Copy-paste tactics to attack Hinduism

Recently came across a very interesting article titled Hinduphobia and Hinduphilia in theUS. It covers a court case that took place in 1911. Someone by the name of Sarah Bull, wife of the famous Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, was very devoted to Swami Vivekanand who had come to visit America in those days. She happily served him and the Vedanta Society. At the end of her life, she left money to go to the Vedanta Society as she was very drawn to Swami Vivekanand’s teachings based on Sanatana Dharma. Her daughter did not respect her will and went to court to try and get the inheritance left for Vedanta Society for herself. The article describes how Hinduism was on trial too with this court case. In fact, that was the real reason for the trial.

When you look at the trial and particularly the reporting about it in media such as the NY Times and Boston Herald, it becomes obvious it was a deliberate attack on Hindus and Hinduism. The claim was that Hindus had driven Mrs. Bull insane. NY Times started racists tropes against Hindus and labeled Hinduism as ‘psychic conspiracy’ and said that Hindus ‘run damaging cults.’ In the media articles Sanatana Dharma, Swami Vivekanand and the other swamis were outrightly attacked and the Vedanta Society portrayed as some sort of cult.

The way the journalists described ancient practices and paths such as Bhakti Yoga and Pranayama in Yoga was completely twisted and false. There was no proof or evidence provided, nor any Vedic expert consulted. The news articles were all based on so-called folk journalism; no hard evidence needs to be provided in folk journalism. They can quote any Tom, Dick and Harry saying anything, and this is exactly what happened in the media at that time.

Trial by media

The parallels to the Stuff article about Kosmic Fusion that was published roughly 100 years later in 2018 are striking. The two Stuff journalists merely copied the folk journalism approach, quoting whoever they wanted without solid proof, evidence or background of the source. Their article was literally a copy past job; the same script, same tactics as the media in the US used in 1911. It was a trial by media with an attack on Sanatana Dharma and on Gurus.

The parallels can even be seen in the details of media reporting. Sarah Bull’s home shrine was ridiculed in the American media. In a degrading way the newspapers described her shrine as ‘having photos of fat Swamis’. A racist dig rooted in Hindumisia. In a similar vein, the Stuff duo Steve Kilgallon and Tony Wall had the audacity to cut out the Murtis of Bhagwan Swaminarayan from the photos they took of Sree Maa Shri Ji’s home temple and use it in the most disrespectful way in the opening of the article where they put the words ‘bad vibrations’ underneath it. What kind of person would even think of doing this?

In his article about Hinduphobia and Hinduphilia in the US, the author also asks the following solid question: The Vedanta Society in 1916 only claimed 190 members, so it is worth pondering why Americans worries so much about “the tide of turbans”. Again, here is a parallel with Kosmic Fusion as there were only 12 Facilitators in Training and at the maximum 3 volunteers living in the Ashram. Why would anyone bother to wrote about a small group of 12 people?

Same way Mrs. Bull was slandered in the press, the founders of Kosmic Fusion, Sree Maa Shri Ji were slandered. Same way the Advait Vedanta Philosophy and the Vedanta Society were attacked, Kosmic Fusion was attacked. Same baseless accusation of a psychic conspiracy, as if people were brainwashed and it were a cult.

It is important to emphasize here that Sree Maa taught from the much respected and well-established Teachings from Swaminarayan Bhagwan, Shri Krishna, Upanishads, the Vedas. How can this ever be a cult? Nobody can say that Sree Maa Shri Ji was imposing her philosophy, because Sree Maa was not even teaching her own philosophy. The fact that the foundation of the FiT Programme was based on Sanatana Dharma was made clear straight from the trial intake in October 2013. Sree Maa Shri Ji have always been most transparent and open.

The agenda of the nexus

Sarah Bull’s case was happening against a backdrop of Hindu hate that had already been sown – Sanatana Dharma was seen as a religious threat to Protestant America. The Shakti that Swami Vivekananda and other swamis brought to US shores was touching and awakening many jivatmas (incarnational sparks). This is something the Protestant Christians would not have liked, as this meant they were losing followers. Same way, the Ultimate Shakti, Quantum Vortex Scalar Wave Photon Pulse, that Paratpar Guru Shriji bring onto this earth would be ruffling the feathers of the Christian church who is focused on converting and soul harvesting as much as possible. This conversion business was happening throughout the colonial period and is still ongoing today. 

The reason they had to run a smear campaign against Sree Maa Shri Ji is because they wanted to attack Sanatana Dharma. Just like how a lot of smear campaigns were run against Swami Vivekanand, but also Yoganand and other well-known Yogis and Gurus. In both cases it was the nexus up to the same tricks with the same agenda: to demonize Hindus and Hinduism. It was the nexus of church, media and Sarah Bull’s daughter back in 1911 and in 2018 it was church, media and two disgruntled narcissistic ex-volunteers used by Christian anti-cult watch groups. 

Even Hinduism was coined to attack Hindus and to vilify their thousands of years old Dharma, known as Santana Dharma. It may appear as Hinduphobia (fear of someone else’s practices), but what this trio are aiming for is to diminish, disparage, vilify and attack Sanatana Dharma because of the deep hate arising out of the Christian doctrines of hate for idolatry and therefore it should aptly be understood as Hindumisia.

The left leaning intellectuals also have concocted this hatred without realising that they are only furthering the extreme right-wing idealism of demonising Hindus as heathens, and to do that a trope was fabricated by the colonialists called ‘caste’.

Misusing apostates for their own purposes

Using disgruntled ex-volunteers or ex-members for their own purposes is also a copy past tactic. In any group or organisation there can be members who leave on a bad note for personal or other reasons – by no means are such people representative of all the people that are part of a certain group, organisation or movement. It is these people that the so-called anti-cult organisations purposefully seek out to use and make a cult claim against any religious or spiritual group that is not in line with the prevailing Christian doctrine. This was one of the key observations and flaws identified amongst the anti-cult rhetoric in official documents in Europe - described in an academic paper called Moral Panics and Anti-Cult Terrorismin Western Europe.

Once you understand these tactics used by the church in tandem with sold media, academia and anti-cult watch groups (who somehow always seem to be Christian based), you will see how they are applied time and again and you can use your own discernment to decide how much credence to give to those stories.

Look beneath the surface

When one does a Google search for key rules or principles of journalism, similar answers come up.

The American press institute starts with the following key rules:

·         Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.

·         Its first loyalty is to citizens.

·         Its essence is a discipline of verification.

·         Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.

·         It must serve as an independent monitor of power.

Other much quoted principles online are:

·         Truth and Accuracy. “Journalists cannot always guarantee 'truth' but getting the facts right is the cardinal principle of journalism.

·         Independence.

·         Fairness and Impartiality.

·         Humanity.

·         Accountability.

Noble and high principles that sadly some journalists seem to have thrown out the window.
There are plenty of examples we can find in current day media where bias comes through blatantly in an article. One such example is an article about Kosmic Fusion and its Founders by Steve Kilgallon and Tony Wall in an online New Zealand newspaper called Stuff.

These two proudly call themselves national correspondents but have miserably failed to uphold basic principles of journalism. They shamelessly published an extremely biased article that demonized two selfless people doing good and sharing a most uplifting Frequency for the benefit of humanity.

Biased apparent right off the bat

For this article one doesn’t even need to look beneath the surface to see it is biased, Hinduphobic and Hindumisic. The very start of the article shows the attitude and bias of the two journalists. They took photos of the murtis from Sree Maa Shri Ji’s home temple and wrote ‘Bad vibrations’ underneath it. Who in their right (journalistic) mind would do such a thing?

Would they ever dare to do this with a statue of Jesus on the cross? Of course, they wouldn’t. Beheadings are done if someone drew prophet Mohammed, but these journalists will not report on that. However, they felt no qualms taking photos of Deities that are very dear and sacred to Sree Maa Shri Ji and abuse these photos. On top of that they ‘decorated’ the article page with incense smoke. These two so-called journalists were clearly taking a dig at Hinduism.

The reason for this becomes clearer when you look beneath the surface.

When you read through the article, one of the things that strikes immediately is the use of only Christian words and concepts. If Steve’s and Tony’s own leaning and understanding only extends to Christianity, they should have made sure to interview experts on areas where they are lacking.

 Quoting again from the principles as described by the American press institute:

“This “journalistic truth” is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts. Then journalists try to convey a fair and reliable account of their meaning, subject to further investigation.”

“Seeking out multiple witnesses, disclosing as much as possible about sources, or asking various sides for comment, all signal such standards. This discipline of verification is what separates journalism from other forms of communication such as propaganda, advertising, fiction, or entertainment.”

All of the above, the journalists have failed to honour though they try to make it appear as if they have consulted multiple people.

What is clear in the article is that the journalists have not consulted any Vedic expert or someone who understands Shakti. Instead, they quote a professor who has never even experienced Quantum Vortex Scalar Wave-Photon Pulse to give his comment. What kind of a scientist is this that talks about something without researching it?

They also failed to consult a psychiatrist or psychologist to explain the basics about narcissistic personality disorder and only gave passing reference to narcissism.

Had these two journalists bothered to do their due diligence, they would have learnt that people who suffer from narcissism run a smear campaign when they are being called out for their toxic behaviour. This would have put the words of the two ex-volunteers who were asked to leave after 5 years of discordant and toxic behaviour in a much different perspective. Instead, the journalists gave them a carte blanche to play their victim card – something that narcissists also love to do.

What is more disturbing is the fact that the so-called experts that Tony and Steve do portray extensively in their article are heavily involved in the Christian church – though this is not disclosed in the article. A clear breach of the journalistic principle “disclosing as much as possible about sources”.

‘Experts’ linked to the Christian church

It does take a little digging to find out the truth about the sources mentioned in the article, but one doesn’t have to be a super sleuth.

One key expert that is extensively quoted is Mark Vrankovich, described as “the executive director of cult monitoring organisation Cultwatch”. One look at the about page of Cultwatch and its Christian roots and purpose are obvious.

Its website says: "Cultwatch is a para-church organisation made up of people from different Christian denominations." and "Cultwatch is a Christian based organisation dedicated to helping people from all walks of life." This is followed by a long list of what they believe in which is all about Christ and the Christian doctrine.

The official document of the “Charitable Trust” called “Cultwatch” shows it was registered in 1995 and the purpose of Cultwatch is and i quote “: "To endeavour to reinforce Christian doctrine and to teach Christian people and Christian leaders concerning the adverse effect of mind control" and "To defend historical and orthodox Christian doctrine".

Mark Vrankovich also has close ties with Ian Mander who manages the website cults.co.nz, which clearly states “The list will be of most use to Christians in New Zealand, as the list entries have been written from a Christian perspective with New Zealanders in mind.” This website lists anything that is not of a certain Christian doctrine as a cult, from astrology to meditation to yoga and particularly anything related to Sanatana Dharm (Hinduism) is classified as ‘danger’. Why this need to call anything that is not their particular Christian doctrine a cult?

Also extensively quoted in the article is Peter Lineham “professor of religious history at Massey University”. A small internet search reveals that this professor has particular interest in preaching Christianity on radio and other media, see for example this podcast interview with him.

With having such clear objectives of reinforcing Christian doctrine in their lives, how can the commentary of Mark Vrankovich and Peter Lineham be unbiased or even fair? And why did the journalists not reveal the strong Christian background and objectives of these two key sources?

No integrity

But then again, when the journalists couldn’t even get basic facts right in their article, it didn’t give much confidence for the rest of the content. For example, there were only ever a maximum of 3 volunteers living in the Ashram house, whereas they claim 12.

The one volunteer living in the Ashram house from start to finish, they also ‘failed’ to interview as they knew this person would relay facts that wouldn’t fit their agenda and narrative. Neither did they interview the one person who had worked closely with Joy Kuo (now calling herself Joy Vottus) for 5 years and had been the prime victim of her narcissistic abuse. His testimony would definitely not fit with their agenda, so they avoided contacting him.

Their seeking out witnesses is selective at best but would probably fall under the qualification of deceptive.

Rather than honest and verified reporting these two so-called journalists showed no integrity. They lent themselves for a smear campaign by two narcissists and worse they lent themselves for propaganda of the Christian church that  since the start of colonial times has been demonizing Hindus and Hinduism.

The next blog will explore the larger context in which this Hindumisic article was written.