally accredited to the Department of Public Information (UNDPI) to spread around the world the message of the United Nations, as are more than 1,500 other NGOs. Indeed, each year new NGOs were accredited, while others are excluded. Thus, the Mission is on a list of 25 newly associated NGOs and at the same time, another 48 are excluded.
Jacques Attali, who calls for the creation of a genuine UN NGO, acknowledged in his speech of September 2004 at the 57th Annual DPI, that "(...) under this name, sometimes slips in, people who have nothing to do with this, such as sects, or even terrorist organizations (...) ".
Thus, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (World of Jehovah's Witnesses) had been accredited to the DPI from 1992 to 2001, when it openly considered the UN as "the beast of the Apocalypse" fighting against Jesus . This could be a special case, but it is not. In the list of NGOs associated with the UNDPI, is or was also found sects such as Brahma Kumaris, Sri Chinmoy and Sokka Gakkai.
Normally, these NGOs are committed to helping the UN in its work and promote its principles and activities, and that's all. But the Shri Ram Chandra Mission profits greatly from this so as to practice its appearance of amalgamation and maintain the confusion with the much more enviable status of NGOs that are associated to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and enjoys consultative status. The Miviludes (French Interministerial Mission of Vigilance and fight against sectarianism) does not say anything different. The association with the UNDPI does not in any way confer consultative status, but only access to the premises and the UN Information:
"(...) The UN system is highly complex for the general public retain nothing but its role - promoting ideals such as world peace, development and respect for the rights of Man - and an easily identifiable logo. Any reference to the UN is a sign of respectability and some movements do not hesitate to use it, even for some to abuse it. This is the assertion of the "consultative status" which itself contains several categories to "prioritize" the NGO affiliates. This status should not be confused with the association of an NGO with the Department of Public Information United Nations, which only allows access to the premises of the UN, to receive information but not to participate in conferences (...)." - Excerpt of the 2008 report of the Miviludes (pp 53-54) in Strategies of International influence in 2008: the example of the actions of the cult movement at the United Nations.
In late 2006, leaders of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission fear that the UNDPI will withdraw their accreditation. Terrified, they decide to mobilize the resources of the Mission for the December 10, 2006 World Human Rights Day. And to be sure of having some people in attendance, the word is given to move the monthly open house at the center to December 10th.
The program revolves around the day of signing the "golden" guest book, reading an old letter from Babuji addressed to the UN in 1957, and the presentation of a report of the Mission's activities between 2000 and 2005. The sample of events selected around the themes dear to the UN shows and four events were attended by no fewer than 930 people over a period of six years. As for the Day of December 10the itself, it would have mobilized 25 countries and 7,500 people, while the Mission is said to be present in over 90 countries and representing 200 to 300,000 abhyasis.
Once its accreditation was barely re-gained, by the end of 2006, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission organizes. In October 2007, it creates a new periodical entitled "One World, One Humanity" in which it recounts its sometimes painstaking efforts to cooperate with the UN. On May 20 it celebrates the International Families Day, on June 5th, International Day of the Environment, on August 12th, Youth, on September 21st, Peace, on November 16th, Tolerance, on November 22nd, Children and on December 10th, Human Rights, etc...
Efforts are sometimes laborious, because it is not always easy to celebrate the Family, Reconciliation, Peace and Human Rights when the Mission destroys families faster than it welcomes new members or when we consider the legal cases that opposed it to the family of Babuji for years, the take-over of ashrams by force, to eventual (allegations of) attempted poisoning. Tolerance is not always its primary virtue.
So much so, that in India, the Mission chose to celebrate Youth Day around the concept of leadership, somewhat diverting the UN objective. Celebrated in 23 cities in India on August 12, 2007, this event would have affected 4,000 young college students, the well-to-do class, the privileged. In bulk, the topics of the discussion focused on "an ideal leader"," the need to develop leadership qualities", " or even " the characteristics of the leader". This reminds one of the ethical management or stress management. (mentioned earlier)
However, these efforts are gradually bearing fruit. The partnership between the two structures, UN and SRCM, is gradually emerging. As in Sydney, the Director of the United Nations South Pacific Information Center, Abdullah Mbamba, opened the Mission's Seminar for the Day of Commemoration of the 62nd anniversary of the UN, in October 2007.
For Rajagopalachari's 81st birthday anniversary celebrations in Lucknow, the spokesman of the UN for India and Bhutan, Rajiv Chandran, made a speech on July 23, 2008 where he said: "There are many commonalities between the Shri Ram Chandra Mission and my organization, the United Nations. Both defend universal values, values of peace, tranquility, development, brotherhood, equality and dignity in every individual. "
Rajagopalachari is about to get what he wanted recognition and respectability.
An Apotheosis in the Form of a National Essay Competition
All these efforts are realized last August 12 in a National Essay Competition offered to youth at all schools in India to mark the International Youth Day of, organized by the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in collaboration with the UN for India and Bhutan Information Center (UNIC).
The UN has declared that 2009 would be the International Year of Reconciliation. What the Shri Ram Chandra Mission divided into three competition categories by age of participants, from youngest to oldest: "Give Love Get Love", "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you", " Love has hope, Hatred is hopeless. " And the thoughts suggested to competitors by the Mission are: "How does peace and friendship in society benefit the individual? Can there be Irreconcilable differences if everyone accepted this? R. Ingersoll has said," Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself. " What do you think? Can Love be a potent instrument of reconciliation?"
According to the Mission, this action has been undertaken since 1989 and has already mobilized nearly 75,000 children and youth participants from 10 to 24 years in 2008. But this year's novelty is that it is organized in collaboration with the UNIC. So, how many participated this year? According to SRCM, they have mobilized the teachers from 10,000 institutions, and 500,000 students would have participated.
Rajagopalachari has talent. Let us recognize this, once will not hurt, he has achieved a master stroke! This event is indeed a great advertisement for the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Master stroke of genius of communication, that the accreditation of the Mission from the Department of Information finely worked. It is a huge success as it presents to the eyes of the teachers, the pupils and the parents, the SRCM, the SMSF and SMRTI, all closely related to the UNIC and to the UN in the minds of the people, not to mention the reporting from the news media. The communications of the Mission was not always that remarkable, far from it. But this time, the operation was a successful seduction beyond all expectations. In Indian public opinion, the name of Shri Ram Chandra Mission is now associated with that of the very prestigious United Nations.
So this is a dream come true for Rajagopalachari. His perseverance has paid-off for his long-term investment in the SMRTI, the VBSE, the LMOIS and UNDPI which in turn will finally see come together with this action. He is poised to win his bet, and to exploit to his own personal ends, this small accreditation of his movement to promote Sahaj Marg ™ and gain recognition and respectability from the Indian public opinion.
And lo and behold, wouldn't one know it that Ajay Kumar Bhatter (Chari's chosen successor, another businessman) has announced that it is time to develop spiritual education based on values throughout Europe. All coordinators should introduce and develop VBSE activities for the followers of Sahaj Marg in their respective countries, he said. So, the first European meeting was scheduled on this subject at the ashram of Berlin from October 16 to 18, 2009 ...
Is this really what we want for Europe?
(Or for North America? Or for our already troubled World? One more divisive "ism" under the guise of "spirituality", just another divided group claiming to be the "only" Path to our multi-faceted or multi-dimensional ONE-ness?? ... REALLY!! )
See VBSE curriculum
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
The REAL Shri Ram Chandra Mission History (Part 4)
Taken and Translated from a research article by Alexis on his French blog: Le Projet Sahaj Marg
Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
The Multinational Sahaj Marg
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission Rajagopalachari has become a multinational. It is based on its army of preceptors, who are virtually (real) missionary soldiers trained in unbridled proselytism, and on a gigantic but flawless administration. All numbers conceivable currently circulate on its importance. Numerically, there are probably some 50,000 regular meditators, 150,000 contributors and 500,000 supporters, including more than 80% who live in India. Financially, there is a turnover (budgetary revenues and expenses) of 50 to 100 millions, and assets of 150 to 400 millions, 70 to 90% being managed by foundations with no financial transparency. As for the participation of the followers, it is not solely in its annual membership fee (100 to 150 € in the West-Europe), but it could well reach 1,000 to 2,000 €, if one adds the publication purchases and other donations of all kinds.
* The Creation of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission
* Preceptors, the Missionaries of Sahaj Marg
* Sahaj marg, How Many Divisions?
* Associations, Foundations, Societies and Brands
* Ashrams and Assets
* Publications for Collectors
* Transparency or Opacity?
The creation of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission
Lalaji apparently had hundreds of disciples, according to Rajagopalachari, 212 exactly as stated by his grandson, Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, mainly in the state of Uttar Pradesh and surrounding areas of northern India. He indicates that nine or them were his preceptors, including his son Jagmohan Narain and his nephew Brij Mohan Lal. Eight organizations were born from these. (Babuji was not one of them (preceptor) ... See why here)
Babuji started from scratch. In his diary, he recounts his inter-communications (in dreams) with Lalaji who (allegedly) told him to start the organization in May 30, 1944, and then gives instructions on the following June 3. But it is only on June 10, 1945 that Babuji and twenty two of his followers gather at a meeting and decide to create the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. A working committee of nine persons was appointed June 20. The articles of association are registered in Lucknow on the next July 21. Its objective is to promote the system of Sahaj Marg founded by Lalaji his master, he writes. (See excerpts from Autobiography of Ram Chandra edited by SP Srivastava, President for 10 years, and published by SRCM (Shahjahanpur) (with comments by Christian (17 years with Chari's clan at SRCM (California-1997) which contains 80% of Babuji's Journals, as opposed to Chari's clan's version, which contains 20% ... Literary "cleansing"?) (see also: scans of many legal documents on Freedom from Sahaj Marg)
The organization is based in Shahjahanpur and chaired by Babuji or by his spiritual representative in direct line of succession. Anyone wishing to participate can join, without obligation to pay any subscription, but subject to presidential approval. (dictatorship... or private club??) He appoints a committee of nine persons to assist him. Madan Mohan Lal, senior preceptor of Lalaji at Shahjahanpur (not listed by Dinaysh...Kumar Saxena, grandson of Lalaji and dean of NaqshMuMRa Sufi Order) becomes the number two of the organization as its secretary. Prakash Chandra Saxena, the eldest son of Babuji, is also a member of the working committee. (while still a boy! Why?)
At the same time, Babuji's Journal tells of a series of inter-communications between Babuji and Swami Vivekananda. On May 20, 1945, Vivekananda himself gives him the name of the organization to create and tells him to convene a meeting of his followers. Several successive inter-communications stress that what is being created is a "new religion", under the authority of Vivekananda. His instructions on the emblem of the mission will come next August 26. (See excerpts from: the Autobiography of Ram Chandra)
In reality, Lalaji is not the founder of Sahaj Marg, contrary to what is written by the founders of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, (and Chari's SRCM-California-1997) except in the dreams of Babuji, says Dinaysh. And why did Babuji not speak any more of Vivekananda, if he played so important a role, as he says in his diary at the inception? (See NaqshMuMRa Nexus, the site operated by Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, dean of NaqshMuMRa and grandson of Lalaji)
Anyway, Babuji has at least twenty-two disciples in 1945. Twenty years later, at the arrival of Rajagopalachari, the number of his followers would be only 42 or 43, if one believes the latter. Also according to him, then, it suddenly jumps to 600 in 1972, and Ajay Kumar Bhatter reveals that there were approximately 3,000 at Babuji's death in 1983. The manipulation of figures has already begun, Rajagopalachari having all interest in minimizing the number of followers before his arrival in 1964, to magnify it later, and then assigns to himself the benefits of the growth.
Preceptors, The Missionaries of Sahaj Marg
Whether or not Rajagopalachari inflated the figures, the late sixties marked the beginning of the internationalization of Sahaj Marg. Lakshmi Narasimhan, is the first charged by Babuji to teach in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1968-69. KC Narayana (son of Dr. KC Varadachari, the Guru-in-waiting before Chari came on the scene) began touring the United States in 1971. And Rajagopalachari, appointed secretary of the Mission, lures Babuji to the West in 1972. This is the first in a long series of trips, the beginning of the exponential growth of the mission.
The number of disciples was increasing, the number of preceptors also. These (preceptors) serve as a channel for the transmission of the master, allowing him to multiply his spiritual capacities. And indeed, the mission goes from a dozen preceptors in 1964, to 45 in 1970, 60 in 1972, and 180 in 1983. A hierarchy begins to emerge with the appearance among them of "full preceptors", (said to have) spiritually arrived to the "central region" or its vicinity, (invented? Is there really a "central region" to timeless and eternal SPIRIT??) and the senior preceptors are respected because of their age and experience due to the time they spent in the company of Babuji.
From June 18, 1970, Dr. KC Varadachari writes to Babuji to warn him about the risk of commercialization of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission because of its (rapid) growth. To maintain the financial stability of the Mission, undermined by this growth, the introduction of activities not directly connected with the spiritual development of the disciples, is leading it to commercial excesses, Varadachari regrets. But nothing stops the further growth of the Mission, or its drifting (of its teachings).
The death of Babuji and the controversial takeover (attempt) by Rajagopalachari does not help. The latter has no choice but to develop the Shri Ram Chandra Mission abroad so as to assert his authority. The preceptors are becoming essential for the relay around the world and their role is changing rapidly.
Preceptors as (alleged) channels of spiritual transmission, gives way to preceptors as recruiters of new followers. Rajagopalachari selects them by their ambition and their pushiness, rather than by their spiritual qualities, that becomes secondary. Under the pretext of reaching a critical size necessary for the changeover of humanity through spirituality, he galvanizes his troops to do more recruiting. Their role is to proselytize, to play the "beater of the bush" (in hunting, to scare up the "game") and to enroll with a vengeance. There will be time later to address the spiritual development of the newcomers.
It suffices that there be nobody in a country or a region of the world for the first abhyasi to come up, to be immediately appointed preceptor. Rajagopalachari made and unmade preceptors according to his needs, up to naming them by phone. And gradually, a spiritual hierarchy is set up with directors of geographical areas, (Zone-In-Charge... ZIC) responsible for controlling the work of the preceptors, who are no longer the backbone of this vast enterprise of proselytism. Exit the full preceptor and the senior preceptors (of Babuji's), with their ability and their spiritual experience, to be replaced by an exacerbated proselytism.
Thus in 2003, Santosh Khanjee (developer from Austin, Texas) reorganizes the whole hierarchical system which is clogged by the geographical and numerical development of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Basically, a preceptor deals with a group of active members at what is called the Center. The preceptor is the Center-in-charge (CIC). At the higher levels, there are directors to head areas and regions. These are the Zone-In-Charge (ZIC) and the Region-In-Charge (RIC). More recently, they have been joined by developers charged especially with the development of the smaller centers in parallel with the work of the Zone-In-Charge.
For example, France has just over a thousand followers spread over 43 centers, 25 followers at an average center and a preceptor for eleven of them. These centers are grouped into six geographical areas with a ZIC and a developer for each. France is itself embedded in a larger area called the "Francophone Area, Spain and the British Isles", and that is included in "Europe".
All, preceptor as well as administrator, should promote spiritual growth and provide a monthly report to the next higher hierarchical level, and to Rajagopalachari personally. Included, must be the number of meditations conducted, and especially the number of newly introduced followers.
In the spirit of Rajagopalachari, the organization is designed to proselytize as if one is waging war with a plan, a tactical military strategy for the occupation of territory. In a training session at Hyderabad on April 4, 2004, the ZIC is compared to the general, the CIC to a "field commander":
"Strategy formulation. The Zone-in-charge is like a General, in charge of a territory. He has to evolve a strategy for effective penetration of his territory. He has to communicate this strategy to all the centers-in-charge, and convince them of its efficacy. He has to evolve a tactical plan to make this work (...) Tactical Plan. The Zone-in-charge has to plan where and how to grow the Mission. He has to device the means to achieve this growth . He has to train the functionaries in his area to undertake this task. He has to monitor this activity and make corrections where necessary. He has to conduct annual reviews of this plan, and send a progress report to Chennai. "
Preceptors must deliver the numbers, more and more sales, just the numbers. To do this, Rajagopalachari does not hesitate to play on their emotional feelings towards him, saying that they are not doing enough to deserve his affection. He blames them for their supposed lack of results and sinks them into the anxiety of upsetting the master. A permanent malaise that he carefully cultivates.
In a speech to the Danish preceptors, September 19, 1998, Rajagopalachari said: "For heaven's sake, wake up and get to work!". In a speech to the American preceptors, August 10, 2000, "Nobody worked (...). Only work produces results, only God works through human beings".
An English preceptor relates her experience and feelings following a training seminar in Manchester on March 12-13, 1999 (Natural Way, Fall 2000): "We watched Chariji's Speech to Preceptors in India, October 01, 1996 on video. Chariji said that Preceptors do not work enough. By not working we are really insulting Babuji and his plans. We were sad after the video."
Same thing in India where Rajagopalachari, in a speech at the Mysore Ashram (Karnataka, India), February 16, 2004, urged his followers to wake up: "(...) Karnataka has been very slow in developing in Sahaj Marg (...) there is too much tendency to stay at home and wait for everything to come to our house (...) I know many houses where the father is an abhyasis, not the wife, not the children, and for twenty years they do not change. If a man can not influence his own wife to start Sahaj Marg, who else is he going to influence? Wives I know are very difficult to manage, but that is the female nature, you see, and we are here to change nature by starting with our own family first (...) So, people of Karnataka, please awake." Same thing in Bangalore September 26 following: "(...) Karnataka is a big state. Why is it not growing? (...) But no growth (...) Karnataka is in a sleepy state (...) If you sleep, you have to be woken up. "
At a meeting of preceptors in Chennai July 17, 2004, Rajagopalachari shows he is well aware of the pressure that makes them suffer, but it's their fault: "(...) we were talking (...) about preceptors, their responsibilities, their work or lack of it (...) I receive letters from abhyasis, from preceptors, and they tends to dramatize this business of being a preceptor out of all proportion to what it really involves in our life . Either they suffer from guilt because they do not do the work that is assigned to them that goes with being a preceptor (...). and sometimes they are also angry, annoyed, desperate (...) ".
And it continues today. Ajay Kumar Bhatti takes over in Europe in a circular to the French preceptors, dated June 17, 2008: "After so many years and many visits to the Master, the number of abhyasis is disappointing in Europe." Then again, Rajagopalachari said in a message sent to supporters of the United States on October 11, 2009,: "(...) the Mission in the U.S. Had gone into some sort of - I will not say coma, but a partial sort of sleep mode. "
Sahaj Marg, How Many Divisions?
Nevertheless, the quasi-military strategy of Rajagopalachari and emotional blackmail of the preceptors are bearing fruit. The numerical growth is as expected.
According to Ajay Kumar Bhatter, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission had 3,000 followers at the death of Babuji in 1983. Then KC Narayana estimated their numbers to be 20,000 at his departure in 1991. And Rajagopalachari announces 50 to 55,000 adepts in 1995-97 and 75,000 in 2000. Finally in 2003, he claims to have tripled the number of followers in India in three years. All this to reach 200 to 300,000 followers between 2004 and 2007. And some mention 300 to 400,000, some say even 600,000 ... (Frank, ex Zonal-In-Charge (ZIC) for the Netherlands, says in his blog: Pitfalls of Spirituality, that "The number of followers is reported as much higher than it is in reality."
Let us remain reasonable, a presentation of the Mission carried out in Germany in 2007 gives the following table: 200,000 followers in India, 25,000 elsewhere, including 3,500 in Europe and a presence in over 90 countries.
The actual strength of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is a perpetual issue of speculation. It is difficult to determine right from wrong! Especially as the Mission itself is not clear about the size of its troops. Rajagopalachari knows for sure that he can gather more than 50,000 people at major ceremonies for his birthday, and he knows exactly how many preceptors, about 2,600 currently. That's it!
Before knowing how many abhyasis there are, we must still determine: What is an "abhyasis" (an adherent)? People who have been introduced to Sahaj Marg and attended three sittings of introduction with a preceptor, but we don't know if they continued their practice after. For simplicity, I call them "supporters". To attend the anniversary ceremony of Rajagopalachari, one must be a "contributor", even if one goes to the ashram only once a year, as is the case with many Indians. So, Rajagopalachari commissioned a global census of "regular followers" of Sahaj Marg, estimated by the number of people who attended the Sunday group meditation of April 30, 2008.
So who are these "abhyasis? Surely not all supporters or contributors. But surely not only the regular practitioners of Sunday group meditation. Probably somewhere between contributors and regular followers, is the reality.
In India, at the center of Chennai, a stronghold of the Mission, there is a preceptor for thirty regular followers, which themselves represent less than 30% of the contributors, and we must introduce three persons for a single "aderent" (as in adhesion, glue, stuck!) . In the rest of the world, things are somewhat different. Contributors and regular followers are more similar in number and include a preceptor for ten to fifteen regular adepts. As for supporters, in France they represent 25% of the contributors.
Overall, we would then have a nebula a little less than 500,000 supporters (or sympathizers), just over 150,000 contributors and appoximately 50,000 regular followers around the world. The number of abhyasis would be somewhere between 50 and 150,000, and probably not very far from 100,000 followers. The range is vast, but extrapolations are still much more accurate and precise than any reports from Rajagopalachari. This is not so bad, even if it falls far short of what they wanted us to believe ...
Whatever the actual numbers, India now has at least three quarters of the followers of Sahaj Marg. Then we find at the lead, North America and Western Europe each weighing in with nearly one third of the membership outside of India.
Beside India, two countries have over a thousand followers, the United States with about 3,000 supporters and France with over a thousand. Three other countries have more than 500 followers, Germany, Denmark and the United Arab Emirates. These five already account for half of the membership outside India. Ten other countries have more than 200 followers, or the fifteen counted here, account for three quarters of the global membership, always outside of India.
In France, it was estimated that 250 to 500,000 people were involved in sects (cults) in 2000. The market share held by the sectarian Shri Ram Chandra Mission there (France) would be much less than 1%. Another way to measure its importance is its penetration into French society, which is around fifteen followers per million inhabitants, roughly equivalent to its average penetration rate worldwide. It is well below that of India which is 80, and some smaller European countries like Denmark (90) and Switzerland (50), and Asia with the United Arab Emirates (120) and Singapore (35).
Since the mid-90s, the strength of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in France has stagnated as in the rest of Western Europe, and in North America more recently. Conversely, substantial increases were recorded in India where Rajagopalachari returned triumphant over his competitors, in Latin America and in Eastern European countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And Rajagopalachari is trying to get a foothold in
China ...
For more information, see also: Importance of SRCM
Associations, Foundations, Societies and Brands
The presence of Shri Ram Chandra Mission extends around the planet and the number is growing. Having only one association based in India to manage all of that is fast becoming insufficient. National associations are created in the 70's and 80's in North America and Europe in particular, to relay the administrative support from India and to accompany its global development.
They are all built on the same model. Rajagopalachari is President and appoints a management committee with a vice president, secretary, treasurer and auditor of accounts, to which he adds some members among his most loyal allies, often from foreign countries. (i.e. not from the country where the Association is registered) Until the 90s, their resources come from contributions of supporters, from the sale of publications, and donations, often roughly one third each.
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission Shahjahanpur created by Babuji in 1945 was not a model of democracy. National associations created fifty years later are hardly more so. But the societies statutes in the host countries do not as easily permit such a denial of democracy, so the (SRCM) statutes refer most often to the operating rules of procedure. As in France where it is written in Article 17 of the articles submitted in 1986: "The president who is the true master of the Association will exercise his powers through the intervention of interior regulations, which he can change at will (... ).
In 1997, the son of Babuji, Umesh Chandra Saxena, is violently opposed to Rajagopalachari. The Indian Shri Ram Chandra Mission (Shahjahanpur-1945) is claimed by both groups. Who owns the bank account? The Indian justice system is hearing the case since 1984 but has still not decided. And a further conflict erupts in the United States around the rightful ownership of the domain name on the web. More broadly, the dispute concerns the ownership of the assets, which Umesh Chandra Saxena is said at the time, to be 200 million euros.
Pragmatic, without abandoning the legal battle, Rajagopalachari throws in the towel and instructs his "eminence grise", Santosh Khanjee to find a solution to this impasse. He then creates (in 1997) another association SRCM association in California and files for trademarks, Sahaj Marg ™, Shri Ram Chandra Mission ™, and Constant Remembrance ™ (the name of their quarterly magazine), and the emblem of the mission, with the Department of Commerce U.S. Then he begins a major reorganization of its International administration.
Rajagopalachari is surrounded by an Executive Committee of three persons only. This triumvirate is made up of his designated successor Ajay Kumar Bhatter in charge of finance, his son Krishna PR, assets, and Santosh Khanjee himself, in charge of the administration. And he creates an international secretariat, OSIA (Office of the Secretariat for International Affairs) at the head of several sectors such as finance, ashrams, information, development, operations or the publications. A model that he will reproduce and impose in all structures.
As early as 1998, the British Isles is used as a laboratory to professionalize an administration which is too amateur in his eyes. To help get the bitter pill of restructuring down, he names in by the sweet name of "flower system". (that fools the gullible abhyasis) The management committee or the Board of Directors does not change but becomes the heart of the flower, while its petals are constituted by different sectors of activity which he professionalizes in the image of the International Secretariat.
Santosh Khanjee at the same time is trying to impose a separation of powers and the denationalization of the associations with somewhat less success. He wants to separate the spiritual and administrative powers to prevent the overlapping functions of preceptors and administration onto the same people. But motivation being what it is, this policy fails miserably.
However, he tries to combine several countries together to create supra-national organizations. Thus, the United Kingdom and Ireland form a single association, as well as the countries of Oceania and of the Benelux. France, which displays some resistance, is saddled with a (female) vice-president from a foreign country. One suspects that behind the destabilizing of the different groups, is the desire to avoid any hint of resistance or the building of lobbies.
The global reorganization around a model solely "associative" quickly shows its limitations. Remittances are heavily taxed, which Rajagopalachari swallows with difficulty, transforming his close family into "suitcase carriers". (see allegations of "money transportation" (in French) on Elodie's blog, Pour Que Vive Le Sahaj Marg ... in the comments in the English version: Sahaj Marg Long Life) Then, Santosh Khanjee, inspired by the foundation established in Switzerland by Ferdinand Wulliemier in 1994, also creates (and registers) a foundation in Austin, Texas in 1999, the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation (SMSF). Then follows another SMSF in India in 2003, and one in Dubai in 2004. With the LMOIS school in 2005, two other societies emerge: the Baal Vatika Educational Society, responsible for its functioning, and the Baal Vatika Educational Trust for its funding. (now changed ... On their site: LMOIS, there is no mention of any ( Baal Vatika (meaning: "Baal=Master's, and Vatika=Hermitage (such as the wealthy "Vatican")) "funding" or "andministration" societies, or of SMSF "foundations" ... International Charity dollars used to build private schools for the "well-to-do".)
In the United States, foundations enjoy tax exemption provided that at least 5% of their donations are used for charity. The SMSF, Austin, Texas has regularly paid money to the Red Cross (for September 11, to Katrina, etc.). (now the SMSF Private Foundation, can donate their 5% to "themselves", or to the LMOIS and SRCM as "education") As for Dubai, it hosts the first "free zone" in the Middle East, where more than 6,000 foreign societies are permitted to operate as offshore, no exchange controls or taxes on imports or export duties, with the possibility of 100% repatriation of capital and profits, no taxation on corporations or on physical persons.
At the time, Rajagopalachari said that like a bird, Sahaj Marg has two wings, the first is spiritual and is the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, the second is material and that is the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation. On one side, associations and on the other, foundations. The administrative reorganization is followed by a financial reorganization in which Santosh Khanjee (allegedly) robs the local associations of most of their resources to transfer it to the foundation.
National Associations will now no longer manage anything beside the funds for their daily operations. Each year they will submit a budget for approval to the OSIA. Every quarter they will send him a financial report on their progress. Any expenditure greater than or equal to USD 1,000 requires prior approval from the OSIA. And the same for any proposed investment in land or real estate, of course.
Local associations also must conduct a cost accounting in three sections: operations, publications and seminars. And each of them must balance its income and its expenditures. Thus the contributions will cover the operation, the sale of publications will no longer generate local benefits and the seminars must be self-financing. Most of the resources generated from the sale of publications and donations are now collected directly by the foundations. The associations have little more than the contributions of their members to put their hands on. The former distribution of resources into roughly three equal parts is now shattered.
From the scant information available, the resources of local associations represent 200 to 300 € per adept, depending on the country, outside India in 2007. In this country, they would be around 50 € only, most costs being divided by five. Extrapolating these figures to all contributors leads to an estimate of about ten to fifteen million in turnover for all the associations. The foundations would then generate at least the other two thirds, not to mention the explosion of donations ...
The Associations have therefore lost most of their resources but there is worse, these are the centers. In France, the contribution amounted to € 75, of which up to € 60 was taken to operate nationally. Thus, to the local centers remained fifteen unhappy euros per contributor for groups of ten to thirty people on average, a poor annual budget of approximately € 300. To rent a room or pay the heating, there only remains the option of asking for contributions yet again. In 2009 (in France), the national contribution was doubled, the share of the local groups may well explode. But their spending being so strictly controlled, it gives a false sense of autonomy.
Rajagopalachari leaves little room for initiatives from his followers. Initially, numerous fact sheets and exchanges have sprung up everywhere, like Sahaj Marg Info in several French regions, with a publication that was often hieratic but original. After several failed attempts, Rajagopalachari finally put some order in recent years and they are aggregated in supranational regions, these are the "Echoes of ...
If Rajagopalachari succeeded on paper and in the centers, today it is the WEB which presents a problem. Long, he has banned exchanges outside the strict framework of the Mission. In May 2004, the preceptor Clark Powell introduced a blog for the "spiritual travelers". But soon after, on July 2, Rajagopalachari orders its closure: "I have been seeing the emails between you and others proliferating, and this causes me disquiet. By this mail I request you to finally stop your website invertendo.com permanently and oblige. I thank you for your obedience. "
But that position became difficult to sustain as the development of critical websites and blogs, which has ultimately led him to make concessions in March 2007, while six months ago one could still read in Sahaj Sandesh (N ° 2006 -- 68, 20/09/2006): "On the advice of the Master, the Mission has adopted a policy to discourage the use of online groups, chat rooms, blogs, email lists, private or unauthorized use by third-party mailing lists to disseminate information about the Mission. "
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission has also created its own website and a newsletter, initially called Sahaj Net News and Sahaj Sansdesh during the 90s. But again, the battle raged with the clan of the son of Babuji around domain names. Rajagopalachari first loses in the U.S. in 2000, before winning in India in 2008 at the National Commission for Arbitration. So he bought the domain names Lalaji, Babuji or Chariji with all possible extensions, but also: ram-chandra.fr, maitre.fr, (Master.fr) or better yet, voie-spirituelle.fr, (spiritual path.fr) and raja-yoga.fr.
Ashrams and Assets
During Babuji's life, the assets of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission were mixed with his own. The ashram of Shahjahanpur was built on his land, near his house, and it opened in 1976. This is the first ashram of the Mission, the only one ever created by Babuji. Otherwise, it (the Mission) had almost nothing else.
Rajagopalachari left for the West to assert his legitimacy. His troops were initially established mainly in Europe, before he rallied India and the Indians around him. The same applies to the ashrams, the first being the Augerans (the old Peugeot (automobiles) Castle) acquisitions in France in 1988, the Molena Ashram (a private house in a small village in Georgia), in the U.S., and Vrad Sande, in Denmark in 1992. It was not until 1999 that the Babuji Memorial Ashram kind of "rose from the ground" near Chennai, as it was the headquarters of the (Chari's SRCM-Californial-1997) Mission.
When it settles somewhere, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission intends to enjoy unhindered access to its property. This happened at the Augerans Castle, a property of ten hectares (20 acres) with over 3,400 square meters (m2) of living space, opened on October 9, 1988, near Dole in the French (district of) Jura. The Mission purchases it for nearly two million (French) francs (€ 300,000) from the Peugeot group , and made it its European headquarters. By 1993, according to local newspapers of the time, they built a meditation hall on the property after constructing a car park with 150 spaces and a collective sanitation facilities. So the Zoning Plan prohibited any extension of the buildings over 500 m². A showdown begins between the Mission and the mayor of the town, crystallizing around the municipal elections of 95. The Shri Ram Chandra Mission closes its account with the bank where the mayor works, explaining to its manager that the fault lies with their employee. Then they establish residence in the Castle for several of their followers who register on the electoral rolls. Also according to the newspapers, fifteen additional voters tip (influence) the elections in this small village of 150 inhabitants. Soon a new big tent of 600 m² is placed adjacent to the castle, the new mayor lifts the ban on camping on the site and the Mission organizes seminars for over 1,500 people. This is not taking in consideration the opposition of the villagers and the local press. So, Rajagopalachari throws in the towel in 2000 and they managed to sell the castle in 2003. The occupation lasted fifteen years. The European headquarters is moved to Vrad Sande, Denmark, another small village of 150 inhabitants, but here, many are followers of the Mission, nearly half of the Danish preceptors have residence there.
In the late 1990's, Rajagopalachari changes strategy. Henceforth, the major investments are all in India, and that begins with the global headquarters of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Donations are pouring in from everywhere, and the work lasts two years and the Babuji Memorial Ashram (BMA) is launched at Manapakkam on the outskirts of Chennai, on April 30, 1999, a symbolic date as it is the centenary of the birth of Babuji. At an estimated cost of between two and three million dollars at the time, the ashram covers five hectares and can accommodate 13,000 people under its meditation hall.
And this strategy continues at a frantic pace. In 2006, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission accounts for 53 ashrams in India, including nine major ashrams in addition to the Babuji Memorial Ashram (BMA), Bangalore, Tiruppur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Allahabad, Kolkata and Satkhol. For example, the Ahmedabad ashram is spread over two hectares, the meditation hall can accommodate 2,500 people, with dormitories for 750 persons and fifteen apartments.
From 2005, Rajagopalachari diversifies his investments. Instead of ashrams, he invests in a school, the Lalaji Memorial Omega International School (LMOIS), then in two training centers at Bangalore and Kharagpur (Center for Research and Education Training Sadhana-CREST) and three retreat centers (the 25 acre ranch) SPURS in Austin, Texas and two others in India at Panshet and Malampuzha.
That has not completely stopped the Western ashrams from multiplying. During the 1990's, the United States have acquired three, South Africa, one, and two in France with Montpellier in 1991 after Augerans, and one in Switzerland at Lausanne in 1996. And despite the transfer of funds to India, the movement continues even then. France acquires an ashram at Nice in 2001 and another in Paris in 2004. Berlin gets its own in 2006, then it is the turn of Milan and Timisoara (Romania) in 2008. And the projects are still very numerous: London, Lyons, New Jersey and Australia also want their own ashrams. In the U.S., he also plans for the upgrade of the Molena ashram and Pioneer Valley ...(Massachusetts, USA)
In theory, Rajagopalachari had said it, the foundations SMSF are responsible for the material wealth, and associations for the spirituality. In practice this is not so simple. All is not rosy for Western followers who wish to acquire an ashram, far from it. Although it becomes part of the assets of the Mission once it is acquired, it still must be previously funded, at least partly, by the local enthusiasts themselves, once they have obtained the agreement of Rajagopalachari. This is not necessarily so easy.
Examples: In 2000, the guru unilaterally decides to resell Augerans (Castle) against the advice of the French adepts. Then it is the turn of the newly acquired land in Armadale, near Perth, Australia, which was sold in 2003. Then, on May 19, 2006, Rajagopalachari authorizes the proposed acquisition of an ashram in Italy, after having visited the place himself. A week later, he canceled the project and authorized the Berlin (Ashram) less than three weeks later. In the process, he opposes the English project of the London abhyasis, whose lease on the Scottish Broomlee ashram is due, and tells them to go to Vrad Sande in Denmark.
After their defeat, the Italians returned to the charge in 2008 with a persuasive argument, the direct air link between Dubai and Milan, which would make this new ashram the first stop of their guru in Europe. Suddenly, the acquisition is formalized on March 28 and Rajagopalachari comes to inaugurate it himself the following May 11. The same year, Ajay Kumar Bhatter agrees with the center of Lyons to undertake a search for an ashram. Meanwhile, Rajagopalachari talks about getting rid of the one in Lausanne and to build another elsewhere, as the current renovations are just being completed. In October, he freezes any new acquisition because of the global financial crisis, while he grants the right for some to go ahead, and then he relaunches things in the United States three to six months later ...
For the German National ashram, Rajagopalachari announces that the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation will finance only two-thirds of it. The national association has only to figure out how to find the rest, without the use of contributions or the sale of publications. So, even other national organizations have participated: France at 35,ooo € and Switzerland at 30,000 €. The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Italy also participated. Rajagopalachari opposed the London project even though the supporters in the United Kingdom and Ireland had already found the equivalent of € 1,500 each. He does not participate financially in the Lyon (France) ashram, the French SRCM providing half of the estimated amount, which means that the local followers have to find themselves 3,000 € each. What then was invested by the SMSF in the Italian National ashram, as we know that France is already involved to the tune of 115,000 €?
Yet, according to the explanations of Rajagopalachari, one would have thought that it would be only the foundation which would buy the ashrams. At least for the national ashrams, in the absence of regional associations, but nothing is less true.
The assets are then not wholly held by the foundations. Some remains in the hands of the associations. According to all available information, capital equity held by associations outside India vary from 700 to 1,500 € per practitioner in 2007 and five times less in India, slightly more than fifty million. If the distribution of wealth followed the amount of revenues and expenses, then at least two thirds of it would be in the hands of foundations. And the global assets could exceed 150 million.
In 1997, Umesh Chandra Saxena, the son of Babuji and a direct competitor of Rajagopalachari, considered the assets of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission to 200 million euros, when it had 55,000 followers. If this estimate was accurate and if the assets evolved in the same proportion as the number of contributors, it would then reach nearly 400 million in 2007. That would mean that not only two thirds of the assets are managed by the foundations, but almost 90% ...
Publications for Collectors
Originally, the publishing and the printing of the Sahaj Marg material was created to allow the dissemination of the works of Babuji to his disciples. The bestseller "My Master" by Rajagopalachari, recommended to newcomers to the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, quickly took over, soon followed by all of his speeches. But as he intended to retain a strict control on all of his words, a publication committee now reads and corrects them after their transcription on paper, and before compiling, printing and selling them. (This was one of Michael's duties. Michael is an ex-preceptor and ex-member of Chari's Inner Circle. See "Inner Circle of SRCM")
The "cult of the personality" was translated into the display of the photo of the master in all the followers' homes, then in every room of their house. The publishers started selling photos, then posters, full-length or life-size. And diversification has intensified with souvenir albums, t-shirts, preceptors' badges, etc.. With the digital revolution, they moved into CDs and DVDs.
The publishing and printing of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission material has been transformed into a vast multimedia company, sending and marketing its products around the world. To finance the investments needed for this evolution, they offered lifetime subscriptions to various magazines ($ 250 for Constant Remembrance), books ($350 USD), and audiovisual publications ($1,000 USD).
But that was not sufficient. Until then, the sale of publications and other marketed products represented one third to one half of the revenues of the local (national) associations. Rajagopalachari intended to recover part of it to finance his projects, as he did from 1997 to 99 for the construction of the Babuji Memorial Ashram, with the launch of products such as photo albums or other badges and tee-shirts. The proposed LMOIS school, and the importance of funds needed to achieve it, will change everything in 2005. Henceforth, the local associations will resell traditional publications at cost, (on sale) while the foundation will offer a gift to the followers who make large donations, as a "thanks".
So, on March 30, 2005, Rajagopalachari announces the upcoming release of a book about which nobody knows anything. Not yet printed, its title, its author and its contents are unknown. To purchase this book, one must donate $250 € "based on trust", because after April 15 will be too late "even if you come with a lakh rupees." A large commercial operation of Rajagopalachari who defends himself: "For once in your life, you have a 'book future'. And your future is linked to this book. I will not mention this again because I have not come here to ask for money. " On 1 May he announces that the orders amounted to 5,200 copies as of April 15. "Knowledge is unnecessary, so long as you have faith. Because if you did not have trust me, you would not buy that book."
Frank Waaldijk follower of Sahaj Marg since 1993 and Zone-In-Charge (ZIC) for the Netherlands, says that he was moved by the price of "Whispers" and he proposed to sell it to the richer followers, so they then can redistribute it to the centers. But "they" replied that he should never have said such a thing. Immediately ostracized, he eventually left the Mission. (see Frank's comments on "Finances of SRCM" blog) And Rajagopalachari also prohibits any French translation of the book, including any passages, as a French version is planned at 300 € per copy. "Given the amount, payment by installments is possible, however the total to be paid on 31 December, 05 (...) Note that each copy of this book is personal."
In 2007, to finance and participate in the celebration of his 80th birthday at Tiruppur, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission announces that one should first make a donation of $1,200 USD, and that the first donors will receive a gift from the master.
After the insistence of Rajagopalachari so as to sell "Whispers", the misbehavior at Vrad Sande in Denmark and Lignano, Italy (auction sales during satsangh) is the "straw that broke the camel's back". Everyone is taken aback by the amount of the donation requested, and the words used, "primary beneficiaries". A wave of unprecedented protests captures the followers who are finally aware that the mission operates at two speeds: one for the rich and one for the others. After some hesitation, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission reverses its requests. Participation at the festivities is free. Donations are destined for the regional foundations to develop the Mission and its activities. The first donors will be presented first with the gift from the master and it is only during the celebrations that we discover that this "gift" is actually an 18 DVD box set entitled "He, the Hookah and I". (in which he calls the "bloggers" the "enemies of Spirituality")
Back to square one: they must still finance Tiruppur. Thus during the festivities, one can buy an exclusive T-shirt or a special anniversary book of yet unpublished photos. "Timeline - Years of Love and Guidance" is less than $30 USD and contains 300 pages of photographs taken between 1983 and 2007. Evidence that the Shri Ram Chandra Mission publications can be produced cheap when it wishes. Soon after, new subscriptions are open for "Whispers" and "Hookah". The deadline for initial subscription is long passed, there was to be no exception, but the Publications go on sale at $1,000 USD for the "Hookah" instead of the previous $1,200. And it revamps a new book of the celebrations with a new special commemorative edition, "And He walks on," for fifty dollars.
In 2009, after the global financial crisis and a freeze on investments imposed by Rajagopalachari, all is "GO" again. From Satkhol on February 2, he announces the release of a second volume of "Whispers" to be released on April 30. The deadline for subscription is February 25. A third volume will be published in 2010 and a fourth in 2011, and perhaps even a fifth in 2012. "There is no fixed price for this invaluable book containing the messages, but it will be reserved for all abhyasis in Europe that will make a donation of 250€. On February 13th, he decides to give a discount of 100 €, the minimum donation now being 150 € instead of 250 for the second volume. Then, just before satsangh, Sunday, March 1st, at Manapakkam, he delivers a speech that can not be called anything but a commercial release, coupled with blackmail for what he calls the Bible of Sahaj Marg:
"(...) Do not look at what you have to pay for it. Even today I am told that [with] gold costing fifteen hundred rupees a gram, people are buying gold. It is just a metal. If you do not know where it is, it's lost, the value is gone. If tomorrow Gold falls to five hundred rupees a gram, you have lost money. Whereas what you are going to get is the Bible of Sahaj Marg, the Vedas of Sahaj Marg, the shruti.
I would request you not to hesitate, but to acquire a copy before you leave this hall before you leave this ashram. And pass this message on to all your brothers and sisters, Because they will not be reprinted within the next fifty years - not any of them. Volume One will not be reprinted. Volume Two will not be reprinted - there will be only one edition. And if my successor feels that it is necessary, may be sometime in 2030, 2035, you may see a second edition. This is my decision, so do not look for a second edition. It will not come. This is policy. This is an instruction to my successor, Ajay Bhatter, that there shall be no reprint of this book before the year 2030.
So please acquire it and do not depend on the computer to read it everyday, because Volume Two will not be released on the internet till I say it should be done. (...) "
Ajay Kumar Bhatter added that no French version will be on the agenda until 2012. Then we learn that the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is finally considering publishing a French version in 2010, provided that the presales amount to at least 750 copies by June 30. Later, we finally learn that those who paid the high price - 250 € - for the English version, will pay only 50 € for the French version. A very poor move, when we know that those who have already made a donation will never be reimbursed ...
Transparency or Opacity?
Recap. The multinational Sahaj Marg is 50 000 regular followers, 150,000 contributors and 500,000 supporters. Financially, there is a turnover (revenues and expenditures) of 50 to 100 million, and assets of 150 to 400 million. The local associations manage 10 to 30% of this. The annual participation of a follower does not just constitute a contribution (100 to 150 € in the West), but it reaches 1,000 to 2,000 € when we add the purchase of publications and donations of all kinds.
On the occasion of the creation of the LMOIS school, Rajagopalachari said to an applause: "(...) there is no black money transaction-no trustees following the money. I'm here to see to that."
If the accounts of local associations are presented annually to the General Meeting of contributors, it is not the same for the foundations, the two societies that manage the LMOIS school, or the new Spiritual Hierarchy Publication Trust (SHPT ) created in 2009 to take over the publishing activities. And again, it is still necessary to participate in general meetings, especially when that (the meeting) of the French association takes place at Vrad Sande, in Denmark, in 2008 or that of the Unite States, takes place in Tiruppur in India, in 2009.
Not to mention that in May 2008, at the Board of Directors of the SRCM France at Vrad Sande, Rajagopalachari did not only double the French contribution. He also suggested discreetly creating the President's International Fund based in Switzerland to collect donations small and large, the idea being that the Master would be able to draw from the pot at his will, and for what he sees fit. No written communication was to be made of this, only oral ads at the centers so as to propose monthly donations (automatic bank deductions and transfers).
Parallel and equally discreet, Committees for building projects were put in place to assist Santosh Khanjee, Krishna and PR (Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari) in their search for real estate deals (bank foreclosures?? Is "opportunism" a material or a spiritual character flaw?). But it's no longer simply investments for the foundations. They are now private projects where legal and tax arrangements are sometimes complex, and where specialized lawyers, architects and real estate professionals think about the most appropriate arrangements, including individuals and corporations.
Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
The Multinational Sahaj Marg
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission Rajagopalachari has become a multinational. It is based on its army of preceptors, who are virtually (real) missionary soldiers trained in unbridled proselytism, and on a gigantic but flawless administration. All numbers conceivable currently circulate on its importance. Numerically, there are probably some 50,000 regular meditators, 150,000 contributors and 500,000 supporters, including more than 80% who live in India. Financially, there is a turnover (budgetary revenues and expenses) of 50 to 100 millions, and assets of 150 to 400 millions, 70 to 90% being managed by foundations with no financial transparency. As for the participation of the followers, it is not solely in its annual membership fee (100 to 150 € in the West-Europe), but it could well reach 1,000 to 2,000 €, if one adds the publication purchases and other donations of all kinds.
* The Creation of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission
* Preceptors, the Missionaries of Sahaj Marg
* Sahaj marg, How Many Divisions?
* Associations, Foundations, Societies and Brands
* Ashrams and Assets
* Publications for Collectors
* Transparency or Opacity?
The creation of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission
Lalaji apparently had hundreds of disciples, according to Rajagopalachari, 212 exactly as stated by his grandson, Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, mainly in the state of Uttar Pradesh and surrounding areas of northern India. He indicates that nine or them were his preceptors, including his son Jagmohan Narain and his nephew Brij Mohan Lal. Eight organizations were born from these. (Babuji was not one of them (preceptor) ... See why here)
Babuji started from scratch. In his diary, he recounts his inter-communications (in dreams) with Lalaji who (allegedly) told him to start the organization in May 30, 1944, and then gives instructions on the following June 3. But it is only on June 10, 1945 that Babuji and twenty two of his followers gather at a meeting and decide to create the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. A working committee of nine persons was appointed June 20. The articles of association are registered in Lucknow on the next July 21. Its objective is to promote the system of Sahaj Marg founded by Lalaji his master, he writes. (See excerpts from Autobiography of Ram Chandra edited by SP Srivastava, President for 10 years, and published by SRCM (Shahjahanpur) (with comments by Christian (17 years with Chari's clan at SRCM (California-1997) which contains 80% of Babuji's Journals, as opposed to Chari's clan's version, which contains 20% ... Literary "cleansing"?) (see also: scans of many legal documents on Freedom from Sahaj Marg)
The organization is based in Shahjahanpur and chaired by Babuji or by his spiritual representative in direct line of succession. Anyone wishing to participate can join, without obligation to pay any subscription, but subject to presidential approval. (dictatorship... or private club??) He appoints a committee of nine persons to assist him. Madan Mohan Lal, senior preceptor of Lalaji at Shahjahanpur (not listed by Dinaysh...Kumar Saxena, grandson of Lalaji and dean of NaqshMuMRa Sufi Order) becomes the number two of the organization as its secretary. Prakash Chandra Saxena, the eldest son of Babuji, is also a member of the working committee. (while still a boy! Why?)
At the same time, Babuji's Journal tells of a series of inter-communications between Babuji and Swami Vivekananda. On May 20, 1945, Vivekananda himself gives him the name of the organization to create and tells him to convene a meeting of his followers. Several successive inter-communications stress that what is being created is a "new religion", under the authority of Vivekananda. His instructions on the emblem of the mission will come next August 26. (See excerpts from: the Autobiography of Ram Chandra)
In reality, Lalaji is not the founder of Sahaj Marg, contrary to what is written by the founders of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, (and Chari's SRCM-California-1997) except in the dreams of Babuji, says Dinaysh. And why did Babuji not speak any more of Vivekananda, if he played so important a role, as he says in his diary at the inception? (See NaqshMuMRa Nexus, the site operated by Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, dean of NaqshMuMRa and grandson of Lalaji)
Anyway, Babuji has at least twenty-two disciples in 1945. Twenty years later, at the arrival of Rajagopalachari, the number of his followers would be only 42 or 43, if one believes the latter. Also according to him, then, it suddenly jumps to 600 in 1972, and Ajay Kumar Bhatter reveals that there were approximately 3,000 at Babuji's death in 1983. The manipulation of figures has already begun, Rajagopalachari having all interest in minimizing the number of followers before his arrival in 1964, to magnify it later, and then assigns to himself the benefits of the growth.
Preceptors, The Missionaries of Sahaj Marg
Whether or not Rajagopalachari inflated the figures, the late sixties marked the beginning of the internationalization of Sahaj Marg. Lakshmi Narasimhan, is the first charged by Babuji to teach in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1968-69. KC Narayana (son of Dr. KC Varadachari, the Guru-in-waiting before Chari came on the scene) began touring the United States in 1971. And Rajagopalachari, appointed secretary of the Mission, lures Babuji to the West in 1972. This is the first in a long series of trips, the beginning of the exponential growth of the mission.
The number of disciples was increasing, the number of preceptors also. These (preceptors) serve as a channel for the transmission of the master, allowing him to multiply his spiritual capacities. And indeed, the mission goes from a dozen preceptors in 1964, to 45 in 1970, 60 in 1972, and 180 in 1983. A hierarchy begins to emerge with the appearance among them of "full preceptors", (said to have) spiritually arrived to the "central region" or its vicinity, (invented? Is there really a "central region" to timeless and eternal SPIRIT??) and the senior preceptors are respected because of their age and experience due to the time they spent in the company of Babuji.
From June 18, 1970, Dr. KC Varadachari writes to Babuji to warn him about the risk of commercialization of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission because of its (rapid) growth. To maintain the financial stability of the Mission, undermined by this growth, the introduction of activities not directly connected with the spiritual development of the disciples, is leading it to commercial excesses, Varadachari regrets. But nothing stops the further growth of the Mission, or its drifting (of its teachings).
The death of Babuji and the controversial takeover (attempt) by Rajagopalachari does not help. The latter has no choice but to develop the Shri Ram Chandra Mission abroad so as to assert his authority. The preceptors are becoming essential for the relay around the world and their role is changing rapidly.
Preceptors as (alleged) channels of spiritual transmission, gives way to preceptors as recruiters of new followers. Rajagopalachari selects them by their ambition and their pushiness, rather than by their spiritual qualities, that becomes secondary. Under the pretext of reaching a critical size necessary for the changeover of humanity through spirituality, he galvanizes his troops to do more recruiting. Their role is to proselytize, to play the "beater of the bush" (in hunting, to scare up the "game") and to enroll with a vengeance. There will be time later to address the spiritual development of the newcomers.
It suffices that there be nobody in a country or a region of the world for the first abhyasi to come up, to be immediately appointed preceptor. Rajagopalachari made and unmade preceptors according to his needs, up to naming them by phone. And gradually, a spiritual hierarchy is set up with directors of geographical areas, (Zone-In-Charge... ZIC) responsible for controlling the work of the preceptors, who are no longer the backbone of this vast enterprise of proselytism. Exit the full preceptor and the senior preceptors (of Babuji's), with their ability and their spiritual experience, to be replaced by an exacerbated proselytism.
Thus in 2003, Santosh Khanjee (developer from Austin, Texas) reorganizes the whole hierarchical system which is clogged by the geographical and numerical development of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Basically, a preceptor deals with a group of active members at what is called the Center. The preceptor is the Center-in-charge (CIC). At the higher levels, there are directors to head areas and regions. These are the Zone-In-Charge (ZIC) and the Region-In-Charge (RIC). More recently, they have been joined by developers charged especially with the development of the smaller centers in parallel with the work of the Zone-In-Charge.
For example, France has just over a thousand followers spread over 43 centers, 25 followers at an average center and a preceptor for eleven of them. These centers are grouped into six geographical areas with a ZIC and a developer for each. France is itself embedded in a larger area called the "Francophone Area, Spain and the British Isles", and that is included in "Europe".
All, preceptor as well as administrator, should promote spiritual growth and provide a monthly report to the next higher hierarchical level, and to Rajagopalachari personally. Included, must be the number of meditations conducted, and especially the number of newly introduced followers.
In the spirit of Rajagopalachari, the organization is designed to proselytize as if one is waging war with a plan, a tactical military strategy for the occupation of territory. In a training session at Hyderabad on April 4, 2004, the ZIC is compared to the general, the CIC to a "field commander":
"Strategy formulation. The Zone-in-charge is like a General, in charge of a territory. He has to evolve a strategy for effective penetration of his territory. He has to communicate this strategy to all the centers-in-charge, and convince them of its efficacy. He has to evolve a tactical plan to make this work (...) Tactical Plan. The Zone-in-charge has to plan where and how to grow the Mission. He has to device the means to achieve this growth . He has to train the functionaries in his area to undertake this task. He has to monitor this activity and make corrections where necessary. He has to conduct annual reviews of this plan, and send a progress report to Chennai. "
Preceptors must deliver the numbers, more and more sales, just the numbers. To do this, Rajagopalachari does not hesitate to play on their emotional feelings towards him, saying that they are not doing enough to deserve his affection. He blames them for their supposed lack of results and sinks them into the anxiety of upsetting the master. A permanent malaise that he carefully cultivates.
In a speech to the Danish preceptors, September 19, 1998, Rajagopalachari said: "For heaven's sake, wake up and get to work!". In a speech to the American preceptors, August 10, 2000, "Nobody worked (...). Only work produces results, only God works through human beings".
An English preceptor relates her experience and feelings following a training seminar in Manchester on March 12-13, 1999 (Natural Way, Fall 2000): "We watched Chariji's Speech to Preceptors in India, October 01, 1996 on video. Chariji said that Preceptors do not work enough. By not working we are really insulting Babuji and his plans. We were sad after the video."
Same thing in India where Rajagopalachari, in a speech at the Mysore Ashram (Karnataka, India), February 16, 2004, urged his followers to wake up: "(...) Karnataka has been very slow in developing in Sahaj Marg (...) there is too much tendency to stay at home and wait for everything to come to our house (...) I know many houses where the father is an abhyasis, not the wife, not the children, and for twenty years they do not change. If a man can not influence his own wife to start Sahaj Marg, who else is he going to influence? Wives I know are very difficult to manage, but that is the female nature, you see, and we are here to change nature by starting with our own family first (...) So, people of Karnataka, please awake." Same thing in Bangalore September 26 following: "(...) Karnataka is a big state. Why is it not growing? (...) But no growth (...) Karnataka is in a sleepy state (...) If you sleep, you have to be woken up. "
At a meeting of preceptors in Chennai July 17, 2004, Rajagopalachari shows he is well aware of the pressure that makes them suffer, but it's their fault: "(...) we were talking (...) about preceptors, their responsibilities, their work or lack of it (...) I receive letters from abhyasis, from preceptors, and they tends to dramatize this business of being a preceptor out of all proportion to what it really involves in our life . Either they suffer from guilt because they do not do the work that is assigned to them that goes with being a preceptor (...). and sometimes they are also angry, annoyed, desperate (...) ".
And it continues today. Ajay Kumar Bhatti takes over in Europe in a circular to the French preceptors, dated June 17, 2008: "After so many years and many visits to the Master, the number of abhyasis is disappointing in Europe." Then again, Rajagopalachari said in a message sent to supporters of the United States on October 11, 2009,: "(...) the Mission in the U.S. Had gone into some sort of - I will not say coma, but a partial sort of sleep mode. "
Sahaj Marg, How Many Divisions?
Nevertheless, the quasi-military strategy of Rajagopalachari and emotional blackmail of the preceptors are bearing fruit. The numerical growth is as expected.
According to Ajay Kumar Bhatter, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission had 3,000 followers at the death of Babuji in 1983. Then KC Narayana estimated their numbers to be 20,000 at his departure in 1991. And Rajagopalachari announces 50 to 55,000 adepts in 1995-97 and 75,000 in 2000. Finally in 2003, he claims to have tripled the number of followers in India in three years. All this to reach 200 to 300,000 followers between 2004 and 2007. And some mention 300 to 400,000, some say even 600,000 ... (Frank, ex Zonal-In-Charge (ZIC) for the Netherlands, says in his blog: Pitfalls of Spirituality, that "The number of followers is reported as much higher than it is in reality."
Let us remain reasonable, a presentation of the Mission carried out in Germany in 2007 gives the following table: 200,000 followers in India, 25,000 elsewhere, including 3,500 in Europe and a presence in over 90 countries.
The actual strength of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is a perpetual issue of speculation. It is difficult to determine right from wrong! Especially as the Mission itself is not clear about the size of its troops. Rajagopalachari knows for sure that he can gather more than 50,000 people at major ceremonies for his birthday, and he knows exactly how many preceptors, about 2,600 currently. That's it!
Before knowing how many abhyasis there are, we must still determine: What is an "abhyasis" (an adherent)? People who have been introduced to Sahaj Marg and attended three sittings of introduction with a preceptor, but we don't know if they continued their practice after. For simplicity, I call them "supporters". To attend the anniversary ceremony of Rajagopalachari, one must be a "contributor", even if one goes to the ashram only once a year, as is the case with many Indians. So, Rajagopalachari commissioned a global census of "regular followers" of Sahaj Marg, estimated by the number of people who attended the Sunday group meditation of April 30, 2008.
So who are these "abhyasis? Surely not all supporters or contributors. But surely not only the regular practitioners of Sunday group meditation. Probably somewhere between contributors and regular followers, is the reality.
In India, at the center of Chennai, a stronghold of the Mission, there is a preceptor for thirty regular followers, which themselves represent less than 30% of the contributors, and we must introduce three persons for a single "aderent" (as in adhesion, glue, stuck!) . In the rest of the world, things are somewhat different. Contributors and regular followers are more similar in number and include a preceptor for ten to fifteen regular adepts. As for supporters, in France they represent 25% of the contributors.
Overall, we would then have a nebula a little less than 500,000 supporters (or sympathizers), just over 150,000 contributors and appoximately 50,000 regular followers around the world. The number of abhyasis would be somewhere between 50 and 150,000, and probably not very far from 100,000 followers. The range is vast, but extrapolations are still much more accurate and precise than any reports from Rajagopalachari. This is not so bad, even if it falls far short of what they wanted us to believe ...
Whatever the actual numbers, India now has at least three quarters of the followers of Sahaj Marg. Then we find at the lead, North America and Western Europe each weighing in with nearly one third of the membership outside of India.
Beside India, two countries have over a thousand followers, the United States with about 3,000 supporters and France with over a thousand. Three other countries have more than 500 followers, Germany, Denmark and the United Arab Emirates. These five already account for half of the membership outside India. Ten other countries have more than 200 followers, or the fifteen counted here, account for three quarters of the global membership, always outside of India.
In France, it was estimated that 250 to 500,000 people were involved in sects (cults) in 2000. The market share held by the sectarian Shri Ram Chandra Mission there (France) would be much less than 1%. Another way to measure its importance is its penetration into French society, which is around fifteen followers per million inhabitants, roughly equivalent to its average penetration rate worldwide. It is well below that of India which is 80, and some smaller European countries like Denmark (90) and Switzerland (50), and Asia with the United Arab Emirates (120) and Singapore (35).
Since the mid-90s, the strength of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in France has stagnated as in the rest of Western Europe, and in North America more recently. Conversely, substantial increases were recorded in India where Rajagopalachari returned triumphant over his competitors, in Latin America and in Eastern European countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And Rajagopalachari is trying to get a foothold in
China ...
For more information, see also: Importance of SRCM
Associations, Foundations, Societies and Brands
The presence of Shri Ram Chandra Mission extends around the planet and the number is growing. Having only one association based in India to manage all of that is fast becoming insufficient. National associations are created in the 70's and 80's in North America and Europe in particular, to relay the administrative support from India and to accompany its global development.
They are all built on the same model. Rajagopalachari is President and appoints a management committee with a vice president, secretary, treasurer and auditor of accounts, to which he adds some members among his most loyal allies, often from foreign countries. (i.e. not from the country where the Association is registered) Until the 90s, their resources come from contributions of supporters, from the sale of publications, and donations, often roughly one third each.
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission Shahjahanpur created by Babuji in 1945 was not a model of democracy. National associations created fifty years later are hardly more so. But the societies statutes in the host countries do not as easily permit such a denial of democracy, so the (SRCM) statutes refer most often to the operating rules of procedure. As in France where it is written in Article 17 of the articles submitted in 1986: "The president who is the true master of the Association will exercise his powers through the intervention of interior regulations, which he can change at will (... ).
In 1997, the son of Babuji, Umesh Chandra Saxena, is violently opposed to Rajagopalachari. The Indian Shri Ram Chandra Mission (Shahjahanpur-1945) is claimed by both groups. Who owns the bank account? The Indian justice system is hearing the case since 1984 but has still not decided. And a further conflict erupts in the United States around the rightful ownership of the domain name on the web. More broadly, the dispute concerns the ownership of the assets, which Umesh Chandra Saxena is said at the time, to be 200 million euros.
Pragmatic, without abandoning the legal battle, Rajagopalachari throws in the towel and instructs his "eminence grise", Santosh Khanjee to find a solution to this impasse. He then creates (in 1997) another association SRCM association in California and files for trademarks, Sahaj Marg ™, Shri Ram Chandra Mission ™, and Constant Remembrance ™ (the name of their quarterly magazine), and the emblem of the mission, with the Department of Commerce U.S. Then he begins a major reorganization of its International administration.
Rajagopalachari is surrounded by an Executive Committee of three persons only. This triumvirate is made up of his designated successor Ajay Kumar Bhatter in charge of finance, his son Krishna PR, assets, and Santosh Khanjee himself, in charge of the administration. And he creates an international secretariat, OSIA (Office of the Secretariat for International Affairs) at the head of several sectors such as finance, ashrams, information, development, operations or the publications. A model that he will reproduce and impose in all structures.
As early as 1998, the British Isles is used as a laboratory to professionalize an administration which is too amateur in his eyes. To help get the bitter pill of restructuring down, he names in by the sweet name of "flower system". (that fools the gullible abhyasis) The management committee or the Board of Directors does not change but becomes the heart of the flower, while its petals are constituted by different sectors of activity which he professionalizes in the image of the International Secretariat.
Santosh Khanjee at the same time is trying to impose a separation of powers and the denationalization of the associations with somewhat less success. He wants to separate the spiritual and administrative powers to prevent the overlapping functions of preceptors and administration onto the same people. But motivation being what it is, this policy fails miserably.
However, he tries to combine several countries together to create supra-national organizations. Thus, the United Kingdom and Ireland form a single association, as well as the countries of Oceania and of the Benelux. France, which displays some resistance, is saddled with a (female) vice-president from a foreign country. One suspects that behind the destabilizing of the different groups, is the desire to avoid any hint of resistance or the building of lobbies.
The global reorganization around a model solely "associative" quickly shows its limitations. Remittances are heavily taxed, which Rajagopalachari swallows with difficulty, transforming his close family into "suitcase carriers". (see allegations of "money transportation" (in French) on Elodie's blog, Pour Que Vive Le Sahaj Marg ... in the comments in the English version: Sahaj Marg Long Life) Then, Santosh Khanjee, inspired by the foundation established in Switzerland by Ferdinand Wulliemier in 1994, also creates (and registers) a foundation in Austin, Texas in 1999, the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation (SMSF). Then follows another SMSF in India in 2003, and one in Dubai in 2004. With the LMOIS school in 2005, two other societies emerge: the Baal Vatika Educational Society, responsible for its functioning, and the Baal Vatika Educational Trust for its funding. (now changed ... On their site: LMOIS, there is no mention of any ( Baal Vatika (meaning: "Baal=Master's, and Vatika=Hermitage (such as the wealthy "Vatican")) "funding" or "andministration" societies, or of SMSF "foundations" ... International Charity dollars used to build private schools for the "well-to-do".)
In the United States, foundations enjoy tax exemption provided that at least 5% of their donations are used for charity. The SMSF, Austin, Texas has regularly paid money to the Red Cross (for September 11, to Katrina, etc.). (now the SMSF Private Foundation, can donate their 5% to "themselves", or to the LMOIS and SRCM as "education") As for Dubai, it hosts the first "free zone" in the Middle East, where more than 6,000 foreign societies are permitted to operate as offshore, no exchange controls or taxes on imports or export duties, with the possibility of 100% repatriation of capital and profits, no taxation on corporations or on physical persons.
At the time, Rajagopalachari said that like a bird, Sahaj Marg has two wings, the first is spiritual and is the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, the second is material and that is the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation. On one side, associations and on the other, foundations. The administrative reorganization is followed by a financial reorganization in which Santosh Khanjee (allegedly) robs the local associations of most of their resources to transfer it to the foundation.
National Associations will now no longer manage anything beside the funds for their daily operations. Each year they will submit a budget for approval to the OSIA. Every quarter they will send him a financial report on their progress. Any expenditure greater than or equal to USD 1,000 requires prior approval from the OSIA. And the same for any proposed investment in land or real estate, of course.
Local associations also must conduct a cost accounting in three sections: operations, publications and seminars. And each of them must balance its income and its expenditures. Thus the contributions will cover the operation, the sale of publications will no longer generate local benefits and the seminars must be self-financing. Most of the resources generated from the sale of publications and donations are now collected directly by the foundations. The associations have little more than the contributions of their members to put their hands on. The former distribution of resources into roughly three equal parts is now shattered.
From the scant information available, the resources of local associations represent 200 to 300 € per adept, depending on the country, outside India in 2007. In this country, they would be around 50 € only, most costs being divided by five. Extrapolating these figures to all contributors leads to an estimate of about ten to fifteen million in turnover for all the associations. The foundations would then generate at least the other two thirds, not to mention the explosion of donations ...
The Associations have therefore lost most of their resources but there is worse, these are the centers. In France, the contribution amounted to € 75, of which up to € 60 was taken to operate nationally. Thus, to the local centers remained fifteen unhappy euros per contributor for groups of ten to thirty people on average, a poor annual budget of approximately € 300. To rent a room or pay the heating, there only remains the option of asking for contributions yet again. In 2009 (in France), the national contribution was doubled, the share of the local groups may well explode. But their spending being so strictly controlled, it gives a false sense of autonomy.
Rajagopalachari leaves little room for initiatives from his followers. Initially, numerous fact sheets and exchanges have sprung up everywhere, like Sahaj Marg Info in several French regions, with a publication that was often hieratic but original. After several failed attempts, Rajagopalachari finally put some order in recent years and they are aggregated in supranational regions, these are the "Echoes of ...
If Rajagopalachari succeeded on paper and in the centers, today it is the WEB which presents a problem. Long, he has banned exchanges outside the strict framework of the Mission. In May 2004, the preceptor Clark Powell introduced a blog for the "spiritual travelers". But soon after, on July 2, Rajagopalachari orders its closure: "I have been seeing the emails between you and others proliferating, and this causes me disquiet. By this mail I request you to finally stop your website invertendo.com permanently and oblige. I thank you for your obedience. "
But that position became difficult to sustain as the development of critical websites and blogs, which has ultimately led him to make concessions in March 2007, while six months ago one could still read in Sahaj Sandesh (N ° 2006 -- 68, 20/09/2006): "On the advice of the Master, the Mission has adopted a policy to discourage the use of online groups, chat rooms, blogs, email lists, private or unauthorized use by third-party mailing lists to disseminate information about the Mission. "
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission has also created its own website and a newsletter, initially called Sahaj Net News and Sahaj Sansdesh during the 90s. But again, the battle raged with the clan of the son of Babuji around domain names. Rajagopalachari first loses in the U.S. in 2000, before winning in India in 2008 at the National Commission for Arbitration. So he bought the domain names Lalaji, Babuji or Chariji with all possible extensions, but also: ram-chandra.fr, maitre.fr, (Master.fr) or better yet, voie-spirituelle.fr, (spiritual path.fr) and raja-yoga.fr.
Ashrams and Assets
During Babuji's life, the assets of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission were mixed with his own. The ashram of Shahjahanpur was built on his land, near his house, and it opened in 1976. This is the first ashram of the Mission, the only one ever created by Babuji. Otherwise, it (the Mission) had almost nothing else.
Rajagopalachari left for the West to assert his legitimacy. His troops were initially established mainly in Europe, before he rallied India and the Indians around him. The same applies to the ashrams, the first being the Augerans (the old Peugeot (automobiles) Castle) acquisitions in France in 1988, the Molena Ashram (a private house in a small village in Georgia), in the U.S., and Vrad Sande, in Denmark in 1992. It was not until 1999 that the Babuji Memorial Ashram kind of "rose from the ground" near Chennai, as it was the headquarters of the (Chari's SRCM-Californial-1997) Mission.
When it settles somewhere, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission intends to enjoy unhindered access to its property. This happened at the Augerans Castle, a property of ten hectares (20 acres) with over 3,400 square meters (m2) of living space, opened on October 9, 1988, near Dole in the French (district of) Jura. The Mission purchases it for nearly two million (French) francs (€ 300,000) from the Peugeot group , and made it its European headquarters. By 1993, according to local newspapers of the time, they built a meditation hall on the property after constructing a car park with 150 spaces and a collective sanitation facilities. So the Zoning Plan prohibited any extension of the buildings over 500 m². A showdown begins between the Mission and the mayor of the town, crystallizing around the municipal elections of 95. The Shri Ram Chandra Mission closes its account with the bank where the mayor works, explaining to its manager that the fault lies with their employee. Then they establish residence in the Castle for several of their followers who register on the electoral rolls. Also according to the newspapers, fifteen additional voters tip (influence) the elections in this small village of 150 inhabitants. Soon a new big tent of 600 m² is placed adjacent to the castle, the new mayor lifts the ban on camping on the site and the Mission organizes seminars for over 1,500 people. This is not taking in consideration the opposition of the villagers and the local press. So, Rajagopalachari throws in the towel in 2000 and they managed to sell the castle in 2003. The occupation lasted fifteen years. The European headquarters is moved to Vrad Sande, Denmark, another small village of 150 inhabitants, but here, many are followers of the Mission, nearly half of the Danish preceptors have residence there.
In the late 1990's, Rajagopalachari changes strategy. Henceforth, the major investments are all in India, and that begins with the global headquarters of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Donations are pouring in from everywhere, and the work lasts two years and the Babuji Memorial Ashram (BMA) is launched at Manapakkam on the outskirts of Chennai, on April 30, 1999, a symbolic date as it is the centenary of the birth of Babuji. At an estimated cost of between two and three million dollars at the time, the ashram covers five hectares and can accommodate 13,000 people under its meditation hall.
And this strategy continues at a frantic pace. In 2006, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission accounts for 53 ashrams in India, including nine major ashrams in addition to the Babuji Memorial Ashram (BMA), Bangalore, Tiruppur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Allahabad, Kolkata and Satkhol. For example, the Ahmedabad ashram is spread over two hectares, the meditation hall can accommodate 2,500 people, with dormitories for 750 persons and fifteen apartments.
From 2005, Rajagopalachari diversifies his investments. Instead of ashrams, he invests in a school, the Lalaji Memorial Omega International School (LMOIS), then in two training centers at Bangalore and Kharagpur (Center for Research and Education Training Sadhana-CREST) and three retreat centers (the 25 acre ranch) SPURS in Austin, Texas and two others in India at Panshet and Malampuzha.
That has not completely stopped the Western ashrams from multiplying. During the 1990's, the United States have acquired three, South Africa, one, and two in France with Montpellier in 1991 after Augerans, and one in Switzerland at Lausanne in 1996. And despite the transfer of funds to India, the movement continues even then. France acquires an ashram at Nice in 2001 and another in Paris in 2004. Berlin gets its own in 2006, then it is the turn of Milan and Timisoara (Romania) in 2008. And the projects are still very numerous: London, Lyons, New Jersey and Australia also want their own ashrams. In the U.S., he also plans for the upgrade of the Molena ashram and Pioneer Valley ...(Massachusetts, USA)
In theory, Rajagopalachari had said it, the foundations SMSF are responsible for the material wealth, and associations for the spirituality. In practice this is not so simple. All is not rosy for Western followers who wish to acquire an ashram, far from it. Although it becomes part of the assets of the Mission once it is acquired, it still must be previously funded, at least partly, by the local enthusiasts themselves, once they have obtained the agreement of Rajagopalachari. This is not necessarily so easy.
Examples: In 2000, the guru unilaterally decides to resell Augerans (Castle) against the advice of the French adepts. Then it is the turn of the newly acquired land in Armadale, near Perth, Australia, which was sold in 2003. Then, on May 19, 2006, Rajagopalachari authorizes the proposed acquisition of an ashram in Italy, after having visited the place himself. A week later, he canceled the project and authorized the Berlin (Ashram) less than three weeks later. In the process, he opposes the English project of the London abhyasis, whose lease on the Scottish Broomlee ashram is due, and tells them to go to Vrad Sande in Denmark.
After their defeat, the Italians returned to the charge in 2008 with a persuasive argument, the direct air link between Dubai and Milan, which would make this new ashram the first stop of their guru in Europe. Suddenly, the acquisition is formalized on March 28 and Rajagopalachari comes to inaugurate it himself the following May 11. The same year, Ajay Kumar Bhatter agrees with the center of Lyons to undertake a search for an ashram. Meanwhile, Rajagopalachari talks about getting rid of the one in Lausanne and to build another elsewhere, as the current renovations are just being completed. In October, he freezes any new acquisition because of the global financial crisis, while he grants the right for some to go ahead, and then he relaunches things in the United States three to six months later ...
For the German National ashram, Rajagopalachari announces that the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation will finance only two-thirds of it. The national association has only to figure out how to find the rest, without the use of contributions or the sale of publications. So, even other national organizations have participated: France at 35,ooo € and Switzerland at 30,000 €. The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Italy also participated. Rajagopalachari opposed the London project even though the supporters in the United Kingdom and Ireland had already found the equivalent of € 1,500 each. He does not participate financially in the Lyon (France) ashram, the French SRCM providing half of the estimated amount, which means that the local followers have to find themselves 3,000 € each. What then was invested by the SMSF in the Italian National ashram, as we know that France is already involved to the tune of 115,000 €?
Yet, according to the explanations of Rajagopalachari, one would have thought that it would be only the foundation which would buy the ashrams. At least for the national ashrams, in the absence of regional associations, but nothing is less true.
The assets are then not wholly held by the foundations. Some remains in the hands of the associations. According to all available information, capital equity held by associations outside India vary from 700 to 1,500 € per practitioner in 2007 and five times less in India, slightly more than fifty million. If the distribution of wealth followed the amount of revenues and expenses, then at least two thirds of it would be in the hands of foundations. And the global assets could exceed 150 million.
In 1997, Umesh Chandra Saxena, the son of Babuji and a direct competitor of Rajagopalachari, considered the assets of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission to 200 million euros, when it had 55,000 followers. If this estimate was accurate and if the assets evolved in the same proportion as the number of contributors, it would then reach nearly 400 million in 2007. That would mean that not only two thirds of the assets are managed by the foundations, but almost 90% ...
Publications for Collectors
Originally, the publishing and the printing of the Sahaj Marg material was created to allow the dissemination of the works of Babuji to his disciples. The bestseller "My Master" by Rajagopalachari, recommended to newcomers to the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, quickly took over, soon followed by all of his speeches. But as he intended to retain a strict control on all of his words, a publication committee now reads and corrects them after their transcription on paper, and before compiling, printing and selling them. (This was one of Michael's duties. Michael is an ex-preceptor and ex-member of Chari's Inner Circle. See "Inner Circle of SRCM")
The "cult of the personality" was translated into the display of the photo of the master in all the followers' homes, then in every room of their house. The publishers started selling photos, then posters, full-length or life-size. And diversification has intensified with souvenir albums, t-shirts, preceptors' badges, etc.. With the digital revolution, they moved into CDs and DVDs.
The publishing and printing of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission material has been transformed into a vast multimedia company, sending and marketing its products around the world. To finance the investments needed for this evolution, they offered lifetime subscriptions to various magazines ($ 250 for Constant Remembrance), books ($350 USD), and audiovisual publications ($1,000 USD).
But that was not sufficient. Until then, the sale of publications and other marketed products represented one third to one half of the revenues of the local (national) associations. Rajagopalachari intended to recover part of it to finance his projects, as he did from 1997 to 99 for the construction of the Babuji Memorial Ashram, with the launch of products such as photo albums or other badges and tee-shirts. The proposed LMOIS school, and the importance of funds needed to achieve it, will change everything in 2005. Henceforth, the local associations will resell traditional publications at cost, (on sale) while the foundation will offer a gift to the followers who make large donations, as a "thanks".
So, on March 30, 2005, Rajagopalachari announces the upcoming release of a book about which nobody knows anything. Not yet printed, its title, its author and its contents are unknown. To purchase this book, one must donate $250 € "based on trust", because after April 15 will be too late "even if you come with a lakh rupees." A large commercial operation of Rajagopalachari who defends himself: "For once in your life, you have a 'book future'. And your future is linked to this book. I will not mention this again because I have not come here to ask for money. " On 1 May he announces that the orders amounted to 5,200 copies as of April 15. "Knowledge is unnecessary, so long as you have faith. Because if you did not have trust me, you would not buy that book."
Frank Waaldijk follower of Sahaj Marg since 1993 and Zone-In-Charge (ZIC) for the Netherlands, says that he was moved by the price of "Whispers" and he proposed to sell it to the richer followers, so they then can redistribute it to the centers. But "they" replied that he should never have said such a thing. Immediately ostracized, he eventually left the Mission. (see Frank's comments on "Finances of SRCM" blog) And Rajagopalachari also prohibits any French translation of the book, including any passages, as a French version is planned at 300 € per copy. "Given the amount, payment by installments is possible, however the total to be paid on 31 December, 05 (...) Note that each copy of this book is personal."
In 2007, to finance and participate in the celebration of his 80th birthday at Tiruppur, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission announces that one should first make a donation of $1,200 USD, and that the first donors will receive a gift from the master.
After the insistence of Rajagopalachari so as to sell "Whispers", the misbehavior at Vrad Sande in Denmark and Lignano, Italy (auction sales during satsangh) is the "straw that broke the camel's back". Everyone is taken aback by the amount of the donation requested, and the words used, "primary beneficiaries". A wave of unprecedented protests captures the followers who are finally aware that the mission operates at two speeds: one for the rich and one for the others. After some hesitation, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission reverses its requests. Participation at the festivities is free. Donations are destined for the regional foundations to develop the Mission and its activities. The first donors will be presented first with the gift from the master and it is only during the celebrations that we discover that this "gift" is actually an 18 DVD box set entitled "He, the Hookah and I". (in which he calls the "bloggers" the "enemies of Spirituality")
Back to square one: they must still finance Tiruppur. Thus during the festivities, one can buy an exclusive T-shirt or a special anniversary book of yet unpublished photos. "Timeline - Years of Love and Guidance" is less than $30 USD and contains 300 pages of photographs taken between 1983 and 2007. Evidence that the Shri Ram Chandra Mission publications can be produced cheap when it wishes. Soon after, new subscriptions are open for "Whispers" and "Hookah". The deadline for initial subscription is long passed, there was to be no exception, but the Publications go on sale at $1,000 USD for the "Hookah" instead of the previous $1,200. And it revamps a new book of the celebrations with a new special commemorative edition, "And He walks on," for fifty dollars.
In 2009, after the global financial crisis and a freeze on investments imposed by Rajagopalachari, all is "GO" again. From Satkhol on February 2, he announces the release of a second volume of "Whispers" to be released on April 30. The deadline for subscription is February 25. A third volume will be published in 2010 and a fourth in 2011, and perhaps even a fifth in 2012. "There is no fixed price for this invaluable book containing the messages, but it will be reserved for all abhyasis in Europe that will make a donation of 250€. On February 13th, he decides to give a discount of 100 €, the minimum donation now being 150 € instead of 250 for the second volume. Then, just before satsangh, Sunday, March 1st, at Manapakkam, he delivers a speech that can not be called anything but a commercial release, coupled with blackmail for what he calls the Bible of Sahaj Marg:
"(...) Do not look at what you have to pay for it. Even today I am told that [with] gold costing fifteen hundred rupees a gram, people are buying gold. It is just a metal. If you do not know where it is, it's lost, the value is gone. If tomorrow Gold falls to five hundred rupees a gram, you have lost money. Whereas what you are going to get is the Bible of Sahaj Marg, the Vedas of Sahaj Marg, the shruti.
I would request you not to hesitate, but to acquire a copy before you leave this hall before you leave this ashram. And pass this message on to all your brothers and sisters, Because they will not be reprinted within the next fifty years - not any of them. Volume One will not be reprinted. Volume Two will not be reprinted - there will be only one edition. And if my successor feels that it is necessary, may be sometime in 2030, 2035, you may see a second edition. This is my decision, so do not look for a second edition. It will not come. This is policy. This is an instruction to my successor, Ajay Bhatter, that there shall be no reprint of this book before the year 2030.
So please acquire it and do not depend on the computer to read it everyday, because Volume Two will not be released on the internet till I say it should be done. (...) "
Ajay Kumar Bhatter added that no French version will be on the agenda until 2012. Then we learn that the Shri Ram Chandra Mission is finally considering publishing a French version in 2010, provided that the presales amount to at least 750 copies by June 30. Later, we finally learn that those who paid the high price - 250 € - for the English version, will pay only 50 € for the French version. A very poor move, when we know that those who have already made a donation will never be reimbursed ...
Transparency or Opacity?
Recap. The multinational Sahaj Marg is 50 000 regular followers, 150,000 contributors and 500,000 supporters. Financially, there is a turnover (revenues and expenditures) of 50 to 100 million, and assets of 150 to 400 million. The local associations manage 10 to 30% of this. The annual participation of a follower does not just constitute a contribution (100 to 150 € in the West), but it reaches 1,000 to 2,000 € when we add the purchase of publications and donations of all kinds.
On the occasion of the creation of the LMOIS school, Rajagopalachari said to an applause: "(...) there is no black money transaction-no trustees following the money. I'm here to see to that."
If the accounts of local associations are presented annually to the General Meeting of contributors, it is not the same for the foundations, the two societies that manage the LMOIS school, or the new Spiritual Hierarchy Publication Trust (SHPT ) created in 2009 to take over the publishing activities. And again, it is still necessary to participate in general meetings, especially when that (the meeting) of the French association takes place at Vrad Sande, in Denmark, in 2008 or that of the Unite States, takes place in Tiruppur in India, in 2009.
Not to mention that in May 2008, at the Board of Directors of the SRCM France at Vrad Sande, Rajagopalachari did not only double the French contribution. He also suggested discreetly creating the President's International Fund based in Switzerland to collect donations small and large, the idea being that the Master would be able to draw from the pot at his will, and for what he sees fit. No written communication was to be made of this, only oral ads at the centers so as to propose monthly donations (automatic bank deductions and transfers).
Parallel and equally discreet, Committees for building projects were put in place to assist Santosh Khanjee, Krishna and PR (Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari) in their search for real estate deals (bank foreclosures?? Is "opportunism" a material or a spiritual character flaw?). But it's no longer simply investments for the foundations. They are now private projects where legal and tax arrangements are sometimes complex, and where specialized lawyers, architects and real estate professionals think about the most appropriate arrangements, including individuals and corporations.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The REAL Shri Ram Chandra Mission History (Part 3)
Taken and Translated from a research article by Alexis on his French blog: Le Projet Sahaj Marg
Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
The Totalitarian Temptation
Sahaj Marg is a concept that has much evolved over time, whether because of the individuals who have inspired it or the techniques that were implemented. Now reduced to its simplest form, this is hardly a meditation technique. Proponents are often single women, weakened by life, and therefore easy prey for a guru whose hold on their lives is impressive, almost limitless, whether it be their family's most intimate affairs or their social and professional life. This does not prevent the followers to mix Sahaj Marg with every possible techniques that have come out of the nebulous New Age.
The Sahaj Marg, a Terribly Evolutionary Concept
The legend currently in place at the Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM California-1997) states that Sahaj Marg has three masters, Lalaji, the original source, Babuji, the founder and Rajagopalachari, the currently living master. It also tells us that Sahaj Marg is a spiritual method unique and unmatched anywhere else, an exclusive specificity.
The real history tells us a very different story. Hujur, (or Hujoor) last Muslim master of the Sufi brotherhood of Naqsbandiya (before the founding of the NaqshMuMRa lineage of Lalaji as a sub-branch of the Naqshbandia Sufi Order), initiated the Hindu, Lalaji, into the secrets of his teaching. Together they built a syncretic teaching from Sufism and the Hindu Santmat.
The current Satsang resulting therefrom tells us that Lalaji dubbed (baptised) this teaching with the name: "Naveen Sadhana". Lalaji's grandson, Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, tells us that Lalaji became the first Sufi master not converted to Islam from the branch of NaqshMuMRa, and he did so with the blessing of Hujur. Kasturi, the "Saint" of Sahaj Marg according to Babuji, says that Lalaji is Santmat.
See: Naqsh MuMRa Stream of Sufis, by Dr. RK Gupta
Be that as it may, Lalaji sent his disciples to spread his teachings through the current of Ramashram Satsang. He named his son Jag Mohan Narain to succeed him as head of the Sufi order of NaqshMuMRa and appointed his nephews Brij Mohan Lal and Radha Mohan Lal as his seconds.
Therefore, Babuji was never promoted to anything by Lalaji in his lifetime (see why here) . Except that between 1944 and 45, (13 years after the death of Lalaji, and after having attended the Satsangh of some of Lalaji's legitimate appointees) he made a decision to base the Sahaj Marga and to create the Shri Ram Chandra Mission following the (alleged) instructions received by him during his dreams. But Lalaji is hardly the only one to have haunted his dreams. In his dreams were also Muhammad, Jesus and Ramakrishna, no less, but also other Sufi masters and Kabir and Swami Vivekananda ...
In 1963, Babuji takes his distance from the Sufis, a denigration that borders on denial. (see letter from Babuji in 1963) Meanwhile, Dr KC Varadachari, his best friend and most faithful disciple, is spreading the idea that Sahaj Marga is nothing but an adaptation of Raja Yoga, a simplified method accessible to everyone. By then, it's already been a long time and Babuji no longer speaks of Krishna, Kabir or Vivekananda.
On the website of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, Dr. KS Balasubramaniam recognizes that the transmission of divine energy (??? calling an experience of energy "divine" because it is "transmitted" by a Guru via a preceptor, both humans, is not a given and should remain questionable), the so-called exclusivity of Sahaj Marg, existed well before him, and not only among the Hindus but also among the Sufis, the Buddhists and in Saivism. It (apparently) took place a long time ago between Saint Vasishtha and Lord Rama, but it was even used recently between Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, in the nineteenth century. (One could venture that many religions have, or have had at some time or other, some sort of "transmission" of some form of "divine energy" as part of their mythology. Maybe except Buddhism?? Any other religion??)
Rajagopalachari retains only the legend of the three masters and ignores all the roots previous to Sahaj Marg, to assert the exclusive nature of this meditation technique which focuses on the heart. His followers focus on the only living master, maintaining an exclusive relationship with him which he encourages by creating confusion between the master and the Divine. The cultural integration of Sahaj Marg has then reached its peak, it is total.
First a spiritual teaching, Sahaj Marga has become a method of meditation, (claiming to be) an adapted and simplified Raja Yoga in the hands of Babuji. Intoxicated with his power over men, Rajagopalachari has totally de-cultured it and completely emptied it of its meaning to refocus it on the all-powerful master to whom all owe obedience. His followers have completed the work by building a cult around his personality where Sahaj Marg is nothing but a simple tool of personal development, a technique for well-being, a trademarked "Sahaj Marg ™" as there are so many others .
This (Sahaj Marg) is nothing other than the product of the interaction between Rajagopalachari and his followers, from the total surrender to the master and the cult of the personality, which his followers have erected. Totally decultured and just slightly impregnated with what it takes of "Indian-ness" and esotericism so as to attract Westerners in search of an exotic orientalism, it is erected as the spiritual "holy grail", a unique technique of Sahaj Marg™ which can now be spread to the whole planet without holding back.
The Groupies, Fans of the Star
Ferdinand Wulliemier*, preceptor of Sahaj Marg and Swiss psychiatrist, conducted a study that he related to the Symposium on Medicine in the Third Millennium of January 19, 1997:
"It covers a population of 54 persons for a period of 8 years between 1988 and 1996. These 54 persons were patients that I took personally as a psychotherapist and who either began to think about or meditated already under the system of Sahaj Marg Yoga (...)
Who are the people who are involved in a spiritual practice from a sociological perspective? Almost three quarters are women. They are between 18 and 80 years, rarely more, with a maximum between 35 and 50 years. This allows a link with the "mid-life crisis" spoken of by CG Jung, which he placed around 35 years of age. What is their backgrounds and professions? Almost all seems represented, but there is an over-representation of care-givers, teachers, but also to a lesser extent, and perhaps artists.
What is their evolutionary level, that is to say, what level of psychological functioning can connect them when they start to meditate? Let me say first that according to that estimate, almost a quarter have had psychotherapy before beginning a spiritual practice. A sizable minority of them, about 30% are people called "unstructured" If I take the usual psychiatric classification they include "borderline personality", borderline-neurotic borderline pre-psychotic (...)".
Almost three quarters of the followers are women, says Wulliemier. After verification, this is the case in Europe. The proportion decreases gradually as one climbs the hierarchy: two thirds of the preceptors and only half of the vice presidents (...of the national SRCM societies ... positions without power where in Canada, at SRCM (Canada), the majority of members of the Board of Birectors are male "non-residents", versus two "resident" women, chosen by Chari, of course. Who can disobey or oppose the Master without risking "lifetimes" without "liberation", or simply shunning? What has happened to "democracy" in the non-profit, foreign "charities", sector? Is "dictatorship" the norm now among religious charities?) are women, the committee of the President is 100% male, and a master or president can never be a woman, dixit (says) Rajagopalachari. In contrast, in India, the proportion is reversed and there are more than a quarter of preceptors who are women.
The divorce between India and the West is flagrant, the population of Sahaj Marg is clearly divided in two, both socially and psychologically. On one side is a world that is still very patriarchal with Indian preceptors attracted by the lights of power and money, where to approach Rajagopalachari is to integrate into a network of well placed individuals in the political and financial circles, hitherto inaccessible, in the hope of enjoying personal providential benefits. On the other side, is a Western world largely dominated by women of middle age, often single, separated or divorced, spinsters or single mothers in a very egocentric quest for emotional balance.
Ferdinand Wulliemier* tells us that all the professions are represented, although some are more frequent. There are actually almost no labourers and/or farmer. Spirituality (it seems) does not motivate the primary sector of production, as it invades the services or the creative sectors, especially the personal services. The medical and para-medical, education as well as training and teaching, personal development, welfare or artistic creative sectors swarm with the followers of Sahaj Marg. A quick explanation, perhaps a simplistic one, they are more than others in direct contact with anything that produces human (physical, emotional) misery, and therefore are more likely to succumb to the lure of a spiritual well-being.
Ferdinand Wulliemier* also tells us that nearly one third of the followers are "unstructured personalities", or "borderline" in the psychiatric language, and have had psychotherapy. So much so that Rajagopalachari already expressed concern in December 1992: "(...) our preceptors must be very careful when accepting new abhyasis to ensure they do not have people here who can not be helped. I 'm especially referring to people who have mental problems, and have undergone treatment in psychiatric hospitals or offices. Cases like this are becoming more frequent (...)."
In 2008, Ajay Kumar Bhatter also notices it, and is surprised because he states: "many European preceptors have problems with depression". So things are not fixed yet. And yet, the training manual for preceptors said that "(...) the transmission can exacerbate mental problems of such persons and in some cases lead to suicidal tendencies." Indian followers confirm (See blog by Sameer or testimonial by Rajan) that the meditation by Sahaj Marg has caused them hallucinations, manic-depression and even madness.
On May 14, 2009, Ferdinand Wulliemier intervenes before the 20th Congress of GRAAP (Groupe Romand d'Acceuil et d'Action Psychiatrique) in Lausanne, saying essentially that depression is an opportunity to transcend the evolutionary stages and to merge with the divine .
Clearly, supporters recruited by the Shri Ram Chandra Mission are often psychologically fragile people, and meditation can exacerbate their psychological problems, even to madness or suicide, but it is now said to offer an opportunity to better achieve the ultimate goal of Sahaj Marg and thus to cure the depression. In other words, one enters Sahaj Marg depressed, meditation increases the depression, but if you follow the instruction to the letter, it cures the depression. (that's the "fantasy" claim ... not proof. Some (most religions) claim that prayer will also cure "all that ails you"!! How long have the "good people" prayed for PEACE??)
Countless followers have sent letters to the master, and they show their incredible emotional family and societal distress. In this sense they are a good sample of the collateral damage caused by the modern world. Rather than seeking solutions to their discomfort in the defects of society itself, and struggling to make changes, they turn to the inner spiritual solution promised by Rajagopalachari, definitely secluding themselves from the outside world.
Sahaj Marg sets the ultimate goal in merging with the divine, providing one obeys and serves the master in everything and for everything. That's what they call "evolutive evolution", or their "invertendo", where the master becomes the father, the mother, (the doctor, the financial advisor, ) etc... Solely focused on their troubles, the followers focus exclusively on their relationship with the master. The way to achieve the ultimate goal becomes more important than the merger with the divine. This (allegedly) helps to forget one's worries and the daily frustrations of everyday adult life, and to find the freshness and worry-free life of childhood, a regression to the years of innocence where the practitioner has only to adore her/his dad. The means have replaced the end.
Proponents have therefore transformed Sahaj Marg into a solution to their egocentric malaise, a delicate balance where Rajagopalachari serves as a psychological crutch. Sahaj Marg has nothing to do with spirituality, it has became a simple technique of interior well-being, based on the total surrender to a master who asks only that.
* See also: SRCM, Astrology and (New Age) Therapies of All Kinds
The Totalitarian Guru
Proponents seeking an exclusive relationship with their guru, much as the bimbo groupies, fans of a star draw up a cult around his/her personality. Intoxicated with his power, Rajagopalachari stresses that they increasingly abandon themselves to their master by maintaining an unhealthy confusion between the master and the Divine. He puts them to the test and, having fun at their expense, pushes ever further the limits of his growing power.
Generally, they must obey and serve their guru in everything and everywhere, instantly, without using their knowledge and critical thinking, in a word without thinking. Specifically, he interferes little by little in their most intimate family's life, breaking up couples to impose mates on others, he destroys their social life by diverting their responsibilities and imposing his will in the place of theirs and he also succumbs to the lure of money. A power that has no limits?
Rajagopalachari took a liking to the money and his thirst, quite recently, is insatiable. The attitude of his followers confirms their total dependence. They do not rebel, and are not even offended by his remarks. Conversely, they are happy to have approached him, no matter what it has cost them. Here's what in November 18, 2007 one follower reported on the celebrations of the 80th birthday celebration of his guru:
"Master led the satsangh until 9:50 am (9 am to 9:50 am). After satsangh, the head of the center of Tiruppur said that Master was stopped by very young children as he went to the meditation hall. They held out a small (plastic) jar filled with coins and they told Master "Use this money to develop your ashram." Then Master said: "Our children know exactly where their duty is. Here also, we need to contribute to the development." Immediately Master took the microphone and declared: "I'm glad this is happening here and I am happy to be there. In many missions, it is customary to give a weight equal to that of the guru, in gold and sometimes even in diamonds. The guru can weigh 150 kg. A corresponding amount can unfortunately be spent, without counting, in the company of the film artists which he likes etc... But here I hope you all can give like this (pointing to the pot that should weigh approximately 5 kg). So do not weigh me, please give the equivalent of the 5 kg - but only if there are only bills of 1,000 Rs (rupees). I want the whole surface of this park at Tiruppur DJ to become a paradise: those who fly (by plane) above this site should be able to see this paradise from above.
Will you help me develop it? "
All abhyasis said "Yes, Master"
Master: "Okay, now let us turn to the donation itself. "All abhyasis rushed to Master with bills of 1,000 rupees. Brothers and sisters at once formed a long queue, completely filled the hall and made a personal donation to Master. Master took the money from each of them, saying, "Thank you. "
All abhyasis had a great opportunity to meet Master in person while giving money. Several couples met Master to bless them on their wedding day, so that he name their child, etc.. This also happened down the queue. Master joked with the children and gave chocolates to each of them and said: "It's very expensive chocolate because it now costs 1,000 rupees here," he joked with all while collecting the money.
Master sat more than two hours. Once all abhyasis had given Master said: "When I made the Sarovar (water pool) here at this site, many have asked me why they called it thus. It is a Kripa SAROVAR (Bollywood song) because today I have pulled hundreds of fish from it. I am extremely pleased to receive you all and to meet all of you. I can not say thank you, but I bless you all. "
It was a moment of great joy and Master left us after that. All abhyasis rejoiced and they had the great opportunity to talk face to face, and Master took the trouble to sit more than two hours, to make our happiness.
Rajagopalachari, as stated above, interferes within the most intimate family life of his followers. He destroys couples who did not suit him and fabricates others. A couple where one partner discovers Sahaj Marg is a household with a "triangle" begins. Rajagopalachari and Sahaj Marg quickly becomes invasive and the outcome is always the same. If the other partner does not join the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, the breakdown of the family, separation and divorce are down the road.
But Rajagopalachari does not only destroy couples, he also arranges marriages between his followers. He may well have already celebrated the marriage of more than 4,000 of them. He marries according to the whim of his desires, having fun in mixing nationalities and social backgrounds. It is he who arranges the meetings. He can always ask the opinion of his followers, but they are too afraid of offending him by contradicting him and they are often delighted that he will finally take care of them. The master, in his infinite goodness, has chosen them a partner. Who can ask for anything more?
For example, Rajagopalachari asks a young European adept if she would marry an Indian adept, and thus, live in India. She replies that he knows best what she needs. The same evening, the teacher introduces them to an Indian much older than she. She marries and a few days later, wrote her mother saying that Rajagopalachari was kind enough to have decided what was good for her ...
The tragedy is that the troubles are only beginning. For a believer, calling into question their union is to question the choice of his/her guru. But this is impossible, one must live with it, or begin to doubt the acts of the master, calling into question his infallibility, thus to reject him. It is not only a conjugal relationship that collapses, but all of one's beliefs. The psychological trap is terrible ...
So here's what Rajagopalachari said October 12, 2008:
"(...) So, seeing this happening in our own satsangh - Increasingly weddings are getting troublesome. People get married here by the grace of my Guru, my Master, and they run into trouble. Some of them, fortunately only a few, the marriage is finished on the day of the wedding itself. So far We have had three cases. But it is a tragedy for me because, as Babuji said, even one drop of poison in a big vessel of milk means a big vessel full of poison. Here we do not judge success by spiritual progress, we judge it by failure. And in that sense our marriages have failed too often for my comfort. Though my boys tell me, "Only three, saab [Sir]." Should not have even been one. So you see, when our people do not appreciate the sanctity of a spiritual marriage, do not understand why they are marrying in a spiritual assembly under a spiritual atmosphere, with a spiritual purpose, somewhere the teaching has been lost (... ).
Obey and serve are more important than the practice, Rajagopalachari said in Salient Features No. 4. Excerpts:
"(...) The best disciple is one who is most obedient.
(...) Success is not the teachings, or the application or practice, it is only obedience that finally today remains in my mind as the first and only factor in our spiritual development.
(...) In obeying and following the instructions of the Master, not only in spiritual sadhana but also in all aspects of life, we come to realize that the Lord is not only the master of the spiritual life, but a Master infiltrating everything with a right in all the human functions of someone. The development of this attitude reinforces the commitment to the Master and begins to develop in the pupil a sense of total dependency to the Master.
(...) if you think about what the Master says, you're already on the path of destruction. Do not think, because if you think you place your mental process in opposition to his.
(...) Beware of any freedom, because freedom is an illusory concept. It does not exist. There is only one freedom and that is to obey the Master.
(...) When we're with the Master, we should not have desires - not even for a sitting, not even for a counsel, not even for questions and answers, nothing! "We should be like the dog which is just happy to be at the feet of the master and watch his face!
(...) The perfect dog eats only when the master feeds it. If a stranger comes and gives him something it does not take it. If the Master says, "sit", and leaves three days later, it is still sitting there. When he says, "come", it goes with him. He does not ask, "Where are you going? Why are you going? "When are we going home?"
(...) Obedience means the service of the Master. The way to serve means to obey. I can not choose how I serve my Master. I serve the way He says.
(...) Who are we to judge what the master wants, why he wants? The abhyasis who claim to be dedicated must realize that obedience is the first sign of devotion and where obedience is lacking, devotion can not be there. And where there is no devotion, I do not think there is a chance or a great opportunity to rise to spiritual heights.
(...) Friendship should not interfere with a preceptor doing his duty to an abhyasis. Where friendship interferes with spiritual growth, then such a friendship should be sacrificed in the interest of one's own development.
(... ) Obedience in the beginning is a very difficult thing because it means servility, submission of our ego to a superior person. Therefore, the ego rebels. Disobedience always derives from a rebellion of the ego. But people forget that when you're obedient, you have no more responsibility for what you do or do not do, under his command.
(...) We will not follow someone we can not love . We can obey the people who force us to obey, but there is always an internal rebellion.
(...) But in an obedience oriented in love, there is no rebellion, no anguish, no submission of the ego because we've transferred it to him
(...) Love him, obey Him, follow Him and be discharged of all else.
(...) It is not easy to love, but it is easy to obey. And it is my experience that if you obey, and just go on and on, it's easier than trying to love someone.
(...) And when we absolutely love, we obey him absolutely. Also a reliable indicator of your love for the Master is the degree of your obedience, there must be an absolute love behind it. With absolute love, there is absolute dependence. With the absolute dependence, there is absolute abandonment.
(...) Obedience leads to abandonment.
(...) When a person surrenders to a Master, this means it has abandoned completely in every way. It has become simply an instrument in the hands of the Master.
(...) When we accept and obey Him and work for Him, and become like Him, He is happy. Thus obedience, love and abandonment are the three sides of the same thing (...). "
Obey and serve the master, that is what Rajagopalachari demands from his followers. Do not think or believe, be in an attitude of submission and absolute dependence. Proponents maintain the freedom only to accept total servility or not, without any liability, on the path of total abandonment.
Sahaj Marg does not advocate only subservience and total surrender to the guru from its followers. This attitude also extends beyond the everyday social life. Thus, to the legitimate revolt against the imperfections of the world outside, Rajagopalachari favors the interior solution at the expense of social engagement. To change one's self becomes more important than changing the world. The message is that we will participate in the universal evolution only through our individual inner development.
Thus, Sunday, December 26, 2005, two hours after a major earthquake, a unprecedented tsunami is sweeping down on Madras (Chennai) and South-East Asia. More than 150,000 deaths including 10% in India and five million survivors homeless. Western followers of Sahaj Marg, present at Babuji Memorial Ashram, send messages to their families back home to reassure them, and return to their meditation. They are in their bubble. The next day, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission publishes a special issue of Sahaj Sandesh to announce that the ashram has suffered "no injuries or damage.
Rajagopalachari talks about the tsunami in his speech on the following January 1st: "The Art of Listening to Nature". Some revealing passages:
"(...) And when we charge the Earth with our grossness, and it accumulates it, Nature will dismiss all this grossness, and you have events like earthquakes, tsunamis as we had a few days ago (...) So brothers and sisters, everything depends on you (...) Whatever you do, good or bad, affects the entire universe. In this awareness, if you continue to work and struggle in your spiritual life, the world will automatically become a better place. "
In short, the tsunami is our fault, and if we meditate more there will be no more tsunamis. Then, let's go back and meditate, while others are dying. The Christian religion promises paradise after death, failing to promise it on earth, thus legitimizing all their abuses. Sahaj Marg helps the followers to live in an imperfect society, by replacing the legitimate revolt against the outside world with an interior pseudo-solution. To change oneself becomes more important than changing or improving the world. It goes without saying, Sahaj Marg helps in its way to legitimize the abuses of our world. Religion has been called the opium of the people, and Sahaj Marg and Rajagopalachari are also.
Rajagopalachari joins in his way, the partisans of the New Age, where the world around us is a vast field of holistic consciousness of which we are an intimate part, and where it is solely by changing ourselves that society will change. So it is thus thanks to our interior individual evolution that we will participate in the universal cosmic evolution. An individual evolution which passes necessarily through personal transformation, including meditation, one of the altered states of trans-personal consciousness.
The individual and his individual consciousness will thus (allegedly) merge into the divine. It is a lightheaded-ness of individual dissolution of the interior "me" (the ego) drowning in the All.
Is The New Age, an Extension of Sahaj Marg?
The (French) Guyard report on cults in 1996 said that the New Age is "the first conqueror of the sectarian competition". Opposed to the materialism of the consumer society, it draws its inspiration from the counterculture of the California hippie movement, mysticism and environmentalism. A real laboratory for ideological cults, they borrow from its language, its themes and techniques.
Rajagopalachari is inspired largely by it, his speeches are packed with themes dear to the New Agers. But many of his supporters also advocate "New Age" techniques, or are campaigning in "new age" organizations, in which they try to spread Sahaj Marg.
The Age of Aquarius which is supposed to mark the transition towards a new and more harmonious and spiritual civilization, takes shape in the new age concept of Gaia, a planet constituting a single living system, thinking and conscious. New age themes found in part in Eileen Caddy, the precursor of this nebulous ideology from the sixties, founder of the "wonderful Findhorn Garden" in Scotland, an earthly paradise where today some members of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission organize meditation session according to Sahaj Marg.
In a very similar movement in Denmark, a preceptor of Sahaj Marg and her husband founded a charity in 1987 to promote a sustainable and more spiritual world. In April 1993, thanks to financial support, was born the first national network of eco-villages in the world, Los (Landsforeningen for Økosamfund: http://europe.ecovillage.org/denmark/network/index.html) where the followers of Sahaj Marg of Vrad Sande are very well represented. The first international meeting of the Ecovillage is held in Denmark in 1994 with the participation of LOS and the Findhorn Foundation (www.ecovillagefindhorn.com). The second meeting was held at Findhorn in 1995, when it formally established the international GEN (Global Ecovillage Network: http://gen.ecovillage.org).
The New Age is not limited to the concept of Gaia, it also offers many new alternative therapies to western allopathic medicine and psychiatry, to assist with the transformation of the individual, this state is called transpersonal and of non-separation, and is a merger into the All or and altered states of consciousness.
In Ohio, the followers of Sahaj Marg are very interested in Gestalt therapy, especially in Cleveland, the historic stronghold of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission since 1972.
"Gestalt therapy focuses on awareness of what is happening in the moment at the physical, the emotional and the mental, the indivisible. The here and now is a complete and present experience, for the person in his whole and its relationship with its surroundings. This experience also includes memories, past experiences, fantasies, unfinished situations, expectations and plans. "
"The present moment is fundamentally an experience of contact with others or with the environment. The psycho-therapeutic process develops awareness of how the subject can distort this experience, to ignore or deny its needs and desires, to lock itself in repetition of prior situations, to inhibit a contact of creative adjustment to the environment. This awareness enables new experiences of contact, from a knowledge and ability of choice re-found in the already-there of clearly identified aspirations. "
A vast network of followers of Sahaj Marg are interested in Psycho-genealogy. It is a therapeutic approach based on the principle that our choices, and more so our diseases, are influenced by what our ancestors have lived. Hence the idea of treating all diseases in a family psychology is the approach. Nothing like having a pretense to go and look for family secrets where there were none, so as to further weaken an individual. In this same vein, Dr. Hamer has allegedly developed a method for curing cancer, that is to stop all those unpleasant and unnecessary treatments and to enter psychotherapy. He was sentenced in October 2001 for complicity in the unlicensed practice of medicine and complicity to commit fraud.
The followers of Sahaj Marg have surpassed the teacher in the implementation of techniques from the New Age. From meditation, Gaia or various techniques of care-giving, and personal transformation, they are there on all fronts.
Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
The Totalitarian Temptation
Sahaj Marg is a concept that has much evolved over time, whether because of the individuals who have inspired it or the techniques that were implemented. Now reduced to its simplest form, this is hardly a meditation technique. Proponents are often single women, weakened by life, and therefore easy prey for a guru whose hold on their lives is impressive, almost limitless, whether it be their family's most intimate affairs or their social and professional life. This does not prevent the followers to mix Sahaj Marg with every possible techniques that have come out of the nebulous New Age.
The Sahaj Marg, a Terribly Evolutionary Concept
The legend currently in place at the Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM California-1997) states that Sahaj Marg has three masters, Lalaji, the original source, Babuji, the founder and Rajagopalachari, the currently living master. It also tells us that Sahaj Marg is a spiritual method unique and unmatched anywhere else, an exclusive specificity.
The real history tells us a very different story. Hujur, (or Hujoor) last Muslim master of the Sufi brotherhood of Naqsbandiya (before the founding of the NaqshMuMRa lineage of Lalaji as a sub-branch of the Naqshbandia Sufi Order), initiated the Hindu, Lalaji, into the secrets of his teaching. Together they built a syncretic teaching from Sufism and the Hindu Santmat.
The current Satsang resulting therefrom tells us that Lalaji dubbed (baptised) this teaching with the name: "Naveen Sadhana". Lalaji's grandson, Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, tells us that Lalaji became the first Sufi master not converted to Islam from the branch of NaqshMuMRa, and he did so with the blessing of Hujur. Kasturi, the "Saint" of Sahaj Marg according to Babuji, says that Lalaji is Santmat.
See: Naqsh MuMRa Stream of Sufis, by Dr. RK Gupta
Be that as it may, Lalaji sent his disciples to spread his teachings through the current of Ramashram Satsang. He named his son Jag Mohan Narain to succeed him as head of the Sufi order of NaqshMuMRa and appointed his nephews Brij Mohan Lal and Radha Mohan Lal as his seconds.
Therefore, Babuji was never promoted to anything by Lalaji in his lifetime (see why here) . Except that between 1944 and 45, (13 years after the death of Lalaji, and after having attended the Satsangh of some of Lalaji's legitimate appointees) he made a decision to base the Sahaj Marga and to create the Shri Ram Chandra Mission following the (alleged) instructions received by him during his dreams. But Lalaji is hardly the only one to have haunted his dreams. In his dreams were also Muhammad, Jesus and Ramakrishna, no less, but also other Sufi masters and Kabir and Swami Vivekananda ...
In 1963, Babuji takes his distance from the Sufis, a denigration that borders on denial. (see letter from Babuji in 1963) Meanwhile, Dr KC Varadachari, his best friend and most faithful disciple, is spreading the idea that Sahaj Marga is nothing but an adaptation of Raja Yoga, a simplified method accessible to everyone. By then, it's already been a long time and Babuji no longer speaks of Krishna, Kabir or Vivekananda.
On the website of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, Dr. KS Balasubramaniam recognizes that the transmission of divine energy (??? calling an experience of energy "divine" because it is "transmitted" by a Guru via a preceptor, both humans, is not a given and should remain questionable), the so-called exclusivity of Sahaj Marg, existed well before him, and not only among the Hindus but also among the Sufis, the Buddhists and in Saivism. It (apparently) took place a long time ago between Saint Vasishtha and Lord Rama, but it was even used recently between Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, in the nineteenth century. (One could venture that many religions have, or have had at some time or other, some sort of "transmission" of some form of "divine energy" as part of their mythology. Maybe except Buddhism?? Any other religion??)
Rajagopalachari retains only the legend of the three masters and ignores all the roots previous to Sahaj Marg, to assert the exclusive nature of this meditation technique which focuses on the heart. His followers focus on the only living master, maintaining an exclusive relationship with him which he encourages by creating confusion between the master and the Divine. The cultural integration of Sahaj Marg has then reached its peak, it is total.
First a spiritual teaching, Sahaj Marga has become a method of meditation, (claiming to be) an adapted and simplified Raja Yoga in the hands of Babuji. Intoxicated with his power over men, Rajagopalachari has totally de-cultured it and completely emptied it of its meaning to refocus it on the all-powerful master to whom all owe obedience. His followers have completed the work by building a cult around his personality where Sahaj Marg is nothing but a simple tool of personal development, a technique for well-being, a trademarked "Sahaj Marg ™" as there are so many others .
This (Sahaj Marg) is nothing other than the product of the interaction between Rajagopalachari and his followers, from the total surrender to the master and the cult of the personality, which his followers have erected. Totally decultured and just slightly impregnated with what it takes of "Indian-ness" and esotericism so as to attract Westerners in search of an exotic orientalism, it is erected as the spiritual "holy grail", a unique technique of Sahaj Marg™ which can now be spread to the whole planet without holding back.
The Groupies, Fans of the Star
Ferdinand Wulliemier*, preceptor of Sahaj Marg and Swiss psychiatrist, conducted a study that he related to the Symposium on Medicine in the Third Millennium of January 19, 1997:
"It covers a population of 54 persons for a period of 8 years between 1988 and 1996. These 54 persons were patients that I took personally as a psychotherapist and who either began to think about or meditated already under the system of Sahaj Marg Yoga (...)
Who are the people who are involved in a spiritual practice from a sociological perspective? Almost three quarters are women. They are between 18 and 80 years, rarely more, with a maximum between 35 and 50 years. This allows a link with the "mid-life crisis" spoken of by CG Jung, which he placed around 35 years of age. What is their backgrounds and professions? Almost all seems represented, but there is an over-representation of care-givers, teachers, but also to a lesser extent, and perhaps artists.
What is their evolutionary level, that is to say, what level of psychological functioning can connect them when they start to meditate? Let me say first that according to that estimate, almost a quarter have had psychotherapy before beginning a spiritual practice. A sizable minority of them, about 30% are people called "unstructured" If I take the usual psychiatric classification they include "borderline personality", borderline-neurotic borderline pre-psychotic (...)".
Almost three quarters of the followers are women, says Wulliemier. After verification, this is the case in Europe. The proportion decreases gradually as one climbs the hierarchy: two thirds of the preceptors and only half of the vice presidents (...of the national SRCM societies ... positions without power where in Canada, at SRCM (Canada), the majority of members of the Board of Birectors are male "non-residents", versus two "resident" women, chosen by Chari, of course. Who can disobey or oppose the Master without risking "lifetimes" without "liberation", or simply shunning? What has happened to "democracy" in the non-profit, foreign "charities", sector? Is "dictatorship" the norm now among religious charities?) are women, the committee of the President is 100% male, and a master or president can never be a woman, dixit (says) Rajagopalachari. In contrast, in India, the proportion is reversed and there are more than a quarter of preceptors who are women.
The divorce between India and the West is flagrant, the population of Sahaj Marg is clearly divided in two, both socially and psychologically. On one side is a world that is still very patriarchal with Indian preceptors attracted by the lights of power and money, where to approach Rajagopalachari is to integrate into a network of well placed individuals in the political and financial circles, hitherto inaccessible, in the hope of enjoying personal providential benefits. On the other side, is a Western world largely dominated by women of middle age, often single, separated or divorced, spinsters or single mothers in a very egocentric quest for emotional balance.
Ferdinand Wulliemier* tells us that all the professions are represented, although some are more frequent. There are actually almost no labourers and/or farmer. Spirituality (it seems) does not motivate the primary sector of production, as it invades the services or the creative sectors, especially the personal services. The medical and para-medical, education as well as training and teaching, personal development, welfare or artistic creative sectors swarm with the followers of Sahaj Marg. A quick explanation, perhaps a simplistic one, they are more than others in direct contact with anything that produces human (physical, emotional) misery, and therefore are more likely to succumb to the lure of a spiritual well-being.
Ferdinand Wulliemier* also tells us that nearly one third of the followers are "unstructured personalities", or "borderline" in the psychiatric language, and have had psychotherapy. So much so that Rajagopalachari already expressed concern in December 1992: "(...) our preceptors must be very careful when accepting new abhyasis to ensure they do not have people here who can not be helped. I 'm especially referring to people who have mental problems, and have undergone treatment in psychiatric hospitals or offices. Cases like this are becoming more frequent (...)."
In 2008, Ajay Kumar Bhatter also notices it, and is surprised because he states: "many European preceptors have problems with depression". So things are not fixed yet. And yet, the training manual for preceptors said that "(...) the transmission can exacerbate mental problems of such persons and in some cases lead to suicidal tendencies." Indian followers confirm (See blog by Sameer or testimonial by Rajan) that the meditation by Sahaj Marg has caused them hallucinations, manic-depression and even madness.
On May 14, 2009, Ferdinand Wulliemier intervenes before the 20th Congress of GRAAP (Groupe Romand d'Acceuil et d'Action Psychiatrique) in Lausanne, saying essentially that depression is an opportunity to transcend the evolutionary stages and to merge with the divine .
Clearly, supporters recruited by the Shri Ram Chandra Mission are often psychologically fragile people, and meditation can exacerbate their psychological problems, even to madness or suicide, but it is now said to offer an opportunity to better achieve the ultimate goal of Sahaj Marg and thus to cure the depression. In other words, one enters Sahaj Marg depressed, meditation increases the depression, but if you follow the instruction to the letter, it cures the depression. (that's the "fantasy" claim ... not proof. Some (most religions) claim that prayer will also cure "all that ails you"!! How long have the "good people" prayed for PEACE??)
Countless followers have sent letters to the master, and they show their incredible emotional family and societal distress. In this sense they are a good sample of the collateral damage caused by the modern world. Rather than seeking solutions to their discomfort in the defects of society itself, and struggling to make changes, they turn to the inner spiritual solution promised by Rajagopalachari, definitely secluding themselves from the outside world.
Sahaj Marg sets the ultimate goal in merging with the divine, providing one obeys and serves the master in everything and for everything. That's what they call "evolutive evolution", or their "invertendo", where the master becomes the father, the mother, (the doctor, the financial advisor, ) etc... Solely focused on their troubles, the followers focus exclusively on their relationship with the master. The way to achieve the ultimate goal becomes more important than the merger with the divine. This (allegedly) helps to forget one's worries and the daily frustrations of everyday adult life, and to find the freshness and worry-free life of childhood, a regression to the years of innocence where the practitioner has only to adore her/his dad. The means have replaced the end.
Proponents have therefore transformed Sahaj Marg into a solution to their egocentric malaise, a delicate balance where Rajagopalachari serves as a psychological crutch. Sahaj Marg has nothing to do with spirituality, it has became a simple technique of interior well-being, based on the total surrender to a master who asks only that.
* See also: SRCM, Astrology and (New Age) Therapies of All Kinds
The Totalitarian Guru
Proponents seeking an exclusive relationship with their guru, much as the bimbo groupies, fans of a star draw up a cult around his/her personality. Intoxicated with his power, Rajagopalachari stresses that they increasingly abandon themselves to their master by maintaining an unhealthy confusion between the master and the Divine. He puts them to the test and, having fun at their expense, pushes ever further the limits of his growing power.
Generally, they must obey and serve their guru in everything and everywhere, instantly, without using their knowledge and critical thinking, in a word without thinking. Specifically, he interferes little by little in their most intimate family's life, breaking up couples to impose mates on others, he destroys their social life by diverting their responsibilities and imposing his will in the place of theirs and he also succumbs to the lure of money. A power that has no limits?
Rajagopalachari took a liking to the money and his thirst, quite recently, is insatiable. The attitude of his followers confirms their total dependence. They do not rebel, and are not even offended by his remarks. Conversely, they are happy to have approached him, no matter what it has cost them. Here's what in November 18, 2007 one follower reported on the celebrations of the 80th birthday celebration of his guru:
"Master led the satsangh until 9:50 am (9 am to 9:50 am). After satsangh, the head of the center of Tiruppur said that Master was stopped by very young children as he went to the meditation hall. They held out a small (plastic) jar filled with coins and they told Master "Use this money to develop your ashram." Then Master said: "Our children know exactly where their duty is. Here also, we need to contribute to the development." Immediately Master took the microphone and declared: "I'm glad this is happening here and I am happy to be there. In many missions, it is customary to give a weight equal to that of the guru, in gold and sometimes even in diamonds. The guru can weigh 150 kg. A corresponding amount can unfortunately be spent, without counting, in the company of the film artists which he likes etc... But here I hope you all can give like this (pointing to the pot that should weigh approximately 5 kg). So do not weigh me, please give the equivalent of the 5 kg - but only if there are only bills of 1,000 Rs (rupees). I want the whole surface of this park at Tiruppur DJ to become a paradise: those who fly (by plane) above this site should be able to see this paradise from above.
Will you help me develop it? "
All abhyasis said "Yes, Master"
Master: "Okay, now let us turn to the donation itself. "All abhyasis rushed to Master with bills of 1,000 rupees. Brothers and sisters at once formed a long queue, completely filled the hall and made a personal donation to Master. Master took the money from each of them, saying, "Thank you. "
All abhyasis had a great opportunity to meet Master in person while giving money. Several couples met Master to bless them on their wedding day, so that he name their child, etc.. This also happened down the queue. Master joked with the children and gave chocolates to each of them and said: "It's very expensive chocolate because it now costs 1,000 rupees here," he joked with all while collecting the money.
Master sat more than two hours. Once all abhyasis had given Master said: "When I made the Sarovar (water pool) here at this site, many have asked me why they called it thus. It is a Kripa SAROVAR (Bollywood song) because today I have pulled hundreds of fish from it. I am extremely pleased to receive you all and to meet all of you. I can not say thank you, but I bless you all. "
It was a moment of great joy and Master left us after that. All abhyasis rejoiced and they had the great opportunity to talk face to face, and Master took the trouble to sit more than two hours, to make our happiness.
Rajagopalachari, as stated above, interferes within the most intimate family life of his followers. He destroys couples who did not suit him and fabricates others. A couple where one partner discovers Sahaj Marg is a household with a "triangle" begins. Rajagopalachari and Sahaj Marg quickly becomes invasive and the outcome is always the same. If the other partner does not join the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, the breakdown of the family, separation and divorce are down the road.
But Rajagopalachari does not only destroy couples, he also arranges marriages between his followers. He may well have already celebrated the marriage of more than 4,000 of them. He marries according to the whim of his desires, having fun in mixing nationalities and social backgrounds. It is he who arranges the meetings. He can always ask the opinion of his followers, but they are too afraid of offending him by contradicting him and they are often delighted that he will finally take care of them. The master, in his infinite goodness, has chosen them a partner. Who can ask for anything more?
For example, Rajagopalachari asks a young European adept if she would marry an Indian adept, and thus, live in India. She replies that he knows best what she needs. The same evening, the teacher introduces them to an Indian much older than she. She marries and a few days later, wrote her mother saying that Rajagopalachari was kind enough to have decided what was good for her ...
The tragedy is that the troubles are only beginning. For a believer, calling into question their union is to question the choice of his/her guru. But this is impossible, one must live with it, or begin to doubt the acts of the master, calling into question his infallibility, thus to reject him. It is not only a conjugal relationship that collapses, but all of one's beliefs. The psychological trap is terrible ...
So here's what Rajagopalachari said October 12, 2008:
"(...) So, seeing this happening in our own satsangh - Increasingly weddings are getting troublesome. People get married here by the grace of my Guru, my Master, and they run into trouble. Some of them, fortunately only a few, the marriage is finished on the day of the wedding itself. So far We have had three cases. But it is a tragedy for me because, as Babuji said, even one drop of poison in a big vessel of milk means a big vessel full of poison. Here we do not judge success by spiritual progress, we judge it by failure. And in that sense our marriages have failed too often for my comfort. Though my boys tell me, "Only three, saab [Sir]." Should not have even been one. So you see, when our people do not appreciate the sanctity of a spiritual marriage, do not understand why they are marrying in a spiritual assembly under a spiritual atmosphere, with a spiritual purpose, somewhere the teaching has been lost (... ).
Obey and serve are more important than the practice, Rajagopalachari said in Salient Features No. 4. Excerpts:
"(...) The best disciple is one who is most obedient.
(...) Success is not the teachings, or the application or practice, it is only obedience that finally today remains in my mind as the first and only factor in our spiritual development.
(...) In obeying and following the instructions of the Master, not only in spiritual sadhana but also in all aspects of life, we come to realize that the Lord is not only the master of the spiritual life, but a Master infiltrating everything with a right in all the human functions of someone. The development of this attitude reinforces the commitment to the Master and begins to develop in the pupil a sense of total dependency to the Master.
(...) if you think about what the Master says, you're already on the path of destruction. Do not think, because if you think you place your mental process in opposition to his.
(...) Beware of any freedom, because freedom is an illusory concept. It does not exist. There is only one freedom and that is to obey the Master.
(...) When we're with the Master, we should not have desires - not even for a sitting, not even for a counsel, not even for questions and answers, nothing! "We should be like the dog which is just happy to be at the feet of the master and watch his face!
(...) The perfect dog eats only when the master feeds it. If a stranger comes and gives him something it does not take it. If the Master says, "sit", and leaves three days later, it is still sitting there. When he says, "come", it goes with him. He does not ask, "Where are you going? Why are you going? "When are we going home?"
(...) Obedience means the service of the Master. The way to serve means to obey. I can not choose how I serve my Master. I serve the way He says.
(...) Who are we to judge what the master wants, why he wants? The abhyasis who claim to be dedicated must realize that obedience is the first sign of devotion and where obedience is lacking, devotion can not be there. And where there is no devotion, I do not think there is a chance or a great opportunity to rise to spiritual heights.
(...) Friendship should not interfere with a preceptor doing his duty to an abhyasis. Where friendship interferes with spiritual growth, then such a friendship should be sacrificed in the interest of one's own development.
(... ) Obedience in the beginning is a very difficult thing because it means servility, submission of our ego to a superior person. Therefore, the ego rebels. Disobedience always derives from a rebellion of the ego. But people forget that when you're obedient, you have no more responsibility for what you do or do not do, under his command.
(...) We will not follow someone we can not love . We can obey the people who force us to obey, but there is always an internal rebellion.
(...) But in an obedience oriented in love, there is no rebellion, no anguish, no submission of the ego because we've transferred it to him
(...) Love him, obey Him, follow Him and be discharged of all else.
(...) It is not easy to love, but it is easy to obey. And it is my experience that if you obey, and just go on and on, it's easier than trying to love someone.
(...) And when we absolutely love, we obey him absolutely. Also a reliable indicator of your love for the Master is the degree of your obedience, there must be an absolute love behind it. With absolute love, there is absolute dependence. With the absolute dependence, there is absolute abandonment.
(...) Obedience leads to abandonment.
(...) When a person surrenders to a Master, this means it has abandoned completely in every way. It has become simply an instrument in the hands of the Master.
(...) When we accept and obey Him and work for Him, and become like Him, He is happy. Thus obedience, love and abandonment are the three sides of the same thing (...). "
Obey and serve the master, that is what Rajagopalachari demands from his followers. Do not think or believe, be in an attitude of submission and absolute dependence. Proponents maintain the freedom only to accept total servility or not, without any liability, on the path of total abandonment.
Sahaj Marg does not advocate only subservience and total surrender to the guru from its followers. This attitude also extends beyond the everyday social life. Thus, to the legitimate revolt against the imperfections of the world outside, Rajagopalachari favors the interior solution at the expense of social engagement. To change one's self becomes more important than changing the world. The message is that we will participate in the universal evolution only through our individual inner development.
Thus, Sunday, December 26, 2005, two hours after a major earthquake, a unprecedented tsunami is sweeping down on Madras (Chennai) and South-East Asia. More than 150,000 deaths including 10% in India and five million survivors homeless. Western followers of Sahaj Marg, present at Babuji Memorial Ashram, send messages to their families back home to reassure them, and return to their meditation. They are in their bubble. The next day, the Shri Ram Chandra Mission publishes a special issue of Sahaj Sandesh to announce that the ashram has suffered "no injuries or damage.
Rajagopalachari talks about the tsunami in his speech on the following January 1st: "The Art of Listening to Nature". Some revealing passages:
"(...) And when we charge the Earth with our grossness, and it accumulates it, Nature will dismiss all this grossness, and you have events like earthquakes, tsunamis as we had a few days ago (...) So brothers and sisters, everything depends on you (...) Whatever you do, good or bad, affects the entire universe. In this awareness, if you continue to work and struggle in your spiritual life, the world will automatically become a better place. "
In short, the tsunami is our fault, and if we meditate more there will be no more tsunamis. Then, let's go back and meditate, while others are dying. The Christian religion promises paradise after death, failing to promise it on earth, thus legitimizing all their abuses. Sahaj Marg helps the followers to live in an imperfect society, by replacing the legitimate revolt against the outside world with an interior pseudo-solution. To change oneself becomes more important than changing or improving the world. It goes without saying, Sahaj Marg helps in its way to legitimize the abuses of our world. Religion has been called the opium of the people, and Sahaj Marg and Rajagopalachari are also.
Rajagopalachari joins in his way, the partisans of the New Age, where the world around us is a vast field of holistic consciousness of which we are an intimate part, and where it is solely by changing ourselves that society will change. So it is thus thanks to our interior individual evolution that we will participate in the universal cosmic evolution. An individual evolution which passes necessarily through personal transformation, including meditation, one of the altered states of trans-personal consciousness.
The individual and his individual consciousness will thus (allegedly) merge into the divine. It is a lightheaded-ness of individual dissolution of the interior "me" (the ego) drowning in the All.
Is The New Age, an Extension of Sahaj Marg?
The (French) Guyard report on cults in 1996 said that the New Age is "the first conqueror of the sectarian competition". Opposed to the materialism of the consumer society, it draws its inspiration from the counterculture of the California hippie movement, mysticism and environmentalism. A real laboratory for ideological cults, they borrow from its language, its themes and techniques.
Rajagopalachari is inspired largely by it, his speeches are packed with themes dear to the New Agers. But many of his supporters also advocate "New Age" techniques, or are campaigning in "new age" organizations, in which they try to spread Sahaj Marg.
The Age of Aquarius which is supposed to mark the transition towards a new and more harmonious and spiritual civilization, takes shape in the new age concept of Gaia, a planet constituting a single living system, thinking and conscious. New age themes found in part in Eileen Caddy, the precursor of this nebulous ideology from the sixties, founder of the "wonderful Findhorn Garden" in Scotland, an earthly paradise where today some members of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission organize meditation session according to Sahaj Marg.
In a very similar movement in Denmark, a preceptor of Sahaj Marg and her husband founded a charity in 1987 to promote a sustainable and more spiritual world. In April 1993, thanks to financial support, was born the first national network of eco-villages in the world, Los (Landsforeningen for Økosamfund: http://europe.ecovillage.org/denmark/network/index.html) where the followers of Sahaj Marg of Vrad Sande are very well represented. The first international meeting of the Ecovillage is held in Denmark in 1994 with the participation of LOS and the Findhorn Foundation (www.ecovillagefindhorn.com). The second meeting was held at Findhorn in 1995, when it formally established the international GEN (Global Ecovillage Network: http://gen.ecovillage.org).
The New Age is not limited to the concept of Gaia, it also offers many new alternative therapies to western allopathic medicine and psychiatry, to assist with the transformation of the individual, this state is called transpersonal and of non-separation, and is a merger into the All or and altered states of consciousness.
In Ohio, the followers of Sahaj Marg are very interested in Gestalt therapy, especially in Cleveland, the historic stronghold of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission since 1972.
"Gestalt therapy focuses on awareness of what is happening in the moment at the physical, the emotional and the mental, the indivisible. The here and now is a complete and present experience, for the person in his whole and its relationship with its surroundings. This experience also includes memories, past experiences, fantasies, unfinished situations, expectations and plans. "
"The present moment is fundamentally an experience of contact with others or with the environment. The psycho-therapeutic process develops awareness of how the subject can distort this experience, to ignore or deny its needs and desires, to lock itself in repetition of prior situations, to inhibit a contact of creative adjustment to the environment. This awareness enables new experiences of contact, from a knowledge and ability of choice re-found in the already-there of clearly identified aspirations. "
A vast network of followers of Sahaj Marg are interested in Psycho-genealogy. It is a therapeutic approach based on the principle that our choices, and more so our diseases, are influenced by what our ancestors have lived. Hence the idea of treating all diseases in a family psychology is the approach. Nothing like having a pretense to go and look for family secrets where there were none, so as to further weaken an individual. In this same vein, Dr. Hamer has allegedly developed a method for curing cancer, that is to stop all those unpleasant and unnecessary treatments and to enter psychotherapy. He was sentenced in October 2001 for complicity in the unlicensed practice of medicine and complicity to commit fraud.
The followers of Sahaj Marg have surpassed the teacher in the implementation of techniques from the New Age. From meditation, Gaia or various techniques of care-giving, and personal transformation, they are there on all fronts.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The REAL Shri Ram Chandra Mission History (Part 2)
Taken and Translated from research article by Alexis on his French blog: Le Projet Sahaj Marg.
Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
Personalities and Trends Related to Sahaj Marg
The linear transmission of spiritual power from Lalaji to Babuji and then to Rajagopalachari is a legend. (or not true, a fiction, a fantasy ... see Epitome of Sahaj Marg by Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, Dean of NaqshMuMRa and grandson of Lalaji) Things are much more complex. Descendants of Lalaji created the Tariqa Ramchandriya, a new Hindu Sufi order from his teaching. His nephews and his main disciples are behind several more or less syncretic movements between Sufism and Santmat, which spread everywhere, from northern India and to the United States. Since 1984, Babuji's children are engaged in a legal battle without mercy with Rajagopalachari, from their stronghold of Shahjahanpur, and recently publicized it on the web. The senior preceptors of Babuji, meanwhile, took their distances from the two parties since 1994. Fewer and fewer, they move from one group to another of the diaspora of the disciples of Babuji, always very present and refusing any compromise with the followers of Rajagopalachari.
Note: The spelling of names have been deliberately simplified, as it sometimes changes with each documents.
Lalaji, His Family And Their Disciples
Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh, aka Lalaji (4/02/1873-14/08/1931) met his master, Hujur in 1891 and spent 16 years in his company. Hujur (1857-1907) gave him full powers on October 11, 1896, but Lalaji only started teaching in 1911, relates his grandson (Dinaysh Kumar Saxena). His works are compiled in two volumes titled: "The Complete Works of Ram Chandra Maharaj Lalaji. The second volume, published in July 2001 with 7,000 copies printed, relates his Sufi and Santmat experience. Exciting but virtually untraceable, is the subject taboo at the Shri Ram Chandra Mission?
The list of movements which came out of his teaching is fairly long. His grandson mentions five of them: NaqshMuMra, Ramashram Satsang, Akhil Bhartiya Santmat Satsang, Golden Sufi Center and of course the Sahaj Marg. To this list we can also add the movements of Saral Hari Marg of Dr. Harnarayan Saxena (1908-2003) or that of Dr. Chandra Gupta, who also claims the legacy of Lalaji. Their relationship with the Sahaj Marg is indirect, only because Babuji said that it was Lalaji who gave him the order to create this movement.
Lalaji had only one hundred to two hundred followers. Among those who have reached the central region or approached it closer, from the spiritual point of view, some have circulated his teaching from the centers of the movement of Ramashram Satsang, mainly in northern India, Sikandrabad, Gazhiabad, Shyam Nagar, Jaipur or even in Mathura. Derived from Lalaji their power is rooted in the Sufi order of Naqshbandiya, but he later re-integrated it with Santmat (or bhaktimat).
Thus, Ranajit Saheb, 101 years old, and probably one of the last contemporary living disciples of Lalaji operates from Shyam Nagar (blog created April 13, 2009 on http://ramashramsatsangshyamnagar.blogspot.com/). Thakur Ram Singhji (3/09/1898-15/01/1971), who also long frequented Lalaji's nephews Lalaji (Radha Mohan), is operating from Jaipur. Dr Chaturbhuj (3/11/1883-24/09/1957), the most famous of them, was charged by Lalaji to help spread his teaching in 1919, initially from Etah in 1923 and then from Mathura in 1951. Dr Krishna Lalji (15/10/1894-18/05/1970) from Sikandrabad was in turn appointed by Lalaji as his successor in 1921. We note in passing that Babuji has attended the Ramashram Satsang at Mathura and Sikandrabad between 1931 and 1944, where he probably created his "competitors and enemies" (see a collection of excerpts from the Autobiography of Ram Chandra, by SP Srivastava which contains 80% of Babuji's Journals, as opposed to SRCM (California-1997)'s version, which contains 20%... literary "cleansing"??).
Today, the Ramashram Satsang of Jaipur is headed by the son of Thakur Ram Singhji, Narayan Singh, who has chosen to use the method of the great Yogi Aurobindo. The Ramashram Satsang Mathura is headed by the son of Dr. Chaturbhuj, Hemendra Kumar. It has long been present on the web (http://www.ramashramsatsang.org/), as is the Ramashram Satsang of Sikandrabad, but only since February 2008 (http://www.spiritual-meditation.org/).
The father of Lalaji, Harbaksh Rai Chaudhary, had a second son, almost as famous. Raghubal Dayal Chachaji (7/10/1875-7/06/1947) also followed the teaching of the Sufi master Hujur. His family is located in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and he has had three son: Brij Mohanlal Dadaji (1898-01, 17, 1955), Radha Mohanlal Guruji (? - 1966) and Jyotendra Mohanlal. Brij Mohan was the favorite of Hujur, who saw him succeding Lalaji as head of the Sufi Brotherhood of Mazhariya, even if eventually, Lalaji preferred (and appointed) his own son.
A disciple of Brij Mohan, Yashpal (5/12/1918-3/04/2000), created the Akhil Bhartiya Santmat Satsang movement in 1969 at Anangpur (ABSS on http://www.abssatsang.org). For his part, Radha Mohan was at the founding of the California Golden Sufi Center of Irina Tweedie and Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (http://www.goldensufi.org/). Radha Mohan is the 35th in the lineage of this Sufi order. With his wife Sushila Devi, they had three son, Virendra, Satendra and "Baboo" Narendra Nath Saxena. She named her 2nd son Satendra to succeed his father.
As for Lalaji, he had two son and eight daughters. His eldest son, Harish Chandra, died at two or three months. Only the second, Jagmohan Narain (2/11/01-28/08/44) is known to us, Lalaji having preferred him to his nephew Brij Mohan as his successor to head the new order of Mazhariya Ramchandriya (NaqshMuMRa). Too young to succeed him immediately, his uncle Chachaji which took the reins of NaqshMuMRa before him. Jagmohan himself had two son, Akilesh (28/06/41-15/05/74) and Dinaysh or Dinesh Kumar Saxena (born 28/10/44), who in turn succeeded one another in the order the NaqshMuMRa. Akilesh Kumar was not three years old at the death of his father and died before 33 years, but this did not prevent him from creating a periodical entitled "adhyaatma dhaara.
Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, retired from the railway since 2002, aged 65, is the present dean of NaqshMuMRa still residing at Fatehgarh. With his son, Himanshu Vikram, he created "NaqshMuMRa Nexus", a website where he mentions the movements that he believes are related to the teaching of his grandfather (http://www.laalaajinilayam.googlepages. com /). Included in this list is Sahaj Marg, the same way as Dinaysh is listed as a preceptor of Sahaj Marg. And a blog created by Himanshu Vikram shows us pictures of Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari and Dinaysh gathered together in 2006 (http://www.laalaajinilayam.blogspot.com/).
See Epitome of Sahaj Marg on the NaqshMuMRA Nexus web site
On a website created last February 26, 2009 (http://www.adhyaatmadhaaraa.org/) Dinaysh tells us that he has created a charitable organization, the Charitable Trust Laalaaji Nilayam (LNCT). Its goal is to raise funds to rehabilitate the "holy places" that have marked the life of Lalaji and organize tourism pilgrimages. It is therefore planned to renovate the house of Lalaji (laalaaji Nilayam) and increase its capacity to receive, to erect a life size statue of Lalaji and to acquire many other places of worship.
Although both previous movements seem to have no direct link with the Sahaj Marg, the collusion between the grandson of Lalaji and Rajagopalachari is great. And Dinaysh makes it clear that this is the Shri Ram Chandra Mission of Manapakkam (Chennai) and not that of Shahjahanpur. The link is established between Dinaysh and Rajagopalachari, and in no case with the descendants of Babuji, Umesh Kumar and Navneet Saxena, whom he ignores.
Yet in 2009, Dinaysh publishes a Babuji letter dated February 14, 1963 where he clearly expresses his feeling that the Indian Sufism is completely obsolete and is replaced by the Sahaj Marg. One way to highlight the divide imposed by Babuji between the movements from Lalaji and Sahaj Marg. So what is the connection between Rajagopalachari and Dinaysh? For what purpose did he deliberately chose to publish this letter?
And who will be at the head of NaqshMuMRa and LNCT tomorrow? Apparently, the descendants of the brother of Lalaji are excluded. Then, on the basis of blood ties established by Lalaji, will it be the son of Akilesh, Vinay (born 17/07/65) or Samir Kumar (born 30/07/70)? Or will it be the responsibility of the son of Dinaysh, Himanshu Vikram (born 30/06/80), or one of his two sisters, although, are women excluded a priori?
According Shashwat Pandey, who has interviewed him in 2009, Dinaysh would be in fear. His son, Himanshu Vikram, worked in Chennai for HTC Global Services, headed by a close associate of Rajagopalachari. The Shri Ram Chandra Mission has probably invested funds in the LNCT for shares in the house and the Lalaji Ashram at Fatehgarh. Has Dinaysh become a puppet in the hands of Rajagopalachari? He asserted, however his independence in 2008 before the old disciples of Babuji ...
On September 29, 2009, Dinaysh stated that Sahaj Marg is a schism. All the disciples of Lalaji met the philosophy and principles of his teachings, except for the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, where the emphasis has been placed on the living master, which has degenerated into a "cult of a personality". Also according to him, Babuji dreamed of Lalaji in his sleep, nothing more, and then falsely claimed that Lalaji never had a spiritual master.
Finally, it is perhaps Rajagopalachari who wants to take over the official inheritance of Lalaji so that his Sahaj Marg becomes the head of the NaqshMuMRa.
Babuji, and his Progeny of the SRCM Shahjahanpur
Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur aka Babuji (30/04/1899-19/04/1983) is the son of a senior judge. He contracted typhoid in childhood, studying philosophy and married at 19 years. He met his master Lalaji June 3, 1922, then entered the service of the Court of Justice in 1925. Babuji had six boys and three girls, but three of them died during their childhood. The four surviving boys are named Prakash, Dinesh, Umesh Kumar and Sarvesh Saxena, while his two daughters are named Smt Indira Maya Saxena and Smt Chaya.
His father died in 1933 and one of his uncles decided to manage his property in his place, but Babuji and his brother opposed it and he became their bitter enemy until his death in 1956. He harassesed Babuji, "trying to drag him to court and using the gang to harm him by all means possible," reads the website of the ISRC of Narayana. Babuji had included his young elder son Prakash in the list of founding members of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, when he registered its statutes in 1945. His wife, who was a "constant irritant", died in 1949 and his second son Dinesh committed suicide in 1958.
In 1980 his son Umesh goes on tour in the U.S. with two full preceptors of his father, Raghavendra Rao and Ramachandra Reddy, with no delegation of Babuji. On April 16, 1982, he secretly designates Umesh as his successor in a letter addressed to him. Yet, everyone (many) agrees that the children of Babuji did not participate in weekly group meditations and have never shown any sign of interest in things spiritual until the early 1980's.
Babuji died April 19, 1983. At the Working Committee which meets in July in the stress that follows, his elder son Prakash presents his own son Sharad as successor to Babuji. This request is rejected by the committee which accepts however, Umesh and his secret letter of appointment of February 1984. The family opens a legal battle against Rajagopalachari who also claims the succession, and the Presidency of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission and all the properties that are attached to it.
They recall the statutes of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, which stipulate that its headquarters is to be in Shahjahanpur and the president who will take the position will be in line of succession, what they interpret as "blood ties". They add that the purported letter of appointment of Rajagopalachari is false because it is backdated, makes no reference to Lalaji, which Babuji apparently never would have done, and as well, the phrase "President of the Sahaj Marg system" does not mean anything, and that the Canadian Donald Sabourin, the so-called witness to this appointment, could not attend on that date.
Currently in 1984, the state of Uttar Pradesh introduces the legal requirement for registered organizations such as the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, to have elections to elect their presidents. After the vote, SP Srivastava is elected. According to the son of Umesh Chandra Saxena, Srivastava has been appointed Chairman of of the Working Committee, BD Mahajan and his secretary (the latter held the post of Secretary for Indian Affairs since 1982), to avoid an explosion of the movement, because of Kasturi's statements favorable to Rajagopalachari. The ashram undergoes a first failed attempt at a takeover by force by the clan of Rajagopalachari in 1988 .
In 1994, Umesh Chandra is elected President in place of SP Srivastava, and KV Reddy becomes secretary of the Mission. In 1997, another attempt to take back the power from the ashram fails. Umesh is walking armed in the ashram. In 1998, one of his preceptors, who left for the United States to represent him, opens a website titled 'sahajmarg.org'. This gives rise to an additional quarrel with the Rajagopalachari clan. The American Arbitration Commission on domain names delivers an opinion in favor of the Umesh clan, in 2000, but the site is abandoned due to pressure (legal threats) from the Rajagopalachari clan.
Umesh Chandra Saxena dies, November 3, 2003. (poison??) His son Navneet Kumar Saxena is appointed the next president, KV Reddy is confirmed in his post of secretary. The Rajagopalachari clan tries unsuccessfully to seize the ashram again four days later, November 7. At once, one does not enter easily into the ashram, even with express recommendation, the clinic and the Babuji Memorial Public School is closed. Until the ashram is finally taken on April 2, 2006 by the Rajagopalachari clan, which now places at its head, Sarvesh, brother of Umesh. The trial continues, from appeal to appeal, but Navneet decides also to speak on the web in January 2007, first on the blog (http://srcmshahjahanpur.blogspot.com/) then creating his own website 'srcmshahjahanpur.org'. This time, the Indian arbitration panel ruled in favor of the Rajagopalachari clan, in July.
Today in late 2009, Prakash and Umesh have died. Prakash's wife attends the satsanghs led by Kasturi in Lucknow. Sarvesh, who appears with his wife on the list of preceptors of Rajagopalachari had already joined him in 2005, opens the ashram of Shahjahanpur to all those who wish to attend. Navneet's brother, Puneet and his mother have recorded their testimonies against the methods of the Clan Rajagopalachari in videos shot by Shashwat Pandey (see Youtube: Sahaj Marg) . And we are still waiting for the outcome of the trial ...
The Diaspora of Senior Preceptors
Professor of Philosophy now retired, SP Srivastava taught yogic science at the University of Lakhimpur (Uttar Pradesh, India). His meeting with Babuji dates to 1948-49. He chaired the working committee of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, Shahjahanpur for ten years, from 1984 to 1994, taking advantage (of his tenure) to publish the second part of the "memoirs" of Babuji. Then he walked away from the sons of Babuji and the teaching of Sahaj Marg. He wanted to abolish the border between so-called hard sciences, yoga and spirituality. To this end, he created an association who's Belgian branch was called Shri Ram Chandra Memorial International Society Promoting Spirituality As A Science (INSPSAAS).
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission Shahjahanpur quickly becomes an empty shell after his departure. Raghavendra Rao and Ramachandra Reddy had Umesh Chandra Saxena accompanied on his tour of the U.S. in 1982, but it was more in opposition to Rajagopalachari as in loyalty to the son of Babuji. The behavior of Umesh is not pleasant and annoys. Gradually, the senior preceptors take their distance. The real Sahaj Marg is now taught by a galaxy of preceptors spread across the country through such a network without head or structure, traveling from one community to another, including abroad.
Raghavendra Rao gave up his place in the Working Committee which he had held since 1984. This full preceptors now remains at his ashram of Raichur in Karnataka, where he teaches the Sahaj Marg of Babuji to all those who come to see him, until the end of his life in the spring of 2006. With the complicity of the police, some armed thugs of Rajagopalachari immediately grabbed his ashram. Shortly after, Suresh Kumar Makam has created a blog to his memory (http://makamsureshkumar.blogspot.com/). Karnataka is rich in old preceptors: in Gulbarga, the full preceptor Narayan Rao, born around 1922, continues his teaching, while Dr. Rao Shiam steps back for some time. In Bangalore, the former judge of the High Court of Justice, the full preceptor Vital Rao, affectionately nicknamed "Judge", also continues his teaching despite his age (he was born around 1924).
Ramachandra Reddy, meanwhile, also abandons his place at the Working Committee and returns to Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh. The full preceptor creates the Chandraji Shri Ram Maharaj Seva Trust, a separate structure on behalf of the Mission to avoid any legal dispute, and teaches the Sahaj Marg until his death in 2008. This structure is currently headed by lawyer Srinivasa Rao TV. Jogarao a very old preceptor born about 1913, dies the year before at Hyderabad.
In Europe, Poray Andre (born about 1909 and dies at more than 90 years of age) is one of the first Westerners to have met Babuji. First a friend of Rajagopalachari, this full preceptor from Sanary Var (France) took his distance from him in 1980-82, then on tour with Babuji in Munich and Paris. He then established a society under the non-profit society act 1901, called "The Road to Reality" where he taught a Sahaj Marg slightly tinged with Tibetan Buddhism to which he was particularly attached. Rajagopalachari had initially ordered him to join him, before his removal from the office of preceptor, which had given him a good laugh, like other preceptors.
As in India, today there are independent groups in France in Lyon, Tours and Paris, in the south west and the Alps Maritimes, but also in Spain at Barcelona, and even in Switzerland. Each year, a European meeting is held in October in Sanary. These disciples of Babuji receive from time to time the visit of these great preceptors, or attend their meetings in India depending on their whereabouts. In late 2008, Cyrille Roux emerged from the shadows to speak on the Web and make known the existence of their groups. Why?
Narayana and Kasturi, unlike the previous, have always thought that Babuji had prepared Rajagopalachari as his successor as president of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Consequently, they never followed his son Umesh. However, they deny anyone the right to proclaim to be the spiritual representative of Babuji, as today Rajagopalachari.
Kasturi Chaturvedi, full preceptor and "Saint" of Sahaj Marg in the words of Babuji, first meets him in 1949. From Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), she teaches the Sahaj Marg of her timeless master with a certain degree of independence vis-à-vis the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, having always stayed away from its management and administration.
On April 30, 1995, she delivered a memorable speech at Madras (Chennai) before Rajagopalachari and 12,000 of his followers where she first recognized that Babuji prepared Rajagopalachari as his spiritual representative and President of the Mission, adding that Babuji dictated to her his statement of the nomination of Rajagopalachari for the presidency - it is the taking of this position of Kasturi which would have led to the withdrawal by Umesh 1984 and Srivastava was appointed in his place, in order to avoid a possible explosion of the Mission . But after this introduction, all the rest of her speech focused on the fact that she can no longer accept Rajagopalachari as his idol worshipers have made of him with their propaganda.
Interviewed by telephone Shashwat Pandey February 20, 2009, she now says that Rajagopalachari is not the master of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, but only his manager. She now claims she has never seen his letter of appointment and the only master of the Mission is Babuji. (see interview with Kasturi and/or transcript) She then denounces in very guarded and yet acerbic tone, everything that Rajagopalachari (celebrations of weddings, large ashrams, calls for donations, the publication of Whispers, etc..). She also says she knows about all the ashrams established at time of Babuji that were taken by force by supporters of Rajagopalachari, that a trial opposes him to the descendants of Babuji, all because there is a lot of money involved, hence the current evolution of the Mission which she regrets, and that she has left. Despite this, Kasturi is an authoritative figure in the movement of Sahaj Marg, Rajagopalachari has kept her on his list of preceptors. She also adds that Lalaji has nothing to do with Sahaj Marg, one of her disciples adding that Lalaji is Santmat.
Her disciples, Akshat Gupta Somesh and Pandit Ji have created a blog devoted to her in November 2006 (http://kasturibhenji.blogspot.com/), reserved for its own members since the spring 2009. You can find a presentation of her books on http://kasturibhenjibooks.blogspot.com/ and some of her speeches on http://kasturibhenjitalks.blogspot.com/. In France, after Cyril Roux are also Denise and Jean-François Minceta, from Tours and exiled to Canada in Victoria, British Columbia, in late 2008 who suggest that some groups are linked to her, and who translate some of her texts, etc.. Why do they come from the shadows now after 25 years of silence?
After Babuji and Kasturi, Dr. KC Varadachari (14/08/1902-30/01/1971) is probably one of the greatest historical figures of Sahaj Marg. The meeting between Babuji and Dr. Varadachari dates from 1955 and rapidly turned into a deep friendship. Holder of the famous Vivekananda Chair at the University of Madras (Chennai) , and professor of Philosophy at Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) he created the Sahaj Marg Research Institute in 1965 and contributed to the spread of Sahaj Marg to the general public and its re-anchoring around the Hindu Raja Yoga. But in 1970, he warns Babuji about the risks of the drifting of the teachings of Sahaj Marg due to its rapid expansion.
Karumbur Chakravarthy Narayana is his third child, born June 11, 1939. He met Babuji at home for the first time in 1955 and was introduced to Sahaj Marg in December, 1956 at the age of 17. Babuji asked him in 1979 to assist Rajagopalachari after his death in his duties as president of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, which he performed up to 1991. He has even taken the lead in 1989 of the Sahaj Marg Research Institute founded by his father. But he eventually quit to found the ISRC (Institute of Sri Ramchandra Consciousness) in Hyderabad in August 1991. He complains of his developing an unhealthy "cult of a personality" through the concept of the living master and spiritual representative of Babuji, which he is not.
With the ISRC (http://www.sriramchandra.org/), KC Narayana Sahaj Marg teaches ideas heavily borrowed from his father Varadachari, the Pranahuti Aided Meditation. The ISRC has approximately 150 instructors, mostly in India and the USA, two of them reside in France. It has also created its own research and training center called Imperience (http://www.imperience.org/) and its own Sahaj Seva Foundation samsthdna (http://www.sahajsevasamsthan.org/), which manages a hospital, schools and the manufacturing of various products.
Present on the web for a long time, the ISRC and Narayana have also created a website dedicated exclusively to Doctor Varadachari (http://drkcv.org/), which can be easily understood because of his reputation. But on June 23, 2008, a self promotional website of Narayana is born (http://www.kcnarayana.org/), contradicting by the facts a teaching supposedly focused on Babuji and totally depersonalized. So he does not hesitate to list for us his qualities, by quoting Babuji's words of praise towards him, as supporting evidence, then he talks about his career and his family ... In short, all the ingredients to customize and to personalize the ISRC spirituality are now in place!
Recap. Today, with the disappearance of one (senior preceptor) and the other over time, there remains little more than the grand-sons of Babuji, Navneet and Puneet Kumar Saxena, head of a mission that has become virtual since the taking over of the ashram at Shahjahanpur, in lawsuits against the California Mission of Rajagopalachari. Besides the diaspora of senior preceptors, are also the aging full preceptors Kasturi in Lucknow, Narayan Rao in Gulbarga and Vital Rao in Bangalore, with many scattered communities in India and abroad, not forgetting the very structured ISRC of KC Narayana . For his part, Rajagopalachari seems more or less to be manipulating the last surviving son of Babuji at Shahjahanpur, Sarvesh, and the grandson of Lalaji, Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, at Fatehgarh.
(See Epitome of Sahaj Marg by Dinaysh Kumar Saxena)
Rajagopalachari and His "Clan"
Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari was born July 24, 1927 near Madras (Chennai) in southern India. He met Babuji in 1964, became secretary of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in 1970 and entices him in various travels around the world at 1972. Removed from office in 1982, he brings together a dissenting Working Committee in Hyderabad after the death of Babuji and has himself appointed president. He retires in 1985 at the age of 58 years old.
Rajagopalachari has the unanimously the senior preceptors against him. While the children of Babuji accuse him of trying to poison their father several times and call him a usurper, Kasturi calls him a manager and complains of what his idol worshipers have made of him, Narayana rejects the cult of personality that he has helped shape around himself.
When Babuji said about Kasturi that she was a saint, he immediately added that Rajagopalachari was a bachelor of science. " Indeed, the smoker of American cigarettes holds a bachelor of science degree and worked in chemical engineering before heading a subsidiary of the Indian industrial conglomerate TTK & Co of Krishnamachari. Very westernized, this man of the south has traveled the world multiple times in the course of his work, spending two years serving in Yugoslavia or in international technical committees.
Clever entrepreneur, Rajagopalachari knows how to lead men and manage his affairs. He develops valuable relationships with prominent Indian heavyweights and integrates them into his Committee representative of justice, police officers and entrepreneurs. He selects his lieutenants by their ambition and pushiness.
On April 29, 2005, Rajagopalachari chooses to write the letter of appointment of his successor, Ajay Kumar Bhatter, a young businessman from West Bengal and Member of the President's Executive Committee since 2003, chosen by Babuji and confirmed by the hierarchy of Sahaj Marg, signed and ratified by sixteen other personalities. Rajagopalachari announces it publicly the following day at Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu), on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Mission and the day of the 106th anniversary of the birth of Babuji, in a speech entitled "Securing the Future of the Mission" as he reaches his 78th year.
While the organization is required to manage all this little world, the danger is great to focus too much on the organization. Therefore, the Mission is guided in its work by a single person, both President and the spiritual representative of the Grand Master Babuji. This person must be chosen carefully to address both the physical work and the spiritual work, as well as his own spiritual growth. AK Bhatter has been chosen by Babuji, he was trained for it for years and will be even throughout the life of Rajagopalachari. He then will succeed him as Babuji's spiritual representative and President of the Mission throughout the world.
Reaching the zenith of his power, Rajagopalachari has named his successor in 2005. The following year he took over almost all the Indian ashrams which were not subservient to him, by cunning or by force, using his henchmen. He seems to manipulate at will the grandchildren of Lalaji and Babuji that are Dinaysh and Sarvesh. He has included on his list of preceptors, Kasturi despite her disagreement.
Uma Shankar Bajpai and Arokiasamy P Durai, retired policemen, are his henchmen, often at the forefront of the force taken in the ashram takeovers and all the dirty tricks. His only son PR Krishna, the wealthy heir and grand "bagman" of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, manages the land and the buildings of the Mission as his own. Santosh Khanjee, the eminence grise, organizes and manages the mission.
Besides these, there are also the historical faithful, those who went to join him in India and the other international leaders of the mission ...
All these people are his close circle. Some of them are also contenders to succeed him. He has appointed AK Bhatter in 2005 to better calm things down, but he is only a puppet. His legitimacy will extinguish itself at the death of Rajagopalachari. Legitimacy is acquired, it can not be decreed. Besides Rajagopalachari himself worries about it, and reveals it in January 2009. He said a cancer was eating away at the Sahaj Marg from the inside, and that the organization is threatened with disintegration. He has nightmares where he sees the Shri Ram Chandra Mission disintegrating into 240 small missions.
In the succession race, his only son PR Krishna, with his grandson Bhargava and his granddaughter Madhuri are well placed. But his "eminence grise", (power behind the throne) Santosh Khanjee who knows all his secrets and keeps an iron grip throughout the organization and its foundations also has his opportunities. As for the outsiders, the best positioned is obviously the grandson of Babuji, Navneet Kumar Saxena. But the recent media exposure of the son of Dr. Varadachari, KC Narayana, suggesting he intends to pull his piece from the game.
And if Kasturi remains outside the power play, this is perhaps not the case with her staff. And what about Srinivasa Rao as head of the Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj Seva Trust Cuddapah? As for the grandson of Lalaji, Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, what is he seeking by completely exposing himself the way he does?
Rajagopalachari has accumulated such a financial power and domination over men that the greed has became almost too large for his succession to go smoothly. The share market of Sahaj Marg™ and the SRCM ™ make it more of a dream. And in those circumstances, Ajay Kumar Bhatter can be swept away like a common straw ...
Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
Personalities and Trends Related to Sahaj Marg
The linear transmission of spiritual power from Lalaji to Babuji and then to Rajagopalachari is a legend. (or not true, a fiction, a fantasy ... see Epitome of Sahaj Marg by Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, Dean of NaqshMuMRa and grandson of Lalaji) Things are much more complex. Descendants of Lalaji created the Tariqa Ramchandriya, a new Hindu Sufi order from his teaching. His nephews and his main disciples are behind several more or less syncretic movements between Sufism and Santmat, which spread everywhere, from northern India and to the United States. Since 1984, Babuji's children are engaged in a legal battle without mercy with Rajagopalachari, from their stronghold of Shahjahanpur, and recently publicized it on the web. The senior preceptors of Babuji, meanwhile, took their distances from the two parties since 1994. Fewer and fewer, they move from one group to another of the diaspora of the disciples of Babuji, always very present and refusing any compromise with the followers of Rajagopalachari.
Note: The spelling of names have been deliberately simplified, as it sometimes changes with each documents.
Lalaji, His Family And Their Disciples
Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh, aka Lalaji (4/02/1873-14/08/1931) met his master, Hujur in 1891 and spent 16 years in his company. Hujur (1857-1907) gave him full powers on October 11, 1896, but Lalaji only started teaching in 1911, relates his grandson (Dinaysh Kumar Saxena). His works are compiled in two volumes titled: "The Complete Works of Ram Chandra Maharaj Lalaji. The second volume, published in July 2001 with 7,000 copies printed, relates his Sufi and Santmat experience. Exciting but virtually untraceable, is the subject taboo at the Shri Ram Chandra Mission?
The list of movements which came out of his teaching is fairly long. His grandson mentions five of them: NaqshMuMra, Ramashram Satsang, Akhil Bhartiya Santmat Satsang, Golden Sufi Center and of course the Sahaj Marg. To this list we can also add the movements of Saral Hari Marg of Dr. Harnarayan Saxena (1908-2003) or that of Dr. Chandra Gupta, who also claims the legacy of Lalaji. Their relationship with the Sahaj Marg is indirect, only because Babuji said that it was Lalaji who gave him the order to create this movement.
Lalaji had only one hundred to two hundred followers. Among those who have reached the central region or approached it closer, from the spiritual point of view, some have circulated his teaching from the centers of the movement of Ramashram Satsang, mainly in northern India, Sikandrabad, Gazhiabad, Shyam Nagar, Jaipur or even in Mathura. Derived from Lalaji their power is rooted in the Sufi order of Naqshbandiya, but he later re-integrated it with Santmat (or bhaktimat).
Thus, Ranajit Saheb, 101 years old, and probably one of the last contemporary living disciples of Lalaji operates from Shyam Nagar (blog created April 13, 2009 on http://ramashramsatsangshyamnagar.blogspot.com/). Thakur Ram Singhji (3/09/1898-15/01/1971), who also long frequented Lalaji's nephews Lalaji (Radha Mohan), is operating from Jaipur. Dr Chaturbhuj (3/11/1883-24/09/1957), the most famous of them, was charged by Lalaji to help spread his teaching in 1919, initially from Etah in 1923 and then from Mathura in 1951. Dr Krishna Lalji (15/10/1894-18/05/1970) from Sikandrabad was in turn appointed by Lalaji as his successor in 1921. We note in passing that Babuji has attended the Ramashram Satsang at Mathura and Sikandrabad between 1931 and 1944, where he probably created his "competitors and enemies" (see a collection of excerpts from the Autobiography of Ram Chandra, by SP Srivastava which contains 80% of Babuji's Journals, as opposed to SRCM (California-1997)'s version, which contains 20%... literary "cleansing"??).
Today, the Ramashram Satsang of Jaipur is headed by the son of Thakur Ram Singhji, Narayan Singh, who has chosen to use the method of the great Yogi Aurobindo. The Ramashram Satsang Mathura is headed by the son of Dr. Chaturbhuj, Hemendra Kumar. It has long been present on the web (http://www.ramashramsatsang.org/), as is the Ramashram Satsang of Sikandrabad, but only since February 2008 (http://www.spiritual-meditation.org/).
The father of Lalaji, Harbaksh Rai Chaudhary, had a second son, almost as famous. Raghubal Dayal Chachaji (7/10/1875-7/06/1947) also followed the teaching of the Sufi master Hujur. His family is located in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and he has had three son: Brij Mohanlal Dadaji (1898-01, 17, 1955), Radha Mohanlal Guruji (? - 1966) and Jyotendra Mohanlal. Brij Mohan was the favorite of Hujur, who saw him succeding Lalaji as head of the Sufi Brotherhood of Mazhariya, even if eventually, Lalaji preferred (and appointed) his own son.
A disciple of Brij Mohan, Yashpal (5/12/1918-3/04/2000), created the Akhil Bhartiya Santmat Satsang movement in 1969 at Anangpur (ABSS on http://www.abssatsang.org). For his part, Radha Mohan was at the founding of the California Golden Sufi Center of Irina Tweedie and Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (http://www.goldensufi.org/). Radha Mohan is the 35th in the lineage of this Sufi order. With his wife Sushila Devi, they had three son, Virendra, Satendra and "Baboo" Narendra Nath Saxena. She named her 2nd son Satendra to succeed his father.
As for Lalaji, he had two son and eight daughters. His eldest son, Harish Chandra, died at two or three months. Only the second, Jagmohan Narain (2/11/01-28/08/44) is known to us, Lalaji having preferred him to his nephew Brij Mohan as his successor to head the new order of Mazhariya Ramchandriya (NaqshMuMRa). Too young to succeed him immediately, his uncle Chachaji which took the reins of NaqshMuMRa before him. Jagmohan himself had two son, Akilesh (28/06/41-15/05/74) and Dinaysh or Dinesh Kumar Saxena (born 28/10/44), who in turn succeeded one another in the order the NaqshMuMRa. Akilesh Kumar was not three years old at the death of his father and died before 33 years, but this did not prevent him from creating a periodical entitled "adhyaatma dhaara.
Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, retired from the railway since 2002, aged 65, is the present dean of NaqshMuMRa still residing at Fatehgarh. With his son, Himanshu Vikram, he created "NaqshMuMRa Nexus", a website where he mentions the movements that he believes are related to the teaching of his grandfather (http://www.laalaajinilayam.googlepages. com /). Included in this list is Sahaj Marg, the same way as Dinaysh is listed as a preceptor of Sahaj Marg. And a blog created by Himanshu Vikram shows us pictures of Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari and Dinaysh gathered together in 2006 (http://www.laalaajinilayam.blogspot.com/).
See Epitome of Sahaj Marg on the NaqshMuMRA Nexus web site
On a website created last February 26, 2009 (http://www.adhyaatmadhaaraa.org/) Dinaysh tells us that he has created a charitable organization, the Charitable Trust Laalaaji Nilayam (LNCT). Its goal is to raise funds to rehabilitate the "holy places" that have marked the life of Lalaji and organize tourism pilgrimages. It is therefore planned to renovate the house of Lalaji (laalaaji Nilayam) and increase its capacity to receive, to erect a life size statue of Lalaji and to acquire many other places of worship.
Although both previous movements seem to have no direct link with the Sahaj Marg, the collusion between the grandson of Lalaji and Rajagopalachari is great. And Dinaysh makes it clear that this is the Shri Ram Chandra Mission of Manapakkam (Chennai) and not that of Shahjahanpur. The link is established between Dinaysh and Rajagopalachari, and in no case with the descendants of Babuji, Umesh Kumar and Navneet Saxena, whom he ignores.
Yet in 2009, Dinaysh publishes a Babuji letter dated February 14, 1963 where he clearly expresses his feeling that the Indian Sufism is completely obsolete and is replaced by the Sahaj Marg. One way to highlight the divide imposed by Babuji between the movements from Lalaji and Sahaj Marg. So what is the connection between Rajagopalachari and Dinaysh? For what purpose did he deliberately chose to publish this letter?
And who will be at the head of NaqshMuMRa and LNCT tomorrow? Apparently, the descendants of the brother of Lalaji are excluded. Then, on the basis of blood ties established by Lalaji, will it be the son of Akilesh, Vinay (born 17/07/65) or Samir Kumar (born 30/07/70)? Or will it be the responsibility of the son of Dinaysh, Himanshu Vikram (born 30/06/80), or one of his two sisters, although, are women excluded a priori?
According Shashwat Pandey, who has interviewed him in 2009, Dinaysh would be in fear. His son, Himanshu Vikram, worked in Chennai for HTC Global Services, headed by a close associate of Rajagopalachari. The Shri Ram Chandra Mission has probably invested funds in the LNCT for shares in the house and the Lalaji Ashram at Fatehgarh. Has Dinaysh become a puppet in the hands of Rajagopalachari? He asserted, however his independence in 2008 before the old disciples of Babuji ...
On September 29, 2009, Dinaysh stated that Sahaj Marg is a schism. All the disciples of Lalaji met the philosophy and principles of his teachings, except for the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, where the emphasis has been placed on the living master, which has degenerated into a "cult of a personality". Also according to him, Babuji dreamed of Lalaji in his sleep, nothing more, and then falsely claimed that Lalaji never had a spiritual master.
Finally, it is perhaps Rajagopalachari who wants to take over the official inheritance of Lalaji so that his Sahaj Marg becomes the head of the NaqshMuMRa.
Babuji, and his Progeny of the SRCM Shahjahanpur
Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur aka Babuji (30/04/1899-19/04/1983) is the son of a senior judge. He contracted typhoid in childhood, studying philosophy and married at 19 years. He met his master Lalaji June 3, 1922, then entered the service of the Court of Justice in 1925. Babuji had six boys and three girls, but three of them died during their childhood. The four surviving boys are named Prakash, Dinesh, Umesh Kumar and Sarvesh Saxena, while his two daughters are named Smt Indira Maya Saxena and Smt Chaya.
His father died in 1933 and one of his uncles decided to manage his property in his place, but Babuji and his brother opposed it and he became their bitter enemy until his death in 1956. He harassesed Babuji, "trying to drag him to court and using the gang to harm him by all means possible," reads the website of the ISRC of Narayana. Babuji had included his young elder son Prakash in the list of founding members of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, when he registered its statutes in 1945. His wife, who was a "constant irritant", died in 1949 and his second son Dinesh committed suicide in 1958.
In 1980 his son Umesh goes on tour in the U.S. with two full preceptors of his father, Raghavendra Rao and Ramachandra Reddy, with no delegation of Babuji. On April 16, 1982, he secretly designates Umesh as his successor in a letter addressed to him. Yet, everyone (many) agrees that the children of Babuji did not participate in weekly group meditations and have never shown any sign of interest in things spiritual until the early 1980's.
Babuji died April 19, 1983. At the Working Committee which meets in July in the stress that follows, his elder son Prakash presents his own son Sharad as successor to Babuji. This request is rejected by the committee which accepts however, Umesh and his secret letter of appointment of February 1984. The family opens a legal battle against Rajagopalachari who also claims the succession, and the Presidency of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission and all the properties that are attached to it.
They recall the statutes of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, which stipulate that its headquarters is to be in Shahjahanpur and the president who will take the position will be in line of succession, what they interpret as "blood ties". They add that the purported letter of appointment of Rajagopalachari is false because it is backdated, makes no reference to Lalaji, which Babuji apparently never would have done, and as well, the phrase "President of the Sahaj Marg system" does not mean anything, and that the Canadian Donald Sabourin, the so-called witness to this appointment, could not attend on that date.
Currently in 1984, the state of Uttar Pradesh introduces the legal requirement for registered organizations such as the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, to have elections to elect their presidents. After the vote, SP Srivastava is elected. According to the son of Umesh Chandra Saxena, Srivastava has been appointed Chairman of of the Working Committee, BD Mahajan and his secretary (the latter held the post of Secretary for Indian Affairs since 1982), to avoid an explosion of the movement, because of Kasturi's statements favorable to Rajagopalachari. The ashram undergoes a first failed attempt at a takeover by force by the clan of Rajagopalachari in 1988 .
In 1994, Umesh Chandra is elected President in place of SP Srivastava, and KV Reddy becomes secretary of the Mission. In 1997, another attempt to take back the power from the ashram fails. Umesh is walking armed in the ashram. In 1998, one of his preceptors, who left for the United States to represent him, opens a website titled 'sahajmarg.org'. This gives rise to an additional quarrel with the Rajagopalachari clan. The American Arbitration Commission on domain names delivers an opinion in favor of the Umesh clan, in 2000, but the site is abandoned due to pressure (legal threats) from the Rajagopalachari clan.
Umesh Chandra Saxena dies, November 3, 2003. (poison??) His son Navneet Kumar Saxena is appointed the next president, KV Reddy is confirmed in his post of secretary. The Rajagopalachari clan tries unsuccessfully to seize the ashram again four days later, November 7. At once, one does not enter easily into the ashram, even with express recommendation, the clinic and the Babuji Memorial Public School is closed. Until the ashram is finally taken on April 2, 2006 by the Rajagopalachari clan, which now places at its head, Sarvesh, brother of Umesh. The trial continues, from appeal to appeal, but Navneet decides also to speak on the web in January 2007, first on the blog (http://srcmshahjahanpur.blogspot.com/) then creating his own website 'srcmshahjahanpur.org'. This time, the Indian arbitration panel ruled in favor of the Rajagopalachari clan, in July.
Today in late 2009, Prakash and Umesh have died. Prakash's wife attends the satsanghs led by Kasturi in Lucknow. Sarvesh, who appears with his wife on the list of preceptors of Rajagopalachari had already joined him in 2005, opens the ashram of Shahjahanpur to all those who wish to attend. Navneet's brother, Puneet and his mother have recorded their testimonies against the methods of the Clan Rajagopalachari in videos shot by Shashwat Pandey (see Youtube: Sahaj Marg) . And we are still waiting for the outcome of the trial ...
The Diaspora of Senior Preceptors
Professor of Philosophy now retired, SP Srivastava taught yogic science at the University of Lakhimpur (Uttar Pradesh, India). His meeting with Babuji dates to 1948-49. He chaired the working committee of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, Shahjahanpur for ten years, from 1984 to 1994, taking advantage (of his tenure) to publish the second part of the "memoirs" of Babuji. Then he walked away from the sons of Babuji and the teaching of Sahaj Marg. He wanted to abolish the border between so-called hard sciences, yoga and spirituality. To this end, he created an association who's Belgian branch was called Shri Ram Chandra Memorial International Society Promoting Spirituality As A Science (INSPSAAS).
The Shri Ram Chandra Mission Shahjahanpur quickly becomes an empty shell after his departure. Raghavendra Rao and Ramachandra Reddy had Umesh Chandra Saxena accompanied on his tour of the U.S. in 1982, but it was more in opposition to Rajagopalachari as in loyalty to the son of Babuji. The behavior of Umesh is not pleasant and annoys. Gradually, the senior preceptors take their distance. The real Sahaj Marg is now taught by a galaxy of preceptors spread across the country through such a network without head or structure, traveling from one community to another, including abroad.
Raghavendra Rao gave up his place in the Working Committee which he had held since 1984. This full preceptors now remains at his ashram of Raichur in Karnataka, where he teaches the Sahaj Marg of Babuji to all those who come to see him, until the end of his life in the spring of 2006. With the complicity of the police, some armed thugs of Rajagopalachari immediately grabbed his ashram. Shortly after, Suresh Kumar Makam has created a blog to his memory (http://makamsureshkumar.blogspot.com/). Karnataka is rich in old preceptors: in Gulbarga, the full preceptor Narayan Rao, born around 1922, continues his teaching, while Dr. Rao Shiam steps back for some time. In Bangalore, the former judge of the High Court of Justice, the full preceptor Vital Rao, affectionately nicknamed "Judge", also continues his teaching despite his age (he was born around 1924).
Ramachandra Reddy, meanwhile, also abandons his place at the Working Committee and returns to Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh. The full preceptor creates the Chandraji Shri Ram Maharaj Seva Trust, a separate structure on behalf of the Mission to avoid any legal dispute, and teaches the Sahaj Marg until his death in 2008. This structure is currently headed by lawyer Srinivasa Rao TV. Jogarao a very old preceptor born about 1913, dies the year before at Hyderabad.
In Europe, Poray Andre (born about 1909 and dies at more than 90 years of age) is one of the first Westerners to have met Babuji. First a friend of Rajagopalachari, this full preceptor from Sanary Var (France) took his distance from him in 1980-82, then on tour with Babuji in Munich and Paris. He then established a society under the non-profit society act 1901, called "The Road to Reality" where he taught a Sahaj Marg slightly tinged with Tibetan Buddhism to which he was particularly attached. Rajagopalachari had initially ordered him to join him, before his removal from the office of preceptor, which had given him a good laugh, like other preceptors.
As in India, today there are independent groups in France in Lyon, Tours and Paris, in the south west and the Alps Maritimes, but also in Spain at Barcelona, and even in Switzerland. Each year, a European meeting is held in October in Sanary. These disciples of Babuji receive from time to time the visit of these great preceptors, or attend their meetings in India depending on their whereabouts. In late 2008, Cyrille Roux emerged from the shadows to speak on the Web and make known the existence of their groups. Why?
Narayana and Kasturi, unlike the previous, have always thought that Babuji had prepared Rajagopalachari as his successor as president of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Consequently, they never followed his son Umesh. However, they deny anyone the right to proclaim to be the spiritual representative of Babuji, as today Rajagopalachari.
Kasturi Chaturvedi, full preceptor and "Saint" of Sahaj Marg in the words of Babuji, first meets him in 1949. From Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), she teaches the Sahaj Marg of her timeless master with a certain degree of independence vis-à-vis the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, having always stayed away from its management and administration.
On April 30, 1995, she delivered a memorable speech at Madras (Chennai) before Rajagopalachari and 12,000 of his followers where she first recognized that Babuji prepared Rajagopalachari as his spiritual representative and President of the Mission, adding that Babuji dictated to her his statement of the nomination of Rajagopalachari for the presidency - it is the taking of this position of Kasturi which would have led to the withdrawal by Umesh 1984 and Srivastava was appointed in his place, in order to avoid a possible explosion of the Mission . But after this introduction, all the rest of her speech focused on the fact that she can no longer accept Rajagopalachari as his idol worshipers have made of him with their propaganda.
Interviewed by telephone Shashwat Pandey February 20, 2009, she now says that Rajagopalachari is not the master of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, but only his manager. She now claims she has never seen his letter of appointment and the only master of the Mission is Babuji. (see interview with Kasturi and/or transcript) She then denounces in very guarded and yet acerbic tone, everything that Rajagopalachari (celebrations of weddings, large ashrams, calls for donations, the publication of Whispers, etc..). She also says she knows about all the ashrams established at time of Babuji that were taken by force by supporters of Rajagopalachari, that a trial opposes him to the descendants of Babuji, all because there is a lot of money involved, hence the current evolution of the Mission which she regrets, and that she has left. Despite this, Kasturi is an authoritative figure in the movement of Sahaj Marg, Rajagopalachari has kept her on his list of preceptors. She also adds that Lalaji has nothing to do with Sahaj Marg, one of her disciples adding that Lalaji is Santmat.
Her disciples, Akshat Gupta Somesh and Pandit Ji have created a blog devoted to her in November 2006 (http://kasturibhenji.blogspot.com/), reserved for its own members since the spring 2009. You can find a presentation of her books on http://kasturibhenjibooks.blogspot.com/ and some of her speeches on http://kasturibhenjitalks.blogspot.com/. In France, after Cyril Roux are also Denise and Jean-François Minceta, from Tours and exiled to Canada in Victoria, British Columbia, in late 2008 who suggest that some groups are linked to her, and who translate some of her texts, etc.. Why do they come from the shadows now after 25 years of silence?
After Babuji and Kasturi, Dr. KC Varadachari (14/08/1902-30/01/1971) is probably one of the greatest historical figures of Sahaj Marg. The meeting between Babuji and Dr. Varadachari dates from 1955 and rapidly turned into a deep friendship. Holder of the famous Vivekananda Chair at the University of Madras (Chennai) , and professor of Philosophy at Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) he created the Sahaj Marg Research Institute in 1965 and contributed to the spread of Sahaj Marg to the general public and its re-anchoring around the Hindu Raja Yoga. But in 1970, he warns Babuji about the risks of the drifting of the teachings of Sahaj Marg due to its rapid expansion.
Karumbur Chakravarthy Narayana is his third child, born June 11, 1939. He met Babuji at home for the first time in 1955 and was introduced to Sahaj Marg in December, 1956 at the age of 17. Babuji asked him in 1979 to assist Rajagopalachari after his death in his duties as president of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, which he performed up to 1991. He has even taken the lead in 1989 of the Sahaj Marg Research Institute founded by his father. But he eventually quit to found the ISRC (Institute of Sri Ramchandra Consciousness) in Hyderabad in August 1991. He complains of his developing an unhealthy "cult of a personality" through the concept of the living master and spiritual representative of Babuji, which he is not.
With the ISRC (http://www.sriramchandra.org/), KC Narayana Sahaj Marg teaches ideas heavily borrowed from his father Varadachari, the Pranahuti Aided Meditation. The ISRC has approximately 150 instructors, mostly in India and the USA, two of them reside in France. It has also created its own research and training center called Imperience (http://www.imperience.org/) and its own Sahaj Seva Foundation samsthdna (http://www.sahajsevasamsthan.org/), which manages a hospital, schools and the manufacturing of various products.
Present on the web for a long time, the ISRC and Narayana have also created a website dedicated exclusively to Doctor Varadachari (http://drkcv.org/), which can be easily understood because of his reputation. But on June 23, 2008, a self promotional website of Narayana is born (http://www.kcnarayana.org/), contradicting by the facts a teaching supposedly focused on Babuji and totally depersonalized. So he does not hesitate to list for us his qualities, by quoting Babuji's words of praise towards him, as supporting evidence, then he talks about his career and his family ... In short, all the ingredients to customize and to personalize the ISRC spirituality are now in place!
Recap. Today, with the disappearance of one (senior preceptor) and the other over time, there remains little more than the grand-sons of Babuji, Navneet and Puneet Kumar Saxena, head of a mission that has become virtual since the taking over of the ashram at Shahjahanpur, in lawsuits against the California Mission of Rajagopalachari. Besides the diaspora of senior preceptors, are also the aging full preceptors Kasturi in Lucknow, Narayan Rao in Gulbarga and Vital Rao in Bangalore, with many scattered communities in India and abroad, not forgetting the very structured ISRC of KC Narayana . For his part, Rajagopalachari seems more or less to be manipulating the last surviving son of Babuji at Shahjahanpur, Sarvesh, and the grandson of Lalaji, Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, at Fatehgarh.
(See Epitome of Sahaj Marg by Dinaysh Kumar Saxena)
Rajagopalachari and His "Clan"
Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari was born July 24, 1927 near Madras (Chennai) in southern India. He met Babuji in 1964, became secretary of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in 1970 and entices him in various travels around the world at 1972. Removed from office in 1982, he brings together a dissenting Working Committee in Hyderabad after the death of Babuji and has himself appointed president. He retires in 1985 at the age of 58 years old.
Rajagopalachari has the unanimously the senior preceptors against him. While the children of Babuji accuse him of trying to poison their father several times and call him a usurper, Kasturi calls him a manager and complains of what his idol worshipers have made of him, Narayana rejects the cult of personality that he has helped shape around himself.
When Babuji said about Kasturi that she was a saint, he immediately added that Rajagopalachari was a bachelor of science. " Indeed, the smoker of American cigarettes holds a bachelor of science degree and worked in chemical engineering before heading a subsidiary of the Indian industrial conglomerate TTK & Co of Krishnamachari. Very westernized, this man of the south has traveled the world multiple times in the course of his work, spending two years serving in Yugoslavia or in international technical committees.
Clever entrepreneur, Rajagopalachari knows how to lead men and manage his affairs. He develops valuable relationships with prominent Indian heavyweights and integrates them into his Committee representative of justice, police officers and entrepreneurs. He selects his lieutenants by their ambition and pushiness.
On April 29, 2005, Rajagopalachari chooses to write the letter of appointment of his successor, Ajay Kumar Bhatter, a young businessman from West Bengal and Member of the President's Executive Committee since 2003, chosen by Babuji and confirmed by the hierarchy of Sahaj Marg, signed and ratified by sixteen other personalities. Rajagopalachari announces it publicly the following day at Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu), on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Mission and the day of the 106th anniversary of the birth of Babuji, in a speech entitled "Securing the Future of the Mission" as he reaches his 78th year.
While the organization is required to manage all this little world, the danger is great to focus too much on the organization. Therefore, the Mission is guided in its work by a single person, both President and the spiritual representative of the Grand Master Babuji. This person must be chosen carefully to address both the physical work and the spiritual work, as well as his own spiritual growth. AK Bhatter has been chosen by Babuji, he was trained for it for years and will be even throughout the life of Rajagopalachari. He then will succeed him as Babuji's spiritual representative and President of the Mission throughout the world.
Reaching the zenith of his power, Rajagopalachari has named his successor in 2005. The following year he took over almost all the Indian ashrams which were not subservient to him, by cunning or by force, using his henchmen. He seems to manipulate at will the grandchildren of Lalaji and Babuji that are Dinaysh and Sarvesh. He has included on his list of preceptors, Kasturi despite her disagreement.
Uma Shankar Bajpai and Arokiasamy P Durai, retired policemen, are his henchmen, often at the forefront of the force taken in the ashram takeovers and all the dirty tricks. His only son PR Krishna, the wealthy heir and grand "bagman" of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, manages the land and the buildings of the Mission as his own. Santosh Khanjee, the eminence grise, organizes and manages the mission.
Besides these, there are also the historical faithful, those who went to join him in India and the other international leaders of the mission ...
All these people are his close circle. Some of them are also contenders to succeed him. He has appointed AK Bhatter in 2005 to better calm things down, but he is only a puppet. His legitimacy will extinguish itself at the death of Rajagopalachari. Legitimacy is acquired, it can not be decreed. Besides Rajagopalachari himself worries about it, and reveals it in January 2009. He said a cancer was eating away at the Sahaj Marg from the inside, and that the organization is threatened with disintegration. He has nightmares where he sees the Shri Ram Chandra Mission disintegrating into 240 small missions.
In the succession race, his only son PR Krishna, with his grandson Bhargava and his granddaughter Madhuri are well placed. But his "eminence grise", (power behind the throne) Santosh Khanjee who knows all his secrets and keeps an iron grip throughout the organization and its foundations also has his opportunities. As for the outsiders, the best positioned is obviously the grandson of Babuji, Navneet Kumar Saxena. But the recent media exposure of the son of Dr. Varadachari, KC Narayana, suggesting he intends to pull his piece from the game.
And if Kasturi remains outside the power play, this is perhaps not the case with her staff. And what about Srinivasa Rao as head of the Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj Seva Trust Cuddapah? As for the grandson of Lalaji, Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, what is he seeking by completely exposing himself the way he does?
Rajagopalachari has accumulated such a financial power and domination over men that the greed has became almost too large for his succession to go smoothly. The share market of Sahaj Marg™ and the SRCM ™ make it more of a dream. And in those circumstances, Ajay Kumar Bhatter can be swept away like a common straw ...
Monday, January 11, 2010
The REAL Shri Ram Chandra Mission History (Part 1)
Taken and translated from an article by Alexis on his French blog: Le Projet Sahaj Marg
(last updated: Feb., 2010)
Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
New Presentation for 2010
"New religious movements" for the Anglo-Saxon, "sectes nuisibles" for the French, or "new spirituality" for the Eastern world, the words used to describe the current spiritual wealth shows us how the different apprehensions of this phenomenon may differ.
In this changing context of exceptional mutations of the religious phenomenon, here is the example of the incredible saga of nearly 70 years of Sahaj Marg, a global spirituality of Indian origin, based on the techniques of meditation from a simplification of the ancestral Hindu Raja Yoga. (Which the Founder of Sahaj Marg, Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur (aka Babuji), exp
(last updated: Feb., 2010)
Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "red italics"
New Presentation for 2010
"New religious movements" for the Anglo-Saxon, "sectes nuisibles" for the French, or "new spirituality" for the Eastern world, the words used to describe the current spiritual wealth shows us how the different apprehensions of this phenomenon may differ.
In this changing context of exceptional mutations of the religious phenomenon, here is the example of the incredible saga of nearly 70 years of Sahaj Marg, a global spirituality of Indian origin, based on the techniques of meditation from a simplification of the ancestral Hindu Raja Yoga. (Which the Founder of Sahaj Marg, Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur (aka Babuji), exp