Sahaja Yoga - Cult Allegations and Refutations

Cult Allegations and Refutations

A 2008 court case in Brussels has ruled that Sahaja Yoga had been wrongly labelled as a cult by a Belgian state authority and awarded the group compensation. A French National Assembly report has also referred to Sahaja Yoga as a cult

France and Belgium have been repeatedly criticised at the U.N. and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for fostering religious intolerance and discrimination through state entities and state-funded private entities. Willy Fautré, the Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers writes that "up to now, the negative image of Sahaja Yoga has been mainly conveyed by 'antisect' organisations and 'state sect observatories' without any serious control of the rumours concerning this movement as the Belgian court decisions clearly show".

Judith Coney found that most people who leave the movement voluntarily, still had positive things to say about it. A smaller group of ex members have made complaints against the movement which have been reported in the press. In 2001, The Independent reported that certain ex-members say "that Sahaja Yoga is a cult which aims to control the minds of its members". In 2005, The Record reported that some critics who feel that the group is a cult have started their own websites. In 2001, The Evening Standard reported that Sahaja Yoga has been "described as a dangerous cult" and "has a dissident website created by former members".

In 2001, the Sahaja Yoga Association published a response to the online allegations of ex-practitioners who were described as "dissatisfied" and having had been previously asked to leave the movement.

Sahaja Yoga practitioners have been concerned with how their beliefs are represented in the media. In response to one press article in which cult allegations were made, a meeting was held after a national puja to discuss the level of secrecy within the group. In an effort to be transparent, a researching sociologist, Judith Coney was allowed to attend this meeting. Sahaja yogis discussed the ways in which some of their beliefs were disguised when in contact with non-members. Coney described this discussion as frank and revealing.

John Crace from the Evening Standard wrote about an event he attended and noted that a Sahaja Yoga representative asked him to feel free to talk to whomever he wanted. He remarked, "Either their openness is a PR charm offensive, or they genuinely have nothing to hide". He proposed that "one of the key definitions of a cult is the rigour with which it strives to recruit new members" and concluded that there was no aggressive recruitment squeeze.

In 2008 the Belgian newspapers De Morgen, De Standaard and Le Soir reported that the Court of First Instance of Brussels ordered the Belgian state to pay 1,500 Euros compensation to Sahaja Yoga for wrongly labelling the movement as a sect (cult). The Centre of Information and Opinion on Harmful Sectarian Organizations (CIAOSN/IACSSO) had given an unfavourable report on the meditation movement which was found to be unobjective and had resulted in the movement being defamed. The state appealed.