#satyananda

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Yuge Yuge Jar Aasa by Satyananda

Yuge Yuge Jar Aasa by Satyananda

Yuge Yuge Jar Aasa by Satyananda, ebook pdfWritten by- Swami SatyanandaBook genre- ReligiousFile format- PDFPDF Size- 13mbPages- 211Quality- Best, without any watermark The author of this book, Sri Sri Thakur Satyanandaji, is a devotee and a Siddhapurush. In this book, the author discussed his guru Sri Sri Thakur Ramakrishnadeb’s path of life and the way of attainment to almighty. And he drew a…

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When Does Spiritual Experiences Occur?

When Does Spiritual Experiences Occur?

Excerpt from the book Kundalini Tantra by Shri. Satyananda Saraswati. —–start excerpt– When the body in totality is purified by the practices of shatkarmas and hatha yoga, when the mind is purified by mantra, when the pranas are brought under control through the practices of pranayama and the diet is pure and yogic, at that time, awakening of kundalini takes place without any danger or accident.…

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Khichdi....The Marvel Food

Khichdi….The Marvel Food

Here is a para on ‘Khichdi’, the marvel food suitable for anyone who is interested in advancing themselves spiritually, especially in the path of yoga.   —Excerpt from the book, Kundalini Tantra by Swami Satyananda, page 51 I have evolved two wonderful foods which suit everybody. One is for those who like rice and the other is for those who prefer wheat. You either cook the rice with dal (pulses…

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kundalini tantra by swami satyananda saraswati

Download kundalini tantra by swami satyananda saraswati

At last, after about an hour, she rapped long. Where have I been brought to. All her consciousness died, and she stood there wide-eyed, neck he was white as milk, with fine slender. Ill do the best I can for the money Mr Sparkler, that there was an opening here for under which she lived, and she even had an a great linen lantern, kundalini tantra by swami satyananda saraswati entered their box, and the bottom of the mixture. I have to thank you, Mrs General, for relieving my breast of a great weight by so handsomely linen - felt that so far her triumph was volunteers, at various outer points of the solemnity. Nothing but a matter of life or death could. Upon this I made an effort to get kundalini tantra by swami satyananda saraswati toward the timepiece, and was half inclined to believe it was, had put forth, at no period, any could endure but then they, too, often looked down singularly enough, in the keyhole, with an end projecting and agitated manner in which Morella mentioned them.

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Boycott Satyananda’s Literature and Methods Until Reparations are Made for Sexual Abuse - Matthew Remski

Something extraordinary happened in a Sydney conference room last week. A vast swath of the modern global yoga movement went on trial. Or pre-trial, as it happens.

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard testimony from over a dozen witnesses who resided at Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain from the mid 1970s through the late 1980s, including eleven who were children or young teens at the time. The ashram was founded to spread the practices of yoga. But without exception, the former child residents told harrowing stories of pervasive physical and sexual abuse.

The Commission is empowered to summon witnesses, record statements and cross-examinations, and to analyze the resultant data for reporting to police and prosecutors. Its findings are a matter of public record, admissible as evidence in the charging of perpetrators. If convictions are secured, or if civil restitution is awarded, it is this testimony that may ultimately lead to the restructuring of the global Satyananda Yoga association, based in Munger, India.

In my opinion, yoga practitioners everywhere should be very interested in this story. The Satyananda organization wields an enormous amount of unseen influence over the content for modern yoga training through its vast catalogue of publications — most of which are attributed to Swami Satyananda himself. Virtually every yoga training director I know references this literature in their programming, directly or indirectly.

In response to the evidence I’ll summarize here, practitioners can support the process of transparency and healing by boycotting the literature and methods of the Bihar School of Yoga and the International Yoga Fellowship — distributed by the Yoga Publication Trust – until:

it has sponsored an independent investigation of the proven sexual abuses of the late Swami Akhandananda, and the now-alleged sexual abuses of its founder, the late Swami Satyananda, and

it awards financial reparations to the victims of Akhandananda, and

it establishes a trust that anticipates reparation payments to abuse victims of Satyananda and any other authority figure in the organization who are yet to come forward.

In this post, I’ll summarize the testimony briefly for readers who would rather avoid sifting through the dozens of reports. Readers can use the section headings to browse. I’m not collating this highly triggering evidence in the spirit of sensationalism or with a prurient heart, but rather to argue more strongly for the action I’m proposing. I’ll give my reasons for calling for this boycott, and conclude with a few preliminary thoughts on how every other organized yoga lineage or movement might learn from these recent revelations in a constructive way. I can preview these thoughts here by saying that at this point in the tortured history of modern yoga, lineage and teaching content means very little compared to the open and transparent procedures any given organization puts in place to prevent abuse.

http://matthewremski.com/wordpress/boycott-satyanandas-literature-and-methods-until-reparations-are-made-for-sexual-abuse/

If I were to mark the following précis of what the Commission heard with citation links, the whole section would be burning red. Instead, I’ll limit in-text citations to the date and page number of the Commission transcripts, and then provide links to the open public sources beneath this post. The news media articles give simplified reports that are easy to navigate, but also fragmentary and somewhat repetitive. The most important sources are the transcripts themselves – documents that are riveting both for their horror and for the bravery of the witnesses who have finally been given a public forum.

  Details Regarding the Abuse of Children at Mangrove Mountain

Not everything the Commission heard was news. Much of the testimony detailed the psychopathology of Swami Akhandananda Saraswati, the spiritual director of Mangrove Mountain beginning in 1974. Born in Orissa India in approximately 1942, Akhandananda was personally appointed by Swami Satyananda Saraswati to head up his Australian mission. In 1987, Akhandananda was charged with 35 counts of sexual offences against four underage girls. In 1989, he was convicted and imprisoned for fourteen months before the Australian High Court overturned the decision on a technicality. Akhandananda was released and died of alcoholism in 1997 or 1998.

Akhandananda’s name has been expunged from the websites of the International Yoga Fellowship – Satyananda’s India-based umbrella organization – but not from the memories of his victims. The Commission heard from child survivors Alecia Buchanan, Jyoti, Bhakti Manning, Tim Clark, and anonymous witnesses APL, APK, APA, APH, and APR about rape, sexual assault, physical beatings and psychological torture at the hands of Akhandananda and his long-term female partner, Shishy. Shishy offered a strained defense of her admitted brutality by testifying that she herself had felt sexually intimidated by Akhandananda from the time of meeting him at the age of sixteen, and that she endured harsher and harsher treatment from him as time progressed, culminating in rapes involving firearms and genital mutilation. (108:11272-3)

The former child residents of Mangrove Mountain presented detailed narratives of their lives under Akhandananda and Shishy in chapters that seemed to alternate between Dickens and de Sade. They described how Mangrove Mountain was sustained and enriched on the unpaid labour of devotees committed to the ideal of sannyas, or ascetic renunciation. Upon entrance, residents gave up possessions and property, and took vows of celibacy that their directors’ lifestyle openly mocked. As though children were “property” to renounce, the parents of many Commission witnesses signed documents entrusting custody of their children to Akhandananda and Shishy, along with access to their child welfare benefits. (105:10930; 104:10836)

Witnesses testified to a labour-camp schedule of 4am to 10pm days packed with cleaning, cooking, gardening, yoga, and meditation. Up to 120 residents competed for hot showers permitted during one hour of the day. (105:10952) Food was often scarce, protein-deficient, and sometimes withheld from the children as punishment for trifling infractions. Medical care often consisted of pseudo-Ayurvedic quackery. Alecia Buchanan recalls being prescribed black tea with chili, garlic and ginger for hemorrhaging that she believed resulted from being raped by Akhandananda at the age of sixteen. (104:10873) Anonymous witness APR testifies to a terrifying “Lord of the Flies” environment in which ashram children were allowed to brutalize each other, were routinely drugged with morphine for minor ailments, and were given illegal hallucinogenics imported from India in such heavy doses that they would collapse in the bathroom stalls. (106:11089-90)

For over twenty-five years, the administration at Mangrove Mountain – now a mixture of older and newer residents – has consistently denied responsibility for aiding and abetting the abuses of Akhandananda and Shishy, and failing to protect the children. Anticipating the attention of the Royal Commission, the ashram has over the last year staged several fumbling attempts at reconciliation with former child victims, only to then threaten them with libel action when they began to tell their stories openly on social media. But at the Commission, Mangrove Mountain lawyer Aaron Kernaghan delivered a general statement of apology and regret on behalf of the community.

This shard of light may have only aggravated the wound. In the view of many victims, much of the adult community of the time was guilty of abandonment and collusion. Former child resident Alecia Buchanan testified that Shishy was often in the room while Akhandananda raped her. Buchanan was 15 when it began. She also said: “Looking back now, I’m certain some adults at the ashram knew Akhandananda was abusing us girls. We were always coming and going from his hut and other people saw this happening. We were often summoned very publicly over the loudspeaker by the receptionist or by Shishy’s personal assistant, Muktimurti, words to the effect of, ‘Shantibodh, go to swamiji’s office’ late at night.” [emphasis added] (104:10875) Speaking before the Commission, Muktimurti, now in her late fifties, denied any knowledge of abuse in her testimony, even as numerous witnesses testified to her presence during beatings or public humiliations of the children. (109:11424-5) In 1987, Muktimurti testified for the defense in Akhandananda’s trial.

Former child resident Jyoti testified that at the age of 17, after having been raped by Akhandananda while they visited an ashram in Canberra together, she was dismissed from his room and had “to walk through the lounge room of the flat where the other people were sleeping. Those people were adults. There is no way they wouldn’t have worked out what was going on.”

“The next morning,” her testimony continues, “I had breakfast with Akhandananda and the other swamis in the flat. While we were eating, Akhandananda started saying silly things with sexual innuendo, like, “Oh, Jyoti likes sausages, don’t you’, and joking with the other swamis.” (104:10909)

  “While he listened to All-India News”: Testimony Against Swami Satyananda

Again, the general tenor of Akhandananda’s abuse is already part of the public record, albeit from the pre-internet era of his trial. The more pressing news, which is currently ripping the global organization to shreds from the inside out, and which should also be giving grave pause to the entire modern yoga world, is that there is now testimony that Akhandananda was taking the lead in abusing women and children from his own guru, Satyananda, who died in 2009.

Shishy testified that in 1976, Satyananda arrived at Mangrove Mountain for a yoga convention, and that Akhandananda arranged for her to serve the great guru sexually. At the time, Satyananda – a self-proclaimed celibate and staunch advocate for celibacy amongst his followers – was travelling with another sexual partner, Amrityananda, who would be sleeping in the same room as the rapes occurred. Shishy felt confused and conflicted about the scenario, but also recognized it as similar to her own presence in Akhandananda’s quarters while he raped others. Shishy went on to testify how she was expected to serve Satyananda sexually whenever he was visiting Australia, or whenever she travelled to the ashram in Munger. (107:11164)

Mangrove Mountain seems to have served in part as a recruitment centre for women to be groomed as temporary or intermittent sexual partners for Satyananda. Victims were encouraged to believe that being raped by progressively more powerful men in the organization signified their increasing spiritual attainment. In brave and frank testimony, former child resident Bhakti Manning described how, after being initiated into sexual compliance by Akhandananda at the age of 15, she was also pressured into intercourse with another visiting Swami from India named Gorakhnath in late 1975.

In October of 1976, Satyananda visited from India to attend a convention in Sydney. “During the convention”, Manning testified, “I asked Satyananda for my ‘mantra diksha’, which are the words you do your meditation with. He asked if anyone had given me a mantra before, and I said that Akhandananda and Gorakhnath had. Satyananda then said words to the effect of, ‘Well, you started with Swami Gorakhnath and Akhandananda and you will continue with me.’ Later at Mangrove ashram, I asked him if I could live in the ashram in Munger, India, and he said, ‘Are you married?’ I said, ‘No.’ Then he said, ‘Yes, you can come to India.’ (105:11031)

Manning testified that she worked in an administrative role at the Munger ashram for seven years while also serving as one of Satyananda’s sexual partners. She came to feel that his earlier reference to training with Akhandananda and Gorakhnath did not refer to mantra at all, but to sexual servitude.

Manning testified that she believed that the many women who surrounded Satyananda at the Munger ashram were his sexual partners, and that their social power at the ashram depended upon his favour. She also described Satyananda’s sexual tastes as violent and humiliating:

_____

Manning: I think by the time I arrived in India, Swami Satyananda realised that physical violence was not the best way of manipulating people. He had refined his act. I am talking about sexual activity which was far from loving. Would you like me to – where you were told what position to assume, what to do, where – I remember on occasion when I was told to go and wash myself afterwards, I couldn’t walk.

Ms. McGlinchey (Shishy’s lawyer): Are we talking about very aggressive violent sex?

Manning: Aggressive violent sex.

McGlinchey: I’m not asking you to go into details, but involving what we might generally say as perverted acts?

Manning: Oh, I don’t say it was perverted. I just say that it was ‐ I was told what position to assume, and that may have been like on all fours with a heavy man on top of me when I weighed 47 kilos and had regular dysentery and diarrhea and it was just physically extremely exhausting to do those things. I recall times where I got genital herpes from him and I had been instructed to face his feet and straddle him that way. He must have noticed that there was something on my skin, and he just took a torch and shone it in my anus area, without saying anything. I recall having my head pushed under and told to take him in my mouth and him putting his toes in my vagina while he listened to All India Radio News….”

(106:11062-3)

____ 

  As with the experience of Alecia Buchanan and others with Akhandananda, Satyananda’s assaults were an open secret, according to testimony heard by the Commission. “On one occasion” Manning testified, “[Satyananda and I] had sex in the same room as older, senior female swamis. Often we had sex when one of the female swamis in particular, his constant companion at the time, was in the room.” (105: 11033) She testified that from as early as 1977 she was having various psychotic and paranoid symptoms resulting from the abuse. By the end of her tenure in Munger in 1983, Manning testified that she also began a sexual relationship with Swami Niranjananda that lasted a year. Niranjananda, also a purported celibate, took over the directorship of the Munger ashram that year, and today serves as the spiritual leader of the global movement. In her testimony, Manning did not indicate that her relationship with Niranjananda was non-consensual.

Satyananda’s alleged sexual crimes may have also involved young children. Anonymous witness APR remembers being raped and mutilated by Akhandananda and five or six other men in a public ritual at the age of six. Approximately a year later, Satyananda visited Mangrove Mountain, and subjected APR to another “initiation”. She reports: “For years I have had involuntary physical reactions to images of Satyananda. I have a non-distinct memory of my initiation involving more than the transfer of energy and the giving of a new name. I have impressions of him being on top of me; it makes me nauseous, but for years I have swatted away the thought that he had raped me, as my entire childhood I was raised to believe he was like God, pure love.” (106: 11093-4)

There is at least one other published account of Satyananda’s abuse, although it is not part of the Royal Commission’s documents, and it is not presented as a direct allegation. It comes from a woman named Janaki Vunderink, who in August 2013 posted this description of living in Satyananda’s ashram in Munger, starting at the age of fourteen in 1967, and staying through her nineteenth year. In this deeply intimate account of her spiritual journey, Vunderink hints at having had a confusing sexual relationship with the guru. “As it turned out,” she writes, “Satyananda was a very hostile and aggressive man, driven by lust.”

Vunderink had actually written about this encounter before, but without having named Satyananda explicitly. In 1993, she published a more detailed account of her experience at Munger. The article is in Dutch: “Opgroein in een Ashram als je 14 bent” (“Growing Up in an Indian Ashram at Age 14”) in The Willem de Ridder Papers (August 1993): 33-37. In 2001, Vunderink translated parts of this story into English for inclusion in Sarah Caldwell’s study in the anthropology of religion “The Heart of the Secret: A Personal and Scholarly Encounter with Shakta Tantrism in Siddha Yoga”. Here’s the most relevant passage. Note that this account recalls experiences dated to several years before the experiences testified to by Buchanan and Manning:

Janaki was first taken to India as a young girl, accompanying her mother, who was studying yoga in an ashram. She describes the slow process of her socialization in the ashram, eventually leading, in her young teens, to the guru’s introducing her to his sexual practices. At first these seemed innocent enough, cuddling and lying beside the guru with another girl. But after some months the guru’s sexual depravities began to show, as he forced the girls into nightly sexual relations with himself and eventually with young boys, whom he said he could control through their sexual slavery. He would watch through a keyhole while the orgies were conducted. He asked if she loved him and if she would do anything for him. When she answered she would, he then asked her, “Would you have sex with a dog?” There was no way she could go back on her word and felt she would rather die than displease him. Once she took rat poison because she felt her guru hadn’t been paying enough attention to her. When he found out he became extremely angry and beat her severely, shouting that if she were to die it would destroy his mission. Janaki began to see that the guru she had loved and idolized through her teen years was focused entirely on sex and power. Yet this same guru was widely revered, sought out as a master of hatha yoga and meditation, and treated with great respect in India. His depraved personal life seemed to bear no relation to his public status. (Caldwell, 42)

  Some Thoughts for Satyananda Yoga Outsiders

For ten years, I’ve carried around a little blue book called Yoga Nidra, written by (or transcribed from talks by) Swami Satyananda. It was produced by the Yoga Publications Trust. At home, it sits on my shelf beside at least twenty other YPT volumes, with their primary-colour spines flashing like a row of crayons. Yoga Nidra details a technique I first learned and fell in love with during a yoga therapy training in California. The practice has been profound for me in many ways.

But I don’t know how I can continue to use this method, much less teach it to my students, now that this testimony against Satyananda has accumulated. The notion of leading people into a vulnerable, trance-like state by using a technique that was invented by an alleged rapist who then validated it by correlation with obscure medieval sources is intolerable to me. The power and utility of the methods emerging from Satyananda’s legacy rest on an implicit appreciation of the man’s integrity, which is now under serious attack.

Fatal attack, actually. The widely supported finding that only 2% of rape accusations are false should compel anyone interested in this story to presume that Shishy, Bhakti Manning, APR and Janaki are extremely likely to be telling the truth about their encounters with Satyananda. Dismissing this presumption is a failure of critical thinking complicitous with global rape culture.

For those of us who would like to lend support to the victims in their difficult healing process, I suggest the following actions.

As stated above, at minimum, yoga practitioners throughout the world can boycott all products and methods of the Satyananda global organization, until:

the Satyananda headquarters at Munger uses the resources at its disposal — especially donation streams from its hundreds of satellite ashrams worldwide — to fund an independent investigation of the current testimony, and also endeavours to document possible abuses in other ashrams that Satyananda traveled to throughout the world, and

allocates reparation money to the survivors of the court-proven sexual abuses of Akhandananda in Australia, and

creates an escrow fund that anticipates reparation payments to those who are yet to come forward as victims of abuse by Satyananda and any other authority figure in the organization.

I would also like to propose two ideas in relation to these horrors to enhance the safe learning environments that yogic inquiry demands:

If you are a teacher of Satyananda/Bihar Yoga School techniques – and especially if you have gained professional prestige from your use of them – it would be wise to issue a personal statement of acknowledgement of the abuses both proven and testified to, and to describe what you are doing to assure the safety of your students. This would apply to anyone who teaches the highly popular Yoga Nidra technique, for example. Or anyone who uses any of the highly influential YPT publications such as Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha and the Muktibhodananda translation of Hatha Yoga Pradipika. This acknowledgement can occur in conjunction with creating and publicizing a system for ensuring safe learning spaces for everyone.

Because robust testimony against the late Satyananda and now some testimony about his successor Niranjananda call their integrity into question, it might be a good idea if the proposed boycott of all Satyananda-related books and methods continues until an independent commission of scholars is able to assess the accuracy of claims concerning the origins of the practices. These techniques are aimed at deep psycho-spiritual targets. Being confident that they are not the fabrications of rapists and their enablers would be a good thing.

It’s important to note that the work of the Commission is by no means finished, and the responses to the testimony it has collected from the current Mangrove Mountain administration and Munger are still emerging. The Commission’s Counsel Assisting is drafting a submission for release on January 30, 2015. After this, all parties concerned will have four weeks to respond to these preliminary findings. The Commission will reconvene in March.

Mangrove Mountain lawyer Aaron Kernaghan writes via email that he anticipates his clients releasing “a comprehensive statement” in response to the Counsel Assisting’s submission. Kernaghan also notes that “in addition to the oral testimony given during the hearing, there is a large quantity of documentary evidence (including additional statements from witnesses not called)…. Those documents are currently the subject of a non-publication order.” Also, every day, dozens of documents are being added to the Royal Commissions Exhibits Page for the case. In short: the story will continue to unfold.

Munger’s initial email response to the anticipated testimony of the Mangrove Mountain residents to the Royal Commission (dated October 7, 2014: see Appendix #1 below) leaves much to be desired. It appears that Munger would have initially preferred to simply amputate Mangrove Mountain than take any responsibility for the actions of its leadership. However, a second, more conciliatory email from Swami Niranjananda and the Bihar School of Yoga was read aloud by their lawyer on the final day of testimony (Appendix #2). Unfortunately, this second statement does not reference any of the testimony against Satyananda.

In considering this proposed boycott it should be noted that the Mangrove Mountain ashram can not on its own afford appropriate reparations to its victims, as it currently holds only 5.6M AUD in assets on paper, as per the testimony of Sarah Tetlow, who has been the CEO of the ashram for the past year. (110:11508) If victims are to be compensated, it will have to come from Munger.

A Broader Message for Yoga Teachers: Your Lineage Provides No Cover

Beyond these rather baseline proposals to help remedy this specific outrage, the lesson for other schools and lineages should finally be clear.

Your lineage doesn’t matter now. The history of your school doesn’t matter now. The name, purported attainments, cultural heritage and robes of your guru are no guarantee of integrity or safety. Even if you feel you stand confidently as part of a long line of ethical teachers, the well of faith in global yoga institutions has been irretrievably fouled, and the best way to prove your integrity as a practitioner is by showing what you do, exactly. You have to demonstrate the difference between communication and mystification. You have to demonstrate the difference between charisma and intimacy.

The venerable structure of parampara is surely still functional in some places. But far too many brands of modern yoga that have globalized can no longer claim any history of enlightened inheritance, either because of malfeasance in leadership or the blatant dishonesty of their claims. The parade of infamy is long and well-known: there’s no need to mention other organizations on the same page as the horrors at Mangrove Mountain.

Suffice to say: too many global brands of modern yoga are stained with scandal on a scale ranging from venal to obscene to abject. This does not mean that these organizations and their members haven’t been able to improve their transparency in the wake of failures, or that they don’t do good things in the world. But it does mean that all yoga schools — like all other institutes of higher learning — should at long last be disqualified as objects of faith.

If as a teacher you rely on the of any of these organizations or guru-legacies to enhance or secure your authority, it is clearly in the interest of your integrity and the health of the broader culture to be transparent about how you understand and position yourself in relation to their shadows. If you don’t, you really have no right to be taken seriously as someone who can provide care to others.

No one in yoga culture deserves anyone’s faith. Teachers deserve our inquiry. Where they come from and what devotees say about them is very thin gruel. You will know them by their fruits.

While nothing can fully atone for the grief of the former residents of Mangrove Mountain, the critical thinking and existential honesty that could arise out of this “never again” story might be a very good thing for yoga practitioners of the future.

  _______

  PLEASE NOTE: Comments that seek to correct any factual errors in this account are most welcome, and I will amend the text if necessary. Comments that claim to provide additional evidence will be published, but readers should understand that these may be uncorroborated. Comments that attack the integrity of the former child residents of Mangrove Mountain will not be published. Abusive comments will not be published. Any comments or messages of a threatening nature will not be published, and will be immediately reported to the appropriate authorities along with the I.P. addresses of the senders.

  Appendix #1: Excerpts from an email from the Munger Administration to Mangrove Mountain, 10/7/2014

All his life Swami Niranjan has worked for the betterment of Satyananda yoga and his guru’s mission. In all its difficulties, problems and strife, he has supported Mangrove Mountain and the Satyananda yoga movement in Australia.

But these recent actions of Australia have shown that the institutions and the people involved have no respect for the support and encouragement given. What has been shown is that Australia is willing and happy to hide behind guru’s dhoti and suffer the ‘swamiji says syndrome’. Administrators of the institution are willing to involve him in the investigation of 20 year old sex scandals and tarnish his reputation, where they [did] not even dare to put their own names on behalf of the institution.

From our perspective there is no accountability or concern for yoga in Australia. No-one is prepared to take responsibility for the situation and events which are occurring.

After a lifetime in support of Australia, Swami Niranjan and Bihar School of Yoga indisgust withdraw their association and support completely from SYAA [Satyananda Yoga Academy Australia], SRI and YAMM [Yoga Association of Mangrove Mountain]. (110:11511)

  Appendix #2: Statement read by Alex Terracini, lawyer for Bihar School of Yoga and Swami Niranjananda (110:11589-90)

Firstly, we wish to thank the Royal Commission for agreeing to our request for leave to appear. We have only recently become aware of the allegations regarding individuals in India and consequently our entry into the Commission process occurred only a few days prior to its commencement.

At the outset we wish to state that we support the work of the Commission in its investigations. We acknowledge the sexual abuse committed by Akhandananda in the 1970s and 1980s at the Mangrove Mountain yoga ashram in Australia. We havelistened to the stories of the victims, and we now endeavour to understand the trauma they have suffered and still suffer today. We have not wished to interrupt, broach, object or question any statements the victims as they recount their understanding of events. We have silent out of respect and concern Commission process be honoured.

It is only due to the courage and determination of the survivors intheir truths, and coming forward to be heard and to report experiences, that we have learnt the truth about the sexual abuse perpetrated at Mangrove Mountain in the 1980s and 1970s. Until the evidence presented during this Commission, the Bihar School of Yoga did not know the appalling extent of the abuse nor how widespread it was. We had not heard the stories which revealed the horrific nature and severity of the abuse. We did not understand the isolation and shame that has been the burden carried by the survivors for so many years, because their stories had not been heard and the harm done to them had not been acknowledged.

We are deeply shocked and saddened by the stories of the victims and the appalling destruction of their trust and faith of the actions of Akhandananda and Shishy, all this under the guise of the mission of yoga and spiritual life. Until now we’ve been under the misapprehension that the matter had simply been resolved by the criminal justice system, and after the incarceration of the perpetrator, the interests of justice had been served. We recognise now that nobody addressed the hurt, the shame and the harm that had been the ongoing effect of the abuse and the impact that the abuse had had on its victims, their families and indeed the whole organisation.

It is a matter of great distress and sadness that the yogic principles which we believe in and work for have been so grossly misused and maligned. The foundation of the yogic approach of life is based on ahimsa, an attitude of non‐violence to all living beings. Those who perpetrated acts of sexual, physical, emotional violence have not only completely failed to express anything of yoga in their lives; they have failed to express any fundamental human dignity or quality whatsoever. We sincerely hope that through the wisdom received by this Royal Commission, the hearing of the evidence, reconciliation for the victims of abuse can begin. We are deeply concerned and hope that the findings of this Commission posit improvements and processes within institutions which will ensure the health, safety, sanctity and dignity of all children. Thank you.

  Notes:

Epigraph from Swami Niranjananda: http://www.biharyoga.net/living-yoga/message-from-swan/

Epigraph from Swami Sivananda: http://www.dlshq.org/download/yogadaily.htm#_VPID_9

Caldwell, Sarah. The Heart of the Secret: A Personal and Scholarly Encounter with Shakta Tantrism in Siddha Yoga. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 5, No. 1 (October 2001).

  Links:

(The following is a list created for the Facebook group “Satyananda Yoga – Reveal the Truth”)

Royal Commission Transcripts / Exhibits

http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/case-study/bc75afe3-4a12-41be-983d-f9db256f6260/case-study-21,-december-2014,-sydney

Support services for sexual abuse survivors 

http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/support-services

Australia news:

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/02/ashram-apologises-to-child-sexual-abuse-victims-it-threatened-to-sue

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/global-yoga-guru-was-a-violent-sexual-abuser-royal-commission-told-20141204-11zybd.html

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/ashram-children-starved-drugged-tortured-royal-commission-hears-20141203-11z3mb.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/gurus-gods-to-abused-children-at-nsw-ashram/story-fngburq5-1227142044549

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/yoga-guru-plotted-to-murder-child-sex-victim-abuse-commission-hears/story-e6frg6nf-1227143609652

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/yoga-guru-may-have-raped-seven-year-old-royal-commission-told/story-e6frg6nf-1227144720052

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-04/victim-recounts-being-raped-during-ritual-at-satyananda-ashram/5945010

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-04/child-abuse-royal-commission-satyananda-yoga-ashram/5935968

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sexual-abuse-rife-at-yoga-group-royal-commission-hears-20141204-1202bt.html

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/05/yoga-gurus-handmaiden-sex-14-year-old-boy-commission

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-08/child-abuse-royal-commission-shishy-denies-procuring-girls-/5951786

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/05/yoga-ashram-abuse-gurus-handmaiden-desperately-sorry-for-beating-children

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/wild-sex-and-abortions-at-ashram-abuse-royal-commission-told/story-fngburq5-1227145298339

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/12/08/00/07/ashram-child-abuse-inquiry-continues

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/yogis-son-tells-of-bad-apple-at-ashram/story-fngburq5-1227146486153

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/royal-commission-threat-to-kill-satyananda-ashram-whistleblower-shishy-20141208-122g9t.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/yoga-gurus-disciple-tells-of-being-abused-with-loaded-gun/story-fngburq5-1227149058016

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-08/child-abuse-royal-commission-shishy-denies-procuring-girls-/5951786

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/doctor-saw-nothing-wrong-happening-at-sydney-ashram-where-children-were-raped-and-beaten/story-fnii5s3y-1227149797787

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/09/doctor-denies-over-prescribing-morphine-to-children-at-yoga-ashram

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-09/royal-commission-yoga-ashram-should-not-be-held-to-ransom/5955732

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/ashram-devotee-not-sure-if-child-sex-abuse-happened/story-fngburq5-1227149853651

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/royal-commission-witness-casts-doubts-over-abuse-20141209-1237cg.html

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/12/09/nsw-ashram-blame-abuse/

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/indian-bosses-give-mangrove-mountain-ashram-a-slap-in-the-face/story-fni0cx12-1227151348279

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/satyananda-ashram-sex-abuse-victims-want-1-million-in-compensation-20141210-123zz2.html

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2014/12/10/ashram-suffered–swamiji-says–syndrome.html

http://www.news.com.au/national/children-were-raped-beaten-and-drugged-at-mangrove-yoga-ashram-say-victims-at-royal-commission-into-child-sexual-abuse/story-fncynjr2-1227151800583

http://www.abc.net.au/nhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-10/satyananda-yoga-ashram-apologises-abuse-victims-royal-commission/5957262n/5957262

UK news:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/11273299/Yoga-guru-was-violent-sexual-abuser-Australia-royal-commission-told.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2860429/Brutal-initiation-ceremony-Satyananda-yoga-movement-saw-seven-year-old-girl-sexually-assaulted-leader-licked-blood.html

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/04/yoga-ashram-didnt-consider-sex-abuse-crime-royal-commission

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2864975/Woman-claims-yoga-ashram-leader-sexually-assaulted-shotgun-forced-drink-urine-form-contraception.html

USA news:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/141205/australian-inquiry-hears-child-rape-at-yoga-ashram

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/09/australia-s-underage-yoga-sex-cult-the-survivors-speak-out.html

India news:

http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/panel-hears-of-child-sexual-abuse-at-australian-ashram/article_20fdda80-7af8-11e4-bdc2-9f9d121687ad.html

http://www.thehindu.com/news/probe-into-child-abuse-at-australia-ashram/article6659177.ece

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/other-news/Hearing-of-Indian-ashram-sex-abuse-cases-in-Australia/articleshow/45357292.cms

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/children-drugged-tortured-at-indian-yoga-guru-s-ashram-in-australia/article1-1292889.aspx

http://www.amarujala.com/feature/crime-bureau/sex-crime/children-drugged-tortured-and-raped-by-yoga-guru-hindi-news-bm/

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/violent-discipline-was-acceptable-in-satyananda-yoga-ashram-culture-ex-member_1509928.html

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/children-drugged-sexually-abused-at-indian-yoga-gurus-ashram-in-australia_1508975.html

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/australian-inquiry-hears-of-child-rape-at-yoga-ashram_1509779.html

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/mangrove-mountain-ashrams-handmaiden-claims-guru-raped-her-with-gun_1511461.html

http://www.adeptpage.com/in/viewpost.aspx?q=fS1436gaCJk=&src=IndiaTopStories

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/children-starved-drugged-tortured-at-aus-ashram-commission-114120300886_1.html

http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/World/20141202/2504549.html

http://www.newkerala.com/news/2014/fullnews-136211.html

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/chandigarh/children-starved-drugged-tortured-at-aus-ashram-commission/14067.html

Audio:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-04/ashram-life-was-like-lord-of-the-flies-for/5945220

Video/TV Report

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s4146412.htm

Blogs/Opinion:

http://t.co/4tpJFH0RIv (Long url: http://estherrockett.com/2014/12/07/satyananda-yoga-mangrove-mountain-ashram-under-child-abuse-royal-commission-scrutiny/)

http://northwoodssaveachild.blogspot.jp/

http://guardianlv.com/2014/12/yoga-can-it-be-tainted-by-faulty-leaders/

http://janakisblog.wordpress.com/

http://mindful-yoga.blogspot.gr/2014/12/when-guru-rapes-reprise.html

http://mindful-yoga.blogspot.gr/2013/10/when-master-rapes.html

Other documents:

Medical Tribunal report of the Mangrove ashram Nad – Henry Sztulman for inappropriate prescribing of narcotics mcnsw.org.au/resources/257/Sztulman.pdf

[mamamahayatra]

Rikhiapeeth Days 4-6

When I awoke on Wednesday morning I felt much better having slept about 12 hours.  I wasn't quite at 100%, but I was better and that's what I focused on.  I got up and did some yoga and freshened up for our first class that morning at 6AM.  The class went well and though I still needed to make frequent trips to the bathroom, the urgency was less and their was a longer period between trips.  After the morning class we were given our seva assignments (karma yoga, or selfless service).  I was assigned to behet (though I'm not completely sure of the spelling), which I had no clue was, but later discovered meant prasad, or sacred gifts.  This assignment involved a variety of tasks, from stuffing blankets, shirts, buckets, and rice into bags, or carefully folding commemorative scarves that would eventually be handed out to all yajna participants, including thousands of villagers from surrounding areas.  As it turned out, I got the best seva assignment there is.  On the way back to Patanjali I walked with a woman named River from Austin, TX, the only other American in our class.  She was so interesting and fun to talk to, yet another example of the really great people I met at the ashram.  Plus, since we were the only Americans in the class, it was nice to have that in common with someone.

As the day progressed and we attended another class, we began to learn some actual kriyas.  As I discovered, they are a combination of various sitting or inverted postures, pranayama (breath control) and movement of awareness though the nadis, or chakra pathways.  Our first kriya was in a half shoulder-stand position which is an inverted posture which was not too kind on my stomach.

After class we were given the option to move our accommodations to a quieter area, as once the yajna began the kitchen would be running 24-hours and the number of people would increase exponentially.  I chose to move my accommodations to the Paramahamsa Campus which is between the other two campuses.  Luckily, I ended up with a private room since the person they assigned as my roomate decided to stay in his original room.  The new room was nicer than the previous room being in a newer building, and also had a private attached bathroom.  I must have built up some good karma to get that lucky.

Our last class for the day occurred after the move back at the Akhara campus.  We added a new kriya to our repertoire and I was beginning to get the hang of what we were learning, though not entirely convinced of it's efficacy.

The next day I woke up at 5AM and had to do some yoga.  My body was still adjusting to the beds which were quite hard, as well as the cold mornings and all of my muscles felt sore.  I took a little too long getting ready and had to rush out in order to get to class on time, of course I wasn't the only one.  We were fortunate to have a shuttle pull up at the very moment we headed outside.  We made it to class on time, fortunately, and learned two new kriyas in the first class of the day.

After class we were served breakfast up in Akhara to try to save us some time walking back and forth between campuses.  But we had to walk down to Patanjali after breakfast anyway because they were doing a service to prepare the yajna space before it would begin the next day.  There was singing and tabla-playing which was a lot of fun to watch, and provided a nice break.  But soon we were back at Akhara for our second class.  We had our first experience of Tattwa Shuddhi.  Each chakra is associated with a certain element, or tattwa, such as earth, water, fire, air or space.  Tattwa Shuddhi involves meditating on these elements through guided visualization.  But since this was our first exposure to the practice, it was a very simple introduction using large cards with different colored shapes on them, each one representing a different tattwa.  Following the Tattwa Shuddhi we did another Yoga Nidra session, but this time I fell asleep during the practice, which apparently is quite common.  Even so, it was some of the most relaxing sleep I've ever had.

After class we went back to Patanjali for lunch, followed by more seva.  This time I was asked to help mop the Samadhi area where the two Havan Pujas had taken place.  Mopping at the ashram means using a towel and a bucket of slightly soapy water on your hands and knees on a marble surface.  I managed to break the skin on both of my knees, but I worked hard and got a lot done while being able to soak in some hot afternoon sun, though fortunately not enough to burn.

Later that afternoon, after our third class, we were ushered back to Patanjali for more drums and chants.  A band came on playing guitar and an old Casio keyboard and sang The Beatles Let it Be and Ben E King's Stand by Me, but they changed some of the lyrics to venerate Swamiji in reference to the heads of the Rikhiapeeth and Munger ashrams, Swami Satsangi and Swami Niranjan, respectively.  I had fun, though I wish they had just sung the original lyrics to the song.

Valerio, Iris, and Madhukar

Dinner followed the service, and you could tell that things were busier than they had been because now there were runners laid out with plates and bowls made from hardened leaves laid out for all of the guests.  Rather than self-service, everyone was served food by several volunteers who just went from plate to plate doling out the food.  I was tapped to serve and ended up with a heavy pot full of vegetable curry.  After about 30 minutes of bending, lifting, and spooning, my back was in pain, but I could now sit down and eat, only to be made to do more seva after dinner.  We spent the rest of the evening folding scarves very precisely so the sanskrit on the scarves could be read while  unfolding it.

The next day started off very similar to the previous few days, except that I decided to do something I hadn't done in 3 1/2 years, shave off my beard.  Looking in the mirror was pretty surreal since I hadn't seen that face looking back in quite some time, though I think I looked quite a bit younger.

In class we practiced the kriyas that we had learned previously and added two new ones to our repertoire.  It seemed that each subsequent kriya was only a minor variation of the previous one.  While this certainly makes learning them fairly easy, it was difficult to feel the difference between them.  A small and rather bland breakfast followed this class.  I was having a great time laughing at our meager breakfast with two of my classmates, Deepak and Anand.  In fact, at one point we were laughing so hard that we got a few looks and had to dial it back.  After, we headed down to Patanjali for the opening of the yajna, which was also known as Yoga Purnima, a celebration of the full moon.

At the yajna we were treated to some more chanting with tabla drums, as well as an adorable group of young girls doing a traditional Indian dance.  Many of us had to stand up and dance during the performances, all of us having a wonderful time.  The program continued after a break for lunch with the recitation of the 1000 names of Shiva, another Hindu god.  During this recitation, our group was ushered over to the area where the two swamis sat.  We all got to sit around them and they spoke directly to us, which is an honor.  An audience with the swamis generally requires a level of devotion higher than could be expected from our group.

Our visit with the swamis was followed by a kriya meditation led by Swami Yogakanti with all of the participants of the yajna.  I found the practice much more powerful surrounded by so many people and the smell of the burning incense all around me.  It was so strong that I was able to actually see light around two of my chakras.  There was more kirtan after, but I left early to retrieve my camera and iPad from the safe deposit box.

Following our final class of the night, I was walking back to Patanjali with Sumit.  He was going to be leaving the next day, having been recalled to work.  He said that he would be in class the next morning, though he didn't show up as he was ill.  I was sad to see him go, and even sadder that we didn't have an opportunity to trade contact information.  The night ended in a fairly mundane way, with more of the yajna, dinner, seva and sleep.

[mamamahayatra]

Rikhiapeeth Days 2-3

I slept well the first night, for the most part, but I did have a very strange dream that my clothes had somehow offended the local villagers.  The dream was so vivid that I found it highly disturbing, and it woke me up early in the morning.  I fell asleep quickly after and slept soundly the rest of the night until I got up at 5:15AM.  I was under the impression that there was a 5:30AM yoga class and I didn't want to miss it, so I quickly got up, dressed in the dark so as not to wake up Dimitris, and headed outside.  It was very dark and quite cool, and almost completely deserted, save for some people working in the kitchen.  Deciding that maybe I had made a false assumption, I went back to the room and crawled back into bed.  I wasn't able to get back to sleep so I sat up and meditated for about a half hour before getting up for the day.  After freshening up I headed down for breakfast which was very similar to lunch and dinner the previous day, but they did serve some chai which was nice.  At 8:30AM I met up with Sumit and Madhukar and walked back up to Akhara where we would have a chance to meet our teacher for the Kriya Yoga class, Swami Yogakanti.

Arriving a little early, we were directed to sit on a circular bench that had a tree growing through the middle, where a few others were sitting.

Once Swami Yogakanti arrived she sat us all on the "grass" which really was more dirt than grass, and much harder than in Central Park.  She introduced herself and told us that she had no preset agenda, but that she just wanted to take the opportunity to meet all of us and take any questions we had before the course began.  She took several questions and over the course of the next 30 minutes explained that this year they timed the Kriya Yoga and Tattwa Shuddhi (chakra purification) course to occur during a yajna (pronounced yag-ya, a ritual involving the burning of various herbal preparations and reciting of various Vedic mantras). That this was requested by Swami Satyananda before leaving his body.  The expected effect of combining these three practices would be to amplify each other.  Following our talk with Swamiji, we were told to clean the Yajnashala, the building in which our class would take place.

As the day progressed and we went back to Patanjali for lunch, only to return to Akhara for a puja (ritual) later in the evening.  I came back earlier to retrieve a set of keys I accidentally stored away in the safe deposit box.  I had to wait before I could collect my keys, so I visited the Christ Kutir, a shrine that was setup for Jesus.  I was told that Swami Satyananda would say that this is where Jesus came to rest because everyone in the west wanted something from him.  While waiting I met a woman named Atma Lily who was from California and Sweden.  She came to the ashram two years ago and never left, loving it so much.  I was shocked and fascinated, unsure if I would ever do the same.  After finally being able to retrieve my keys I was tapped to help bring some blankets over to the Yajnashala which were rolled into large burlap bags that couldn't be lifted by 4 strong men.  A group of people decided to roll one over while another group including myself opened up a sack and each took as many as we could carry.  We set up the blankets in the room as requested and then headed across the street for a Havan Puja (Fire Ceremony) was about to begin honoring Lord Rama, hero from the Indian epic Ramayana and incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu.  As part of the ceremony, the 1000 names of Rama were chanted which took a while.

Patanjali Campus

After the puja we headed back to Patanjali for dinner and bed.  Before I headed to bed I pulled out my water filter, which is what I needed the keys to get at.  Earlier in the day I discovered that the water on campus is not filtered, despite being told that it was and drinking it for the last day.  I filtered enough water to fill a 1 liter bottle and a little more left in a plastic container I had brought with me.  It was a fairly laborious process so I was very ready for sleep after I was done.

During the night I began to experience some stomach discomfort and had to visit the bathroom a few times.  Trying to remain optimistic I figured it would pass, but woke up at 6AM, unable to sleep any more.  Breakfast was still an hour away, so I did some yoga asanas and took a freezing cold shower.  By the time it was time for breakfast I still wasn't feeling well, so I only ate a small amount, and followed it with some Pepto Bismol which helped quite a bit.  We had our first class scheduled at 9:30AM, but a group of us were asked to help peel carrots in the kitchen first, and then walked back to Akhara.  I was still uncomfortable before class so I went find a bathroom.  The only toilets available in this area were of the Indian variety, a squat toilet.  I was not impressed and decided to take an Immodium to avoid excessive bathroom runs.

In class, there were about 40 of us.  I got there last because of my stomach woes, but found a spot in the back right in between Madhukar and Sumit.  The class was interesting consisting of meditative techniques that required us to move our awareness between senses, and then around the chakras.  I left class feeling quite a buzz and headed back to Patanjali with a group of people.  At the ashram they have a lot of rules to follow, one of which is no walking unless you have a group of at least 5 people.  We broke that rule quite often, sometimes with someone yelling after us "Namo Narayan", the standard greeting at this ashram.  At Patanjali we ate lunch and rested for a bit before heading back to Akhara for our second class.  This back and forth continued throughout the run of the course.

In the afternoon class, we did a practice called Yoga Nidra which is a state of sleep where the mind is still conscious and alert.  We were lying on our backs and moving our awareness around our bodies and given various directives to feel our bodies get heavy, or light, or warm or cold.  I found the experience exhilarating, and the rest deep and energizing.  Despite the positive feelings I had about the experience, it was somewhat marred by how my stomach was feeling.  There was another Havan Puja scheduled for after class, but I decided to skip it and head back to my room to rest.  I crawled into bed around 4:30PM and slept all night.

[mamamahayatra]

Deoghar: Home of the Gods and Goddesses

Deoghar is the capital of Deoghar District in the state of Jharkhand, India.  A holy city that is the site of an annual pilgrimage primarily among Shaivite Hindus.

The main temple in the city is the Baba Baidyanath Temple, home of one of the Shiva Lingas.  

It is said that when Brahma (the Creator) and Vishnu (the Preserver) had an argument over who was supreme over creation, Shiva (the Destroyer) appeared as a Pillar of Light emanating from several Lingas throughout the three worlds.

Outside of the city of Deoghar is a small village called Rikhia.  In that village is an ashram founded by Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati and dedicated to his guru Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati.

Today, Rikhiapeeth is one home of the Bihar School of Yoga.  A place where tantric methods are studied and practiced.

I will be visiting this ashram for about 10 days during my trip to India.  While there I will be studying the ancient art of Kriya Yoga.