Leader of Ananda Marga
released after 6 1/2 years
By JACK DESMOND
Of the Emerald
While the world laments the re
cent trials and convictions of two
Russian dissidents, Anatoly
Shcharansky and Alexander Ginz
burg, the release in India of Anan
damurti has been hailed by his fol
lowers as a major victory for
human rights.
Anandamurti, spiritual leader of
the Ananda Marga society, was
acquitted by the state supreme
court in Bihar, India last July 4 on
charges he inspired a yoga monk
to commit five murders.
His release from jail this week
will end six and a half years of
imprisonment the last five of which
were spent subsisting on a liquid
fast.
Anandamurti founded AM in the
late 1960s in answer to the corrup
tion that he saw in Indian govern
ment and society. He said he
hoped that in establishing AM, he
would establish a spiritual society
practicing yoga and meditation,
and would involve itself with al
leviating the suffering and moral
corruption in India.
As the movement gained popu
larity. AM spread throughout the
world and soon numbered several
million followers in 85 countries.
AM is perhaps best known in
Eugene for the film series it offers
at the University throughout the
year. Last year, says Wayland
Secrest, a Eugene follower, the
group launched an attempt to
gather leftover fruits and vegeta
bles from harvested fields. The
project eventually floundered for a
lack of volunteers and time.
While the movement snowbal
led during the 70s, Anandamurti
languished in jail. Anandamurti
had been jailed, says Secrest, be
cause a yoga monk had claimed
that Anandamurti had inspired
him to murder five people.
In India, inspiring a murder car
ries a more serious penalty than in
the U.S. In return for his testimony
against Anandamurti, the yoga
monk was given immunity from
the murder charges.
Six months passed before any
charges were brought against
Anandamurti. The government of
fered to release him if he would
disclaim the AM organization, but
he refused.
After one and one-half years in
jail, Anandamurti survived alleged
phenobarbitol poisoning by the
prison doctor. In protest, he began
a liquid fast that consisted only of
curd water (leftover water from
cooking rice) and a malt mixture.
David Quale, another Eugene
follower of Anandamurti, was in
India in 1974 and was one of the
few foreigners able to visit Anan
damurti.
Quale recalls that the jail was
similar to conditions found in Mex
ican jails, noting that he saw a cell
half the size of the EMU ballroom
containing an estimated 500 pris
oners. Anandamurti, however,
was jailed in a small, solitary cell.
“He was bedridden,” Quale re
members, “but he didn't look that
bad. He was sort of happy and
joking.”
AM devotees renewed their
hope that their spiritual leader
might be released when a new
government gained control follow
ing Indira Gandhi's loss of office in
1977. In Bihar, on last July 4, after
five years of trials and delays,
Anandamurti was acquitted to the
joy of his followers.
“We feel he is a really great
human being because he inspired
a lot of people to do a lot of work,”
Secrest said on hearing of
Anandamurti’s release.
Both Quale and Secrest believe
their leader will visit the U.S.,
perhaps as soon as December, on
a worldwide tour to visit his de
votees.
Atiyeh
(Continued from Page 4)
have to deal with it. And, our past
positions on tax issues will be very
important.
Although voters would consider
his position on the tax issue politi
cal doubletalk, Atiyeh said that he
won't make up his mind until all the
information on the issue has been
presented and evaluated. Atiyeh
and his staff are studying the
measure and his position will be
announced later in the campaign.
How much later will be deter
mined by the answers he gets to a
list of questions he has presented
to the measures' supporters and
opponents, he said.
“I’m really very favorable about
coming down on the side in favor
of the measure, but there are still
questions about it that I need
answered,” he said. "My heart is
there but I'm not going to be
swayed by anything but the facts
on this matter.”
On other campaign issues,
Atiyeh said he still believes the
death penalty is a "deterrent to the
crime of murder” and he will sup
port the measure to reinstate it.
The measure to end funding for
state administered abortions has
good intentions, but doesn’t go far
enough, Atiyeh said. “I do not
support the measure because
what it should have gotten at was
the law allowing unrestricted abor
tions.”
Tax Revolt
(Continued from Page 8)
"What they have done is they
have taken away my children's
and their children’s chance to own
a home in this state," Govett says.
But, for all the trouble Proposi
tion 13 is causing, it may have
some redeeming qualities. The
idea of wanting taxes cut is good,
but not the best, he says.
"This thing is good in a sense,
but we think that they’ve just got
the cart before the horse,” Govett
says. "First they should get a limi
tation on federal and state income
taxes. Then if they want a property
tax limitation, fine."
The inability to reverse the law
after it has been passed by such a
small majority and the problems
with multi-national corporation
control over valuable land have
put California in "a tail spin that it
can't get out of," Govett says.
Oregon, Michigan and several
other states that face a battle over
tax limitation clones of Proposition
13 will probably go the way of
California, he says. Which will be
the first step back to the European
Middle Ages.
“It’s (the tax revolt) not coming
from the people who are tired of
taxes,” Govett says. ‘‘My god,
we’re all tired of taxes, but it’s
when we begin to sell out to that
European philosophy (that the
peasantry is ruled by a divinely
appointed monarch) that we begin
to hurt ourselves and destroy what
our nation stands for.”
Tino’s Happy Hour
Calzoni $2.50 ala carte
Large Pitchers $1.50
M-Th 9 p.m.-Midnight
Anandamurti
Courtesy photo
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