Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Sathya Sai Controversies and the Art of Guru Bashing | The Chakra News

http://www.chakranews.com/sathya-sai-controversies-and-the-art-of-guru-bashing/1221

 

Spiritual Guru - Sathya Sai Baba

Spiritual Guru - Sathya Sai Baba

By Raj Sharma

It is not uncommon now that for many Gurus, Rishis or Seers who have emerged from India, there has always been an unprecedented number of vicious attacks launched on them. These have come in the guise of slander, misquotes, false allegations and myriad smear campaigns.

Moreover it is interesting to note that most of these attackers often turn out to be either individuals who have been suffering from dysfunctional complexes or personality disorders, or pseudo spiritualists, fundamentalists and Christian missionaries working at religions conversion of Hindus, or self-appointed- rationalist experts with highly opinionated, insular theories or dishonest television reporters and interviewers sensationalizing and tarnishing the image of Hinduism and Hindu Gurus, keeping with the trend of unprofessional, ignorant reporting and the highly biased- ‘paid news syndrome’.

No doubt there have been many isolated cases in history where certain imposters and charlatans have deceived people parading in the garb of self-realized yogis. However to use such cases to generalize on all Hindu gurus is akin to defaming all doctors and the whole medical profession for the malpractices of a few. Such an attitude thus does not only reek of flawed human reasoning but also exposes an irrational bias towards Hinduism as a whole and a long- standing socio- political agenda of a malicious nature and intent to debase India’s sacred culture and tradition.

Let us start with the historical case of Swami Vivekananda the great philosopher & teacher. When Vivekananda went to Chicago in 1893 to speak at the parliament of the world’s religions, he was ridiculed by members of other faiths. This was not because of what he said, but because of everyone’s lack of knowledge of Hinduism and their preconceptions of a faith based in mythology with worshiping of animals and nature. After this there were many attempts to defame Vivekananda by the church during his maiden US voyage because of his mass appeal, displaying that the anti-Hindu guru stance was taken by many over 100 years ago. This approach was also accepted by many and not challenged.

Let us also take the current case with Sathya Sai Baba. Many have heard of him as the guru or Avatar who had performed untold miracles from childhood. Indeed we would find millions who have seen or benefited from his miracles throughout the world. Yet there has been a constant sinister smear campaign to malign his name and mission in the media.

Over 90% of anti Sai allegations can be attributed to Tal Brook (Robert Taliaferro Brooke), who was often seen at Sai Baba’s ashram in the 1970s. He proclaimed he was Sai Baba’s number one western follower. He started the sexual allegations campaign, which initiated from him talking to an unidentified man Surya Das who was told by another unidentified man ‘Patrick’ who had apparently had physical relations with Sai Baba. No one else has met these individuals.

Why did Tal Brooke go to India? He stated that spirit guides, and belief in “psychic stuff” brought him to India and to Sai Baba. Why did he suddenly stop his pro Sai Baba work whilst at the Ashram titled “The Amazing Advent”? Which incidentally Sai Baba refused to bless. Why did he leave the ashram & circulate his anti Sai Baba rumours soon afterwards? Because he stated he had demonic encounters, hearing voices of spirits, out of body experiences, but acknowledged that Sai Baba had Christ like powers that baffled top scientists.

In 1976 Tal Brook published an anti Sai book titled “Lord of the Air”*. In the book and in subsequent years he has attacked Sai Baba & Hinduism, suggesting that enlightenment is an evil path to Satan and that God-Men and Gurus are in a state of perfect demonic possession. He believes that Sai Baba embodies a “timeless, demonic presence”. What does this say about the integrity and objectivity of his claims against Sai Baba? What is also missing is the story of his constant high usage of drugs while at university & India, and his drug induced hallucinations of being self-realized. Other Americans recognised him as a fanatic Christian at the ashram, which is contrary to his claim of becoming a Christian post Sai Baba. He was a member of the Neo-American Church founded by Arthur Kleps (a follower of LSD guru Timothy Leary). Kleps was alleged to be anti-Semitic by the Dutch police who expelled him from Holland. Tal Brooke has denounced Hollywood as being anti Christ, and his smear campaign has lasted 30 years with multiple books and now with expensive internet ad campaigns.

Tal Brooke’s rumours and books led to many copy cat accusers, most of whom who had had a dubious past, but not once has there been any proof. The recent most famous example is of Alaya Rahm who in the 1990s as a young man said he had sexual encounters with Sai Baba. The western media jumped on this, and even the BBC produced a programme which effectively made Sai Baba appear guilty. However Alaya Rahm (and others) had many opportunities to file a police or court case anywhere in India, but this has never occurred.

A lawsuit was created in the Superior Court of California on January 6, 2005 (Case No. 05cc01931). But realizing that the exposure was high Rahm eventually refused to go to court. No other alleged victim came forward to testify in support of his allegations, though anti-Sai activists claimed there were many alleged US victims. Many Hindus themselves have often blindly joined the anti sai crusade with enthusiasm without cross checking for factual evidence,which has often lead to more people accepting these false accusations..

Reporter of the The Pioneer, Sandhya Jain, wrote in 2009 that “As usual, when false accusations are made against Hindu gurus, a high-decibel media campaign begins. But when the innocence of the accused is established, the cacophony melts into stoic silence… No alleged victim ever filed a police or court case against Baba in India for alleged improprieties, though former devotees kept chanting that ‘hundreds’, indeed ‘‘thousands’’ of ‘‘minors’’, ‘‘children’’ and ‘male youth’ were molested by Sathya Sai Baba. Who inspired these venomous former devotees to launch investigations into vile rumours? Devotees say the ‘Anti-Sai Movement’ is an extremist hate group which habitually makes wild allegations, including the laughable claim that the Baba is allied with terrorists!…The truth is that neither Sai Baba nor any organization associated with him has ever been charged or implicated for sexual abuse, either directly or indirectly, and that reputable media agencies and independent journalists have not been able to confirm a single instance of sexual abuse linked to Sai Baba or his organizations.”

Moreover, recently in 2007 the same Alaya Rahm was trying to provide an alibi for a drug dealer friend, however despite his alibi his friend got convicted for thirty years, in return throwing light on Alaya Rahm’s dubious and questionable character.

There have also been years of many unfounded and vicious attacks on Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Baba Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Swami Yogananada, Mata Amritanandamayi, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, etc. indicating that when anti-Hindu Guru statements are made, everyone naturally takes notice but the media and academia more often than not, instead of conducting an unbiased probe and investigation, rather thrive on further distorting and tarnishing the name of such revered gurus.

On an international stage, Hindus have never done enough research themselves that would throw light on the nature of these malicious anti-hindu guru campaigns. Worse, when the allegations have proven to be incorrect, they have not been able to use that opportunity to publicize that nationally or internationally.

However, now, apart from the Sathya Sai trust, many other individuals and organizations have slowly been waking up to these anti-Hindu movements and agitations and have begun to contemplate taking legal action against media, reporters, editors, and others for defamation, perjury, slander and violation of their indigenous culture and religion.

*For further expose on the Anti Sai Movement*
http://www.saisathyasai.com/

Sangh owns one of the fastest growing education projects - Tehelka

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ws200411HINDUTVA.asp

Sangh owns one of the fastest growing education projects

Rights activists cry foul, as they see these schools in pursuit of communal agenda

G Vishnu
New Delhi

Large stretches on the highway between Koraput and Malkangiri districts in southern Odisha remain isolated. This highway has been the target of large number of blasts from Maoists. As a result, it is now dotted with camps of the Border Security Force and the Central Reserve Police Force. It is not too difficult to spot the contrasting images here. In pockets, adivasi women wearing vermillion marks on their foreheads can be seen ferrying their children to school.

For a long time, Christian missionaries and NGOs were the only entities that reached out to adivasis in Odisha, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Northeastern states, apart from the limited engagement of state governments. But, now another juggernaut is rolling in this ideological melting pot, where the security forces and insurgent groups, like Maoists, have taken well-defined positions.

It is well known that the Sangh parivar has been trying to establish itself in the tribal areas for a long while. But, the pace at which it is growing has become phenomenal. Sangh’s main propaganda and ‘service’ vehicle – the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) – offers some startling figures in terms of its reach in the field of education and what it calls cultural engagement.

According to its own claims, the VHP’s Sewa Trust has 3,266 educational projects spread across the country. Out of this, nearly 1,050 Bal Sanskar Kendras reach out to children in the age group of three to seven. About 146 balwaries and 593 primary schools add to the VHP’s count of young followers.

However, the most successful of its projects is the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation that runs 34,343 schools which, collectively, have 9,62,485 students. The “ekal vidyalayas are our effort to reach the most deprived areas of the country. Christian missionaries get funds from all over the world: the entire Christian empire backs them. Ours is a completely indigenous effort,” says Prakash Sharma, media convener of the VHP.

Insiders in the Sangh, however, are less defensive. “We do receive funds from Hindus from all over the world, especially the prosperous parts,” says a Lucknow-based VHP activist. A quick search on the Internet reveals the presence of the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation in places like Portland (Michigan) and Baltimore in the United States.

The foundation organises massive charity events in the US and Europe, with entry tickets costing 45 dollars (Rs 2,025) per person at times.

On its web site, the foundation claims to be secular. However, the Sangh parivar boasts of the foundation as its own. The most important programme of the foundation is said to be the promotion of education amongst tribal communities, with a “refined concept of 'one-teacher school'”, in which a local resident with some education imparts basic education in a village.

However, rights activists working in the adivasi areas show concern about the startling growth rate of these social-engineering projects. As examples, they point out the introduction of caste system amongst adivasis and communalisation of young minds that are rampant in various bal mandirs and Durga Vahini, the women wing of the Sangh parivar, camps that VHP operates.

“Kondh and other tribes never practiced caste system earlier. But, with the coming of the Durga Vahini and the VHP starting programmes like ‘Re-conversion to Hinduism’, these tribes have begun classifying themselves into castes. Non beef-eating tribes have begun taking themselves to be upper or purer castes,” says Sharanya, a rights activist based in Odisha.

She says that mobilising adivasis for “communal agenda” of the VHP is one of the biggest dangers of these social-engineering projects.

The communal divide is visible too. The anti-Christian riots that followed after Swami Laxminananda was killed in the Kandhamal area of Odisha in 2008 have not died down completely, as several attacks on the centres of Christian worship have been carried out in the last three years.

However, the VHP spokesperson Sharma vehemently denies allegations of preaching casteism and communalism. “We do not mind even Muslim or Christian students learning in our institutions. However, they have to accept that they are by birth Hindus too,” he says. “As far as the idea of re-conversion is concerned, our epics are evidence to the fact that adivasis too are Hindus,” he adds.

Sharma in turn alleges that the aggressive expansion of the Sangh is aimed at challenging the “might of Christian missionaries in the region, whose sole aim is to convert innocent adivasis”.

An astonishing element about the Sangh parivar’s rapid mobilisation drive is their reach into the regions that have well-rooted ideological opponents.

For instance, Chattisgarh has 2,490 ekal vidyalayas, while Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the Northeast have 1,590, 2,160, 1,534 and 2,681 such schools. With the exception of West Bengal, they all have sizeable presence of Maoists and other insurgent groups.

Does this not cause a daily battle for survival then?

“No. Maoists or other insurgents have never bothered us,” says Sharma. “Christians killed Swami Laxminananda, not the Maoists,” he adds as a justification for the anti-Christian violence that the VHP has been accused of carrying out in Odisha.

G Vishnu is a Correspondent with Tehelka.com.
vishnu@tehelka.com

VivekaJyoti: Hinglaj Mata Mandir (Teerath Yatra), Balochistan

VivekaJyoti: Hinglaj Mata Mandir (Teerath Yatra), Balochistan:

Hinglaj Mata Mandir (Teerath Yatra), Balochistan



Hinglaj Mata Mandir (Teerath Yatra), Balochistan

This is sacred place of pilgrimage for Hindus in general is situated in a mountain cave "HINGLAJ" on river bank of "HINGHOL"at the tail of " KHEERTHAR" maintains called " KANRAJ" in Tehsil Lyari of Balochistan.

It is about 170 miles(250 KM) from Karachi - on the main "Karachi - Quetta" Highway upto zero Point for about 75 miles and then by road towards west through Lyari town and then to signal Fauji Camp Stop, crossing Aghore River then through Goongi River and last stop to "Asha Pura" Sarai (INN)

It is known that before partition (India-Pakistan), Rajput Kings come for pilgrimage to Hinglaj Mata from Rajasthan and Gujarat. There was no read and Yatris had to pass through jungles, sandy routes, mountains, rivers, full of danger on the back of camels, it take months in journey.
Now the journey has become easy, from Karachi is 6 to 8 hrs in a private vehicle (preferably 4 Wheel drive).

This Teerath is famous and old in human history. The devotees from all part of the world used to come for Hinglaj Mata Teerath since centuries. Even Hindus Ram Avatar. Great Saint GuruGorakh Nath, Great Saint Guru Nanak Sahib, Dada Mekhan,Avtar of Laxman, and other great Saints, Rishes and Hindu scholars paid visits to Hinglaj Teerath. In recent few years devotees from Africa and European countries have visited and performed Hinglaj Mata Teerath.

Yearly Yatra

In respect to the Hinglaj Mata Teerath Yatra, Shri Hinglaj SevaMandli every year makes arrangement of Yatra in the month of April in the form of JATHA means a huge and big group of around 50,000 people consisted of males, females, Kids from all parts of thestates of Pakistan of different languages and culture. These devoteesare dressed in red caps, flags, and banners of Hinglaj and basically it renew our past memories. This year Yatra is on 24th till 26th April 2011.

Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vanwani (Patron) Pakistan Hindu Council is giving warm welcome to all the Pakistani Hindu people for this yearly yatra.

Must Watch these Videos of Hinglag Yatra by clicking the following links:


Why IPS Bhatt hates Narendra Modi

Why IPS Bhatt hates Narendra Modi: "Controversial Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who created a ripple by submitting to the Supreme Court an affidavit saying that Chief Minister Narendra Modi wanted to teach Muslims a lesson, has a shady past.

Apart from being indicted by the National Human Rights Commission for planting narcotics in a hotel room to implicate and arrest an advocate of Rajasthan in a drug peddling case, the officer is also an accused in a major recruitment scam that hit Gujarat in 1996.

Documents with The Pioneer show that Bhatt was charge-sheeted on December 12 last year in course of a departmental inquiry into police recruitment in Gujarat in May 1996. Bhatt was chairman of the recruitment process as Superintendent of Police of Banskantha. Sources said Bhatt has not yet submitted his defence.
"

I have been framed by non-believers: Sadhvi Pragya

I have been framed by non-believers: Sadhvi Pragya: "Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case and the murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak Sunil Joshi on Tuesday claimed that she was innocent and had been framed by 'non-believers'."

Mumbai: Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case and the murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak Sunil Joshi on Tuesday claimed that she was innocent and had been framed by 'non-believers'.

The 38-year-old Pragya who was lying in an ambulance told mediapersons that she was a sanyasin who had not taken part in any conspiracy adding she was framed by some of the leading politicians.

"I am a patriot. I would live and die for the country," the Sadhvi said. She said that she still had pain in her back and yet doctors at the M Y hospital here had given a false report and discharged her.

When asked whether the Madhya Pradesh government had not made proper arrangements for her treatment, she said it was under the pressure of 'non-believers'. She was brought to Indore from Mumbai by train for a hearing in court at Dewas in connection with her alleged role in the killing of Sunil Joshi on Monday.

She flew back to Mumbai on Tuesday under the security of Maharashtra police.

WHAT PATRIOTIC INDIANS CAN DO

http://janataparty.org/patriotic.html

WHAT PATRIOTIC INDIANS CAN DO

We have to ensure that the Maino clan does not stay in power. Dr. Manmohan Singh may be PM, which is a small relief, but he is not a fighter. The real power in government today is wielded by the Maino mafia gang. Can they be dethroned? I argue that they must be, for India’s integrity and democracy.
In Indian democracy, other than by losing majority, only a shocking scandal can unseat a government. Today’s priority is however not for toppling the Congress government as such, since Manmohan Singh is a decent and scholarly person, but in driving the Maino clan out of India. If the only way that can be done is by toppling the Singh government, then so be it. But the successor government should be such that it will not protect Sonia and her clan as Vajpayee’s did.
It will although not be long before Sonia will give Manmohan Singh marching orders, and he will march out meekly. We should not expect him to resist. Thus time with patriotic Indians is limited.
With Sonia’s defacto government in place, it is also unrealistic to expect that I can get an early victory in the courts on the KGB and antique smuggling cases. The most potent scandal at hand, therefore, that can dislodge the Maino clan[including Rahul and Priyanka] lies in exposing their existing Italian citizenship. That will galvanise the people.
In 1992, Sonia had revived her citizenship of Italy under Article 17 of the Italian Citizenship Law [Act 91 of 1992]. Rahul and Priyanka were born Italian citizens because Sonia was Italian when she gave birth to them[Italian law based on jure sanguinis]. (see Annexure-19) Hence, they continue be Italians since they have never renounced their citizenship upon becoming 21 years old. Both, Rahul and Priyanaka have been traveling abroad on Italian passports. They may now acquire Venezuela passports too, since Rahul Gandhi’s wife, Veronica, is a Venezuelan. (See annexure- 20) That means one more foreign bahu for us tolerant Indians. The Maino-Gandhis are certainly getting Indian society globalised in their own selfish way.
To end Bharat Mata’s shame and pain, what can patriotic Indians do in a democracy?

As a first step there is an urgent need to document the facts about their citizenship on notarized paper, for which we need to set up a network in London, Milan, Hongkong, and in Venezuela. Those persuaded by my above stated facts and arguments may join in and help set up this network. Other steps can come later once this is accomplished.

'Hindu women' gang raped in Bangladesh during 2001 elections

'Hindu women' gang raped in Bangladesh during 2001 elections: "Dhaka (Bangladesh): A judicial commission has concluded that over 200 Hindu women were raped following the 2001 parliamentary election, forcing many terrorized families to flee the country."