Home › Forum Online Discussion › General › Ashram children starved, drugged, tortured, royal commission hears (article)
- This topic has 36 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 5 months ago by nomad.
-
AuthorPosts
-
March 13, 2015 at 10:28 am #44042c_howdyParticipant
Sorry for my English.
Now it’s Swami Satyananda’s turn to become exposed.
Did this really take place?
HOWDY
Children living at Australia’s oldest yoga ashram were starved, tortured and drugged, according the evidence presented at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Families who brought their children to the Satyananda Yoga Ashram in the 1970s and 1980s thought they were giving them a better life but the commission heard the youngsters were subjected to horrific sexual and physical abuse.
A former child resident, given the pseudonym APK, told the commission she was forced to expose her genitals to ashram members and drugged with morphine for minor ailments.
She said she witnessed the torture of children as young as four after she moved to the ashram with her family when she was aged nine in 1978.
Her older sister, given the pseudonym APL, told the commission that sexual activity was banned at the ashram and those who disobeyed were punished by its leader Swami Akhandananda Saraswati.
Children went on what they called “f— patrol” across the ashram’s grounds at Mangrove Mountain on the central coast to see if any adults were being intimate.
“If Akhandananda found out that any of the swamis were having sex with each other he would publicly shame them and sometimes beat them,” she said.
The commission heard that Akhandananda, who established the ashram in 1974, was a serial sex abuser who forced child residents into depraved acts for his own gratification.
The swami began assaulting APL when she was 15, explaining that the pain she experienced was her “kundalini energy rising”, the commission heard.
Akhandananda’s partner, known as Shishy, would often watch the abuse take place, the commission heard.
Another former child resident, APA, told the commission children were under-fed and she was so hungry she stole food from the visitor’s accommodation and ate unripened oranges.
APL said the abuse she suffered at the ashram has left her severely traumatised with ongoing mental health problems.
“Akhandananda threatened to kill me if I told anyone (about the abuse),” she said. “Sometimes I wish he did kill me. I hated my life back then.”
APK said she was so traumatised by her experience she would rather get cervical cancer than undergo a pap smear.
She was deeply offended to receive an invitation to a healing ceremony to be held at the ashram as part of its 40th birthday celebrations in Easter this year.
“I don’t think that they can just light a fire and say, ‘Hari om’ and think that everything will be forgiven and forgotten,” she said.
In a statement read out to the commission, former child resident Bhakti Manning recalled sexual abuse committed by Akhandananda, as well as the movement’s influential founder, Swami Satyananda Saraswati, at the Munger ashram in India. The commission also heard she had a sexual relationship with Satyananda’s successor, Swami Niranjan.
The commission heard that when she raised concerns via email with the ashram about its history in the lead up to its 40th birthday celebrations, she was threatened with legal action.
Akhandananda was convicted of sexual offences against young girls in 1989 but his conviction was overturned in 1991. He died from alcoholism in Cairns in 1997.
Eleven of his victims have contacted the commission and nine will give evidence during the two-week inquiry before Justice Jennifer Coate. The hearing continues.
March 13, 2015 at 1:13 pm #44043c_howdyParticipantI grew up with Akhandananda and Niranjan. When Satyananda brought home Akhandananda together with several other kids from Orissa, they were very young, probably in their early teens. I do not wish to defend Akhandananda for his actions. But he learned everything he did from Satyananda, this is how he was raised. I am glad to hear that everything is finally being exposed. Just a little sad that it didn’t happen when he was still alive.
-https://www.facebook.com/Suchablunder/posts/748179388603035Here is already some quite wild stuff for modern sentiments.
I have large collection of Bihar School of Yoga books, but I have been always suspicious about the real mastery of practices, what comes to authors.
Even for somebody with quite poor English skills those books are not really well written or illustrated.
But still their content have been unusual enough to be purchased.
So some important ancient practices have found good enough documentation, in my opinion.
HOWDY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oRPf4YIp78 (flashbackslidersdisco)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHibtnLj3NU (carlosbandidosdiscoalibi)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_2WbNDhC8 (rudemooddisco)http://https://www.facebook.com/Suchablunder/posts/748179388603035
March 13, 2015 at 10:54 pm #44045StevenModeratorAny of these spiritual paths where they try to repress sexuality, you always see this stuff happen. Sexuality is completely natural, so when folks try to block what is natural, then you see the emergence of the unnatural . . . most typically child pedophilia and other forms of sexual abuse.
It’s endemic (for example) in the Catholic church, and yet they still preach their foolish notions of priest celibacy and inability to marry, as well as anti-birth control for all members, etc. etc.
As if it should be so shocking when these scandals come out . . . they were the ones that created the environment for these things to arise to begin with, through their infantile understandings of sexuality, the lifeforce, and how it does not respond positively to artificial ego-based controls.
In any case, this surprises me none.
S
March 14, 2015 at 12:38 am #44047c_howdyParticipantIn Christianity, an antinomian denies the fixed meaning and applicability of moral law and believes that salvation is attained solely through faith and divine grace. Many antinomians, however, believe that Christians will obey moral law despite being free from it.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AntinomianismAkhara or Akhada (अखाड़ा in Sanskrit and Hindi) or Khada (खाड़ा in Haryanvi language and Khari Boli dialects of Hindi), denotes a place of practice of Indian martial arts, with facilities for boarding, lodging and training. In the context of Dashanami Sampradaya sect of sadhus (monks), akhara denotes a “regiment”.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AkharaSannyasa (Devanagari: संन्यास, saṁnyâsa) is the life stage of renunciation within the Hindu philosophy of four age-based life stages known as ashrams, with the first three being Brahmacharya (bachelor student), Grihastha (householder) and Vanaprastha (forest dweller, retired). Sannyasa is traditionally conceptualized for men or women in late years of their life, but young Brahmacharis have had the choice to skip householder and retirement stage, renounce worldly and materialistic pursuits and dedicate their lives to spiritual pursuits (moksha).
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannyasa#Warrior_AsceticsThis of course don’t have anything to do with Healing Tao USA, but it’s still interesting in my opinion.
Already the testimony of that one female person would seem to show that it’s not at all about repression but totally different kind of values and aims.
India is really very exotic place and also here it shows.
Actually the most immediate problem is that persons who are representing themselves as renunciates are not at all that.
So Mr. Satyananda has seemingly created complicated situation where many of his close disciples have been expected to really become practitoners of Tantra, but in totally secret way, which makes situation very unpredictable.
There are many other instances of this like for example Ananda Marga.
What was Shrii Shrii Anandamurti trying to mastermind when he took that old Kapalika tradition?
…when you suppress what is natural, the unnatural emerges…
Personally I must admit that I’m interested about many sinister things, but there are in the end many limits.
HOWDY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmoS-1v7VyQ (ishaupanishad)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmByOIz-eIU (shifujicommandodisco)March 17, 2015 at 2:24 am #44049Fool TurtleParticipantDo you, Steven, advocate suppressing the “unnatural”?
March 17, 2015 at 2:28 am #44051Fool TurtleParticipantOnly for this, HOWDY, will I bow to the Buddha:
…when you suppress what is natural, the unnatural emerges…
Personally I must admit that I’m interested about many sinister things, but there are in the end many limits.
HOWDY
March 17, 2015 at 4:22 am #44053c_howdyParticipantThe Bihar School of Yoga was founded in 1964 by Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati to impart yogic training to householders and sannyasins alike. The Yoga techniques developed there are a synthesis of many approaches to personal development, based on traditional vedantic, tantric and yogic teachings in conjunction with contemporary physical and mental health sciences. Today, these techniques are taught by Bihar Yoga Bharati and also by Satyananda Yoga Academies in Australia and Colombia and through the programmes outlined below. Bihar School of Yoga also guides yoga projects and medical research in association with prestigious hospitals, organisations and establishments. Programs made by Bihar School of Yoga are being used today in the education and prison Government sectors, in hospitals, by the Defence Services, private and public sector industries such as Indian Oil Corporation, Coal India Limited, National Thermal Power Corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the Steel Authority of India, Hindusthan Paper Corporation, Hindusthan Copper Corporation and many more.
-http://www.biharyoga.net/bihar-school-of-yoga/about-bsy/Whatever has happened one shouldn’t ignore all good what has been acquired.
Also coming out decades later is meaningful, because one of course must ask what might be real motive behind; to get extra money.
What about parents? What is their role in all this?
HOWDY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4T-yZ0hy1I (suryanamaskar)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0EIA6_iARM (niranjanandakirtan)March 17, 2015 at 6:47 am #44055c_howdyParticipantDroit du seigneur (/ˈdrɑː də seɪˈnjɜr/; French pronunciation: [dʁwa dy sɛɲʁ]) refers to a supposed legal right in late medieval Europe allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with subordinate women. Also known as jus primae noctis (/ʒʌs ˈpraɪmiː ˈnɒktɨs/; Latin pronunciation: [ju:s ˈpri:mai ‘noktis]), it allegedly allowed the lord of a medieval estate to take the virginity of his serfs’ daughters.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droit_du_seigneurThe jus primae noctis was, in the European late medieval context, a widespread popular belief in an ancient privilege of the lord of the manor to share the wedding bed with his peasants’ brides. Symbolic gestures, reflecting this belief, were developed by the lords and used as humiliating signs of superiority over the dependent peasants in the 15th century, a time of diminishing status differences. Actual intercourse in the exercise of the alleged right is difficult to prove, and there is no hard evidence to suggest that it ever actually happened. However, the symbolic gestures can be best interpreted as a male power display with a basis in the psychology of coercive social dominance, male competition, and male desire for sexual variety. Several non-European cultures have accounts of a similar custom related to a young girl’s first sexual intercourse: ritual defloration by chiefs, priests or strangers. This non-European custom differs from the jus primae noctis in its proximate details, but seems, from an ultimate point of view, to be in conformity with the European evidence.
-http://www.fibri.de/jus/arthbes.htm…any of these spiritual paths where they try to repress sexuality…
I still think that it’s worth noticing that if those claims are true then it’s not at all about suppression, but from Satyananda’s part JUS PRIMAE NOCTIS and when this has been exhausted one way or another, girls have been recycled to his male tantra students.
HOWDY
Ps. Buddhist version of this can be found for example from Keith Dowman’s ‘Sky Dancer: The Secret Life And Songs Of Lady Yeshe Tsogyel’.
March 17, 2015 at 8:35 am #44057StevenModeratorThe natural emergence of the “unnatural” should not be an indicator, we should “embrace this” or alternately “suppress this”. It is a sign you already fucked up, and you need to go back to the source rather than giving in to symptom relief. This is the problem that I feel so many are stuck in. They see symptoms and want to know what to do with them, rather than address the actual issue that is creating the symptoms to begin with. Very few actually want to do this. Most basically say “I want to keep doing what I’m doing, but I don’t want these symptoms.” This is little more than whining by the ego that the lifeforce is actually getting its way, like it always does.
Just remove the artificial barriers and false controls, and you don’t even need to ask the question.
March 17, 2015 at 8:56 am #44059frechtlingParticipantI agree completely. Even to a (much) lesser degree, you teach kids abstinence and don’t let them have condoms and they end up getting pregnant.
March 17, 2015 at 10:51 am #44061StevenModeratorExactly. And promoted by the very same church, I might add.
March 17, 2015 at 6:08 pm #44063Fool TurtleParticipantHow could I love my fellow men who tortured me?
One night I was dragged into a room
and beaten near death with their shoes
striking me hundreds of times
in the face, scarring me
forever.
I cried out for God for help, until I fainted.
That night in a dream, in a dream more real than this world.
a strap from the Christs sandal
fell from my bleeding
mouth,
and I looked at Him and He
was weeping, and spoke,
I cobbled their boots;
how sorry
I am.
What moves all things
is God.
P.318.
HOWDY: “Whatever has happened one shouldn’t ignore all good what has been acquired.
Also coming out decades later is meaningful, because one of course must ask what might be real motive behind; to get extra money.
What about parents? What is their role in all this?”
Victim-shaming and blaming, eh? People have a variety of reasons for not exposing corruption. I respect you and Michael Winn for openly recognizing your own corruption (M.W.Newsletter I Ching Reading; as without, so within), accepting it, and living on…
Judge not lest ye be judged, Taofuckers!
March 17, 2015 at 6:26 pm #44065Fool TurtleParticipantThe life-force always gets its way, huh? Can you give me examples of times when your unnatural behavior caused you to realize that you had fucked up, and so on?
March 17, 2015 at 6:30 pm #44067StevenModeratortsk tsk
so angry at the world you areMarch 17, 2015 at 7:04 pm #44069Fool TurtleParticipantSteven, I thought you weren’t fond of ad hominem arguments. I’m interested in your experiences and wisdom. It’s a little boring when one likes to discuss other’s issues and not their own. I explained months ago that I have anger. What does that have to do with my question? Feel free to email me at Zighamilton@gmail.com if you’d like to discuss this privately.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.