Rick wrote: I also know people much closer to Amma than these critics ever were. I've driven and chatted with the woman who is Amma's private attendant who sleeps in her room, etc., as well as her public attendant. These two are with her 24/7. I was very impressed with both of them. They are down-to-earth, unassuming, natural, good- humored, and not at all weird or secretive about Amma, the way their counterparts in the TM movement would probably be. They may be unaware of the things you bring up, but I doubt it because they are like her shadows, and hear everything. In fact, not only those two, but the swamis who have been with her for decades would impress just about anyone with their simplicity, humility, and genuineness. Maharishi used to say that you can judge the quality of a guru by the quality of the people around him, and if that is true, these folks are an impressive testimonial.
Bronte writes: Yes, Maharishi said that, and look at the quality of guru he turned out to be. It's just more dogma to repeat that statement, Rick. You have to look past what Maharishi says or Amma says or Amma's attendant says. Remember all those years you said you knew that MMY had something funny going on his room at night with the girls, all the skin boys who left the organization, telling you and the others when they left what MMY was up to? When I asked you why you stayed on in the movement in spite of that, you said it's because you thought the skin boys were just unstressing heavily, that they were imagining things. It was a case of you not being willing to see what was right in front of you, because you had so much of yourself invested in it. Very human, very understandable. But a big mistake. Now there are lots of questions surfacing around Amma. The ex-amma website, which has only been up a short while, has hundreds of posts with remarkable first-person accounts. Are you willing to read them? Of course that won't be easy. It's much more comfortable to say "I know a few people who are in like flint with her, and if anything was amiss they would know it and tell me." That's an excuse for avoiding looking openly at evidence. If what you believe is true, you will come away more convinced of it after reading what the critics have to say. Or maybe you'll come away more convinced but still be wrong in your opinion. No matter. At least you'll have looked. You'll have opened up to new information that at a later date may prove relevant, in the context of other information that later comes to you. You told me the skin boys knew what was going on all those years but couldn't admit it to themselves. They made up excuses for MMY in their minds. They were good kids, trying to find a justifiable place for what they were seeing within their worldview. How do you know it's not exactly the same thing with these higher-up Amma people you place such unquestioning trust in? Just because they're good people, or seem to be -- do you rest your judgment on that? That is a weak basis on which to form a sound opinion, especially on a matter of such import. You play a major role, Rick, in advertising Amma to the world and bringing in new recruits. I think you have an obligation to all the people you influence, not to mention to yourself, to read and consider the claims these people are making. To read them, and to keep your eyes and ears open. To ask questions.
