SWAMI OMKARANANDA PASSES ON
Dr. Jai Maharaj
The Associated Press, via News Plus
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Thursday, January 6, 2000
Winterthur, Switzerland (AP) - Swami Omkarananda, a Hindu
monk and sect leader who was imprisoned in Switzerland
for attempted murder, is dead. He was 70.
Omkarananda died of the flu on Tuesday at his home near
Bregenz, Austria, Erhard Finger, a spokesman for the
Divine Light Center in Winterthur said Thursday.
Born in India, Omkarananda left home at 16 to study in a
Himalayan retreat. He moved to Switzerland in the 1960s
and founded the center for meditation and study in 1966.
But relations between the Divine Light Center and its
neighbors were rocky and in 1975 followers of Omkarananda
were accused of being behind a bomb attack at the home of
Jakob Stucki, a lawmaker and Zurich police chief.
Omkarananda, charged along with other members of the
sect, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempted
murder. He was released in 1985 and deported to India,
but later moved to Bregenz, near the Swiss border. A 15-
year ban on his return to Switzerland was due to expire
later this year.
Followers of Omkarananda assert that the bomb attack,
which resulted in no injuries, was initiated by the
police to discredit Omkarananda and force his followers
to leave Winterthur. The center now claims about 100
members.
Finger said Omkarananda's body was cremated Wednesday and
his ashes would be taken to India, where they would be
scattered in the Ganges River. Details of survivors were
not available.
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Panchaang for 1 Paush 5100, Friday, January 7, 2000:
Pramathin Nama Samvatsare 5101 Uttarayane Moksha Ritau
Dhanush Mase Shukla Pakshe Shukra Vasara Yuktayam
Uttarashadha Nakshatra Harshana Yoga
Bava-Balava Karana Prathama-Dviteeya Yam Tithau
Greetings! Makar Shankranti begins at 11 pm IST on January 14, 2000
Heidrun Eckert
Maharaj) wrote:
> Indian Sect Leader Omkarananda Dies
<snip>
Untrue statements given on January 6/8, 2000 about Paramahamsa Sri Swami
Omkarananda
The information you have placed on January 6/8, 2000, is indeed damaging
the image of India abroad and its great spiritual traditions as it does
not take into account the fact that one of the greatest contemporary
philosophers, sages and mystics has been subject to a political plot and
criminal conspiracy. It was a false case concocted by the police which
aimed at destroying a flowering spiritual institution. The whole affair
was indeed nothing other than a religious persecution, a condemnation of
the oldest spiritual culture of the world, a slap in the face of Sanatana
Dharma and the immortal Indian traditions.
The political parties abused their political power. Through the
politically manipulated press they organised regular assaults on the
institution founded by Sri Swami Omkarananda. Because his institution
began to grow with phenomenal rapidity, their jealousy assumed unbearable
dimensions and they tried day and night for over a decade in vain to
concoct false reasons to damage the flowering institution of this greatest
philosopher, writer, sage and mystic. Since they were not successfull,
they finally constructed a false case against the institution.
Swami was never imprisoned in Switzerland but taken into hostage-detention
on account of this false and fictitious case fabricated against his
institution by the criminally acting police of Switzerland. In the same
manner he was later exiled from Switzerland by the means of a kidnapping
which violated the most elementary Swiss law.
With the passage of time several secret records have been discovered which
disclose the criminal plot involving highest officials and even members of
the central government. It is already now an established fact, that the
Swiss conspiracy against the eternal values offered by this great
philosopher and sage can only be of blame to Switzerland but not to him.
The local government councillors have demanded from the Federal Government
an immediate inquiry into this scandal and the crimes committed against
the Swami. And the Federal Government has immediately given an order to a
former President of the Swiss Supreme Court to start an investigation.
This is the present situation.
Since 1967 thousands of people all over the world, among them most
prominent personalities of the academic and spiritual élite, had the good
luck of knowing Sri Swami Omkarananda: a philosopher and sage of universal
spirituality, embracing all religions, loving and adoring the ONE God in
all. What UNO demands: he realised it. All around the world he inspired
the foundation of scientific, cultural, educational, spiritual
institutions; so also a University College and an Institute of Management
and Technology emerged. Even though over 200 books and other publications
which were translated partly into more than 50 languages have already been
printed, the major part of his literary work is still unpublished.
You will find in history many examples of persecution of the greatest
spiritual leaders the world has seen. Sri Swami Omkarananda is one of
them. His life, a life of uncompromising love of God and unconditioned,
selfless service to humanity, is a living example of his teachings by
which the lives of thousands and thousands of people are uplifted and
enriched. To have met such a man of God-experience and all-transforming
moral and spiritual power is the treasure of one's life.
Swami Omkarananda's life resembles a pure lotus flower which remains
unaffected by the muddy water of the slanderous untruth with which the
Swiss State tried to demolish his spiritual message - a message which
honours the greatest accomplishments of contemporary India, as the whole
world will acknowledge one day. Satyam eva jayate - Triumph and Victory
belong to the Light and the Truth.
Dr. Heidrun Eckert
http://www.ilo-truth-finding.org
http://www.omkarananda-ashram.net
http://www.omkarananda-ashram.org