I am speculating, Steve, based on experience, both with Indians, and with the TM movement.
No one who has ever worked for the TM movement for "room and board plus course credit" and then had that course credit taken away on a whim by Maharishi because his cash flow was low will ever believe what they read in a TMO press release. I have no doubts that many of the pandits there, having been immersed in a TM "We're the greatest because we alone are saving the world" environment for years, feel as if they are there for a Cosmic Purpose, doing something valuable and wonderful. I mean, look at Lawson, who, as I understand it, has never worked for the TM movement in his life, but spends an inordinate amount of his time arguing about the absolute supremacy of TM on the Internet. There is just no accounting for True Believers and the things they do. No, I don't know for sure that my jaundiced view of the "pandit program" is correct, but I contend that it is a reasonable extrapolation of the facts as presented so far. The pandits ARE recruited in their pre-pubescence from poor families who can barely afford to support them, and they ARE essentially sold into indentured servitude by their parents (they can't be held responsible for the decision, because they're minors) for the promise of $150 per month plus (hopefully) an education for their sons. They ARE paid only $50 per month, the $150 (hopefully) going to their parents. They ARE being paid *at most* $2.50 an hour to perform services that the TM organization then charges thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for. All of these things are FACTS, even if you believe the TM press releases. I'm suggesting that this is a human rights travesty, and that those who condone it are lower than the lint in a snake's navel. Your mileage may vary. ________________________________ From: "steve.sun...@yahoo.com" <steve.sun...@yahoo.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 5:00 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: A Hurt Community, Bevan Morris Role We all pick up on different things, don't we? My information comes from the original reports in which many of the pundit "boys" were quoted as saying that they were embarrassed by the incident, and that it ran contrary to why they were there. You can look up the original article if you want. I think I got it pretty much right. But the picture you are creating is more of child, or at least people trafficking, and I think it is inaccurate. But tell me, apart from your theory that they and their families are too brainwashed to know better, who is forcing them to come, and/or stay there? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : I don't know, but neither do you, and neither do any of the people supporting this program. Where did the "reports" you cite come from? The TM movement will not allow any of the actual pandits to be interviewed. Even if they did, would they/could they tell the truth, if Girish's organization (which has been described in the Indian press as a "Mafia") could harm their families at home in reprisal? The one thing everyone *can* agree on is that they are being exploited, and for money. They are paid $1.66 a day to chant yagyas that the TM movement charges tens of thousands of dollars for. ________________________________ From: "steve.sundur@..." <steve.sundur@...> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 1:40 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: A Hurt Community, Bevan Morris Role Sort of sounds like you're building a pretty iron clad case. The reports I've seen indicate that most of the pundits seem happy with the arrangement. But I guess what you are saying that they are too brain washed to know otherwise. It sounds like a program would not serve your needs, but maybe it is working fine for the pundits and their families who participate. On the other hand, it sounds like you're saying the brainwashing has been so thorough that they have no choice. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Just following up on your apologetics, Lawson, if you persist in saying that the 20+ year old pandits in America are free to make their own legal decisions, I suggest that you are ignoring two important issues: 1. Many of them have been "in the program" and behind barbed wire since they were minors as young as 8, and thus incapable of making any legal decisions about whether they want to be there or not. Yes, they had to be at least 20 to sign the TMO slave contracts for the US, but they were too young to legally agree before that. After having been indoctrinated in TM compounds for ten years or more, it's understandable that many of them can no longer imagine any other life, and thus signed whatever was put in front of them for the prospect of a few more rupees and a few more bowls of curry per day. 2. You completely ignore the influence of family on these poor guys. I've worked with many Indian programmers over the years, and have seen at least two dozen of them *forced* by their parents to return to India and marry some woman they'd never met. Yes, "arranged marriages" are still the norm. When asked by me WHY they'd submit to this, they all replied the same: "Family." Their families would disown them if they ever did something they weren't told to do, which in India carries as much of a social stigma as it does in Japan. The pandit boys are *trapped* in their positions, unable to leave them because to do so would make them social outcasts for the rest of their lives. Now back to the money. You've talked about how much John Hagelin makes to be a shill for the TM movement. How much do YOU make to "argue on the Internet" incessantly and be pretty much a full-time apologist for the TM movement? Doesn't it ever occur to you that you're as brainwashed as the pandit boys? ________________________________ From: TurquoiseBee <turquoiseb@...> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 7:27 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: A Hurt Community, Bevan Morris Role Meanwhile you're still lying about the pandits, and pretending that they get paid $200 per month. They do not. They get paid $50 a month, with the other $150 going to the parents who sold them into this program in the first place. They never see a penny of it. Therefore they are paid $1.66 per day, not $6.60 as you claim. Meanwhile, by your own figures below, John Hagelin is paid $438 per day. ________________________________ From: "LEnglish5@..." <LEnglish5@...> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 7:16 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: A Hurt Community, Bevan Morris Role John Haglein is now "Raja" John Hagelin, in charge of the TMO for North America. I was arguing with someone in reddit.com about TM finances and looked at the IRS form 990 records for various TM-related organizations. John is paid $37,000 as President of the DLF. He gets another $36,000 for Global Country of World Peace activities. He gets $87,000 as Trustee and director of the Insitute for Science, etchnology and public policy at MUM. By far, he's the highest-paid TMer in North America. I haven't looked into what he is paid or not as Raja -usually that is a non-compensated position, as you have to pay (or get someone to pay for you) $1 million for the post. L
