Amma Inc. allows devotees to buy their way to heaven

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

My only beef with Amma is that she should put an end to the dubious

claim alluding she is the incarnation of the Adi Shakti/Divine

Mother/Shri Lalita. i quote " Mata Amritanandamayi In the Eternal

Religion of India, the Divine Mother has been called Devi, Lakshmi,

Kali and Lalita. She is Jagadamba, or Mother of the Universe. "

 

Some of the devotees have even made a CD enforcing that belief:

 

1. The Sri Lalita Sahasranama is an ancient, powerful hymn of 1000

individual mantras describing various aspects of the Divine Mother.

 

Participate in the worship of the Divine Mother by chanting the 1000

names. Listening to these purifying mantras, accompanied by

beautiful animations, English text and meaning makes this CD-ROM a

unique multimedia experience of devotion, learning, and delight.

 

" Worship using the Lalita Sahasranama is of the utmost value for

spiritual growth and material prosperity. The worship of the Divine

Mother is ideal for enhancing good qualities such as love,

compassion, forbearance and courage. " - Mata Amritanandamayi In the

Eternal Religion of India, the Divine Mother has been called Devi,

Lakshmi, Kali and Lalita. She is Jagadamba, or Mother of the

Universe. Her love for all is supreme. Her goal is to have man

return to the ultimate state of oneness with Her - for man to

realise his true self. What can humans offer such a Mother who loves

them, takes care of them and gives them Her bounty? Praising such a

Mother and offering Her gratitude is the essence of the Sri Lalita

Sahasranama. ...

 

Topics on this CD include:

 

GODS AND GODDESSES:

Learn the symbolic meaning of the attributes of gods and goddesses

by clicking on different parts of beautifully illustrated pictures

of the most popular deities.

 

 

MEDITATION:

Enjoy a guided meditation on the Divine Mother. Learn the esoteric

significance of the energy centers (chakras and kundalini.) Benefit

from guidance on how to enhance your meditation.

 

CHANTS (KIRTAN/MANTRA):

Discover the joy of singing devotional songs (kirtans/bhajans) and

repeating the name of God (japa mantra.) Learn popular chants and

mantras, with meaning and proper pronunciation.

 

Chants include the 108 Names of the Divine Mother (presented with

extraordinary illustrations and a detailed commentary), the Hanuman

Chalisa, Madhurashtakam (on the sweetness of Krishna), Arati (Om

Jai Jagadisha Hare), Shiva Panchakshari mantra and Shanti mantras.

 

 

RITUALS (PUJA):

Perform a puja (worship through ritual) on your computer to your

favorite deity in a 3-D, interactive, virtual reality. Learn to

perform pujas in your home with step-by-step video clips, including

pronunciation of the Sanskrit mantras.

 

TEMPLES:

Take a guided tour of a traditional temple - untraditionally - in 3-

D. Learn how temples evolved, why they are so special, the secrets

governing their structure and the customs commonly observed.

 

SAMSKARAS (RITES OF PASSAGE):

Samskaras are timeless prescriptions from India's ancient sages

for harmonising one's life with the natural laws of the universe.

Gather the sages' practical advice and philosophical insight about

each stage in the cycle of life.

 

FESTIVALS AND VOWS:

Learn the history, meaning and symbolism of nineteen popular Indian

festivals. Do you have a goal you haven't reached? Learn about the

subtle science of vratas - vows taken on special days to fulfil your

cherished desires. Includes a calendar of festivals and vratas.

 

FEATURES:

o Interactive 3D Temple

o Animated Stories

o Interactive Worship

o Interactive Gods and Goddesses

o Learn Chants

o Guided Meditation

o Learn Worship at Home

o Interactive Game

 

 

http://www.amritapuri.org/publication/video/cd.php

 

 

Amma Inc. allows devotees to buy their way to heaven. That is the

price you pay for believing in an amma who pretends to be the Adi

Shakti/Divine Mother/Shri Lalita. The Truth will slowly destroy all

who are selling salvation to ignorant souls.

 

Jai Shri Ganapathi,

 

 

jagbir

 

 

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Amma, Inc.

 

I first arrived at Amma's Indian ashram just in time for her

birthday celebration. What immediately struck me was the commercial

nature of it. There were booths set up all over selling everything

from food to Amma laundry soap. My first impression reminded me of

the money changers that Christ found in the Great Temple of

Jerusalem. Afterwards, I was struck by the materialistic orientation

that pervaded the ashram even after the birthday celebration.

Westerners were charged a high fee by Indian standards for food and

lodging, Lodging meant a spot on the floor of a small room shared

usually with 3 or 4 others. Those who wanted privacy

could " purchase " a tiny one room flat for $14,000. This entitles you

to your own room while you are at the ashram, but you still have to

pay half the room rate while you are there. Unless you continue

paying the fee when you leave, the ashram has the usual 3 or 4

others stay in the room whenever you're not there. Guests and

residents are also expected to spend time each day rendering service

to the ashram. In contrast to this, traditional Indian ashrams do

not charge for room and board. Goodwill donations are accepted but

not required. At Amma's, everything is run like a business. There is

a laundry service, taxi service, travel agency, phone and email

service, as well as several stores, all designed to turn a profit

for the ashram. Devotees are also charged high fees to travel on jam

packed buses when Amma goes on her Indian tours. Food is abysmal,

and accommodations usually mean a spot on a cement floor next to

dozens of others on such tours. An Indian woman told me that on tour

she once yelled out at Amma's request " All you people without

fathers get back on the bus. " What she told me Amma actually said

was " All you bastards, get back on the bus… " Amma herself travels on

these tours either in her new Mercedes (upgraded from an earlier new

one) or her new luxury RV.

 

On of the best profit sources for the ashram is the ayurvedic center

that offers a few weeks of pancha karma treatments (for about 2

hours a day) at a cost of around $1500. Unpaid Indian devotees do

all the treatments so the overhead to the ashram for this service is

practically non-existent. One Amma devotee who gets treated every

year told me that Amma said to him that one round of pancha karma

treatments is worth 10 years of sadhana. So he, in effect, expects

to buy his way to heaven by having pancha karma treatments done

every year

 

The US and foreign tours are also very profitable for Amma owing to

profits from retreat fees, donations, and the sale of high priced

books, tapes, and other items. I once asked a man why he bought a

tabla set from the ashram when he could have purchased the same kind

of instrument at little more than half the cost outside the ashram.

He told me that the ashram profits were going for a good cause. This

is a common misconception perpetuated by the ashram itself. At all

of Amma's programs there are announcements encouraging donations to

Amma's so-called charitable activities and saying that the profit

from selling books, tapes, and other items goes toward these

charitable activities, which fall into 5 main areas: orphanages,

schools, housing, and hospitals. I decided to look into all of these

when I was in India. I visited her orphanage near the ashram and was

disturbed to see how the children there were living. Four children

shared each bunk bed, which was just a metal frame with no

mattresses. The food was just watery rice with a little overcooked

vegetable. I was told the children would have had no clothing to

wear except for the generous donations of clothing from some local

Indians. When I asked who was paying for the few caretakers I saw

there, I was told the state was paying them, since they were the

children's teachers.

 

Amma's schools are also listed as one of her charitable activities,

but they are a very lucrative business for the ashram. Only those

who can pay to attend are welcome. This applies at all levels from

grade school up to trade college. Devotees are sometimes recruited

to teach at these schools for little or no pay, but students are

always required to pay for the privledge of attending an Amma

school. The engineering, management and computer colleges are

particularly profitable for the ashram. As for housing for the poor,

the costs and numbers of such units built have been grossly

inflated. The ashram will not build a dwelling unless the people own

the land on which it is to be put. Obviously, not many of the poor

are land owners.

 

Perhaps the most egregious misrepresentation of Amma's charitable

activities occurs with respect to the AIMS specialty hospital in

Cochin. This has been used as the center piece for Amma's money

raising efforts. It is always touted as a charitable hospital meant

to serve the poor and needy. Amma's websites and the hospital

website have always maintained that over half the hospital's work is

charitable in nature. But this is absolutely untrue. I know a man

who went to India (a friend of soulcircle) to do some consulting at

AIMS a few years back. He interviewed the management and doctors

there and obtained copies of the hospital's financial statements. He

was very surprised to find out that less than 5% of the hospital's

resources were devoted to servicing the poor, and even that amount

wouldn't have been there had it not been paid for by the government

of India. Even the few poor people who were given medical care had

to pay for their medications, which many could not do. This man was

very disappointed to see poor people being turned away from AIMS and

refused treatment. He approached Amma with this information and

asked why monies were being raised adharmically under false

pretenses. Amma, who knows and directs all these matters, told him

that he was wrong and that 50% of the hospital's activities are

charitable. He could hardly believe his ears and politely asked to

be shown how this could be so. So Amma had the hospital's VP of

Finance present their case, which went as follows: There are a few

private hospitals for the wealthy in India that charge more than

AIMS. Some might even charge twice as much as AIMS for the same

procedures. Therefore, the difference between what they charge and

what AIMS charges should be regarded as charitable.. The fact that

the poor cannot afford care at either place somehow got lost in

their logic. Meanwhile, Amma's organization puts out false brochures

with photos of suffering children saying that contributions to AIMS

will go towards saving these poor children.

 

The consultant mentioned above was also surprised to find out that

many of Amma's devotees at AIMS or in her ashram were well aware of

these misrepresentations and seemed able to rationalize them away.

Amma herself told others that AIMS could not afford to give any more

care to the poor at that time because the hospital was expected to

pay its own way (where have we heard that before?), which

contradicts all the messages given about sales revenue and donations

being used for charitable purposes, with AIMS being the most

prominent activity. Amma said she expected the charitable work at

AIMS to pick up later. Since then, however, instead of using AIMS

cash flow or ashram donations or sales profits to fund hospital care

for the poor, AIMS has built a very large profit oriented medical

college at AIMS that overshadows the hospital itself. Kerala, a

state the size of California, already had 5 free medical colleges

before this one, and wasn't in need of another. But Amma's medical

college, like her other colleges, is using the goodwill of her name

to attract paying students and create more and more profits for the

organization. In fact, even at her ashram now they have established

another college with paying students outnumbering paying devotees.

 

It should be obvious now that empire building is the driving force

behind Amma and her organization. This is similar to SRF, which has

spent outrageous sums of money on legal and accounting fees in order

to solidify its organizational standing and stature. As a final

note, I'm enclosing below a statement that was emailed to the Amma

satsang groups by one of Amma's former swamis when he left the

organization. He was the Joint Secretary in charge of accounts,

administration, banking and investments. He was offered money by the

ashram if he would retract what he wrote, but he has courageously

stood by his words despite being now under financial pressure. He

recently started a wholesale export business for religious and

devotional items. The quality and prices of his merchandise seem

very good. Anyone interested should check out his website

www.celextel.com

 

 

IDEAS IN REALITY - INSIDE STORY

 

My life of Twenty-Two Years as a Monastic was of never ending

struggles in trying to bring the various Spiritual Ideas as Reality

in my Life. While attempting to narrow down the gaps between the

Ideas and Reality, I finally chose to observe my Life in Reality and

had to give up the Ideas that remained unrealistic in my Life.

 

Chastity was the main Idea that had failed to become Reality in my

Life primarily due to the highly stimulating environment that I was

put in.

 

Not only in the individual level, but also in the Organization

level, I have seen wide gaps when the ideas are put into practice.

To narrate a few instances:

 

1. Just before the Inauguration of the Hospital at Cochin, we had

suggested Amma to declare that Hospital as a Charitable One. But

Amma had firmly told us that Amma would declare it as a FREE

Hospital as that being Amma's real intention while establishing the

same. Under the Indo-US Agreement, to get the complete waiver of

Customs Duty for all the Medical Items to be Imported, the Ashram

also has given an Irrevocable Undertaking to the Government of India

that the Hospital would provide Medical Treatments at Free of Cost.

But in Reality, as everyone here knows, the Ashram Hospital at

Cochin is not a Free Hospital; Neither it could be considered to be

a Charitable One as Certain Percentage of Beds have not been set

aside as Free Ones for the use of Deserving Poor Patients. Many of

the Deserving Patients from the Poorest Strata of the Society are

turned away by the Hospital; Few of the luckiest ones get Subsidy;

Persons from the Middle Class of the Society get affordable

Treatment and the Affluent ones get the Treatment at a Competitive

Rate. The Math which is a Charitable Trust is not supposed to run

the Hospital like a Commercial Establishment as it is doing right

now. When would the Ashram make the Hospital at Cochin as a Free or

a Charitable One in Reality ?

 

2. The Ashram now claims to have completed 15,000 Houses to the

Deserving Poor under the current Housing Scheme. In Reality, the

Ashram has constructed not more than 7,500 Houses [50%] so for. The

Ashram also is claiming to have spent about Rs.28,000/= per House.

But in Reality, the cost incurred by the Ashram for each of the

House is not more than Rs.14,000/= [50%]. Why are the False

Claims ?...

 

Let there be Justice to Every-one;

Injustice to No-one !

Let there be Truth Every-where;

Untruth No-where !

 

Edited by: Borg108 at: 6/5/03 9:33 am

http://p203.ezboard.com/fsrfwalrusfrm33.showMessage?topicID=62.topic

 

 

Re: Amma, Inc.

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Borgji,

 

Thanks for posting the " live and upfront " aspect of the Ammachi Inc.

show. I, as was stated in her biography, believed the hospital to be

totally free to all without distinction. I questioned in my mind at

the time as to how she was going to pull this off, finally thinking

she must have some rich devotees who were more than happy to

bankroll the hospital.

 

Probably as disheartening is the reality of what you saw at

the " free " schools for the poor children. If she is telling the

devotees through her official writings and promotional material that

she is providing these services free as a type of Mother Teresa and

it is as bad as you say it leaves me with a whole different

impression of Amma and her organization. It seems that she is wholly

and willfully taking from the rich westerners to give a pittance to

the poor while she herself makes out just fine, thank-you!

 

Yogananda was criticised for living in fine places and driving new

cars. An argument could be made ethically that he, as a Swami and

pledged to not own possessions, wear fine threads, or do the other

many things that he did would be a violation of his vows. But I have

made peace with this by believing that he was spirtually totally

unattached to these things. Also he couldn't very well be in the

rich land of America, live the life of the sadhu/Swami of his

homeland, and draw the seekers he was sent here to do. He had to

live as an American to get through their cultural biases to their

souls.

 

But this seems different. She seems to be running a scam, pure and

simple. I've never gone to one of her " hug-in's " so I can't comment

upon her vibrational level with any accuracy; but her biography

paints a whole different picture of her and her work and life such

that she is revered as a manifestation of the Mother Divine. Somehow

I don't think that the Goddess would be interested in bamboozling

rich people into giving Her their monies so She could drive fine

rides while Her children are treated shabbily.

 

Yogananda's organization changed after his demise, and that of his

most illustrious disciple. Ammachi can't make the same claim as she

seems front and center running the whole shebang which is prima

facie evidence that " something's wrong in Kerala " and it isn't the

weather.

 

Best

 

in the lap of a drunken scam artist

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Guests and All,

 

aside from the crimes against humanity committed every day by

this " hugging " saint...........

 

If ever you care to stoop so low, get a hug from Amma, and (since

you are asked to get only one hug a day...sometimes she hugs 4200 in

24 hours in San Ramon,CA, and in India, 25,000) go back on about 4

more days for a hug each day........we talking about 5 hugs from

Ammachi

 

might be worth stooping so low....for what followed on the fourth

hug, in my case.

 

soulcircle

 

Edited by: soulcircle at: 4/13/03 12:59:52 am

 

Re: in the lap of a drunken scam artist

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I've heard people say that Amma must be a saint because she can sit

and hug thousands of people at a time. However, I once had an

entertainer tell me that the love and devotion he felt from his

audience energized him so much that he could have kept on all night,

every night doing what he did – and he didn't even hug people! As

for feeling good in her presence, if faith and devotion can move

mountains, then it can certainly make one joyful in someone's

presence if that is what you think will happen. I'm not saying this

is the only reason this could happen, but it is something to think

about.

 

There is a guru in south India named Premananda who has miraculous

powers and can materialize objects. The last I heard he was in

prison for having improper sexual relations with a number of his

female devotees. His followers are still devoted to him and

regularly visit him in jail. I was told by one of her ashram

residents that Amma once said that she and Premananda have the same

state of consciousness. This I can believe. " By their fruits ye

shall know them. "

 

I was also told by a long term Amma ashram resident that her

biography has been changed considerably since it was first

published. A respected Swami once explained to me that it is not

wrong for sadhus or sannyasis to accept money or other things that

God brings to them once they surrender their life to Him. But it is

improper for them to ask others for such things or to fall back into

running for profit enterprises. IMO, Amma's case is worse because

she is misrepresenting how the money is being used. People give to

her and her organization expecting that most of the money will

benefit the poor and needy. Her diversion of these funds is like

stealing them from the poor.

 

 

Edited by: Borg108 at: 4/13/03 8:59:35 am

 

 

Re: Amma, Inc.

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About a month ago, I went to one of Amma's free gigs, at the LAX

Hilton in Los Angeles. When I heard her speak, I was rather

disappointed that she spoke no English. After all, she's been to

America many times, spent lots of time here, and has lots of

devotees who would gladly teach her a little English. When her words

were translated, I was amused to hear that her stories centered

largely around farm animals, and stories that an illiterate farming

peasant would tell. Nothing wrong with the stories, but nothing deep

about them either. They were cute, moralistic stories that showed no

particular spiritual profundity, quite unlike the wonderful stories

that Yogananda tells in the lessons. When I got a hug from Amma, it

felt kind of creepy. Up close, her aura is really that of a country

peasant. I actually felt rather repulsed by it. On the upside, I

think she is very sincere about trying to spread the message of

God's love. I didn't get the feeling that that part was phony at

all, and I think it's her sincerity that draws people to her. There

can be little doubt that she has certain siddas, because apparently

she can get wealthy people to open their wallets bigtime. Borg's

exposure of her so-called charitable work does not surprise me. As

we were waiting in line to hug her, we had constant pictures of

her " charities " flashed before us, and as I looked carefully at

them, I saw that the crowd was glossing over some rather strange

discrepancies. So, this raises a very serious question---if we can

assume that she has wealthy benefactors, and if we can assume that

Borg's research is accurate, then where is all the money going, if

it comes to Amma but does not go to charities? Where does it wind

up? Frankly, I don't give a damn, but you'd think that somebody in

her organization ought to be looking into this question.