--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > on 6/21/06 7:03 AM, Vaj at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> > >> > >> The WIE has details provided by him and his people. Where's the independent > >> articles? > >> > One of Amma¹s senior swamis told me that SSRS made a big show of doing a lot > of tsunami disaster relief in Sri Lanka, but when Amma¹s crew got there to > do some actual work, officials complained to them that the SSRS group had > apparently just been seeking publicity, and hadn¹t actually done anything. >
I think selfless, simple, non-PR-focussed, group service projects by any spriritually oriented group, are a great way to create word-or-mouth and good buzz about a particular program. Ironically, when I was more directly involved with AoL in the mid 90's, I used to recommend that -- instead of more direct promotion that SSRS was suggesting at that paticualar time (paraphrasing "the program is the highest need of the world today, thus promoting it is the highest seva. Better to promote AoL as seva than other things"). That sounded SO familiar and was part of my distncing process from AoL (Though I still think highly of SSRS as a teacher, mentor, friend and presence.) I was quite tired of the TM proselytizing ethos in the TMO, and particularly as a TM teacher. And this mid-90's directive does not seem to be universal in AoL. Since then, I have seen some community public AoL projects. And I know of some who do a lot of good NGO work in thrid world countries under auspiciouses of AoL -- but focus on the seva. And they have (had .. not sure of current status) prison program, childrens programs in India, etc. So for AoL its a mixed bag. On a spectrum, perhaps the TMO is on one end, Amma's group on the other, and AoL somewhere in the middle as far as selfless community group projects. Though I would guess even Amma's group is not perfect in this regard -- I have heard some PR-focus and oddities there too. So your comments about AoL's recent PR focuss don't surprise me. Particularly given the trend I have viewed, from afar, in the past 10 years, that AoL has more and more "bliss-ninnies" aka mood-maker types -- who are REALLY devoted to "this highest teaching" and "Best Master", etc. Its about "the Big Thing I am involved in" and less the practice and seva. In such an environment, the ends begin to justify the means. PR trumps substance in seva projects. Its too bad. The phenomenon occurs in mainstream religions. The catholic church, and evangelicals, have done a lot of great seva type things. But often with strong strings attached. It appears that PR/conversion-focussed seva is a downer and often backfires -- regardless of the organization. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Check out the new improvements in Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lik1AB/fOaOAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
