comments following Rolling Stone feature story on Ammachi
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www.rollingstone.com]
•a year ago
Gitasun, Mooda and Marnie,
thank you for your recent posts, which I read with interest.
During my visit to the ashram in 2012 I did seeva in the swimming pool. I did meet some very sad, lost and confused elderly Western renunciates souls, who shared with me their fear of their uncertain future there. They would need a rescue missionary to get them out and bring them back to the West to go to some Psychiatric Asylum to get treatment to wake up from their believe that she is a "godwoman". However they have broken all bridges and are moneyless and totally dependent. The same is true for Sai Baba devotees; now that he has left many are totally lost but still believe that he is the "godman" and they prepare for his next incarnation. From me they wont get one more rupee.
Phillip> Adriana Auderset
•a year ago
aah.....adriana. I certainly would not look forward to the alternative of waiting to die in a lonely slow death in a nursing home in the west.
Marnie> Adriana Auderset
•a year ago
Yes Adriana that is the truly most sad thing in this whole situation. The many ageing western devotees who made the decision to live in the ashram as renunciates. Having handed over large amounts of cash to initially pay for living there. Having been encouraged to sever their ties with family and friends in their countries of origin. Some, if they are lucky, still have small incomes from pensions or investments back home. But many do not even have that. They are well and truly trapped as old age comes upon them. And indeed an uncertain future. Because the reality is that once Amma is deceased there is no guarantee that those who control the MA Math funds will even want to continue supporting them. Especially if they are no longer considered productive workers, unable to put in the long hours of seva required.
Many of Amma's supporters on this site have asked why more long term devotees living in Amma's ashram do not speak up about any abuses they know of. How could you if you were a long term ashram resident living there under those circumstances? Only those who are cashed up and make the decision to leave could actually do so. Because you certainly could not speak out if you lived there.
Then there are those who have qualifications and the possibility of restarting a career again in the west after some initial struggles if they are not too old. Who probably feel a sense of embarrassment when they are back in the west, interfacing all the time with non-Amma people, in even wanting to talk about it, lest their work colleagues think they are weird. Who, having reconstructed their lives again, just want to walk away from it all.
Some of the householders who lived in the ashram with their families for decades have the parents wanting to finally leave and possibly even speak up. However their children, who spent their formative years in the ashram, are still committed to Amma. So if the parents leave how can they speak up, knowing their children are still living there.
I think many of the western devotees who have never visited the ashram, or who have only had a brief visit, just have NO idea. They are very passionate in their support of Amma, but have only really had the sanitised western tour version of her organisation. You have to actually go to India, talk to some of these people as you did, and experience life there at first hand to know how things truly are.
In the west you can belong to a local satsang group and meet every week in some very pleasant upper middle class devotee house filled with Amma pictures, incense and candles and it is all very uplifting and light and social. You bring food to share for prasad and form social networks and have fun together helping with a few fundraisers and some seva in the lead up to Amma's tour. But its all voluntary and you are under no obligation to participate all the time.
Unlike the poor souls in her ashram who are indeed seva slaves. Compelled to work seven days a week once they become renunciates. Often at jobs with bad health and safety conditions.
When you go there as a young person, in good health and full of energy and enthusiasm it can be real fun. I met lots of young people who were having a wonderful time. Socialising with others, networking, staying up late during the darshans. A bit like an endless party for them. If you are a young householder couple it can also be good. You get your own room as a couple so have a semblance of normality in your life - and some privacy.
It was the aged women more than anything that I really felt sorry for. And not just the western women. For an Indian woman without a father, husband or son to accommodate and support her life can be really terrifying. An Indian woman who has lived a long time as a renunciate will most likely NEVER find a husband if she leaves. She then faces the prospect of being shunted between her male relatives, a burden to them, childless with no one to support her in her old age. Could even end up begging on the streets.
No one talks much about the fate of the Sai Baba devotees who lived in his various ashrams as renunciates. Someone provided a link to a news article below about how his home town where the big centre is was becoming a ghost town. I just wonder if in the sordid struggles which have become public over his vast fortune, any provision has even been made for these people?
For the sake of Amma's ageing ashram residents I just hope she lives a VERY long time!