What does Sanatan Sanstha teach you about Spirituality

An institution like Sanatan Sanstha which is engaged in the propagation of Spirituality should focus all activities on its core objective. It should be spending maximum amount and efforts on this and should ensure that its sadhaks also should do the same.

This is not so. My experience at Sanatan Ashram Ponda shows that we hardly spent any time on spiritual practices. The definition of spiritual practice is open for debate, but I feel it can be defined as performance of actions and activities for the sole purpose of cultivating spiritual development. Sanatan or rather its affiliate organization Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, lists chanting as the simplest spiritual practise.

Which activities constitute as spiritual practices

Sanatan Sanstha states that chanting is the simplest form of spiritual practice in this Kalyuga. Which, in turn, means that people like me who have forsaken the materialistic world should be spending the maximum time in chanting. It is not so; I hardly spend a couple of hours on chanting.

Now comes the spin doctor, Dr Jayant Athavale to my rescue. He says that any activity done with bhav can become a spiritual practice. Even if I brush my teeth with bhav, it is counted as spiritual practice. Other activities start getting defined by the sanstha. I cannot define an activity on my own. The list grows bigger and bigger till I activities I undertake at the Sanatan Ashram Ponda become defined as spiritual activities. Hindus are very religious and understand that spirituality and religion are related to each other. Hence HJS and Sanatan also brings in religion into this by making us chant a Diety’s name.

The sanstha undertakes different sevas at Sanatan Ashram Ponda. As any of the seva is defined as a spiritual practice, it seems that whatever I do is in the service of God.

Confused.

So am I. But during my stay there I did not doubt their word. I had no freedom to doubt their words. My mind was under their control and I trusted them blindly.

Collective sevas

Sanatan Sanstha also differentiated between self-service and service towards society. These are referred to as Vyashti Seva and Samashti Seva. They educate us that Samashti seva gives better results than Vyashti seva. Of course, they also benefit the most through Samashti seva. Otherwise where will they find free sweepers, cleaners, drivers, cooks and many others to do miscellaneous manual work at Sanatan Ashram Ponda. Of course, it is the sadhaks who do all this, and when it gets associated with spirituality and bhav, you get life-time free servants. Just what is needed by Dr Jayant Athavale.

Not all sadhaks are allotted this work. Persons staying outside are not required to “work” at the ashram. They are free to spend their time as they want. We, the occupants, who have left our homes and broken our relationships are made to do hard labor. All in the name of spirituality. Funny, isn’t it?

But, how can we complain, we no longer have control over our mind, we can longer take decisions on our own.

And, is there someone who can help us?

Broken Dreams and Broken Relationships.

Am I alone?

Are there any others like me?

A married woman runs away from home leaving behind a broken home and broken relationships. Did it happen to me only or does it happen to others? Was I deeply brainwashed by Sanatan Sanstha or is it a regular occurrence?

After my return from the clutches of Sanatan Sanstha, I spent a lot of time on this question.

To be truthful, the sadhaks always told me even before I ran away that the ashram had several inmates, mostly women who had run away. Had forsaken their lives and near and dear ones for seeking spiritual upliftment. Many of them were married, but the sanstha preferred that married women to stay behind and take care of household responsibilities. I should look at this as a seva towards Guru and should look at my family as sadhaks. Warning bells still did not go off, after all this is logical.

But their treatment with unmarried young girls is different, very different. They are actively motivated to leave behind their homes and flee to one of the Sanatan Sanstha Ashram. As a senior “sadhak” commented in a very off-hand manner – a married woman with children always has a soft corner towards her children, she will feel the pangs of love; if not for her family, her husband than for her children and will seek to return home. And when that happens, she will leave Sanatan Sanstha. Unmarried young women are a different case; they stay longer, and also manage to rope in their families into the sanstha. Logic, pure simple logic. Or is it a deep understanding of human psychology? Has this strategy been defined as a policy after studying human psychology? After all, Jayant Athavale is a clinical hypnotherapist and has spent most of his life with psychologists.

The real experience:

I experienced this first hand at Sanatan Sanstha Ashram. You can look up all such cases in the newspapers. In fact, four families from my home state, Maharashtra have petitioned the Bombay High Court alleging that young female members have been brainwashed. I was not alone at the ashram, there were scores of females like me, some young and unmarried while others married. Married with children and loving husbands. Broken dreams and broken lives.

Why is the ashram full of women; run away women? Do men not run away? Don’t they leave everything behind to seek Mooksh? The answer is simple; if any men run away from home to join the ashram, they have to manage on their own. Sanatan Sanstha will not provide them the full facilities provided to women. They have to make their own arrangements for lodging and boarding. The unwritten rules can be broken only if he is well connected and has ample funds under his control or is a foreigner. Sanstha knows how to extract maximum mileage. It squeezes out the last drop from men and women, all in the name of spirituality. This is a difference between Sanatan Sanstha and other spiritual and religious organizations.

Think about it, chew it over and draw your own conclusions.

Sanatan Sanstha and its operations

What does Sanatan Sanstha do?

How do religious associations like Sanatan Sanstha operate? What do they do? What do its followers do?

These questions are asked to me daily by people from all walks of life. Ordinary people meet me on the roads and ask me; what did I do in the Sanatan Sanstha ashram? How did I spend my time? I tell them that I was taught about spirituality.

I was wrong, very wrong.

Religious organizations are supposed to follow religious practises, we are supposed to devote time in the devotion of God. All our thoughts should be occupied with the thoughts of God, we should think God, talk God and all our actions should be guided by God.

Sanatan is said to be a spiritual organization. Not only does its website say so, it is repeated several times during the various interactions with the followers – sadhaks and outsiders. It is repeated several times very prominently in their dailies. They stress that Sanatan Sanstha provides complete spiritual knowledge and training. For an organization that was founded only in 1990, this is a very tall claim. They state that their main objective is to present spirituality in a scientific language. So, what is the key difference, or is there a difference between the scores of religious organizations and spiritual organizations?

Sanatan Sanstha is different:

The sanstha does this very differently. It aims to teach spirituality to people. They have a big offering, they conduct satsangs in the Sanatan Sanstha Ashram as well as at its different branches. They conduct balsanskar vargs so that young children are taught about Hinduism, traditions and our culture. They are given information about the various Gods and Goddesses and the festivals and their importance. Looks all okay from the look of it in fact the objective is very impressive. Why should any Hindu oppose such lofty work?

But Sanatan Sanstha then deviates from the trodden path. It has its own agenda and it is not limited to spiritual teachings. No sir, not at all. Spirituality is a disguise, there is something hidden behind the veil.

Slowly and very softly, we are informed that there are millions of Gods and Goddesses and we should not pray to all of them. We should select a few, principally our Kul Devta (the God of our clan) and a couple more. We should spend maximum time in reciting their name. Still okay, nothing suspicious, right.

Now is the stinger.

Slowly and softly again, we are told that the Guru is the true GOD. He is the one and only one. We should pray to Gods as well as the guru. And who is the guru?

You guessed it right, he is none other than the founder of Sanatan Sanstha, HH PP Jayant Athavale. A hypnotherapist turned spiritual teacher. A person who aims to teach people spirituality. His brand of spirituality, his brand of Hinduism, his words and his preaching.

A Guru’s job is to guide us, lead us to the correct path. He is our mentor; he cannot be our God. God is Almighty. We should worship him. We should not worship the Guru. This is what our religion says, this is what our holy books say, this is written in Vedas and Puranas. Don’t trust me blindly, read their website, the message is ever prevalent.

Sanatan Sanstha has turned spirituality on its head. This is not good, not good at all.

I know, I was a part of it. I had run away from everything.