Typical TM cult bullshit. I point out a few highlights: 1. When striving to increase compensation for the pandits, only one "solution" seems to be visible to Goldstein and the TMO -- ask people for more money: "Would it be nice if their compensation was greater? Certainly, and I know the Pandits would appreciate that too. Additional donations are being sought to enable this and are solely used towards that end when received."
2. While heading back to the email machines begging TMers for more money, there is no mention of the fact that the organization feeling that it has to pass off the costs of this program to its members is sitting on assets of over a billion dollars. 3. During this whole exercise in spin and distraction, the one thing that Goldstein and company have tried *most* to distract people from is that the pandits are a *profit-creating entity*. The TMO charges people thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for "Maharishi yagyas." No mention of this seems to be made in his "accounting." No mention of the obvious disparity in charging these fees while paying the people who do the work to provide them are paid 63 cents an hour and housed behind barbed wire has been made. Same old shuck 'n jive routine. Business as usual. What is saddest is that I'll bet their "donations" actually GO UP. That's how brainwashed TMers are. ________________________________ From: Rick Archer <r...@searchsummit.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 4:30 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Bill Goldstein in Des Moines Register on Pundits Of Press and Pandits The quest for controversy often overshadows the quest for truth in today’s media. But in the process that is now following after the March 11 “Dust Up” in Vedic City, Iowa, reported by Rekha Basu in Sunday’s Register I trust the ensuing discussion will serve our public interest. So I thank Rekha Basu for making her first trip to our community in Vedic City, which has been established for 17 years and for beginning the overdue process of informing Iowa of what is going on in our unique piece of this great State. First, some facts. On Friday, I provided to Rekhu the budget on the Pandit project. She advised me that it was unfortunately too late to be included in the Sunday edition. So I summarize it now for you: • $14 million dollars to build the Pandit campus facilities, including the residences and common building — all of them modern, custom designed and built, modular units. • The monthly costs to operate the project, including stipends, wages, food, repair, maintenance, G and A, and Pandit travel to and from India, etc. averaged $600,000 per month in 2013. • All these costs are covered by donations from numerous benefactors to the non-profit 501c)3) educational organization that runs the project, for which I have served as counsel for the last 12 years. • The four years before the first Pandit arrived in the U.S. in 2007 were spent laying out the design of the program and facilities,in construction, on logistics and getting the necessary government approvals from the US State Department, USCIS and Indian authorities after numerous meetings, memos and discussions for which I earned many frequent flier miles. It would be nice if the facilities were grander, the stipends larger, and the weather warmer. And it would be nice, if unrealistic, to presume we could anticipate all the myriad challenges that such an unprecedented cultural exchange might engender. But after seven-and-a-half years, and considering the reasonable financial constraints and cross-cultural differences, I personally don’t think it fair to say we are doing badly. But that is for you to decide. The fact is that after 2,499 days of apparently non-newsworthy peace, one morning recently, a small minority of the Pandits on the campus behaved quite badly (it appears that about a dozen threw rocks) when they perceived that the Sheriff was taking away their leader and friend to jail for some unknown criminal act. The Sheriff was not, in fact, there for that purpose, but merely as a precaution to assist the administrators who were returning that individual to India for an internal administrative breach of his authority. But that was the group’s perception and their unfortunate reaction. The lesson: The Sheriff won’t be requested to assist in such a process in the future. We will do better next time and we thank Sheriff Morton for his exemplary and professional restraint. And those behaving badly have now been removed from the campus. The religious vocation (“Monk or Nun”) visa they have been issued by USCIS, which has been very carefully reviewed in each individual case by the State Department and USCIS prior to issuance (2,600 visas in all to date), strictly confines by its terms what the Pandit can do, where they can do it, and what the compensation is. They are only to engage, on a full-time basis, in their religious vocation of meditation, Vedic performances, and Vedic study. It is not hard labor or labor of any kind. No other activity, secular or non-secular, is permissible. And their stated activities can only take place on the USCIS-approved campus in Vedic City. They are to be provided $200 per month in cash compensation and their room and board, living expenses, medical care, and transport. The campus was inspected and approved by USCIS at the commencement of the program and in subsequent visits by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Simply put, foreign nationals on these Non-Immigrant Visas do not have the same rights that American citizens have. They are limited by the law and by common sense. As Sheriff Morton noted, some farmers have been confronted by Pandits leaving the compound (contrary to the impression the Basu article leaves that this is not possible). What the Sheriff was kind of enough not to note were the details of those stories, e.g., two Pandits who went for a walk in the countryside opened up the door to a farmhouse, which is quite acceptable by Indian village custom, and asked the residents for some water. When they found themselves staring at a shotgun the Pandits realized they might have broached the local cultural norms. Would it be nice if their compensation was greater? Certainly, and I know the Pandits would appreciate that too. Additional donations are being sought to enable this and are solely used towards that end when received. But that is not what they agreed to accept or what we are currently able to provide. $20 million dollars has been expended on this project to date to provide the facilities and benefits for the Pandits. We have not heard of any of them complaining about the campus’s inadequacy or its confining quality It is not irrelevant in my view that the facilities they enjoy here are superior to those where they live in India, though apparently not up to the personal standard Ms. Basu would like for them. Ironically, the fact that 160 of them have walked off the campus or run off when delivered to the airline terminal and not reported back or roamed into the countryside does demonstrate the freedom they actually have. Unfortunately, it is a violation of their visa and may create a real risk to their safety. The sponsoring organization cannot and will not encourage this irresponsible and unlawful behavior. This policy may offend some people’s sense of freedom, but while that is one value we certainly cherish in America it is secondary to the law and the responsibility for their safety we assume in bringing them to America. So let us put this in a context beyond the instant controversy so we can more nearly see the “truth.” More than 2,600 Pandits have come on this unprecedented project in the last seven-and-a-half years. Their sincere and sole purpose, and that of the sponsoring charity, is to help create an influence of peace for America through the group engagement in the ancient spiritual practices they have been carefully trained in. A very small minority of them threw rocks at a Sheriff’s vehicle that they believed, mistakenly, was taking their respected leader to jail. There had been no prior incident of bad or violent behavior in this entire nearly eight year period; 160 of them (about 5%) have left the campus unaccounted for during this same time. About 30 of these have returned voluntarily to date and more are expected to do so. They are then promptly returned to India. This unique program is expected to continue. All involved will learn by our experience and mistakes and will seek to continually optimize its positive effects and minimize its risks. And perhaps most importantly, I hope that we as Iowans will all come to understand and appreciate yet one more of the culturally unique experiments that add to the special richness of our State. Bill Goldstein is Special Counsel to the charity Global Country of World Peace the sponsor of the Pandit project, a Maharishi Vedic City Councilperson, and Dean of Global Development and General Counsel at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield where he has lived and worked for the last 32 years.
