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Does
Maharaji have an affluent
lifestyle? |
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Does
Maharaji have an affluent
lifestyle? |
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Date:
Tues, Aug 08, 2000 at 07:51:07 (GMT) Hi, I was reading the FAQ on one of the cult sites, and they invited responses. Here's what I sent them: Dear Whoever You Are, I was looking at your website, and came across the FAQ page. As someone who was a deeply involved and commited follower of Maharaji for twenty five years, and has since quit, and become an ex-premie, I read your comments about material “on the web” with great interest.. You invited responses from readers, so here’s mine. It’s classic cult bullshit. Only people living in cloud cuckoo land would take seriously an organisation that interviewed itself about its own credibility, and then published its answers to its own questions on its website. It’s the intellectual version of the ingrowing toenail. But what changes your response from a joke to a farce, is that you even dodge one of your own questions. It’s astonishing you haven't noticed it, and I’m glad I’ve made a copy before you take it down or rewrite it. You ask yourselves a simple question, in big bold type, Does Maharaji have an affluent lifestyle? Then there’s an essay in reply. Let’s read it. “We don’t think you should criticise anyone because of their lifestyle.” This, presumably includes the millionaire guru lifestyle. “And even if you think it’s wrong for gurus to be millionaires, well, he’s not a guru anyway.” Then, to justify your argument about your masters’ wealth, you quote your master. Ha, ha, ha. Well at least you managed to find an authority on the subject. We’re halfway through the essay. Maybe the question will be answered in the second part. “Elan Vital in no way, shape or form, anyhow, in any way, ever gives one tenth of a penny to Maharaji. Honest. It’s true. I swear……” OK I get the idea. “In fact, he’s so incredibly generous, he doesn’t even charge us for piloting the private jet that in no way belongs to him.” That’s right. Isn’t it owned by one of those companies set up by premies? I think there’s information about it on one of the websites your expensive New York lawyers tried to close down. I don’t really understand why you are trying to disassociate yourselves from Maharaji’s followers. These are the people that fund your organisation, the private plane, the big houses, helicopters, Rollers and Feraris. They are only too happy to pay for it all, and not embarrassed to say so. Admittedly numbers are dwindling, but there are still thousands of devoted premies, regularly dropping their cash into whatever bucket is being pushed in their face at the time, be it the programme registration, video fee, voluntary donation, smart card, raffle, special fundraising for the new plane, or whatever. Fundraising is one of the few things about the cult that never changes. Why do you say you have nothing to do with it? Sorry, I drifted off. Where were we, ‘Does Maharaji have an affluent lifestyle?’ We’d got to, “He’s so generous he doesn’t bill us for flying the private plane, full of servants guarding his luggage in the back, that’s not really his honest.” Here’s an interesting bit, “he has private business interests that have been very successful.” I wonder if that’s the famous watch patent that gives you the co-ordinates of Las Vegas in 562 languages, with the battery in a wheelbarrow. Blimey, he must have sold a lot. So, I’m nearly at the end, are you going to tell me if he has an affluent lifestyle or not? “And he’s worked really hard and he deserves it all anyway.” It’s incredible. You dodged your own question. How about this? Q. Does Maharaji have an affluent lifestyle? A. No. He has a millionaire lifestyle. He has exclusive use of massive, multi-million dollar properties all around the world. He travels in a private jet and private helicopter (which he doesn’t own by the way, really). He owns fleets of luxury cars, is waited on hand and foot by servants, and thinks ‘job’ is a fat Japanese bloke with a bowler hat, in an old Peter Sellers movie. So, let’s have a look at the other questions you asked yourselves, ‘Is Elan Vital aware of criticisms of its activities that have appeared on the internet?’ Well, in view of the fact that you’ve hired lawyers and created a website to respond to them, I’d assume you were aware of them. Not an intelligent question. Has Elan Vital taken action to protect its reputation? Yes it has, but unfortunately the wrong action. Instead of investigating and dealing with the very strong child abuse allegations against Mahatma Jagdeo, you hired lawyers to try and close the websites making the allegations. Then a couple of beauties, ‘Is Elan Vital a cult?’ By your definition, “No”. By anyone else’s, “Yes”. And one I missed earlier, “Did Maharaji ever say he was God?” Well, he had a poster printed saying he was greater than God. He used to sit on a throne, dressed up as Krishna, and have himself crowned, while we sang, “The Creator bows his head to you.” He had thousands of us line up to kiss his feet quite regularly. I could go on. It’s all documented and photographed. Then there’s, “Has Elan Vital covered up alleged past improper behaviour?” From the waffle in your response, I sift out that you’re trying to play down and discredit the allegations, but are covering your arses from every angle, “Of course we don’t condone this sort of thing…..but if ever it were found out to be true, we would be appalled..etc.” We are, of course, talking about the strong allegations of child abuse made from the USA and Australia, against Mahatma Jagdeo, who was a full time, paid official of the cult at the time of the offences. You say the only information you have comes from postings on two websites. This is not true. Mahatma Guru Charanand, a full time cult official, was informed of some very serious offences by one of the victims father. Judy Osbourne and Randy Prouty, both full-time cult officials, were both informed by another of the victims. I wrote four letters to Glen Whitaker. My initial reaction was to try and deal with the matter unofficially, as I know Glen as a friend. Unfortunately the responses, both personally and officially, were evasive, unsympathetic, and eventually threatening. The official letters and responses are reproduced on one of the websites your lawyers tried to close. So that’s three verbal reports to mahatmas, ‘instructors’, or whatever the officials were called at the time, plus two personal and two official letters. You also say that no complaint has been filed with any authorities. This is also not true. I have spoken to, made a statement, and been in communication with the Police in Cornwall, where some of the offences took place, and in Exeter, where a national police group investigating child abuse is based. Aside from these existing accounts of Jagdeos paedophilia, another disturbing report from the USA has recently surfaced, which I believe has been reported to Elan Vital. And what has the response of Elan Vital been these allegations? Have you spoken to Jagdeo, or contacted the police to tell them his whereabouts? Have you set up any investigation yourselves? All you seem to have done is refuse to admit Mahatma Jagdeo was a paedophile, discredit and play down the allegations as much as possible, saying things like, “Oh we can’t investigate because we don’t know the victims names.” Their names have been on those websites you’ve been trying to close down, for a few months now. What happened, were you blinded by Divine Light every time you read a sentence with their names in? And finally, “Has Maharaji changed what he was teaching?” Really, do you think anyone gives a toss? Snot tastes the same whether you call it ‘Divine Nectar,’ or ‘the fourth technique’. I look forward to your response. Anthony Ginn |
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