>Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 00:11:05 -0600 >From: bob.beale@xtra.co.nz >Subject: Re: Cults in New Zealand: Sri Chinmoy >Newsgroups: alt.religion.christian I have decided to add this article to alt.religion.christian because the first reply (posted by Brandon Hutchison)seems to suggest that Eastern cults are similar in many ways to the Christian religions. I am sure that comparisons between Eastern cults and Christian religions have often been made, so you may wish to post your views on this article and / or Brandon s response to it. In a separate posting, I have included the response of Brandon Hutchison to this article, together with my initial response to his comments. The text of the article follows: I am interested in hearing from people who have come into contact with Guru Sri Chinmoy s spiritual group. Although Sri Chinmoy has done a lot to promote peace throughout the world, I have some concerns about various aspects of the group s activities. I would welcome postings from people about both the positive and negative aspects of this group. In particular, I believe that parents of young adults who may be under pressure from the rigours of University life (or similar) should keep a close eye on their children when they join a meditation group, because several of these groups are in reality a gateway to a religious cult. It appears that some young people in these cults lose their power to think rationally and critically for themselves. I can best illustrate my concerns by summarising what has happened to three young people who I have been closely involved with. In making these comments, I would emphasise that I have never been a member of Sri Chinmoy s group or any similar group. In addition, I am in the grandfather age group! Three years ago, my three young friends (now in their early twenties) were studying at University and had strong career plans. They seemed to be coping well with the stresses of University life. At this time, they first went along to Sri Chinmoy s meditation classes and seemed to benefit from what they learned. However, after they had been going to meditation classes for about six months, without any prior discussion with their parents, they joined as full time students or disciples of Sri Chinmoy. They immediately gave up their studies, even though one of these people had only two months to go to complete a University degree. They also followed Chinmoy s strong direction that they should live celibate lives, and they quit their former relationships. These three young people believe that Chinmoy is truly enlightened and that he is one of the greatest spiritual leaders that has ever been on the planet. They protect each other from the outside world by living and working together. They each pay about $30 per week to help with the upkeep of the Sri Chinmoy centres in New Zealand. They have changed their diet to strictly vegetarian, and they help to run the Sri Chinmoy vegetarian cafe in Auckland. They also believe that there is no need to accumulate worldly goods. Consequently, they live in what many people would regard as a state of poverty, partly because they spend a great deal of money in travelling twice a year from New Zealand to New York for Sri Chinmoy s festivals. In addition, they do not receive any remuneration for the work they do for the Chinmoy group. This is possibly why Chinmoy does not need to charge people to go along to meditation lessons. At several of their functions, the women wear saris and the men are clothed in white, and the men and women sometimes sit separately from each other so that they do not distract each other. They now believe in reincarnation and that Sri Chinmoy has had several prior lives on earth. They are looking forward to the time when Sri Chinmoy will grant them the right to use Indian names. They meditate for an hour or two each day and they have their own meditation areas in their flats complete with curtains and lots of Sri Chinmoy s photos and publications. They meditate staring at a large picture of Sri Chinmoy, while listening to his flute music and chanting mantras with the words Supreme or similar. They have become very peaceful (and non-competitive) people and they have no desire to return to the real world . As soon as these three young people joined as disciples of the group they were given the responsibility of running some of the meditation classes and of recruiting new disciples for the group. They idolise Sri Chinmoy and will not listen to any criticism about him or their new way of life. This has caused some family relationships to become strained because, in some cases, the disciples have agreed to talk with their families only on the condition that the Chinmoy group or its beliefs are not discussed. Surprisingly, they believe that Sri Chinmoy is the greatest weightlifter that has ever walked the planet. They believe in photographs which show that, in 1987, Sri Chinmoy lifted with ONE ARM in an overhead lift, a bone crunching weight of 7063 pounds. Although the bar (which supported sixty-eight dumbbells each weighing one hundred pounds) was said to be lifted by only half an inch from a head high supporting structure, one very experienced weightlifter who viewed the photos considered that even a world champion weightlifter could probably not lift even ONE thousand pounds overhead with one arm, let alone SEVEN thousand pounds! Nevertheless, Chinmoy supporters brush aside any suggestion that such a massive lift is impossible. Sri Chinmoy strongly advocates that his disciples should achieve a high degree of fitness and he actively promotes marathons and similar events around the world. Chinmoy has been seen doing situps continuously for nearly three hours, and he is a keen tennis player. Chinmoy was born in Bengal, India, in 1931 and it is claimed that he has written over 1,000 books, painted 5,000,000 peace birds, composed 13,000 songs, and that he can play 150 musical instruments. For several years Chinmoy has served as spiritual leader of the United Nations meditation group. Sri Chinmoy s assistant, Ashrita Furman, is also a great believer in physical fitness and in achieving extraordinary feats. Furman genuinely does hold the record for the most number of world records recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. Well known Olympic athlete, Carl Lewis, is also a disciple of Sri Chinmoy. Some Sri Chinmoy supporters who have read about my experiences with these three young people have pointed out that several disciples are employed in responsible positions outside the group and they have continued their studies and gained qualifications while in the group. They also point out that several married couples are disciples of the group (but even for these people, Sri Chinmoy advocates that they should learn to live a celibate life). It has also been explained to me that only a very small percentage of the people who enrol in Chinmoy s meditation classes go on to become disciples, and that it is made very clear to them before they join what is expected of them. Therefore, I am not suggesting that all the people who join the group will act in the same way as my three friends. I would be less concerned with what has happened to these young people if they had looked forward for a long time to making a career within a religious cult. But this was not the case. They changed their career plans quite suddenly and quit their studies when they were in sight of completing them. It was like seeing the Pied Piper of Hamelyn in action, or watching the first glowing stages of a love affair. Although young adults have the right to determine their own life styles without undue criticism from parents and friends, the dangers of entering a religious cult and its possible mind controlling effects should be known by parents, so that they can give good advice to their children when they first join a meditation group.