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Hi,

I was told about your board by some friends. Having been a monastic, I decided to check it out, hoping to find some of the 'live' spirit of the 2000 Convo talks by Devananda and Mitrananda. Perhaps I'm missing the point, but these are my impressions.

People should know that not all ex-monastics would support a site like yours. While openness and honesty are admirable qualities, the negative stench from your site, in my opinion, far outshines any good that might have come from it. The only thing I got out of it was nausea.

I find it disgraceful that you would allow, and encourage (?), such negativity to be expressed towards the one upon whom Master bestowed his spiritual mantle. After seventy years of selfless service to Master's work? Where would we all be without Master's work? Last time I checked gratitude was a spiritual quality; like the honesty your site proposes.

Isn't being a monastic or a householder a completely irrelevant issue? So some former monastics have a hard time coming back into society. Don't you think people in the world had their share of trouble while we lived in ashrams? Master is still with us, so what is the big deal?

And all that complaining about psychological ashram baggage. Don't you think there is a good chance that these people would have had very similar problems had they remained in society? While ashram life can be tough, each one of us knew that when we entered. I only need refer to Master's chapter on Sri Yukteswar's training. Ashram life will bring out our vulnerabilities. Isn't that exactly what we asked for?

Again, a spirit of honesty is a good thing. But it should be a positive and uplifting honesty; not one that attracts the skunks. And if you're all so open, please, lose the aliases. To stir the fires of criticism anonymously is, frankly, quite cowardly.


Jai Guru,

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