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History Buff
Unregistered User
(9/8/01 9:41 pm)
Reply 		The Mormon Connection
How many of us are aware of how historical practices of the Mormon church have factored into SRF culture?

Is is an admitted truth that Mormon theology is the result of plagiarism from less-known parts of the Bible. When members began to suspect this, the Church of Latter Day Saints engaged the services of theology doctors who would make the problems stand up against contestation. The person most responsible for this was Orson Pratt. Now, as any SRF history buff knows, Orson was Laurie Pratt's grandfather. And Laurie Pratt became Tara Mata, editor-in-chief of SRF publications --- foremostly, the editor of Guruji's Autobiography of a Yogi.

To continue, Orson Pratt's job was to give an intellectual veneer to the false "channelings" of Joseph Smith. He did a marvelous job. A brilliant intellectual, can convince others that broken glass is diamonds. The Mormon church has taken great liberties in bending the truth whatever way it suits them.

Now enter Laurie Pratt (aka Tara Mata). Like grandfather, like granddaughter. Laurie was a Berkely graduate, a proficient practitioner of astrology, a persuasive public speaker, and a penetrating writer who, like her grandfather, had the ability to arrange words to achieve an effect. Is it possible that she might have tweaked Master's writings in order to empower SRF as growing organization? Did she strategize and calculate? We're we subjected to subtle propoganda? I think these are valid questions which should be answered. This is part of our legacy. We feed on SRF culture. And, as you know, you are what you eat.

Tara Mata was not SRF's sole Mormon connection. There's also Daya Mata, Ananda Mata, and Mrinalini Mata. Hmmm? Now that's serious. The four most powerful and influential people in our lives (besides Master) all share the same heritage. All of them nurtured by a false religion. All of them quite used to having truth bent to serve the church. All of them used to having a church validate itself through its material standing as well as faith and the absence of intellectual inquiry.

Disenchanted Mormons have the same trouble we do leaving their church. They're caught in a severe psychological bind where they feel their loyalty to their own welfare versus the church at cross purposes.

And forgive me for sounding scary, but any religious organization with professed ambitions to become a world influence is going to be under close scrutiny by intelligence agencies. Is it possible that our Board of Directors are conscious of this and are trying to shelter us from the real world so we can practice devotion in peace? That, in my opinion, would be both a blessing and a curse.

xmonk
Unregistered User
(9/9/01 5:43 am)
Reply 		Board
Don't kid yourself about the intentions of the Board Of Directors. They are too busy covering their own rear ends to be giving rational thought to the welfare of the average devotee. SRF is an organization of the nuns, by the nuns, and for the nuns. Monks and laity are strictly incidental. The Board reflects that.

CIA
Unregistered User
(9/9/01 9:19 am)
Reply 		FBI/CIA
I have to agree with xmonk. If you have worked closely with the “bad ladies” for any period, and I have, you realize they are not intellectual giants or great strategists. That in itself is no sin, nor is intelligence required to find God or be a good manager. But their whole focus is taken up with their own positions and selfish fearful goals. They of course rationalize it somehow, the protection of SRF or what ever, but the result is the same. And the enemy list that results is such a disappointment.

I would agree that their thinking processes are the same that got the Mormons in trouble. Everyone is out to get them, twisting the truth for “higher ideals”, and so on. But them trying to shelter us from ANYTHING is a joke. I did I enjoyed the CIA/FBI connection however. I imagine that “punk yogi” is working on a new story based on that premise right now.

MC
Unregistered User
(9/9/01 9:28 am)
Reply 		Board goes to Utah
3 or 4 years ago there was a big disagreement over what to do for a new Accounting System. A $5000/year system was being used, but Accounting wanted a $1 million/year system. Others were recommending something much cheaper. How did the board resolve it? Several members of the SRF Board, including Uma Mata, went and visited the Mormon Church HQ in Utah to discuss it and get a recommendation. It didn’t occur to me how weird that was until reading about the strong Mormon connection. I wonder how often that happens?

musicman
Unregistered User
(10/11/01 12:33 pm)
Reply 		mormon connection
I have often reflected on the fact that the octogenarian president of SRF is following the lead of the Mormon (and Catholic) church by staying in the saddle until dropping dead--well, in her case, entering mahasamadhi, of course. This doesn't seem to me the most effective way to run things. Why not turn the reins over to a younger person? Is it possible that Daya Ma, who so often has declared her disenchantment with leadership and authority, is really a control freak who can't let go of being in charge? How does that square with being illumined, anyway? Why doesn't she retire to the desert and spend her remaining days in unbroken communion with the cosmic beloved? Well, if I could understand a saint, I would be one. Then again, that's just the kind of fallacious argument (special pleading, to be exact) that I have been conditioned to put forward in her defense. She may not be quite as saintly as we've been told.

hadit
Unregistered User
(10/11/01 1:44 pm)
Reply 		Daya
Illumined? That's a good one. Daya and Mrinalini are really the two worms that spoiled the apple. Your view of an octagenarian, who doesn't want to give up control, is on the money. The whole thing with SRF, or any other cult, is power and control. Don't look for any change in this yuga. There are generations of younger Dayas that will continue to fill her shoes when she passes. The nun postulancy has been dedicated to continuing the status quo, and continue it will.

wholetruth
Registered User
(10/14/02 7:43 am)
Reply 		Re: mormon connection
I've read somewhere on this board that the Wrights and the Browns got together, formed an alliance, and took over SRF. When I was attending Hollywood Temple for 18 years, Meera Ma (Vera Brown, Mrinalini's mother) was in charge. She was very popular and well-liked and seemed to be a down-to-earth, practical person with a sense of humor--not someone isolated and scary like the Matas on the Hill. She was always extremely nice to me personally, as I was employed at the ashram for a few years. What was the extent of her role in SRF? Was there more to her than met the eye?

Edited by: wholetruth at: 10/14/02 12:24:51 pm
Lobo
Registered User
(10/14/02 8:48 pm)
Reply 		Re: mormon connection
In his autobiography Kriyananda states that after his expulsion from SRF Meera Ma was the only monastic that would join him for dinner whenever he was in Los Angeles. He writes in such a way that he captures her independent nature as you've also wholetruth.

I attended Hollywood for a couple of years and I too saw Meera Ma frequently at the services. She was open, happy it seemed, not at all in need of member's adulation, content to remain in the background (at least at the services) where she often sat in the very back of the temple with Mama Lewis.

It is interesting to note that both Bhaktananda and Meera ended up at Hollywood. Two old-timers, direct disciples who knew what was up regarding how Master directed his organization and how the other Matas had changed it, found themselves made the head's of the monks, and the nuns, at the Hollywood ashram/temple.

Of course I now understand that the nuns have vacated the ashram due to security reasons. But Bhaktanandaji still serves in his little role far from the decision makers on the holy hill.

We don't see much of that independence anymore. That's a shame.

stermejo
Registered User
(11/30/02 8:45 pm)
Reply 		Re: The Mormon Connection
Wow, this information, and this board, speaks to some issues I've had. The Autobiography's footnotes had always stood out as impressive. However, too much of a good thing? Nowadays, whenever I read an "official" SRF publication. I skip the footnotes. No, it's more like I avoid them. Not only the one's I've memorized but even the "new" ones quoting all the latest "scientific" findings.

No, back in the old daze maybe relating Yoga to Science was a way to legitimize it. Now, I'm happy by Guru's grace thatGod, spirituality, isn't something that can be taken apart and reduced to observable data.

Jai Maha Maya ki Jai!

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