Monday, December 7, 2009

Deepak Chopra, according to AoL

I was in the room with him the day he told us Chopra had called him to negotiate the Sudarshan Kriya. According to Ravishankar, Chopra told him they should join forces and charge a lot more for the technique, promising him more clients and fame. Ravishankar made fun of Chopra, declaring Chopra is after money and fame but he is after helping people and changing the world. Mockingly, he put Chopra down, and of course, we admired our Guru then. He told us how Chopra had been sending spies to our courses and he was now teaching our pranayamas and other processes in his workshops.
Clearly, Deepak Chopra, the loser.

I then saw Chopra at the Bangalore Ashram during the inauguration of the Mantap. Rumours about his presence spread quickly in a victorious ecstatic tone. Finally, he was there paying respect to our Guru! You see, there was a story about an astrologer telling Chopra he would be at the feet of a guru of Southern India, and that his life time mission was to surrender to this Guru. Of course, rumor also was this Guru was Sri Sri Ravishankarji and that Chopra was too arrogant to surrender to anyone. Not only did Chopra not touch Ravi’s feet on that occasion but he also left earlier. We rested our case.

When Michael Jackson died and Deepak Chopra was interviewed non-stop by Larry King and other media sources, I, for the first time asked myself the questions: Does Chopra really need more fame and wealth than what he already has? Does Chopra really need the help of Sri Sri in order to be more respected? How much does Chopra really need the Sudarshan Kriya and the blessings of Sri Sri? Chopra has evidently achieved all his results very successfully, efficiently, by his own means. Was it not then that Sri Sri needed Chopra’s name and success and not the way around? I wonder what is Chopra’s version of the story, if at all, there ever were such stories!

And then, one day, I did what we were told we should never do: read about mantras, initiations, ex TMers blogs, etc. To my surprise, I found the following:

We provide info on the bliss, primordial sound, and nighttime techniques below. If you think your head might explode (medical term) or you might otherwise come to harm by reading this, please read no further. You could, of course, just save this message without reading it until some day in the future when you want to save yourself 700 bucks or more. We absolutely do not recommend that you practice or even try these techniques. We struggle with the idea that we are doing people a disservice by providing information about something which may cause them harm. But we count it more compelling to expose the secrets and give people the dignity of making their own choices.

1986, Instructor: Deepak Chopra Bliss technique: I was instructed to put my attention briefly on the heart region before beginning regular TM, and then to allow the mantra to resonate there as I meditated. He suggested that I would feel warm flows of "soma" emanating there. During rest afterwards, I was supposed to hold awareness of the entire body -- especially the circulating soma -- in my awareness.
(www.minet.org)


The instructions of Sahaj are, “Become aware of the area of the heart, and from that region, take the mantra and let go.” Which is what makes it different from the TM practise, which instructions are to repeat the mantra all the time. According to Sri Sri, of course, Sahaj was a lot deeper than TM.

Sri Sri had stolen from Chopra and not the way around! Sahaj Samadhi was a cheap copy of Chopra’s bliss technique, which, according to testimonies, was taught during a short time because it did not go well!

Mike Myer’s movie “Love Guru” ended up being a real satire of Sri Sri and AoL. It is true Sri Sri is dying to come out in Larry King’s and Oprah’s shows. In fact, so many letters have been written to Oprah, AoL has apparently been black listed as a “sect.” It is true Sri Sri is constantly competing with Chopra, just like the Love Guru. It is true Sri Sri is constantly brown nosing VIPs, people with money, beautiful women, etc. in order to escalate. Someone in a public talk asked him once, “How come you are always surrounded by beautiful women?” (If at least he liked women, but, unfortunately, is not even the case. Publicity, it is all about marketing. Just like the car and alcohol industries use women in their commercial to boost sales, Sri Sri does not differ too much from them).

Sahaj was “borrowed” from Chopra and Chopra is instead scrutinized. Sri Sri is constantly worried about someone stealing his Sudarshan Kriya. It takes one to know another. Thanks to internet though, you can now download it FOR FREE.

I wonder what Deepak Chopra would think about all of this. In fact, I would love to have tea with him one day. Could someone set this up? Thank you.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for this wonderful site. I have done the basic course from AOL and found them secretive and cultish to the core. I am a yoga practitioner for many years much before coming to AOL. THe AOL techniques are no different than many popularly known techniques in Yoga. The best way to bust this cult is to make known in public what these people teach. Then people will realize it is no different. It would help if you tell in the site the so called advanced techniques like Padmasadhana and Mudras.

The Honest Truth About TM said...

Klim wrote:

Sri Sri had stolen from Chopra and not the way around! Sahaj Samadhi was a cheap copy of Chopra’s bliss technique

Actually this is what used to be one of the higher TM "advanced techniques". IIRC with the "Bliss technique" you repeat the word "amritam" in the heart center, not your "personal mantra".

While I do not support TM or SSRS, I do believe SSRS's version is superior to TM.

Johnny Profane said...

Honest,

I wrote the article that Klim quotes from. The Bliss Technique seems to have varied a bit. It may be that it was different at different times, or it may be that different customers got different techniques, for instance teacher/Governors received a different technique than regular meditators.

Chopra told me the technique came directly from the Maharishi and was not his invention when he taught me. It was extremely common for the Maharishi to constantly change techniques, which of course was hidden under the blanket of secrecy that the Maharishi demanded.

John M. Knapp, LMSW
Knapp Family Counseling

Bob said...

Thank you for this blog, Klim. On 12/8/09 you wrote that Sahaj Samadhi was copied from Chopra's bliss technique. The only AOL course I ever took was the basic one (several years ago) and I haven't continued to do it. I always wanted to take the meditation course, but I've done TM, and, having heard that that Sahaj Samadhi is very similar, I thought it might not be worth my while to learn it. Can you tell me how to do Sahaj Samadhi, or tell me how it differs from TM? Or can you direct me to somewhere on the internet where instructions can be obtained?
Thanks,
Bob

Bob said...

Thank you for this blog, Klim. On 12/8/09 you wrote that Sahaj Samadhi was copied from Chopra's bliss technique. The only AOL course I ever took was the basic one (several years ago) and I haven't continued to do it. I always wanted to take the meditation course, but I've done TM, and, having heard that that Sahaj Samadhi is very similar, I thought it might not be worth my while to learn it. Can you tell me how to do Sahaj Samadhi, or tell me how it differs from TM? Or can you direct me to somewhere on the internet where instructions can be obtained?
Thanks,
Bob

AoL-Free said...

Bob, the difference between the two meditation techniques is stated in the article. Best wishes.

Bob said...

Klim. Thanks for your response.
What I am unclear about is...you say that SSRS stole Sahaj Samadhi from Chopra, and that it differs from TM because you don't continue to repeat the mantra. However,Chopra taught the "bliss technique" under auspices of the TM organization. So, if SS differs from the TM version, it must also differ from Chopra's version (which was TM's version). Bob

AoL-Free said...

It is exactly that.

P Naik said...

Who cares about who stole from what and from whom? The key thing is to realize that SSRS is charging an arm and a leg to breathe free air, albeit slowly and with variation in inhalation/exhalation!