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Atma Jyoti Ashram: Sannyasis or Snake Oil Salesmen? 
 N 
 
ow it is not good / For the Christian’s health / To hustle the Aryan brown, /  For the Christian riles / And the Aryan smiles / And he wearth the Christiandown; / And the end of the fight / Is tombstone white / With the name of the latedeceased, / And the epitaph drear, / “A fool lies here / Who tried to hustle the East." -- from
The Naulahka
 by Rudyard Kipling
 Atma Jyoti Ashram Sannyasis or SnakeOil Salesmen?
 
ncluding a critique of Sri Ramanasramam's journal
 
Mountain Path
 
and its editors
by
Swami Deva a da Saraswati
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Fr. George Burke (large man), abbot of Atma Jyoti Ashram aka Light of the Spirit Monastery, with his fellow priests and brothers in religion.
 
Atma Jyoti Ashram: Sannyasis or Snake Oil Salesmen? 
 he Missionary Agenda
In
 
Catholic Ashrams: Sannyasins of Swindlers
,
Sita Ram Goel describes theChristian missionary strategists' plan to infiltrate Hindu society and gain theconfidence of the people:"Christianity has to drop its alien attire and get clothed in Hindu culturalforms. Christianity has to be presented as an indigenous faith. Christiantheology has to be conveyed through categories of Hindu philosophy;Christian worship has to be conducted in the manner and with thematerials of Hindu puja. Christian sacraments have to sound like Hindusamskaras; Christian churches have to copy the architecture of Hindutemples; Christian hymns have to be set to Hindu music; Christianthemes and personalities have to be presented in styles of Hindupainting; Christian missionaries have to dress and live like Hindusannyasins; Christian mission stations have to look like Hindu ashramas. And so on, the literature of Indigenization goes into all aspects of Christian thought, organization and activity and tries to discover how farand in what way they can be disguised in Hindu forms."Sita Ram Goel wrote this in 1988, and he would not be surprised to learn thatChristian priests and monks in America have adopted the same tactics toattract a whole generation of American youth interested in Hindu religion andspirituality, back to Christianity. The leader in this movement today is Fr.George Burke, the abbot of Atma Jyoti Ashram in Cedar Crest, New Mexico.He is better known on the Internet as Swami Nirmalananda Giri.
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Swami Ramanananda with Atma Jyoti Ashram Christian priests atthe Arunachaleshwar Temple, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India.
 
Atma Jyoti Ashram: Sannyasis or Snake Oil Salesmen? 
Isha Jyoti to Atma Jyoti to Light of the Spirit
 Atma Jyoti Ashram was originally called Sri Isha (Jesus) Jyoti Sannyas Ashramand was located at Borrego Springs, California. Since the publication of thisarticle, the ashram has changed its name to Light of the Spirit Monastery andmoved to Cedar Crest, New Mexico. Fr. George Burke is a Greek OrthodoxChristian priest, and if reports are correct, most or all of the community of brothers attached to him are Christian priests.On a visit to India, Fr. George met the Bengali saint Anandamayi Ma. She issaid to have instructed him to remain in the Christian religion and continuehis Christian practices. This is the usual advice given to foreign seekers by Hindu gurus. In spite of their spiritual enlightenment, most gurus are grossly ignorant of Christianity's ideology and militant prayers for triumph over theIndian heathen. They advise their foreign disciples to remain in the religion of their forefathers without realizing the consequences of their thoughtless,irresponsible words.Christianity is a personality cult based on a false doctrine of vicarioussalvation. It is imperialistic and seeks world domination by any means. Thereis nothing in Hindu scripture or the ancient Rishi tradition remotely similar tothis
asuric
creed. And there is nothing in the ancient
 guru-shishya
 tradition tosupport the ill-conceived advice handed out to foreign seekers by Hindu gurus who do not want to take spiritual responsibility for their Western charges.  Anandamayi's alleged instruction to Fr. George and his followers suited themto perfection. They would quote her later as their authority to don the ochrerobes of Hindu sannyasis and adopt the Sanskrit names and titles of SmartaDashanami monks. The fact that Anandamayi Ma was not a Dashanamisannyasi herself and had no authority to give them ochre robes or Dashanamititles did not deter them in their impersonation drama.
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Fr. George Burke, abbot of Atma JyotiAshram. He is better known on theInternet as Swami Nirmalananda Giri.

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