Carolyn says she told him no, it "just didn't feel right." The Institute also offers a dizzying array of education programs, including a diploma program for hatha yoga teachers. The Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy is an international non-profit organization, which promotes yoga and holistic health through yoga retreats, residential programs, health products and services, media publications including Yoga International magazine, and humanitarian projects.The institute's main campus is located on (1.6 km 2) in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern . The victim's confusion and loss of trust are compounded when her community refuses to acknowledge her suffering. Long-term residents must get administration approval for any overnight absences; permission may be denied if their destination is judged inappropriate. During my weekend visit, Carolyn and I took long walks on the Institute's wooded grounds while talking about her compulsive eating patterns and her disastrous relationships with men suggested as possible husbands by Swami Rama. Hadn't he taken vows of celibacy? During her first eight months at the Institute, Megan was able to pursue her studies, but her situation altered dramatically when Swami Rama returned to take up summer residence. Explore our integrative health services & therapeutic treatments to help restore your natural state of well-being. She listened calmly as I admitted that I'd worried she might be a victim. To judge by their price tags, these and other Institute programs must bring in a considerable income. But the followers of such "enlightened" men are usually reluctant to find fault with them, since to do so could invalidate the students' own years of study and devotion. Sexual abuse by yoga gurus is the exploitation of the position of trust occupied by a master of any branch of yoga for personal sexual pleasure. She was feeling so disgusted with her body and afraid of the guru's humiliating comments that one night she couldn't face going to his room, she says. Carolyn stayed at the Institute for three more years, working at a variety of jobs. Born in Northern India, he was raised from early childhood by the Himalayan sage, Bengali Baba. I just don't know that it makes sense to go run around trying to evaluate other people, when you haven't evaluated yourself.". He says that Nuernberger's one mistake has "ruined his life, in essence, which is really too bad.". Despite this, our rural empowerment programs continue to thrive and grow as we work towards our goal of fighting poverty, illiteracy, and inequality through education, health care, and job creation. Finally, she obtained his permission. To my relief, I could detect no flash of recognition, guilt, fear, or anger in Carolyn's eyes. At about the same time, Carolyn was accepted into the residential program at East West Books Chicago, the Institute's downtown branch. Brian also received a threat, he says: a note telling him he "might get hurt," which was accidentally shoved under the door of a lawyer who rented the office next door to his in a Honesdale office building. Wisdom must show itself in action and lovingness." Those statements are on file with the cult Awareness network (formerly the citizen's Freedom Foundation) in New York. And he abruptly dismissed her. But in 1980, they say, they returned to Honesdale after a brief vacation to learn that their friend Rose* had allegedly been sexually assaulted by Swami Rama during their absence and had fled the Institute for New York City. The two couples referred to this statement in a petition to the FBI: they asked the FBI to investigate the threat letter and argued that Swami Rama could be deported by the Immigration and Naturalization Service as an undesirable alien on four grounds: possession of narcotics, sexual immorality, fraudulent financial dealings, and "affliction with [a] psychopathic personality." A Swami, or monk, is supposed to be "one who is master of oneself: senses, body, mind." A few weeks later she moved to Honesdale. Similarly, a woman who had been repeatedly abused by Sri Swami Rama of The Himalayan Institute when she was 19 years old was awarded $1.9 million. Himalayan Institute Online Our new online platform for community, courses, and content. Many people, including the victims themselves, have trouble understanding how damaging such sexual contact can be, because the women are adults and no one is holding a gun to their heads. Numerous former students say they left the Institute because they were sexually exploited by Swami Rama or knew someone who was. He is also head of the Institute's Holistic Studies (formerly Eastern Studies) program and has written a number of scholarly books on yoga philosophy. Discover our new online platform for community, courses, and content. After a bit, she was inclined to dismiss his behavior as a joke or a "test.". Megan says she squelched an urge to speak out, instead deciding, like most of the Institute's residents, to suspend judgment so she could "understand and learn" from this "great master." There she learned Swami Rama's style of "super-conscious" meditation, which she describes as a basic, impersonal training in mental concentration. Gurus were supposed to have conquered their desires, but in the spiritual literature they were often portrayed as contradictory, tricking their disciples into enlightenment. He said, "We must build a center of life which will be an important bridge between East . In retrospect, Megan says, she believes that Swami Rama was indifferent to the problems that his behavior might cause the Institute, but was using such scandals to purge it of anyone who questioned his authority. Carolyn says she experienced their sexual encounters as brief and rough, and that she performed her sexual duties mechanically: "I numbed myself in order to survive.". Every time he saw her, she says, he told her she was "perfect," as if she had passed some important test. Each time the Institute's top professionals have been confronted with complaints that Swami Rama is abusing his position, institutional mechanisms of denial have come to the guru's aid. Healthy lifestyle products to support your yoga and spiritual practice. Study Online Williams, however, did not sue Nuernberger himself; she sued the clinic where he worked, alleging that the clinic "knew or should have known" that Nuernberger was engaging in harmful sexual activity while treating her. By 1977, the Institute was able to purchase the Honesdale ashram, a former Catholic seminary in the rural Pocono Mountains, which now houses more than 100 residents and guests. Ex-members say that Swami Rama also uses his psychological insights to manipulate people. Ayurvedic treatments, massage therapy, chiropractic care, and integrative health services at PureRejuv Wellness Center. But the purified ego is a means in discriminating real Self from not-self-real Self from mere self. Relationships are the first test of spirituality. The institute has branches in the United States, Europe, and India. Sex with a guru is a form of spiritual incest. Go to Top. Today HI continues to innovate and offer the world high-impact, revolutionary programs and humanitarian initiatives around the globe. A rash of articles featuring Swami Rama appeared in national magazines, including Time, People, and Playboy. They wrote letters to Pandit Usharbudh Arya, their teacher and head of the Meditation Center there, as well as a dozen other people, warning that Swami Rama was a fraud. Health Clinics Health Education Public Libraries School of Carpentry Our new online platform for community, courses, and content. Shortly after Marston filed her suit in 1978, Nuernberger moved to Honesdale, where he is currently a member of the Institute's teaching staff. According to the story Terry and Brian say Rose later told them, late one night Swami Rama tapped at the door of her room and then walked in on her. Like incest victims, women who say they have been sexually abused by their gurus are sworn to silence by their abusers. When Swami Rama returned from India two months later, Carolyn resumed working as his appointments secretary during the day, and, she says, as his sexual servant on some nights. Carolyn says he called her out to Glenview for a special appointment, at which he invited her to come live and work at his new ashram in Honesdale-and told her he would waive the usual residential program fees. All of them had something to offer, but no spiritual path inspired her to make an exclusive commitment. "The real guru is within," Dr. Ballentine says, "that still small voice within you." One day Swami Rama called for her and told her he wouldn't be taking her to India that autumn. And there is a statement, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.'" Become more involved with the projects of the ashram-seminars, residents, the patient program-in time she would be in charge of the whole thing. He rapidly attracted a following that included many graduate and professional students. According to Marston's attorney, Philip W. Getts, his client never recovered the $50,000 in punitive damages Nuernberger owed her, because Pennsylvania is one of the few states that does not allow the court to garnish wages. When she questioned him, Megan says, he became angry and dismissed the women's suffering, saying that a little poison ivy could be good for them. It is sad for him, and for those who cared and were so deeply hurt by him, that his behavior has been allowed to continue with such devastating results to people just looking for help." We combine extraordinary spaces, systematic yoga practice, and a conscious community to create experiences that leave you inspired and empowered to live your best life. Rose told Brian and Terry that she was afraid to seek help from the family members who'd invited her to the Institute-they were unquestioningly loyal to Swami Rama-and she knew no one else there. Some were afraid of Institute retaliation; most were afraid of hurting their families, who in some cases do not know about the abuses the women suffered; still others were worried that their professional reputations would be harmed. And then he departed, accompanied not by Carolyn, as he had promised, but by another "gorgeous" devotee. Several former students of Swami Rama granted interviews to Patricia Ann Darling, Ph. She was thrilled; it was commonly believed at the Institute that the fastest way to reach enlightenment was to spend as much time as possible in the presence of the guru. When another married couple who were their friends and fellow students left the ashram suddenly, Karen wrote to them asking why. Pandit Tigunait holds two doctorates: one in Sanskrit from the University of Allahabad, India, and one in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. The Combined Therapy program and the outpatient branches of the Institute for Holistic Medicine combine Western medicine, homeopathy, Eastern medicine, psychotherapy, nutrition, yoga, and meditation to treat people with a variety of physical and emotional problems. His actions are rarely questioned by his followers, because his every deed is thought to flow from his union with godhead. Who We Are; What We Do; Where We Work. She never received a response. Surrender only leads to enlightenment if the "guru within" is strong and well developed. She would live with him in the house he was buying. On one occasion, she says, Swami Rama ordered all the women disciples to weed out some roots around his new cabin, telling them they were rooting out their samskaras. February 27, 2023. Allegations of such abuse have been made against modern yoga gurus such as Bikram . She said no: She had been on a work crew Swami Rama had ordered to week poison ivy roots for his new garden, and she was covered with oozing blisters. But sexual contact between a guru and his disciples is not regulated by any professional association of religious hierarchy. Once there, Carolyn devoted herself to her yoga practices and threw herself into her assigned jobs. Why did Carolyn say these things? Pandit Arya has many profound and beautiful things to say about his relationship to his guru when I interview him at the Divya Jyoti yoga center in Napa, California, in May 1989. In my interviews with current and former members of the Institute, I heard an almost unvarying litany of beliefs about Swami Rama's abilities. Host to HI Mission Programs, seminars as well as private events, we offer five fully equipped practice spaces and comfortable, modern guest amenities. I informed him that I had interviewed women who sought him out because they respected him and trusted him to be interested in the truth. Megan recalls that in one of her first encounters with Swami Rama, she watched as he humiliated a quiet, withdrawn woman resident. He reportedly sat down on a chair next to her bed and proceeded to make sexual advances. The program seemed to provide the ideal family she'd never had, where everyone shared her values and spiritual goals. The Institute's program is no longer accredited by the University of Scranton. I ask Dr. Ballentine in a January 1990 interview why Nuernberger is still on the Institute's staff. Instead, he told the other board members that he believed Rose, and that they should investigate the incident for themselves. What Ballentine does not mention is that a second jury judged Nuernberger guilty of unprofessional conduct in his treatment of Nancy E. Williams, another former client, on February 17, 1981. On the contrary, they sought opportunities to serve the guru's every whim, or even to be abused by him: Megan remembers one woman saying she wished the guru would kick her. Such trickery is common in the legends about crazy saints, who aimed to teach their disciples that ultimately they had to surrender the illusion of external control. Pandit Arya reportedly alternated between disbelieving and believing the growing number of his female students who told him that Swami Rama had sexually harassed or abused them. Those who build boundaries around themselves because of their ego problems create suffering for themselves." Pandit Rajmani says he also has concrete reasons to know that Swami Rama could not be sleeping with his disciples. A producer for "60 Minutes" was reportedly unable to complete her documentary on Swami Rama when the women involved backed out and refused to appear on camera. Our humanitarian projects serve impoverished communities through rural empowerment and environmental regeneration. Up to that point I had felt like he was a guru, that he cared about me at least, but no, he was just using me.". Later, many of the women broke out in head-to-toe swelling and rashes from what had in fact been poison ivy roots. Shortly after they returned to the U.S., Karen and George say that they and all their correspondents received a bizarre, defamatory letter containing an implicit death threat. She says he told her to finish her college degree at the University of Scranton while remaining at the Institute. "Even if I found out-how can I find out? There he founded the Meditation Center. Mission Membership is an invitation to put your spiritual values into action by supporting our shared commitment to service while deepening your study and practice in the living Himalayan Tradition. She took a meditation class at the alternative high school program she attended, and one evening her teachers invited her to a lecture by their guru, Swami Rama, who was visiting the Chicago area. Discover our new online platform for community, courses, and content. His early American followers had been spiritual seekers of the counterculture who found their guru at his ashram on the banks of the sacred Ganges in Rishikesh, India. A guru has the wisdom of experience and the ancient teachings, so he can provide guidance, Dr. Ballantine says, but students should "judge every [practice] on the basis of your own experience." During this spiel, she says, he put his hand on her buttocks, but she told him she wasn't buying it. Rather than being a saint, according to Green, Swami Rama is an advanced yogi and "a mortal with some ego problems.". Pandit Arya radiates calm as he speaks. Married couple who were their friends and fellow students left the Institute because were... 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