Monday, June 09, 2008

Wise Court Decision on Sahaja Yoga Belgium!

Belgium has 6 official languages.

Their government-operated, Centre d'Iformation et d'Avis sur les Oganisations Sectaires Nuisibles (CIAOSN), is a great example of the logic coming out of the Western Europe Administrative and Legal systems.

(Traslated: Center for Information and Advice on Harmful Sectarian Organizations)

The CIAOSN has a library that carries one or two of the books of the societies on their radar that they investigate as requests come in from the public. They then place the "report" on these organizations on-line for the public to access when needed.

The latest report on Sahaja Yoga Belgium, requested by the city of Gand, was challenged in court by Sahaja Yoga Belgium, and the courts ruled as shown here:

The CIAOSN report on Sahaja Yoga Belgium is here!

...with this court-ordered disclaimer (at the end):

1° l'avis du 7 mars 2005 ne signifie pas que l’a.s.b.l. Sahaja Yoga België doit être considérée comme une organisation sectaire nuisible ou comme une subdivision d'une organisation sectaire nuisible ;
(Translated: The advice of Mar.7, 2005 does not mean that the "a.s.b.l. Sahaja Yoga Belgium is to be considered a harmful sectarian organization or a subdivision of a harmful sectarian organization.)

2° l'arrêt est consultable sur le site internet du C.I.A.O.S.N (Arrêt 12/06/2006)
(Translated: This arrest is to be placed on the internet site of the C.I.A.O.S.N. (Arrest 12/06/2006)

I just read the report by CIAOSN and the court ruling. I am fluent in both languages. The report stands as is with the addendum. (see above).

My take (POV-Point of View) is that the designation of "harmful sect" ("Secte nuisible" in French) does not necessarily apply in all circumstances as some meditators will come for the
atmosphere or curiosity and Sahaja Yoga or other "sectes" will not necessarily be harmful to them. In other words, what is harmful or deemed harmful to one is not necessarily harmful to others. Some other meditators will get more heavily involved in the organization with possibly a different degree of "harmful" being experienced by them. So the courts has ruled that the addendum stating that "the advice (notice) does not mean that Sahaja Yoga is to be considered a harmful sect" is added at the end of the report even though the content of the report is not altered and is not deemed "illegal" or slanderous.

The brand of "cult" or "harmful secte" seems to be what the Belgian court does not want, even by implication. In other words, an article or a report can describe the activities of an organization, without BRANDING (name calling), as the brand has different meaning for different people and cultures.

Belgium has 6 official languages.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ON “CIAOSN, SAHAJ MARG AND SAHAJA YOGA”

1. CIOSN-Library:
title on SRCM:1 (RAM CHANDRA, Reality at Dawn, Shahjahanpur (India): Shri Ram Chandra Mission, 1976)
[From: http://www.ciaosn.be/biblior.htm]

2. Sahaja Yoga
Sunday, 25 May 2008 Justice ruled in favour of Sahaja Yoga in Brusels
The court of first instance of Brusels has condemned in a substantive judgment the Belgian State to pay a 1500 euros compensation to the Sahaja Yoga Association, which has been wrongly considered as a sect in an official act dated March 2005, as indicated on Friday, April 25 by the De Morgen, De Standaard and Le Soir journals in Belgium.
The Centre for information and counselling on nuisible sectarian organisations (CIAOSN) had issued a defavorable report on this meditation mouvement. The justice had already condemned the public organisation in a provisional judgment in June 2006.
The substantive judgment now confirmed that the CIAOSN lacked objectivity and has damaged the honour and the reputation of the association. The State decided to formulate an appeal.
From: [http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1502/Belgique/article/detail/255299/2008/04/25/Sahaja-Yoga-n-est-pas-une-secte.dhtml]
Sahaja Yoga is a new religious movement founded by Nirmala Srivastava, more widely known as 'Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi'
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahaja_Yoga]

There isn’t any relation between Sahaj Marg (Raja Yoga) and Sahaja Yoga. - Evil to him who evil thinks......

Anonymous said...

Hey Anonymous...

Notice the TITLE OF THIS BLOG...It is not a SAHAJ MARG blog!!

NO relationship is implied in the article between Sahaja Yoga (the Natural or easy Yoga) and Sahaj Marg (the Natural and easy Path)..

The evil lives in the mind of those who SEE EVIL... The author of the article does not see evil or think evil and does not accuse the commentator! ...Does the COMMENTATOR accuse the author of the article?

The CIAOSN article still stands...and is on their site...with the "notice" as ruled by the court.

This decision could help future INFONAUTS (writers) who wish to expose religious abuse (called "intellectual terrorism" by some) but do not want to "defame" a group by "name calling" or "branding"!

IN other words, the truly SPIRITUAL PEOPLE! Not those who wish to hide, brush away or be apologists for their MISSION in light of the alleged abuses and the warnings of the victims of this MISSION.

On Wiki (Sahaj Marg article), some members of Sahaj Marg are even hiding the 18 yrs AGE LIMIT caution given by the FOUNDER of their system.

4d-don

Anonymous said...

4d-don,
You must know: Although there is always a lot spoken of British humour ect., the English translation “Evil to him who evil thinks.” or even more “Shamed be he who thinks evil of it. [archaic]” is quite serious and there isn’t anything left of the humour of the original proverb. For you therefore the word-for-word translation: “ A rogue is the one who thinks any bad of it. “
Answer to your question: No.
Thanks for the publication.

But is there one Mission?

Anonymous said...

Hey Anonymous...

We will be the witness for the victims of both these so-called NATURAL "Missions" and all Four or Five Schisms of the "Ram Chandra GANG", be they the original registered in India in 1945 by Ram Chandra(see Sahaj Marg Project and History) or the "other sub-gangs" who are trying to eat up and swallow the original Gang by re-registering the same name in California...

"Evil" and "Rogue" dwells there, inside the MISSIONS, and not in the messengers or the victims, who were after all "SPIRITUAL SEEKERS"... ALL can see the TRUTH by the amount of MATERIAL these GANGS attract and the lack of SPIRITUALITY in the followers of these "spiritual" wannabbees... The reason for the Blogs is to expose both "un-spiritual aspects of the MISSIONS"... MATERIALISM and lack of LOVE and COMPASSION in the followers, even for their Families.

4d-don....