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 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.

 

White people’s pseudo equity and the witch hunt against Hindus

 The other day my daughter came home from school upset. Her classmates, and even the teacher, were all saying negative things about India. The students were given an article to read about India and instead of talking about the beauty, the spiritual wisdom that Bharat (India) holds, it was something negative and putting down the festival of Diwali. Will save the details of the article for another blog, but this type of bias and slander is no exception. Every time a Western newspaper writes about India, it is filled with bias, ignorance, and often is some sort of attack on India and Hinduism.

The argument that was also brought up in class was that India has a caste system and that is very unequal. A much-heard argument. Have learnt when looking at something to always start from the top and understand the back-story. Was also brought up with this notion of India has a caste system, but once I came to understand Sanatana Dharma better and did some research into history, a completely different picture emerged.

The truth about caste system

Sanatana Dharma describes something called Varna Ashram Dharma, the gist of which is explained in below image by a Sanatani from India that I found very enlightening. The Varna system is diametrically opposed to caste. Caste is the Portuguese word for class and is not in any of the Hindu Shastras (Scriptures).

This is not something that many people know, but the caste concept was created by the British colonialists to control and destroy Indian culture. In this interview Pandit Satish Sharma and author of the book “Caste, Conversion, A Colonial Conspiracy”, explains how the missionaries decided that the fabric of Hindu society had to be broken apart if they wanted to convert people. That is when they decided to deploy this divide and rule strategy of the caste system.

The Varna system is fluid and flexible, and non-hierarchical. Pandit Satish Sharma also gives a simple and beautiful explanation of the Varna Ashram system from 11:35 min to 15:15 mins (or even 24 mins if you have the time). It is a system where everyone has a place and a role to play which creates homeostasis in the community which is different from societies in western countries that are often based on hierarchical structures and competitiveness.

It is an internationally spread lie that Hindus are casteist, a lie that has created a lot of hatred against Hindus. It is a hate trope proliferated by the colonialists and churches. First the Britishers created the word Hinduism (real word is Sanatana Dharma), just so they could demonize and attack this group of people. Then they created a concept of castes because that is what gave them a leverage to bring Hindus down. Once the white people found out that Hindus are the most scientific, whites had to bring them down. An agenda that has been going on against Hindus for over 4 centuries.

“The word caste is prepackaged Hinduphobia in one word. It is a hate trope.” – Satish Sharma

Brahmins are often most vilified and accused of discrimination against other castes. It is worth looking a little bit deeper into Sanatan Dharma, Brahmins and why Brahmins were targeted especially so we can revisit what we have assumed to be truth. To put it in the words of Satish Sharma “It is important to undo this colonialist hate trope that has been placed around the neck of every Hindu.”

The reason behind the witch hunt against Hindus and Brahmins

The more I learn about Sanatana Dharma, the more I am in awe and can see that the stories that have been created around Hindus being silly idol worshippers, being backwards and casteist are part of an agenda and far from the truth.

Sanatana Dharma - Sanatana means eternal, Dharma can be loosely translated into righteous way of living. This in very simple terms means living in sync with Nature and the Cosmos, in tune with Cosmic Principles. In our incarnated expressions we are energy beings. Sanatanis know this more than anyone and know how to keep their energy field elevated.

Pretty much everyone in the world knows about the greeting of Namaste, it is widely appropriated also. What this means is the Brahman (True Self) within me is witnessing the Brahman in you. It is an understanding that on this plane we both are just energy interacting. One energy being identifying the other energy being and interacting. Sanatanis understand that every tattva (element) inside, every bit and piece inside is nothing but moving energy. We are pure energy beings.

Everything that you can read in the Vedas, the science is that you are an energy being. That’s why you wear a certain kind of outfit, therefore you follow a certain kind of daily routine. The clothes that ancient Indians wore were only one cloth wrapped around the body so that nothing cuts their energy. Nothing would be sitting on the navel, which is the seat of the jivatma. Then they would have elements like gold, silver, copper etc. Everything that they wore was organic, something upping their energy field. In Sanatana Dharma our common identity is understood to be Atma (true spark) and any other identity is a temporary cover. Imagine the depth of knowledge and understanding that is held in Sanatana Dharma.

Sanatana Dharma used to be around the world. There are many temples found in places other than current day India, including Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mekka etc. Brahmins were once there too. As soon as Brahmins were destroyed there, everyone forgot who they were, their essence as Atma, their True Self and highest potential as Brahmroop, because there was no teacher to remind them.

A Brahmin was a learned person, a scholar, dedicating many hours of his life to studying the Shastras, realizing Brahman and learning the mantras and methods of doing rituals. He gave his time and energy and then received a donation. Generation of Brahmins have selflessly served others by offering their time and knowledge to them.

If you look at Dharma (righteous conduct), the Dharma of a Shudra is different from a Brahmin. For a Brahmin, without a shower he can’t eat. But for a Shudra this is okay. Brahmins wanted to hold on to their energy template to the highest possible level, never deplete and always replenish it and increase their vibration by doing the Gayatri Mantra. The Dharma of a Brahmin was very disciplined so that he could maintain this energetic elevation.

Just on a side note, what Brahmins were doing, aren’t we doing that right now? Wearing a mask, washing hands and social distancing to not pick up some disease from someone. We do understand that we can pick up something from someone else. We believe our fear is real, but if the Brahmins understood the metaphysical vibrations and how something can be passed on, then why are they being called out for that? I believe these are things we need to reflect on to be able to come out of our biases.

When you put the pieces of the puzzle together, the picture that emerges is clear. The colonialist Britisher hated Brahmins as they resisted conversion to Christianity. To the Britishers, Brahmins posed the highest level of threat to their agenda. To destroy the fabric of Hindu society and the upholders of knowledge so they could establish their rule and conversion agenda, the Britishers created the caste system, which has been used as a weapon against Indians till date.

It is interesting to note that this Christian conversion agenda, with India as a prime target, is still going on today as is explained in detail with ample proof by Karolina Goswami in this Youtube video and this one . The sad reality is that people who are trying to convert Indians want to get rid of Brahmins so that people forget their true identity and can be converted. That is why this witch hunt against Hindus and that is why the allegation of caste system is still being proliferated by the church, media and academia around the world today.

White people’s pseudo equality and equity

White people are always talking about equality and equity but seem to be selectively applying it. The Netherlands prides itself on equal rights and Dutch people are the first to stand up for LGBTQs but have never seen us stand up for the Brahmins or Hindus. Why is that? Instead, we hold our biases and hold all sorts of judgements against Hinduism. We actually are so misguided and deluded that we are criticizing Hindus for the caste system, a system that was created by white people in the first place. I have been thinking about this for a long time and done my research. This has given me an opportunity to come out of my personal bias and out of the narratives spun against Hindus and Hinduism. It has also opened my eyes to the irony and hypocrisy that we as white people are pointing fingers at Hindus in the name of equality and equity. Our own people tried to colonize them and tried to sell them Christianity, convert Hindus out of some white man’s burden nonsense. Today we claim to believe in freedom and democracy, what happened to democracy then? By the way, an excellent, impactful response to white man’s burden can be read here.

What right did we have in the first place to colonize other nations? My epigenetics is made of my ancestors. My ancestors colonized numerous other nations including India and traded over 1.5 million people as slaves. Talk about a horrible history. I would like to deeply apologize on their behalf, on behalf of all Dutch people. I know we have wronged certain nations and so many people, and I don’t agree what is going on in the name of equity today.

Am very happy at least the mayor of Amsterdam has given an official apology for the colonial crimes and slave trade and believe the prime minister of the Netherlands should do the same. I find it astounding that after all that the Britishers did to the Indians, there is not even one apology from them. The British colonialists looted India’s wealth and brought so much destruction. A whopping 45 trillion dollars’ worth of wealth the Britishers took out of India. The kind of destruction of life the Church has done is tremendous, but we have yet to hear an apology from the pope to the Hindus. What are we talking about equity? As long as this has not been set straight, we cannot talk about big subjects like equity and do a witch hunt of people in India. Really wonder sometimes, what is wrong with our conscience that we are still behaving like our ancestors in the name of pseudo democracy and pseudo equality?

What real equity looks like

Real equity is rooted in a deeper understanding of life and truth. Rather than pointing fingers at Hindus, I believe we should open our hearts and minds and learn from Hindus. So many Hindu temples let white people come in. If they want to take on to Sanatana Dharma and become a follower of ISKON or another Sampraday, white people are allowed to enter. You will never see any injustice being done to a white person. A person’s skin colour doesn’t come in the way. The first thing that Sanatanis see is that you are Atma (the true spark), you have the right to access Bhagwan, Ishwar and Gnan just like any other Atma has. I can vouch for this personally. Have always been accepted with open arms. If we don’t see Hindus holding white people to account for what their ancestors did, then we as white people should learn something from them. Hindus have always practiced equity. It is us as white people who need to learn how to practice real equity and not point fingers at Hindus.

We need to take responsibility for our colonial past and stop proliferating this false notion of caste system, which was created by white people in the first place with a destructive agenda. We as white people need to do our inner corrections, come out of our biases and white superiority complex, stop pushing our flawed concepts and way of thinking onto others and appreciate the pluralism of humanity.