22 Quotes by Caryl Matrisciana

Even in Bengal, where I had spent most of my growing years, this sect (which was established there in the fifteenth century A.D.) did not display the sort of fanatic trancelike madness that we witnessed on Oxford Street or on the stage of 'Hair'.

I wondered why Westerners were so enthralled with a religious activity that didn't incite much enthusiasm even among its own people in India.

The show moved along captivatingly. In the same way that the Hare Krishna sect was glorified, suddenly so was Yoga. Yoga! Alarm bells rang in my mind. The Yoga I had seen in India was intense, arduous and serious -- a discipline taught by avowed spiritual masters who prepared their disciples for death. So why did 'Hair's' hero in the song 'Donna' go to India to see the Yoga light? Why was it associated with drugs and reincarnation and presented as such a sweet, new spiritual experience?

I became deeply committed to the New Age agenda, although I must admit I did not understand the spiritual implications. I merely longed for self-improvement and hungered after some kind of peace and love.

My life experiences had taught me more about India and its religious ramifications than any of my enlightened friends would have dared guess. And in my recollection, nothing to be found along the streets of Calcutta, Bombay or Madras promised a better life to anyone.

So, in accepting the New Age teachings in the 1960s, had I somehow accepted the very religion that had frightened me so much as a child?

Yoga, a practice that is at the heart of Hindu philosophy and religion, means to yoke. Its goal is to unite man with Brahman, the Hindu concept of 'God' or (god-consciousness). Brahman represents everything. It is seen as the all, the absolute. Brahman is both all good and all bad and is the power and the force of the universe--the god of India.

I had erroneously become convinced that I had the power to alter my reality, when in fact it was demonic spirits that were at work in my life.

The theory behind vegetarian eating as the highest form of purity led me to campaign tirelessly for animal rights. Many times I considered animal rights to be more important than human priorities. I didn't realize until years later that I was developing an attitude towards animals I had rejected growing up in India. Some animals were becoming sacred in my eyes. And I was placing their value well above that of human beings.