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Amazing statement in
Erika's article on correcting 'myths,' isn't it?
Yes, she's all for 'accuracy.' So, if that's true,
I wonder why Erika spends so much time countering
red herrings.
Why does she just make up ridiculous 'myths,'
things she falsely claims ex-premies say and then
allegedly "refute" them? I'll tell you why. It's
because it's easy to answer allegations you just
make up, like Erika is doing here. In this light,
she misrepresents and is just as 'innacurate' as
Elan Vital is with its FAQs on its website. Anyhow,
her little article speaks for itself, but I will
help it along a little:
It seems to me that people who are
antagonistic toward Maharaji and his students
generally base their complaints on limited and
obsolete data. This bugs me because I'm fond of
accuracy. I'm the sort of person who interrupts my
husband's stories to say, 'was it really fifteen
miles, honey? I think it was only ten.' A bad
habit, and I'm not proud of it, but there you
are.
You should be proud, Erika, but if you are so
fond of 'accuracy' have you made any attempt to
correct the gross distortions and out and out lies
in the answers to the FAQs on the Elan Vital
website, or the statements on Maharaji's website,
or do you really believe the ashrams were drug
rehab centers, that Maharaji never claimed to be
the incarnation of God, and that all the 'Hindu
rituals' have been abolished (like darshan and Arti
that recently occurred in Amaroo). Does Erika
really believe Maharaji never was a 'leader' or a
'figurehead' and that he 'always' said that you
could just leave knowledge anytime you wanted like
he falsely claims on his website? I can't wait for
Erika, the devotee of accuracy and truth, to get
those things corrected.
So when someone who hasn't seen Maharaji
since 1985, or who received Knowledge in the early
1970s and stopped practicing many years ago, or who
doesn't have any interaction with students of
Maharaji, starts talking about Knowledge and
Maharaji and passing it off as accurate
information, it bothers me.
Here, Erika conviently ignores that many of
the people saying these 'negative' things about
Maharaji were premies (aka students, aka Pwks)
until the last year, sometimes the last few months,
and many continue to practice knowledge but no
longer recognize Maharaji has having anything to do
with the experience they are having.
Moreover, many of us who left years ago, have
seen Maharaji since then, and are quite aware of
what he says and does. But sorry you are bothered,
but what you are saying here is, I am afraid, just
a myth.
Myth: Students of Maharaji are virtual
hermits, associating only with others who 'share
their beliefs.'
Where did you get this, Erika? I think you
just made it up. I have never heard an ex-premie
say this. Who said it, Erika? Who? I think it came
right out of that brain of yours, because it's easy
to answer, and compeletly trivializes the
legitimate complaints ex-premies have with
Maharaji. It's manipulative and slimy.
Myth: Students of Maharaji who lived in the
ashram sustained irreparable damage to their lives
and careers because of the time they spent 'out of
the world.'
Fact: My husband and I and two of our closest
friends lived in the ashram for an aggregate total
of 23 years. We are all happily married (both of
our friends to people who don't have Knowledge),
with lucrative and fulfilling careers and lives
rich with friends and fun. The vast majority of the
former ashram premies I know who are still
practicing Knowledge are happy and successful by
any common measure.
I don't know if any damage is 'irreparable'
and as to Erika's friends who are happy and
successful, so what? The fact is, we were induced
to live in the ashram under false pretenses.
Maharaji claimed to be Lord of the Universe, and
said we were to devote and surrender our lives,
entirely, to him in an institution he claimed was a
life-long committment, not some kind of temporary
experiment.
Hence, many of us lived a decade or more in
the ashrams, foresaking anything else we would be
doing with our lives, including careers,
relationships, sex, and time and connections with
our families. True, Maharaji dumped everyone out of
the ashrams in 1983, sticking the ashram residents
with the debts, but he also terrified us from ever
leaving in ashram meetings and other 'satsang'
tirades before that. So this big flip flop on
Maharaji's part kind of requires some kind of
explanation and, should I say "care" about it,
don't you think? Not much of any of that was in
sight, and according to Dettmers, Maharaji didn't
really express much concern about any of us, and
rather blamed us for the ashram "failure." It's
atrocious.
So, Erika, as you know, you only have so many
years in your life, and to the extent you wasted
them following a charlatan 'messiah' that is
'irreparable' damage in my book and whether people
are now happy and successful is completely beside
that point, and is due more to their own ingenuity
and pluck in the face of the damage, than to
Maharaji, knowledge or the ashram. And this is in
addition to the ashram premies who committed
suicide, and who were so unprepared to re-enter the
world, that they did so with disastrous results. I
guess Erika doesn't know any of those people, as
they probably would not be rubbing elbows with her
in her upper-class, yuppie world, the happiness of
which she continually reminds us.
Myth: Students of Maharaji are forced to give
huge sums of money to support M's opulent
lifestyle.
Yet another lie that Erika just makes up,
claiming this is something ex-premies actually say.
Erika, again, state your proof. Who actually said
that premies were 'forced' to give money to
Maharaji to support his opulent lifestyle? Who?
It's another example of misrepresentation on the
part of Erika in a manipulative fashion which is
now seemingly chronic.
Having said that, when I was a premie, there
was significant pressure on followers of Maharaji
to send money directly to Maharaji to support his
lavish lifestyle, including in the darshan lines.
When I was an ashram housefather in three different
ashrams, we sent 10% of our income to DLM and 10%
of our income to Maharaji directly, for years. I,
personally, made out checks to 'Guru Maharaj Ji' on
behalf of the ashram and sent them to his personal
PO box in Malibu. We also pressured (as directed
from "the top") people to give millions of dollars
to get Maharaji planes he wanted, and I am ashamed
to say that I personally participated in this. So,
no, nobody was 'forced' but the milieu of pressure
to donate premeated the organization, and from what
I understand, it still does.
As Erika admits elsewhere, for many years,
DLM and Maharaji's opulent lifestyle were
indistinguishable. DLM just bought M that house in
Malibu, according to Mishler, who was President of
DLM at the time, and bought him whatever outragous
luxury he wanted, and we all supported it because
nothing was too good for the living Perfect Master
of our time. But as Dettmers has told us, all the
tax problems got cleaned up at some point, so, no,
I'm sure there isn't anything illegal about the way
Elan Vital pays Maharaji's 'expenses' which I am
sure are astronomical.
Maharaji hardly ever does 'introductory'
programs anymore, but if he does, it costs in the
neighborhood of $250K because Maharaji MUST be
transported and housed in the style to which he has
become accustomed, which is apparently more
important than even doing the program or "spreading
knowledge." If you don't have the money, Maharaji
doesn't go.
I'm sure they are all 'legal' expenses of
Elan Vital and the 'donatations' thereto. Perhaps
Erika, in her crusade for accuracy, will also point
out to Elan Vital that it also lies on its website
in saying that M's plane is 'rented' from 'a
separate corporation' when that 'corporation' is
completely run by premies, including Mary Holle as
president. Erika, please let us know when you
correct that innacuracy.
Myth: Students of Maharaji give up their will
and judgment to him and allow him to run their
lives.
Give us a break Erika. Now you are just
sounding like a nut. Again, who, other than you,
has said this?
Myth: Students of Maharaji are made to feel
guilty and bad if they stop practicing Knowledge or
stop considering Maharaji their teacher.
Erika says that she knows people who practice
knowledge who don't recognize Maharaji as their
teacher (good for them, Erika, you might listen to
why those people feel that way, maybe they are on
to something), but since she doesn't know whether
people are practicing or not, how could they be
pressured? Huh?
What Erika again conveniently ignores is that
MAHARAJI said a lot of threatening things about
what would happen to you if you stopped practicing
knowledge, including the rotting vegetables, going
to hell, and smashing into a thousand pieces, all
of which I heard right out of that mouth of
his.
Erika also showed up on this Forum a few
months ago and we talked about it. But Erika
doesn't want to address that, she just ignores the
real supposed 'myth' about Maharaji's culpability
in instilling fear in his followers, and talks
about, well, what she talked about, which is so
entirely irrelevent as to be laughable.
Okay, so maybe Maharaji doesn't say things
like that anymore, but the other supposed 'myth'
Erika conveniently ignores is that Maharaji has
never taken any responsbility for saying those
things. None whatsoever, and Erika just provides
whitewash to all that. And really, Erika, you are
extremely offensive and insulting when you do that,
because it completely invalidates the experience of
many of us. Don't you see that far from defusing
the situation, it just inflames it? Do you really
think you are helping Maharaji by trivializing the
legitimate experience of other people? If your
website really did allow for an open discussion and
a way to address those things directly, that might
really be helpful to everyone. But I haven't seen
that so far.
Myth: Students of Maharaji spend all their
time thinking and talking about Knowledge and
Maharaji, and have no real life outside the
'cult.'
I won't even dignify this made-up crap with
an answer. Erika, this is chronic
misrepresentation. This is kind of scary.
Myth: Maharaji doesn't care about his
students; all he cares about is getting
rich.
Okay, this is an actual allegation, sort of.
Erika says Maharaji is a nice guy, and he tries to
make 'events' comfortable for people, and he has
even asked about her welfare, and he is committed
to spreading knowledge, according to Erika,
although I'm not sure the evidence supports
that.
Since 99% of premies have likely never even
met Maharaji I think his personal 'niceness' is
kind of meaningless. I have never heard that
Maharaji can't be quite charming, or can be at
times, in person. So? He didn't seem to be very
caring about his ashram premies, now was he Erika?
I guess he kind of fell down on his nice guy thing
at that point. Plus, while I was a premie, I never
saw that Maharaji gave a rats ass about us as
individuals. I lived in his ashram for almost 10
years and he never bothered to know my name or even
speak to me.
I saw him be repeatedly and unreasonably
demanding at DECA, towards premies working without
sleep in dangerous conditions. He wasn't very
concerned about their welfare, only in getting the
plane, project, or whatever it was he wanted. So,
at best, this is a mixed bag, and since none of us
live with him, we don't know. Maybe he is a nicer
guy, now. I certainly hope so, but who knows? But
let's look at what we do know.
Many of us have pointed out the obvious fact
that Maharaji's priorities do not appear to be what
he professes. During the same time he has amassed
immense wealth for himself personally, he has
failed utterly in 'spreading knowledge' and has
thousands fewer followers today in the West than he
had 20 years ago.
He rarely does 'introductory programs,'
rarely advertises his existence or that of
'knowledge,' and has shown little interest in doing
anything other than retaining his core audience,
his dwindling group of devotees from the 70s (even
with ARTI and feet-kissing in Amaroo a few months
ago), and engaging in technological gimmicks,
pretending that these are finally going to spread
the word, after 30 years of failed attempts. That,
more than anything else should give objective
people an idea of where Maharaji's priorities
really are.
Care to address these points, Erika? I would
send this to your website, but I doubt it would
ever be printed. Okay I will send it and see how
open to dialogue you actually are.
Joe
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