The Past Internet of Sahaj Marg

Translated from an article by Alexis: The Way back on Sahaj Marg,  on Élodie's blog in Europe: Pour Que Vive Le Sahaj Marg


June 2, 2013 

The Past Internet of Sahaj Marg 

In 1999: When Babuji was 100 years old 

Taken from an article by Alexis titled:  The Way back on Sahaj Marg
 

Everything is ephemeral on the web. The websites of the SRCM has evolved considerably and there are no records ... except when the Wayback Machine of archive.org gets involved!  Whew ... We can thus go back in time to the beginnings of the presence of the SRCM on the web: first archive May 29, 1998, 15 years ago.

Chari was still a kid (relatively) constantly traveling around the world. 
It was also the eve of the centenary celebrations of the birth of Babuji, an opportunity for Chari to  inaugurate with great fanfare its Babuji Memorial Ashram at Manappakam.

A few little reminders: the project cost was estimated at INR 28 million rupees (about 2.6 million FF, EUR 400,000 or USD 500,000). The capacity of the BMA (Babuji Memorial Ashram)  is estimated at 13,500 places. From April 3, 1998, Chari invites the Indian abhyasis to register, averaging 500 rupees to 1,500 and to reserve seats for overseas abhyasis at 150 USD (first round). On August 3, he already is planning the arrival of two consecutive groups of 10,000 people and the participation of foreigners is revalued to 250 USD or 1,500 FF. Ultimately, it is four groups that follow, at 2-3 days each ... Already knowing that there are many who enroll in several groups so as to prolong their stay, especially among foreigners.

A rate of 15% foreigners (1,500 per 10 000), the donations from 40,000 participants in the celebrations had to be around $ 1.8 million, more than three times the estimated cost of Babuji Memorial Ashram ...

Sources on the BMA and celebrations 1999: 

http://web.archive.org/web/19980529122008/http://www.srcm.org/info/bma/bma1.html 
http://web.archive.org/web/19990501213222/http://srcm.org/seminars/india/990430/cc.html 
http://web.archive.org/web/20010422163233/http://www.srcm.org/centers/bma/index.htm 

What else can we find on the Wayback Machine? 

The year 1999 was important because of the centenary, but there was also a fight at that time around the domain name 'sahajmarg.org' who opposed an Indo-American preceptor of Umesh Chandra Saxena (2nd son of Babuji) to Chari's SRCM (California-1997). He created a website where he published the controversial two letters of appointment of Babuji's successor. Since then, Chari's SRCM (California-1997) has seized the domain name and the original site has disappeared.Fortunately, the Wayback Machine has kept track of the home page of this site January 25, 99: 

http://web.archive.org/web/19990125102950/http://www.sahajmarg.org/ 

Some other links to the past: 

- Archives of Sahaj Sandesh (and the earlier Sahaj Net News): SNN 1998-2001, Sahaj Sandesh 2005, and from 2006 to 2013. 
- Some documents: The universal message of Babuji 1957-1983, Complete works (Volume 1): Reality at dawn, etc.. And Chari's bestseller:  My Master

Alexis
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