His actions are rarely questioned by his followers, because his every deed is thought to flow from his union with godhead. They are instructed to have "no emotional relationship inside or outside the Institute," and residential program directors are charged with monitoring disciple's behavior and attitudes to make sure they conform to Institute expectations. He must see something special in me.'" I informed him that I had interviewed women who sought him out because they respected him and trusted him to be interested in the truth. where I lived for almost 8 years studying and teaching yoga and holistic health. Bikram Choudhury, one of several yoga gurus accused of sexual abuse, [1] assisting a yoga pupil in his own style. A pearl necklace that Brian had bought from Swami Rama as an "investment" was appraised at roughly one-third of the $100,000 he had paid for it. He says he spends most evenings with the guru until midnight or 2 a.m., and that he knows better than anyone who is with Swami Rama late at night and who isn't. Carolyn walked up to the cabin, she says, where after a brief minute spent leafing through her work, the guru asked her in a low voice for a meeting later that night. A leader in the field of yoga, meditation, spirituality, and holistic health, the Himalayan Institute is dedicated to serving humanity through educational, spiritual, and humanitarian . Irwin Schneider, the lawyer for the Himalayan Institute, conceded that it was morally wrong for the Swami Rama to have sex with the woman from North Carolina, a 19-year-old student at the time. The jury awarded $275,000 in compensatory damages and $1.6 million in punitive damages to the woman. Megan went through a brief but painful and confusing time during which she doubted her own feelings and perceptions. Back; Cameroon; India; Mexico; Tibetan Settlements; Get Involved. Most of the Institute's programs are open to the general public. Marston's lawsuit, he says, was an act of revenge. Himalayan Meditation Institute is dedicated to providing authentic and transformative training in the art and science of meditation. Join us in serving a tradition that has served the world selflessly for untold ages. "If someone is a saint, celibacy would be his normal condition," Dr. Green comments. Sanctions on an institution can cause students to look elsewhere for higher education. In his enlightened state, they believe, he could never commit any selfish acts, which would create new karmic burdens. According to the stipulation he signed with the Board's Ethics Review Panel, Nuernberger admitted that he terminated a counseling relationship with "Victoria S." during the third session in order to enter into a "personal relationship - such relationship to include sexual contact.". Is it not better to follow someone who has charted the path?". Pandit Tigunait holds two doctorates: one in Sanskrit from the University of Allahabad, India, and one in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. A producer for "60 Minutes" was reportedly unable to complete her documentary on Swami Rama when the women involved backed out and refused to appear on camera. One evening she went out to dinner with Martha*, an old friend from East West Books Chicago. Our Honesdale campus continues to be home to a service-driven community of yogis, volunteers, and faculty-in-residence. She took a meditation class at the alternative high school program she attended, and one evening her teachers invited her to a lecture by their guru, Swami Rama, who was visiting the Chicago area. At the Himalayan Yoga Institute we believe in providing you with a broad yogic education to empower you to make the best possible choices for your students and create a modern yoga class that respects yoga's traditions and foundation while taking into account the unique personal needs of your students. Himalayan Institute | Honesdale PA Halfway through their meal, Carolyn remembers, Martha hesitantly said, "I know this will sound like a weird question, but has Swamiji ever asked you to have sex with him?" Relationships are the first test of spirituality. Although the jury entered a judgment against Nuernberger, it also found that the clinic was not liable for his actions, so Williams failed to recover damages. She sounded unhappy, so I made plans to visit her at the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, where she had been a resident for more than four years. Carolyn remembers being amazed: Could Swami Rama possibly be talking about sex? "I thought: 'Maybe it's the only way he can break through some stubborn barrier in my ego. The Institute's "scientific" approach to yoga has made it a success, attracting long-term spiritual disciples as well as large numbers of people who merely want a boost for their psychological or physical well being. Ag Innovation Center Business Plan. Rajmani explains the basic goals of the Institute's tradition of yoga: "The most important part of the practice is nonattachment." When the couple confided their resulting marital troubles to Karen and George, Karen confirmed her friend's experience by revealing that she, too, had had a supposedly exclusive and spiritual sexual relationship with Swami Rama before her marriage. The teachings contained in the sacred texts cannot play any meaningful part in judging who is a good guru and who is not: "How could they? So far, none of their attempts to communicate their experiences has been met by official Institute willingness to investigate their charges. When she asked him what she should do with the love letters, she says, Swami Rama would laugh and say, "Oh, these goofy women! When she questioned him, Megan says, he became angry and dismissed the women's suffering, saying that a little poison ivy could be good for them. But the followers of such "enlightened" men are usually reluctant to find fault with them, since to do so could invalidate the students' own years of study and devotion. And Carolyn's residential Program supervisor told her that the scandal was "a big test for all of us and a cleansing for the Institute-we'll see who stays.". ", Pandit Arya is not so reluctant as Dr. Ballentine to articulate is how one can recognize a worthy guru. Hadn't he taken vows of celibacy? ALL NEW! And he abruptly dismissed her. Lecturing and teaching worldwide for more than a quarter of a century, he is the author of fourteen books, including his autobiography Touched by Fire: The Ongoing Journey of a Spiritual Seeker, the best-selling At the Eleventh Hour: The Biography of Swami Rama of the Himalayas and a regular contributor to Yoga International. She was dreamy! In many ways, the Institute's austere structure is designed to appeal to the personality that yearns for what psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton calls a "totalist" environment, where virtually every aspect of one's life is subject to external control. The original creator of the neti pot, the Himalayan Institute has been offering traditional and modern products for health and spirituality since 1971. Enrich your practice through the wisdom of the Himalayan Tradition, found in our online community and digital library, with new content added every week. Unfortunately, there is some mystery surrounding its founder, Swami Rama, and possible connection with drug abuse and sexual indecency. But Carolyn says she stifled her doubts about the guru, transforming them into doubts about her own selfishness: "Because I'd rationalized that he was teaching me a lesson, I believed he must be teaching other women the same lesson, and I shouldn't begrudge his attention to other students.". In today's Academic Minute, the University of Houston's Christopher Burnett determines how bad the damage can be. A world leader in the field of yoga, meditation, spirituality, and holistic health, the Himalayan Institute is a non-profit international organization dedicated to serving humanity through educational, spiritual, and humanitarian programs. That one gesture unleashed a storm of long-suppressed emotions. The Swami, she says, bragged to a crowd of disciples that the woman would do whatever he told her, then put his dog's collar and leash around her neck and walked her back and forth, while the others laughed. The original creator of the neti pot, the Himalayan Institute has been offering traditional and modern products for health and spirituality since 1971. The 10-campus system closes a loophole that could have let undergraduates piece together a degree. The program seemed to provide the ideal family she'd never had, where everyone shared her values and spiritual goals. After a sleepless night, she said she snuck out at 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. and drove to Brian and Terry's empty house in Honesdale. A Swami, or monk, is supposed to be "one who is master of oneself: senses, body, mind." This was not true! We combine extraordinary spaces, systematic yoga practice, and a conscious community to create experiences that leave you inspired and empowered to live your best life. Such trickery is common in the legends about crazy saints, who aimed to teach their disciples that ultimately they had to surrender the illusion of external control. D., about abuses that allegedly took place in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, and India, for a chapter in Darling's doctoral dissertation, "Turning East in the Twin Cities: Converts and Movements in the 1970s" (University of Minnesota, 1987). Both came from prominent Midwestern families; each had an alcoholic parent, and they now believe they were seeking not only spiritual growth, but also a strong parental figure. Born in Northern India, he was raised from early childhood by the Himalayan sage, Bengali Baba. She thanked me, but assured me I had no reason for concern. Megan* started the Institute's graduate program in Eastern studies in the fall of 1982. The accumulated testimony of their personal experiences through the years exhibits a pattern typical of "sex in the forbidden zone," coupled with institutional mechanisms of defense and denial. He and Pandit Rajmani say that a guru is "that which dispels darkness." She says he arranged for her to meet him at the Gramercy Park Hotel and instructed her not to call him Swami in public. I like to believe that somewhere inside of him, he is the good person I believed him to be. But during the next three weeks, she says, she saw the Swami mistreating his disciples, especially the women, on a daily basis-yelling at them, ridiculing them, ordering them around, and occasionally kicking a woman in the buttocks when she was on her hands and knees weeding. Education Advocacy Expert wellness consultations direct to your home. He says that Swami Rama has been his guru since he was a child in India, and that he came to the U.S. at Swami Rama's request to head up the Honesdale ashram. Later, many of the women broke out in head-to-toe swelling and rashes from what had in fact been poison ivy roots. Residents staff the Institute's administration, bookstores, and other small businesses, including Himalayan Publishers and Distributors and an elementary school. Many disciples come from alcoholic and dysfunctional families where they have learned how to deny emotional abuse directed against them or their siblings, in order to believe that their parents really love them and are acting in their best interests. He explains that Nuernberger was just a graduate student, inexperienced and lacking in professional judgment, when the incident with Marston occurred: "At a time when he was learning to be a therapist and thought that someone is asking for you to reach out, you reach out and you touch them and you let them see your feelings, and I think that was very bad." Megan recalls that in one of her first encounters with Swami Rama, she watched as he humiliated a quiet, withdrawn woman resident. Most of the former members of the Institute who agreed to be interviewed for this article were also afraid to have their identities revealed; they appear under pseudonyms, marked with an asterisk. Meditation. The two women who wrote statements for the Cult Awareness Movement were among those involved: One stated that she was a patient at the Institute's holistic health center in New York City, and the other stated she was 17 years old when Swami Rama initiated a sexual relationship with her. At a young age, Swami Rama is supposed to have been appointed Shankaracharya of Karvirpitham, an exalted spiritual post. I mean, he's giving you the teachings and you're going to use the teachings to evaluate him? India Himalayan Institute India Our program model in India has been designed to focus on three initiatives: providing educational programs for children to help them rise above poverty level, preserving ancient culture and wisdom, and providing support for villagers dealing with natural disasters. He would call her to his office for a private audience, and as she hung anxiously on his words he would paint a flattering picture of her future with the Institute. In recent years, the harm caused to women by "sex in the forbidden zone" has been recognized in their codes of ethics by most universities and professional associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association. But the siddhis can be an ego trap. Although she told an institute official about the assaults and the institute was aware of similar complaints by other women, the complaint said, the center did nothing to stop them. Trained to meditate and educated in the scriptures from early childhood, he was able to translate and interpret any of the 20,000 verses from the Vedas by the age of 13, according to a biographical pamphlet put out by the Meditation Center. Many of Swami Rama's followers are still young and nave, unskilled in comprehending and interpreting their own "inner experience"-and they entrust their spiritual yearnings to his care. Up to that point I had felt like he was a guru, that he cared about me at least, but no, he was just using me.". As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. When he was finished, Rose told them, Swami Rama left her room, saying he's be back the next day. A guru has the wisdom of experience and the ancient teachings, so he can provide guidance, Dr. Ballantine says, but students should "judge every [practice] on the basis of your own experience." Swami Rama is supposed to have freed himself from the bonds of karma. "By their fruits you shall know them," he says, paraphrasing the Bible. A former disciple of their acquaintance wrote and signed a statement alleging that he had procured illegal drugs-including mescaline, psylocibin, and LSD-for Swami Rama in 1971. God knows whether it was true or not, and even if it was true, this is a normal phenomenon. The two couples referred to this statement in a petition to the FBI: they asked the FBI to investigate the threat letter and argued that Swami Rama could be deported by the Immigration and Naturalization Service as an undesirable alien on four grounds: possession of narcotics, sexual immorality, fraudulent financial dealings, and "affliction with [a] psychopathic personality." "Believing such stories means disbelieving in myself. Pandit Rajmani says he also has concrete reasons to know that Swami Rama could not be sleeping with his disciples. Fortified by their mutual discovery, Karen says, the two couples undertook to inform their fellow students back home in Minneapolis. Dr. Ballentine, the Institute's president and director of the Combined Therapy Program, explains that human beings have the potential to do "all kinds of things, like move our bodies at will from one place to another, or be aware of what people are thinking on the other side of the earth, or inner states of consciousness that take us to the future and the past." Pandit Rajmani cannot entertain the notion that the women's stories could be true. Explore high-quality, unique, practice-enhancing products made for yogis everywhere. Under the guidance of his master, he traveled from monastery to monastery and studied with a variety of Himalayan saints and sages, including his grandmaster who was living in a remote region of Tibet. She never received a response. Live online programs, on-demand courses, and hundreds of yoga and meditation classes. She became paralyzed by her fear of angering him. The Meditation Center became affiliated with the Himalayan Institute, and eventually Pandit Arya achieved his dream of having his own ashram in India, when Swami Rama made him president of his Rishikesh ashram. Yet the Institute's success comes at a high cost for many of those involved. Health Clinics Health Education Public Libraries School of Carpentry She recalls that he said they would become very close, their bodies would come together, and then they would part. His devotees hovered near the ashram's entrance, hoping for final instructions or a blessing from the guru. By this time Carolyn had gained 25 pounds from binging on sweets. A report has been made to law enforcement, and I'm guessing . She specializes in Myotherapy, Deep Tissue, Prenatal, Swedish Relaxation, Sports Therapy, and Hot Stone Massage. He says that Nuernberger's one mistake has "ruined his life, in essence, which is really too bad.". "Before [these women] started saying these things, I also had a very good feeling that these people were wonderful people and they would never lie and they were trustworthy people. Allegations of such abuse have been made against modern yoga gurus such as Bikram . [2] [ She said no: She had been on a work crew Swami Rama had ordered to week poison ivy roots for his new garden, and she was covered with oozing blisters. Every time he saw her, she says, he told her she was "perfect," as if she had passed some important test. Himalayan Institute Online. He reportedly sat down on a chair next to her bed and proceeded to make sexual advances. Discover our new online platform for community, courses, and content. She was feeling so disgusted with her body and afraid of the guru's humiliating comments that one night she couldn't face going to his room, she says. But for a man of Pandit Arya's background and beliefs, the relationship with one's guru is more momentous than any merely temporal bond. Similarly, gurus in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions are supposed to be examples of self-mastery and right living. We partner with rural communities to provide health services, public libraries, and sustainable employment opportunities. At about the same time, Carolyn was accepted into the residential program at East West Books Chicago, the Institute's downtown branch. They know, usually without being told, that if they break the taboo of silence they will be blamed for destroying their spiritual families and the "higher" good those families purportedly do in the world. Swami Rama was the founder of the Himalayan Institute. Ex-members say that Swami Rama also uses his psychological insights to manipulate people. According to the story Terry and Brian say Rose later told them, late one night Swami Rama tapped at the door of her room and then walked in on her. Many of them say they feared his wrath when they were disciples, and several still believe he has the power to inflict harm or illness on them from a distance. Patricia Trescelli, and attorney with Parker, Chapin, Flattau, and Klimpel, agreed to consult with the women concerning possible legal action on a pro bono basis. In order to believe in his perfection, they must rationalize behavior that others would judge to be tyrannical, cruel, or self-indulgent. Surrender only leads to enlightenment if the "guru within" is strong and well developed. But after they started saying all these things, I never trusted them anymore. In May, Swami Rama visited the area again. "A lot of people have confused the siddhis-the powers to control body, emotions, and mind-with spirituality. During that time, neither of them would see any other, and she should never tell anyone. It is a mistake to judge the external guru's worthiness by his behavior; instead, the student should look inside and determine whether that person is helping dispel the darkness of her ignorance. Whether youre retracing the footsteps of sages through pilgrimage in the Himalayas, or immersing yourself in the most incredible spaces the US has to offer, you will experience the life-changing power of yoga in action. In her lawsuit, the plaintiff said the swami sexually assaulted her 30 times while she was attending the institute in the spring and summer of 1993. Each time the Institute's top professionals have been confronted with complaints that Swami Rama is abusing his position, institutional mechanisms of denial have come to the guru's aid.
Temporary Guardianship Tennessee,
Andra Martin Obituary,
Articles H