Edited by Thomas A. Forsthoefel and Cynthia Ann Humes

245 Pages·2005·1.25 MB·English

Edited by
Thomas A. Forsthoefel and
Cynthia Ann Humes
Gurus in America
SUNY series in Hindu Studies
Wendy Doniger,editor
G U RU S
I N
A M E R I C A
Edited by
Thomas A. Forsthoefel
and
Cynthia Ann Humes
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
ALBANY
© 2005 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gurus in America / edited by Thomas A.Forsthoefel and Cynthia Ann Humes.
p. cm. (SUNY series in Hindu studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-6573-X (hardcover :alk.paper) — ISBN 0-7914-6574-8 (pbk.:
alk.paper)
1.Gurus—United States. 2.Spiritual life—Hinduism. I.Forsthoefel,Thomas A.
II.Humes,Cynthia Ann,1958– II.Series.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of
Tamal Krishna Goswami
disciple,guru,teacher,scholar,friend
you are dearly missed
Time is running out.I have perhaps another twenty years to
serve. I must seriously consider how I can best utilize this
remaining time. Our movement is now firmly established.
Hare Krishna is a household word around the world.Yet I
think that we are still largely misunderstood by others.
Rooted in their own cultures and traditions,they often find
our ways strange.To help them understand, we must first
seek to know them better—their history,their mores,their
faiths.To transmit the finer aspects of Krishna consciousness,
we must first educate our own members. An intelligent
learned clergy with broad educational backgrounds will
then be able to relate our teachings and traditions to those
of other persuasions.Both will be benefited.
Tamal Krishna Goswami
A Hare Krishna at Southern Methodist University
(Dallas:Pundits Press,1998),26–27.

C o n t e n t s
Introduction: Making Waves 1
Thomas A.Forsthoefel and Cynthia Ann Humes
One Raja Yoga and the Guru: Gurani Anjali of
Yoga Anand Ashram,Amityville, New York
15
Christopher Key Chapple
Two Weaving the Inward Thread to Awakening:
The Perennial Appeal of Ramana Maharshi
37
Thomas A.Forsthoefel
Three Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Beyond the TM Technique
55
Cynthia Ann Humes
Four Krishna and Culture:What Happens When
the Lord of Vrindavana Moves to New York City
81
Tamal Krishna Goswami and Ravi M.Gupta
Five Baba’s World:A Global Guru and His Movement
97
Norris W.Palmer
Six Passage to America:Ammachi on American Soil
123
Selva J.Raj
viii Gurus in America
Seven The Perfectibility of Perfection:
Siddha Yoga as a Global Movement
147
Lola Williamson
Eight Osho, from Sex Guru to Guru of the Rich:
The Spiritual Logic of Late Capitalism
169
Hugh B.Urban
Nine Riding the Dawn Horse:Adi Da and the
Eros of Nonduality
193
Jeffrey J.Kripal
Epilogue: Elevated Gurus, Concrete Traditions,
and the Problems of Western Devotees
219
Daniel Gold
Contributors 227
Index 231
INTRODUCTION
M A K I N G WAV E S
THOMAS A. FORSTHOEFEL
AND CYNTHIA ANN HUMES
EVERYTHING CHANGES.
Mystics and storytellers in South Asia have woven this deceptively simple
observation into the Indic consciousness for millennia.Hindu scriptures warn
that the true nature of endlessly changing phenomenal reality can be lost to us
as we thrash about the crashing waves of life.Yet the Hindu emphasis on the
phenomenal fact of impermanence is tempered by the promise of something
substantial, enduring, and utterly liberating beyond the very flux of life, so
often likened to a roiling ocean,the “ocean of samsara.”The phenomenal flux
of mundane reality,staggering in its chaos and suffering,nonetheless motivates
the journey to cross the “far shore,”the quintessential Indian metaphor for lib-
eration.Among the premier rafts for this tumultuous crossing is the spiritual
teacher, the guru, a term that, not incidentally, also means “heavy.”The word
intimates the higher truth that there is something weighty, substantial, and
enduring about life,a truth borne witness to by extraordinary spiritual teach-
ers.Gurus assist in the journey to make the crossing—from the ocean of sam-
sara to the ocean of awareness,from the changing flux of phenomenal reality
to the far shore of liberation,from death to immortality.The far shore is the
“site”for an ultimate ground that suffers no loss or change,understood vari-
ously in Hinduism to be an enduring soul, consciousness, an unchanging
Absolute or a deity with form.
This book is about gurus who have crossed the far shore,but not necessar-
ily to ultimate liberation.They have indeed crossed roiling oceans—in this
case,Indian,Atlantic,and Pacific—landing upon the far shore of America.In
making this passage,from the sacred land of India to the bewildering world of
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