I forwarded Bronte’s post to a friend whom I thought might be in a position to respond to it, and here’s her response:
Here's what I know about the charges. I'm in a bit of a unique situation as I'm sure I know the original poster. His name is Gary A., and we used to be friends when we were both SRF people who had just come to Amma. He's stayed at my house and I've stayed at his (former) house in the Bay area. His spiritual name (given by Amma) is Aniruddhan, a name he has posted under. I suspect that he himself is the "consultant" who went to India. The truth is that he was living with a nurse, Donna (also SRF), who was actually asked to go to the AIMS hospital as a consultant, and he thought he'd go there and snoop around, see what he could find out. (He told me that before he went there.) There my clarity disappears. I know he was not happy with what he found and actually confronted Amma Herself about it. My friend M. told me that. It was while they were on tour, by the side of the road outside her motorhome. Since he received no satisfaction, he apparently made it his mission to "expose" Amma. What I do know about Gary is that on a personal level he turned out (again according to M.) to be a real creep towards Donna. I can't recall all the details, but I know she caught him going online and soliciting dates with other women. Then when she broke up with him, he began making threatening phone calls to her--or something like that. Since he can't seem to maintain a relationship with a woman, if you know the right sites online, you could probably pretend to be a comely lass and mention your interest in Ammachi and he might even still be out there cruising. So on a personal level he's a troubled guy. I don't know what to think about the charges, which I have read before on other sites. I do know a former nun who also says that Amma has yelled "You sons of bitches get on the bus!" when she was on tour in India. That is factual, as far as I can tell. I know that when my friend Laurie was treated at the AIMS Hospital (for a staph infection) her surgery, medicines, and treatment for five days was about $14, which struck us as extremely reasonable. Since she would have been considered "wealthy" by Indian standards, they could have charged several times that and she would not have minded. But they didn't. I have no idea (other than offical Ammadom) where you could go to get the real scoop. If I go to India again, I'd like to go to the orphanage and check out Gary's charges. That should be pretty easy to verify. Previously when I've thought deeply about these charges, what I've come down to is that Amma is a genuine saint and Gary is a troubled soul. So I'm sticking with Amma. One thing's for sure: No poor people would have been treated at AIMS if Amma hadn't built it. No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.12/1096 - Release Date: 10/27/2007 11:02 AM
