or else to purchase such supplies at the Varuna Emporium located to the right of the ashram Chakra, with its famous fountain. A mala of beads of sacred sandalwood ending in a beautiful hand-carved pendant containing a color photograph of myself plus a hair from my head or beard will be provided free, as a benison of Buddha, and should be worn at all times, save when bathing or (at the wearer’s discretion) engaged in sexual intercourse. A full range of contraceptivepreparations and devices may be obtained at the Karuna Pharmacy; and various iconographic aids to life at Ashram Arhat, including incense and other purifying inhalants, can be purchased at our shops, as described in the enclosed catalogue.
These aids, and my inspired and unexpurgated books, videotapes, and audio cassettes, not to mention posters depicting my present (and final) physical incarnation, selected Hindu deities, tantric visualizations, and ritually constructed mandalas can of course be ordered and utilized by those who do not yet feel able to cut their sordid earthly ties and surrender to the new order of existence established here at Ashram Arhat, amid the immemorial peace of the healthful semi-arid Sonoran Plateau.
Dear Gladys Grumbach, I return your love a millionfold and with tranquil exultation await your reply. Come and join me! You and none other ignite my heart’s flame. As the Lord Buddha asked, “Who shall find the Dhammapada, the clear Path of Perfection, even as a man who seeks flowers finds the most beautiful flower?”
Shanti,
Shri Arhat Mindadali, M.A., Ph.D.
Supreme Meditator, Ashram Arhat
/spw
May 13, 1986
Sir:
Your recent editorial in the Forrest
Weekly Sentinel
condemnatory of the Ashram Arhat as a “glorified summer camp” for “bored yuppies” and “pathetic societal strays” would bebeneath our notice were we not sincerely anxious to cultivate good relations with our fellow-citizens of Dorado County and to have our substantial contributions to the regional economy recognized. A barren tract of exhausted range has been transformed into productive agricultural land at no cost to the water table. Our extensive irrigation and sanitation draw solely upon an aquifer confined to the valley of Gritty Creek, now happily renamed the Sachchidananda River and not to be confused with the miserable alkaline trickle the good “citizens” of Forrest have amusingly dubbed Babbling Brook.
To correct a few other misapprehensions or deliberate misstatements: (1) Our facilities for meditation, therapy (both physio- and psycho-), non-soil-depleting agriculture, and hand manufacture have never claimed tax-exempt status; via real-estate tax and other levies the ashram has contributed $46,742.07 to Dorado County coffers in the fiscal year ended this March, in return for which we have received precisely
no
public services—neither police protection nor trash pickup nor highway maintenance nor water nor sewer mains nor anything but the forced enrollment of sixteen of our children in public schools where, after sickeningly long bus rides, they are bullied and tormented by their teachers and fellow-students alike and subjected to a bowdlerized, anti-evolutionist, rightwing curriculum that would insult the intelligence of a chuckwalla. (2) Our armed security forces exist solely to defend our property and personnel against the attacks of trigger-happy rednecks and beered-up adolescents who have repeatedly damaged and fired upon our water tanks, our outlying pump-houses and tool sheds, our faithful watchdogs, and our signs of welcome in many languages. (3) Our so-called “orgies” are in fact exercises in the ancient art of tantric yoga, wherein the participants worship one another as Shiva and Shakti, thefundamental forces of the cosmos; sexuality and spirituality are forms of one energy, proclaims our Arhat, whose love unites us all and in ecstatic love of whom we are all made new.
With united voice, therefore, we remind you that this is
These aids, and my inspired and unexpurgated books, videotapes, and audio cassettes, not to mention posters depicting my present (and final) physical incarnation, selected Hindu deities, tantric visualizations, and ritually constructed mandalas can of course be ordered and utilized by those who do not yet feel able to cut their sordid earthly ties and surrender to the new order of existence established here at Ashram Arhat, amid the immemorial peace of the healthful semi-arid Sonoran Plateau.
Dear Gladys Grumbach, I return your love a millionfold and with tranquil exultation await your reply. Come and join me! You and none other ignite my heart’s flame. As the Lord Buddha asked, “Who shall find the Dhammapada, the clear Path of Perfection, even as a man who seeks flowers finds the most beautiful flower?”
Shanti,
Shri Arhat Mindadali, M.A., Ph.D.
Supreme Meditator, Ashram Arhat
/spw
May 13, 1986
Sir:
Your recent editorial in the Forrest
Weekly Sentinel
condemnatory of the Ashram Arhat as a “glorified summer camp” for “bored yuppies” and “pathetic societal strays” would bebeneath our notice were we not sincerely anxious to cultivate good relations with our fellow-citizens of Dorado County and to have our substantial contributions to the regional economy recognized. A barren tract of exhausted range has been transformed into productive agricultural land at no cost to the water table. Our extensive irrigation and sanitation draw solely upon an aquifer confined to the valley of Gritty Creek, now happily renamed the Sachchidananda River and not to be confused with the miserable alkaline trickle the good “citizens” of Forrest have amusingly dubbed Babbling Brook.
To correct a few other misapprehensions or deliberate misstatements: (1) Our facilities for meditation, therapy (both physio- and psycho-), non-soil-depleting agriculture, and hand manufacture have never claimed tax-exempt status; via real-estate tax and other levies the ashram has contributed $46,742.07 to Dorado County coffers in the fiscal year ended this March, in return for which we have received precisely
no
public services—neither police protection nor trash pickup nor highway maintenance nor water nor sewer mains nor anything but the forced enrollment of sixteen of our children in public schools where, after sickeningly long bus rides, they are bullied and tormented by their teachers and fellow-students alike and subjected to a bowdlerized, anti-evolutionist, rightwing curriculum that would insult the intelligence of a chuckwalla. (2) Our armed security forces exist solely to defend our property and personnel against the attacks of trigger-happy rednecks and beered-up adolescents who have repeatedly damaged and fired upon our water tanks, our outlying pump-houses and tool sheds, our faithful watchdogs, and our signs of welcome in many languages. (3) Our so-called “orgies” are in fact exercises in the ancient art of tantric yoga, wherein the participants worship one another as Shiva and Shakti, thefundamental forces of the cosmos; sexuality and spirituality are forms of one energy, proclaims our Arhat, whose love unites us all and in ecstatic love of whom we are all made new.
With united voice, therefore, we remind you that this is