My daughter left on her own, (as far as we know, she was not asked to leave the ashram) in a poor state of mental health. I have gotten my hands of some of CB pamphlets and I can understand her struggle. How can anyone be a contributing entity of our (physical) society and feel good about it if you have read his writings? He really must believe there are no good people in society. From "Is God Your Servant", he says, " not to worry about food, clothes and your body." People give her things only because they feel sorry for her or don't want her to loose the few pounds she has left. Materialism is not my focus but being a positive contribuor to the physical world and using the talents I have to make this a better place would be wrong if I am interpreting him correctly. How can we help her in that respect? In reading some of the letters on this site, I get the picture CB does not practice what he preaches and is there proof of that?

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suzi
My daughter left on her own, (as far as we know, she was not asked to leave the ashram) in a poor state of mental health. I have gotten my hands of some of CB pamphlets and I can understand her struggle. How can anyone be a contributing entity of our (physical) society and feel good about it if you have read his writings? He really must believe there are no good people in society. From "Is God Your Servant", he says, " not to worry about food, clothes and your body." People give her things only because they feel sorry for her or don't want her to loose the few pounds she has left. Materialism is not my focus but being a positive contribuor to the physical world and using the talents I have to make this a better place would be wrong if I am interpreting him correctly. How can we help her in that respect? In reading some of the letters on this site, I get the picture CB does not practice what he preaches and is there proof of that?

Remember that the core of their philosophy is that they do not want to get too attached to the things of this world OR they might run the risk of reincarnating back to this world of suffering... engaging in 'EATING, SLEEPING, MATING, and DEFENDING' is considered to be the ANIMAL part of man's desires and so they try to cut back on these activities. Hence, there were a lot of followers who would consider eating to be too animalistic and thus enter into an anorexic state... I don't know if this what has happened to your daughter(?).

"He really must believe there are no good people in society" - YES, this does seem to be the case... If you hear enough of the lectures he will criticize anyone and everyone, kind of like biting the hand that feeds you. As mentioned in the former posts on the "Krishna Group in Hawaii thread" he seems to condemn those people who are working hard to make it so humanity can survive on this planet and make our lives half-decent and half-comfortable... criticizing industrialization yet he himself demands the use of a limousine automobile, a large mansion, many exotic food preparations delivered to his door every day, running hot and cold water, etc. etc., and seems to be quite oblivious that other people have worked damned hard to make these things happen!

On another note, the spiritual master of CB (the old guru from India) also would teach such a philosophy as well, and even once wrote in his many books that people should use only wooden tools and not metal ones (ANYONE IS WELCOME TO CORRECT ME ON THIS IF THIS IS NOT TRUE, as my memory may be faulty on this point)... Could you imagine how much food would be on our tables if mankind used only wooden sticks for grubbing in the soil???

Please give us more info about your daughter's involvement with the group... how was her mental health before she came to the ashram, etc., as most of the former followers who have posted have info that is at least 10, 15, or 20 years old. It would be good to have CURRENT info on what the group is doing in 2006!

PS: you can continue with this link by clicking on "post reply" or by clicking on "quote" and typing your reply, rather than starting a new thread each time!!!