Introducing the Integral Yoga Impostor

im·pos·tor,  noun \im-ˈpäs-tər\

Definition:

: one that assumes false identity or title for the purpose of deception.

Synonyms: charlatan, fake, faker, fakir, fraud, hoaxer, humbug, mountebank, phony (also phoney), pretender, quack, quacksalver, ringer, sham.

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in·te·gral yo·ga im·pos·tor

Definition:

: one who publicly postures and professes to be a practitioner of Integral Yoga for the purpose of self-promotion especially by deception, while contradicting and undermining the core values of the Integral Yoga.

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This website identifies and documents those who have publicly demonstrated themselves to be Integral Yoga Impostors; i.e. those who in the name of Sri Aurobindo and his Integral Yoga have publicly, actively and deliberately gone contrary to the values and principles of the Integral Yoga in order to pursue, promote or enforce their personal, exclusive and limited aims.

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Background:

During the last decades, several Integral Yoga Impostors gradually but systematically entrenched themselves in the business of Integral Yoga. They painstakingly cultured and nurtured a following, expanding their reach or demarcating their territories, either in the form of Integral Yoga centers, websites, blogs or mailing groups.

In spite of their differences, the Integral Yoga Impostors found it convenient to form a cartel of sorts that would allow each of them to trade their common merchandise of shaded interpretations, miracles, myths and fantasies in order to concoct a new formula of “Integral Yoga” which they could control and use as their personal commodity.

There were however a few thorns that remained irritatingly stuck in the fragile sides of these Integral Yoga Impostors. First and foremost, the exclusive approach and pursuit of the Integral Yoga that they professed was antithetical to the Integral Yoga as laid out by Sri Aurobindo, the founder of this yogic approach.  Secondly, the seats of Integral Yoga, viz. the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville would not tow the line of these Integral Yoga Impostors or participate in or endorse their games of deceit or personal ambition.

Moreover, many of those who privately practiced the Integral Yoga felt that the increasingly rigid grip of the Integral Yoga Impostors over the Integral Yoga was becoming stifling and oppressive. Instead of a vibrant integration of yogas, the Integral Yoga Impostors were turning the rich spiritual landscape of Integral Yoga into the dull uniformity of a monotonous and organized devotion, religion or sect.

While it is acknowledged and accepted that there is nothing wrong in the use of devotion and religiosity in the practice of Integral Yoga, the rejection of all other forms of practices or approaches by the Integral Yoga Impostors was not only antithetical and contrary but also detrimental to the very basis of Integral Yoga.

That the veil of deceit of the Integarl Yoga Impostors was bound to be fragile became obvious when just one book – Peter Heehs’ The Lives of Sri Aurobindo shook and shattered their deceitful facade as well as exposed their entirely un-integral approach to yoga and spirituality.

This publication firmly rocked the fragile base of the Integral Yoga Impostors as it deconstructed the merchandise of myths, fantasies and miracles with which these impostors conducted their trade. Additionally, the biography meticulously attempted to reconstruct and strengthen the foundation of the Integral Yoga as chronicled in Sri Aurobindo’s life.

One by one, but in rapid succession, the true character of each of the Integral Yoga Impostors got revealed as they scrambled to protect their trade by launching assaults on Peter Heehs, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. Agitated demands for banning Peter Heehs’ book, the orchestration of campaigns for misinformation, slander and personal attacks, the staging of violent protests on the streets, inciting members of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville to create an environment of hate, distrust and division, legal actions towards attempts of a hostile take-over of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville and much more have all been and still are on offer by the Integral Yoga Impostors.

In so doing, the Integral Yoga Impostors did not hesitate for a second to contradict and undermine the very principles of the Integral Yoga that they were pretending to profess all this while. It soon became obvious that the brand of “Integral Yoga” that was being peddled by the Integral Yoga Impostors had instead all the worst flavors of Fundamentalism and Extremism.

But their acts of deceit are now exposed for all times to come.

This website therefore chronicles and documents how each of these Integral Yoga Impostors took an active part in the abuse of the principles of Integral Yoga for their own personal gains, while in effect contradicting and undermining the values that they are posturing to profess.

Editors