Thursday, December 29, 2005

From the mailbox: (Soul) Harvest Time in India?

dec 29th

the manufacturing of the footsoldiers in the army of christ.

much the same way the little fellow travelers are molded by the chinese.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: G

Hi Rajeev,
 
I'm a regular reader of your blog. I thought I should bring to your notice, the following article:
 
 
Thanks & Regards,
G

7 comments:

hUmDiNgEr said...

Nice interview I would say..

"http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/29inter1.htm"

daisies said...

Evangelists are going to harvest. God knows what harvest. I'm only thinking of Pongal/Sankranthi/Baishakhi and rice and cows and sugarcane...

I have news too. Much, much better news, so read on.

First multiply that number in the X'ian post by 250. It comes to 2.5 million. Keep this number at the back of your mind.

You know, we get upset when Christians go around doing what the Lord supposedly asked them to do - which is, bring people to spirituality (they call it harvesting souls, and they think their way is the only way).

They give their conversion services FREE along with a lot of other free things. We call it bribing, they call it love. Who is to decide what it really is ?

What about people like us ? When we see them do all this, we complain. If they give something free, we complain. If they unite under someone they revere (you know who I mean - Christ), we are upset by their unity and solidarity.

Let's take a look at ourselves.

Hinduism is Not a One Guru religion unlike Xianity and Islam. There have been many many gurus and paths, and there will continue to be many. We cannot (and need not) think in terms of ONE person as the road to salvation.

But the sad thing about Hindus is, we dont unite in respecting the hundereds of different gurus and paths in Hinduism. A devotee of one guru often ends up severely criticizing and saying very nasty things about other gurus. How can we ever expect to see "Hindu unity" with such attitudes ?

Also, many of us looking at "new gurus" with great suspicion. If Xians give something free, we are upset. If new gurus like Sri Sri charge an honest fee for teaching meditation, we are upset. We feel he should not take money, he should give it free. How many of us have complained about Art of Living being commercial, and at the same time, we point a finger at evangelists who give their dear Christ free ?

I want to talk about gurus like Mata Amritanandmayi and Sri Sri, who I consider very sincere gurus offering priceless knowledge and meditation techniques. I dont know much about Mataji though I have visited an ashram of hers and heard her beautiful singing. Th hugging saint. I hope someone will write more about her here.

I am not saying there are no fake gurus preying on the gullible. I am talking about real gurus, who are saying and doing sensible things.

Coming to Sri Sri - he is offering priceless diamonds for nominal fees and the money collected goes to all kinds of service projects for the underprivileged. Art of Living is a very genuine organisation.

Those who criticize Sri Sri for teaching breathing as a cure for stress, I can only say - it is foolish to criticize something you have not tried. Anyone who has taken the trouble to learn it and practise it, values it like a rare diamond.

Believe me, if the terrorists did SK (Sudarshan Kriya) for 2 months, they would all be smiling like babies at the end of it. They would be running around with water-guns instead of AK-47's.

But how do we get them to learn it unless we learn and do it ourselves ?

SK is only a small part of what you get from Sri Sri. There is so much more priceless stuff. And the good news is, some of it is free, for those who want free stuff or those who need it for free.

Now let's talk about that number 2.5 million. Forget the Christian soul-harvesting.

Art of Living (Sri Sri Ravishankar's organization) is celebrating 25 years of service in February 2006, in Bangalore.

About 2.5 million people who have learned kriya from Sri Sri, will be gathering for a huge mass meditation and also an Inter-Faith conference. It's a 3 day celebration with 2.5 million people expected from all over the world.

That's my news. Why should the Iraq war make news ? Why should Osama-bin-Laden make news ? Why should evangelism make news ?

Why not this event. Besides, as you saw recently from the post titled "Tsunami sparing temples", you may have figured that meditation brings with it certain powers. You have to ask yourself whether you want your loved ones, yourself and your country to be as strong and powerful and unshakeable as possible.

For those who would like to learn Sudarshan Kriya, find a center near you from www.artofliving.org

And you are all welcome to the Art of Living Silver Jubilee celebrations in February. See www.silverjubilee.org

Passes available at all local satsangs.

With Regards.

kautilya said...

A welcome change noticed at Indian Express's editorial desk

Way to go ! Even if one media house (of the big 4.. i.e NDTV,IE,TOI,The Hindu) can come out of its obsession with pervert secularism, it would be a big win for nationalists.
Its too early to tell since i am sure Shekhar Gupta will come back with a routine Sangh Parivar bashing editorial very soon just to tell his journalist friends that he is still not leaving their ranks.

prasank said...

Kalyani, any take on Daisies above post?

For me, the Sudarshana Kriya is not the main contribution SS has made. Or, hugging the main contribution of Mata Amritanadamayi. Its their work for the poor. Its how they manage the huge amount of money that comes in to their respective ashrams. This point comes properly into perspective when we consider that Guruvayoor dewaswom collects almost the same amount of money each year.

Amma was asked this once: When did you start hugging people?
Her reply: Someone said (s)he felt comforting when I hugged. Then why not hug to comfort everyone? (almost to this meaning).

So, in reality, for Amma, hugging has only this much significance.

Its really a pity when we categorize a swami as, "the Sudarshana Kriya" swami or as the "Hugging Amma".

daisies said...

When Sri Sri himself tells us that his main offering is spirituality and the core of that is the SK and as I have said earlier, "other priceless knowledge", why should you say his work for the poor is MORE important ?

Also, he stresses that service and meditation go hand in hand. A true meditator does not just meditate, he/she serves others in need also.

My post was not meant to be an depth treatise on AoL.

And I also do not understand how my post was taken to mean that I categorized anyone as the SS swami or the hugging saint.

I didnt categorize anyone.

Ammachi gave me a hug. She speaks Malayalam which I dont understand. Many dont. But everyone can relate to a warm hug. So she's called the hugging saint. :-)

daisies said...

Incidentally, the work for the poor being done in AoL's service projects is done by volunteers. Who are these volunteers ? Those who learned SK from Sri Sri....

And when Sri Sri goes to serve the poor, as far as possible, his first offering is some form of breath and meditation related classes (attending to the spirit).

daisies said...

Also, whenever Art Of Living has gone to do disaster relief, (for tsunami, katrina, Iraq war, Iran earthquake and so on), mor than just providing supplies, they have focussed on TRAUMA RELIEF.

Helping people take care of their spirit is most important, as far as Sri Sri is concerned. But definitely, he (AoL) does a lot of other work also, for the poor and underprivileged. And it is all done by volunteers.

The Art of Living Foundation is the largest volunteer based Non-Governmental Organization in the world. The Foundation's service projects, programs on yoga, meditation and stress elimination have benefited over 20 million people representing all walks of life, religions, cultures and traditions.