HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013550.jpg

2.08 MB

Extraction Summary

5
People
4
Organizations
2
Locations
3
Events
2
Relationships
3
Quotes

Document Information

Type: Manuscript/memoir page (house oversight exhibit)
File Size: 2.08 MB
Summary

This document appears to be page 50 of a memoir or manuscript written by a medical school professor and department chair. The text details the author's spiritual experiences with Siddha Yoga gurus 'Baba' (likely Muktananda) and 'Gurumayi,' comparing their leadership styles and discussing yoga paths in relation to Aldous Huxley's and William Sheldon's personality theories. It recounts the author's time performing manual labor at Ashrams in Venice, California, and South Fallsburg, New York, specifically noting that Baba assigned this work to humble the author's 'professorial ego.' The document bears a House Oversight Bates stamp, indicating it was part of a congressional investigation.

People (5)

Name Role Context
Baba Guru / Spiritual Leader
Described as having mischievous play, provocative humor, and worldly sophistication. Leader of the Ashram.
Gurumayi Guru / Spiritual Leader
Ascended to be Siddha Yoga's singular guru; described as private, simple, serious, and subtle.
Narrator Author / Devotee / Medical Professor
A professor and chairperson of a medical school department who spent summers at the Ashrams doing manual labor.
Aldous Huxley Author / Intellectual
Referenced for relating yoga paths to personality types.
William Sheldon Author / Psychologist
Author of 'Atlas of Man' (1954), referenced for body type theories.

Organizations (4)

Name Type Context
Siddha Yoga
Spiritual organization led by Baba and later Gurumayi.
Ashrams
Spiritual centers supported by donations.
Assignment Committee
Group responsible for assigning tasks at the Ashram.
House Oversight Committee
Implied by the Bates stamp 'HOUSE_OVERSIGHT'.

Timeline (3 events)

Daily (during summers)
Chanting of the gurugita in the early morning.
Ashram
Evenings
Darshan: public time of question and answers with the guru.
Ashram
Baba Devotees
Summers (unspecified years)
Narrator spent summers at Ashrams in Venice, CA and South Fallsburg, NY doing manual labor.
Venice, CA and South Fallsburg, NY

Locations (2)

Location Context
Location of Baba's temporary Ashram.
Location of the permanent American Ashram.

Relationships (2)

Narrator Devotee/Guru Baba
Narrator spent summers with Baba and followed his instructions for manual labor.
Baba Predecessor/Successor Gurumayi
Text discusses Gurumayi's ascension to Siddha Yoga's singular guru after Baba.

Key Quotes (3)

"Baba instructed his assignment committee that many if not all professorial egos would benefit from what"
Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013550.jpg
Quote #1
"I was assigned this simple, arduously manual, all night work after being interviewed and found out to be a professor and chairperson of a medical school department."
Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013550.jpg
Quote #2
"The third marga is jnana-marga, my inclination, is the road of intellectual study and knowledge."
Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013550.jpg
Quote #3

Full Extracted Text

Complete text extracted from the document (2,481 characters)

businessmen, whose large donations were a major source of support of the Ashrams, faired little better. They seldom received a personal audience or favorable seating at Darshan, the evening public time of question and answers with the guru.
In contrast with the relatively easy public availability, mischievous play, provocative humor and worldly sophistication of Baba, the ambience of Gurumayi is more private, simple, serious and subtle. It is as powerful, but in another way.
In response to Gurumayi’s ascension to Siddha Yoga’s singular guru, I imagined hearing Baba saying that God energy was at least androgynous, if the dimension of sexual identity was relevant at all. Baba taught that divine energy, by necessity, is expressed through a wide variety of particular personalities and cultures and should not be confused with the details of its manifestations. This included the sexual identity of the chosen Vehicle. Guramayi’s central theme, as I understand it, concerns the simple, quiet and pervasive powers of love and faith. Some say Baba took the path, marga, of selfless action, karma-marga, whereas Gurumayi took the bhakti-marga, the road of loving devotion and faith. The third marga is jnana-marga, my inclination, is the road of intellectual study and knowledge. Aldous Huxley related the choice among these three categories of yoga practice, to the physical and personality types of William Sheldon’s 1954 Atlas of Man. Karma yoga corresponded to the mesomorphic body type and the assertive boldness, high energy, and interpersonal callousness of the somatotonic personality. Bhakti Yoga was the characteristic choice of endomorphic body types with the viscerotonic personality traits of sociability, good will, tolerance and love. Huxley associated Jnana Yoga with ectomorphic body type and the cerebrotonic characteristic of shyness, sensitivity and intellectuality.
My summers with Baba at his temporary Ashram in Venice, California and the permanent American Ashram in South Fallsburg, New York, were spent in daily, very early morning, chanting of the gurugita after most of the night spent taking down, cleaning and putting up large tarpaulin meeting tents. I was assigned this simple, arduously manual, all night work after being interviewed and found out to be a professor and chairperson of a medical school department. Baba instructed his assignment committee that many if not all professorial egos would benefit from what
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HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013550

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