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Updated: May 6, 2025
She had completed medical school in three years and become a disciple in 1978, two months after attending Atmananda's lectures at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan. Dana, a one-time fashion model, had been an occupational therapy major at Canada's McGill University. She first met Atmananda while interviewing him for the campus radio station.
Nearly every day during the first few weeks in San Diego, Atmananda drove us to La Jolla Shores Beach. There, he led Rachel, Dana, and me to where the water was over our heads. Connie was intimidated by the Pacific surf and did not immerse herself the way the rest of us did. With Atmananda's guidance, however, that would soon change.
He also said that I had been attacked by nocturnal, mountain-dwelling Entities which "cause neurosis and psychosis, obliterate lifetimes of spiritual evolution, and can possess your soul." Atmananda's Entity-prevention program included studying with a fully enlightened teacher, meditating regularly, and avoiding solitary excursions into nature.
He used words such as disciples, selfless-service, humanity, humility, purity, soul, soul-mate, past-lives, karma, fast track, and cosmic evolution. He got excited when he talked about Atmananda. He told me that he too had experienced perceptual distortion during Atmananda's talks. We returned to "Yoga Life Perfection."
I wanted time to think about Atmananda's thousands of lessons, some of which I sensed were valid and some of which I knew were not. There was another reason: I wanted to do something distinctly *me*. Bicycling across a continent against the prevailing winds with all my possessions and a Siberian husky that was *me*. "Why?" she asked later.
But the thick fog of illusion, which prevented me from gaining insight into his true nature, might have partially cleared had I known what Atmananda told Tom only weeks before, during a meditation with Chinmoy in New York. "Have you noticed anything different about Guru?" Atmananda had asked him. "No," replied Tom, who had not yet joined Atmananda's west coast entourage.
But evolved people are not better than others. Are college students any better than third graders?" This diffused my concern that Atmananda's line of reasoning justified the formation of an evolved elite. "Karma is a cosmic feedback mechanism triggered by past actions. In a universe governed by karma, few experiences are coincidental."
In San Diego, he raised membership dues to four or so dollars a week. Rachel, who took out loans to help the San Diego Chinmoy Centre get started, gave much more. As The Centre rapidly grew, so did the numbers in Atmananda's club. "Seekers used to live in monasteries and in caves," Atmananda taught at Centre meetings. "But Guru recommends that instead, we live in a city.
I often reserved this room through the Meditation Club for Atmananda's public and private meetings. I sat down. I did not reflect on how his talks in this room had changed in the past two years. Nor did I reflect on how he had changed. Nor on how I had changed. I just sat there. After a few minutes, I stood up and left. I walked to John Muir College.
I realized that it was largely through Atmananda's lectures, and through his appearances on radio and television including a recent appearance on the Phil Donahue Show that Chinmoy's mission was being spread. I felt important that I was a part of the operation. "Your task is to see where to place the posters so that they will be noticed by advanced seekers.
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