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.