Again, Prabhufraud’s full, inoffensive title. Apology for Chris? It’s the followers fault, not the guru’s - eh? Nothing wrong with the core philosophy?Quote
I certainly never wanted to believe that it was possible that Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa endorsed individuals being excluded from learning his teachings - not being welcome to the centres, not being able to purchase his lectures, in effect being discouraged and prevented from having a spiritual life. This is what happened to me.
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…in effect being discouraged and prevented from having a spiritual life.
This is expressing the heart of the perverted Prabhufraud philosophy --- (and why I left!) --- the idea that someone can prevent or end a person’s spiritual life --- they teach that “you will die a spiritual death without a spiritual master or if you offend or leave him”. This is the same mind f---ing tripe that sets fear in a follower’s heart so they will not stray from the fold! Classic culty stuff.Quote
… effectively ending their lives seeking a spiritual teacher…
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I was confused as to the lack of recognition which he received
Yeah, they follow that “judge-mental” freak JG! This should have been a signal to run! If people have been practicing this faith for so long and are still jerks – that should tell you something! So now you know. Weird, secretive communities only belong in horror movies like the Village or in cartoons like the Simpsons.Quote
The disciples who were abusive towards me have been disciples of His Divine Grace and of Siddhaswarupananda since before I was born. The people that judged me did so without there being any website, without there being any wrong doing on my part whatsoever
Another total reversal! I didn’t like everything on your website, but there was a lot of valuable and funny info. Much of it given to you by people you later vilified (but kept their material uploaded!) Now you are all gooey and repentant!? What’s up with that!?Quote
I regret that I did not try a lot harder to make some contact with devotees prior to putting up my website… I will always hope that there will be some way that I will have a spiritual life, and even though I know the website did nothing towards achieving that
What!? What are you sorry for? Telling the world about “All Nothing” and the underlying coldness of the cult towards humanity!? Or how it deviated from it’s original philosophy? Or how Mr Guru lives high on the hog while the sheep bleat away on low or no wages!?Quote
I say all this not to diminish my responsibility or to detract from the fact that I am sincerely sorry for what I have done and if there is some way that I can make amends for it I would definitely do so.
Oh really!? And after more than a hundred pages of testimony from ex followers, including your own story – his teachings do good?!Quote
I would hope that ASM might consider that there are ways that people become confused and discouraged and that there are ways that Jagad Guru's teachings do not neccessarily do the good that they could.
You are right. There is a lot of garbage to wade through, especially on this thread. Some is speculation, some is just poking fun and venting, but there is a lot of truth from followers who were really there or citizens who have been affected by the cult. People like me, just-googling, Jules, Devadasi, Shanti, Zelig, Rama(his first posts), and others who were actually there. People who had children alienated from their parents when they came in contact with the group.Quote
I dont belive that all of the answers I have gotten from former devotees are absolute or even neccessarily close to the truth.
You have no right to judge. You do not know what people do or do not do in their lives. Nor is it any of your business. Anonymity is a protected right on this forum. This forum is for information exchange and opinions. You make a scapegoat out of Zelig who was and still is a formidable critic of JG and twist his words for your purpose. Time will tell. Every person reading this thread is ultimately responsible to find the truth for themselves.Quote
The people that have come along to criticise SIF do not put their names or really their time into it… some have even attacked me for trying to do something without having any constructive criticism to add to the proceedings.
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Dassi
“Cultreporter”~
... Don’t take this as a personal attack, it’s just that the ideas you are expressing in the Open Letter seem to completely contradict all your RR posts, blogs, and website for the last year, so it is puzzling.
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jules
... One finds it hard to believe Queen Bee's yoga shows make THAT much money, but hey it is the perfect vehicle to feed it all through
Perhaps the IRS was now taking an interest in SIFs non profit religious tax status and causing some heat in the hood.
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zelig
[b:eb42433171]Quite a period peice of historic cult paraphanelia! ROTFLMAO! Karma lecture from a 20 year old with delusions he is Christ! Sitting on a Vyas Asana!!!!! ..."little demonic creatures gnawing my leg..... " :lol: :cry: [sarcasm] Oh free me great guru from the gnawers![/b:eb42433171][/size:eb42433171][img:eb42433171]http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j104/Yodaplanet/Sai%20Speaks/saispeakspage27saionvyasasana.jpg[/img:eb42433171]
[img:eb42433171]http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j104/Yodaplanet/Sai%20Speaks/saispeakspage28.jpg[/img:eb42433171]
[img:eb42433171]http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j104/Yodaplanet/Sai%20Speaks/saispeakspage29.jpg[/img:eb42433171][/size:eb42433171][/img]
Tukorama says, " There are two kinds of people in the world, the gnawers and the gnawees!"[/color:eb42433171] :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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atheist
This cult and its reclusive guru have an interesting story. Somehow, it has flown under the radar of the mainstream press, mainstream business and religious press and TV/Video/Film media and book authors and scholars (except for Rick Ross) for more than 20 years.
I think there's a big story here. A hippie surfer/druggie guru who sets up large and successful businesses. The guru and his group have political ambitions and an agenda. His wife has a PBS-TV yoga program that is distributed by KCSM-TV in San Mateo, CA.
The guru has devotees around the world.
The guru makes no public appearances and no public statements, at least over the last decade or so, and still seems to attract devotees.
It seems to me that there could be a book about this, perhaps several. There could be a PBS-TV documentary and a "60 Minutes" segment. Why not a documentary film? Magazine articles in Harpers, Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair.
It certainly would help to have professional writers, researchers, reporters, investigators, authors and documentary makers looking into this. I suspect that there is some funny business going on.
Over a more than 20 year period, the guy and his devotees have formed a political party, which almost got some candidates elected to major offices in Hawaii. They've elected 5 devotees or affiliates to public office in Hawaii: Wayne Nishiki to the Maui City Council, Rick Reed to the Hawaii State Senate, Carol Gabbard to the Hawaii Board of Education, Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo to the Hawaii House of Representatives and Rick Reed aide Mike Gabbard to the Honolulu City Council and to the Hawaii State Senate.
Consistent issues on the political agenda for the group, over the past 20 years, include opposition to equal rights for lesbians and gays and opposition to reproductive rights, including abortion. Other issues are, or could include: opposition to water fluoridation, opposition to the the teaching of evolution in school and opposition to birth control and family planning, opposition to separation of church and state.
There are challenges: The story is complex. Every major player has at least two different names, their Hare Krishna name and their regular name. The religion is arcane.
Potential authors, researchers, documentary makers, etc should be aware of the success of the book [b:c24f05a140]"Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness and the Hare Krishnas,[/b:c24f05a140]" by John Hubner and Lindsey Gruber. I believe that this book was a best-seller.
(I did contact John Hubner about doing a follow-up to "Monkey on a Stick," including some information about Chris Butler and the Science of Identity Foundation. Unfortunately he does not seem to be interested.)
"Monkey on a Stick" is out of print, but should not be, since the whole Krishna Consciousnous movement is rising up out of all the scandals and they are recruiting again.
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I gave over a year of my life to the “Independents for Godly Government”. It was not a “Hare Krishna” party. It was Chris Butler’s brain child. He micro-managed every piece of it, approved every flier, every door to door script and groomed every candidate. Candidates were hand picked based on their ethnicity, looks, and the fact that they were locals. We all knew politics to be corrupt. We were environmentalists, anti-abortion (based on the belief that the spirit soul enters the body at conception is a life), and against any kind of exploitation of others, including animals. We wanted to return to a more native and traditional Hawaii. We wanted less technology and were inspired by economist E. F. Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful”. We were idealists that wanted to spread “Aloha Aina”, love of the land. We imagined bringing “Vrindavan” (the idealized farming communities in the krishna legends) to Hawaii. We imagined closing down the slaughterhouses and bringing down the high rises in Honolulu. We imagined clean beaches, solar and wind powered houses, organic farms. We wanted to stop the commercialism and exploitation of Hawaii by the tourist industry. We worked long and hard hours for the campaigns. We used all our expertise and talents. We imagined we were serving God.
What we never imagined is that we were all pawns in the hands of a man who really was just out for his own delusions and self interests. We never imagined our guru riding around in jets with a woman who was the “offering” of her husband. We never imagined all the donations going to the luxurious lifestyle of a couple of petulant and childish adults pretending to be spiritual masters. We never imagined that the corruption we fought against would become the modus operandi of our master. We were dangerously naïve.