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In solidarity with Satya Esoteric Integral Yoga school
We, the teachers and students of Natha Yogacenter wish to express our concern over the flagrant abuse of spiritual practitioners and the violation of spiritual values by fundamentalist-religious groups and certain parts of the media in India.
The target of this abuse is Satya Esoteric Integral Yoga – a member of the Atman International Federation of Yoga and Meditation, of which Natha Yogacenter Denmark is a full member.
On Friday 3rd June, an attack upon the Indian yoga school – Satya Esoteric Integral Yoga was started. It began with a high profile article on the front page of The Times of India (one of India’s biggest newspapers) falsely denouncing the yoga school as a European sex cult which is dealing in pornography and is aiming to spread throughout India and corrupt its youth. Such ridiculous claims appear even worse in light of the fact that the journalist had a long and friendly talk with the people of Satya Yoga during which they exposed wide segments of their curriculum as well as complete explanations regarding the specificities of their teachings. In the article later published, the journalist wrote misleading facts and lies, completely ignoring all that was said to him and focusing only on the ridiculous accusation of pornography while trying to shed doubt upon the legality of the visas of the teachers of Satya Yoga.
It is peculiar that an article about a small group of volunteers sharing their knowledge of yoga reaches the front page of a paper which is read by millions of people, unless it is inspired by some ill-intended people who are hiding in the shadows. We state this fact as an indirect proof of the hidden interest that exists behind this smear campaign against Satya Yoga since the events that followed also took the same direction.
SPECIAL PROGRAM TO SPIRITUALLY HELP SATYA ESOTERIC INTEGRAL YOGA
Message from Satya Esoteric Integral Yoga
This article was quickly followed by more “reports” in other media, all of them extremely biased, gravely breaching the professional journalistic code of conduct and civic ethics. This was done through deliberate misquotes and misrepresentation as well as the citing of false and deceiving information. For example, one reporter published a fictional interview with one of the volunteers of Satya Yoga which never actually took place. This reporter put together different, unrelated pieces of information combined with blatant lies so that it looked like the Satya volunteer was confessing to dealing with pornography despite the fact that this person had never said anything of the sort. This act is both libelous and fraudulent and highly illegal according to Indian law. Yet none of these journalists were taken to court or even investigated, which would be the usual procedure for such crimes.
As a consequence of these unlawful actions, the media persecution, led by the Times of India, stirred up a fundamental-religious group called Hindu Makkal Katchi and they in turn filed a complaint accusing Satya Yoga of providing sexual therapy and distributing obscene materials. This is another false accusation against a group of people whose only guilt was to practice yoga with dedication and perseverance.
The ensuing police investigation has disrupted the lives of the students and volunteers of Satya Yoga and attempted to shut down the entire activities of this spiritual school. The police officers abusively warned the people of Satya Yoga that they might be harmed by followers of Hindu Makkal Katchi if they continue to meet in the yoga center. Such behaviour from those who are supposed to maintain the peace and order in a country and to protect people from pressure and threats is a severe deviation that we deeply regret and assert as fraudulent.
This activity of aggressive intimidation (by using the pressure of extremist groups) by the Indian police forced the people of Satya Yoga school to temporarily leave the premises. Consequently, we are sad to realize that all the evidence shows that Times of India, guided by the hidden agendas of people from above them, initiated a witch hunt upon yoga practitioners from Satya Yoga school which was carried out by the local police and based solely on false and libelous claims.
These events began during a spiritual gathering attended also by several teachers and students from Natha Yogacenter, Denmark. The gathering was disrupted by these events. Several participants were even afraid to come back to the spiritual gathering. Mihai Stoian, the coordinating teacher of Natha Yogacenter, was also taking part of this spiritual gathering, and became a target of the defamatory campaign of the Indian media. Our students and teachers returned home safely, yet shocked by the events.
This is not the first time that such incidents have taken place. Spiritual schools and practitioners have been wrongfully attacked and derogated throughout the world at least in the past 2 decades. This is also not the first time that such things have happened in India; for instance, there are the cases of Muktananda and the spiritual community of Auroville which were both wrongfully accused without any evidence. In fact, we find striking similarities between these events – the manner with which all media turned against the spiritual movement without showing the other side of the story at all, clear misrepresentation of facts, and the focusing on those accusations of a sexual nature. Also the timing is common to all cases – being chosen for when a certain spiritual movement is growing beyond a certain level. It is significant for us to notice that this campaign started a few days before the new groups of practice were starting in Satya Yoga school, clearly aiming to disrupt this process.
We have found proof that other cases of harassment of some spiritual movements around the world were orchestrated by certain corrupt power circles which oppose genuine spirituality. This is because genuine spirituality is of a real threat to social corruption and helps the ordinary man or woman to spiritually awaken and thus get free from the manipulation that is exerted in most cases by the power holders in the society. We have cause to believe that this is also the case now, due to the striking similarities between these cases as well as some information coming from insiders.
We stand by our Indian colleagues in this time of tests and trials, and offer them our experience in dealing with such defamatory accusations. We wish to reinforce your faith in your success, on account of our success in dealing with such anti-spiritual campaigns. For example, in Romania the court has discharged all accusations made against the spiritual movement and its spiritual guide Gregorian Bivolaru; and in Denmark several media have apologized and the others are now being taken to court for defamation. In both countries, as in others, the spiritual schools thrive and grow, long after the echoes of calumny have subsided.
We stand by you, our brothers and sisters of Yoga, in your quest for truth, justice and love, and we know that good and purity will always eventually win, even though the path may at times be long and hard.
In conclusion, we remember that darkness exists only due to the absence of light, and injustice prevails only when good people don’t stand up for truth. Therefore, we call upon all lovers of spirituality in India, Denmark and all over the world to rise and stand for the spiritual values – write to the Times of India, to other Indian papers, to Human Rights organizations and even to kind and morally oriented politicians who can influence public opinion, express your protest, comment on the articles on-line, and support Satya Esoteric Integral Yoga.
Together, with brotherhood, until Truth and decency will prevail,
The teachers and students of Natha Yogacenter
SPECIAL PROGRAM TO SPIRITUALLY HELP SATYA ESOTERIC INTEGRAL YOGA
Message from Satya Esoteric Integral Yoga
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