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Raja Begum
Unregistered User
(12/27/01 9:06 pm)
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Aren't We Special!
On the back page of the Voluntary League Newsletter and Appeal we read the following...

Quote:
"More recently, Self-Realization Fellowship was honored to be among a specially chosen group of representatives of the world's religious traditions who were asked to participate in establishing a permanent Council of Religious and Spiritual Leaders that will work in close coordination with the United Nations. The Council will build on the work begun last year by the Millenium World Peace Summit. In a tribute to our Guru, one of the Summit organizers said: 'Our vision of bringing together leaders of different faith traditions to work for world peace really originated with your guru. Paramahansa Yogananda spoke of this years and years ago -- we are just now catching up with him."


For your information, the esteemed Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders was a privately organized non-governmental affair which shut out the Dalai Lama from participating. This caused quite a uproar. SRF, however, was invited.

Click on this for more on Dalai Lama story

In SRF's telling, you'd have to believe they were duly recognized by the United Nations itself. Since one of the Summit organizers credited Paramahansa Yogananda for being the originator of the vision of bringing the faiths together makes me suspect he or she was an SRF member who lobbied to get SRF admitted into the Summit. After all, our Guru may be great, but he's not that widely known. And furthermore, it wasn't our guru but the Parliament of World Religions which Master attended in the 1920's and Vivekananda much earlier which set that vision. So the person being quoted must have been another member of SRF doing a bit of PR. I wonder?

At any rate, what makes SRF think it is qualified to be a voice in matters of conflict resolution and goodwill to neighbors? We've all witnessed SRF behaving on such bad terms. So here's an excerpt from the press release. You be the judge....

Quote:
Press Release GA/SM/187 29 August 2000
GENERAL ASSEMBLY VICE-PRESIDENT WELCOMES PARTICIPANTS TO SUMMIT OF RELIGIOUS, SPIRITUAL LEADERS

"We have seen, far too often, how a mere misunderstanding between two neighbours can quickly become a seed of hostility. If unattended, such misunderstandings are used by unscrupulous individuals to further their selfish aims. Such incidences have to be prevented and arrested before they develop into full-scale conflict. There is a role for religious leaders in this area and I trust that at the end of this Summit you would have carefully examined all the aspects of the problem and worked out practical solutions. The tremendous weight of religion and its positive impact must be brought to bear on the search for holistic solutions to peace, cooperation and development."


Maybe SRF should withdraw and do a bit of introspection...???


AumBoy
Registered User
(12/27/01 9:59 pm)
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Re: Aren't We Special!
I read A Sad Story you posted. I read this story too. And I started posting VL appeal and other matters....

I, too, was troubled by the latest VL appeal because I now wonder, after reading numerous posts on the Walrus, what the real scoup at SRF is? Do they have money or not? What do they do with the donations they receive? Where does the money go?

Another quote from the VL newsletter:
Quote:
Monks and nuns from our International Headquarters were invited to represent SRF at an interfaith memorial assembly on September 13, held at the City Hall of neighboring Pasadena. Two members of our Board of Directors, Uma Mata and Brother Vishwananda, and other monastics joined members of more than 30 religious groups--including Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Jews, and Buddhists--to pray together and express their sincere friendship, mutual support, and respect for one another as fellow seekers of God.


What jumped out at me in this quote was "pray together and express their sincere friendship, mutual support, and respect for one another as fellow seekers of God." Is this really true? Is this how SRF treats all fellow seekers of God? With respect? Mutual support? Sincere Friendship? Where does the blacklist fit in this picture? Where does the treatment of people (family) or other organizations (more family) fit in? How has respect, mutual support, and sincere friendship entered the picture? Or maybe it's just some fellow seekers of God. Some more special than others...

So I wonder: What's the real deal?

Edited by: AumBoy at: 12/27/01 10:02:47 pm
KS
Registered User
(12/30/01 7:02 pm)
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SRF Invited?
I wonder how SRF got invited to this thing. There are some 14 million people in the USA who supposedly practice some form of yoga, most of them Hatha yoga of course. SRF has maybe 50,000 fairly active members, maybe as few as 25,000. How did SRF get invited?

Master is more widely known that SRF of course, but that is going to be a problem in the future as SRF's reputation begins to reflect poorly on him.

soulcircle
Registered User
(5/27/02 3:19 am)
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Re: Aren't We Special!
Raja Begum,

thanks for your post, especially the Dalia Lama's story

soulcircle

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