Eat, Pray, Love / Elizabeth Gilbert -- Research Resources

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This page includes resources that directly address the book Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, as well as resources that deal with Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, the guru the author went to meet.

At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband.
Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for "balancing."
These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert's exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, "It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work.'"
- Source: Eat, Pray, Love, The New Yorker, Apr. 24, 2006.

Articles

Eat, Pray, Love (But Don't Think): An Evaluation of the Spirituality in Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert by Marcia Montenegro, of Christian Answers for the New Age.
Gilbert writes that she is seeking God, but makes it clear it is not the Christian God. The god she claims is the one within and the one who accepts her as a divine being: "The Supreme Self is our true identity, universal and divine" (122). In fact, she writes that she has "always responded with breathless excitement to anyone who has ever said that God does not live in a dogmatic scripture or in a distant throne in the sky" (14), thus revealing her rejection of the Bible (the word "dogma" is increasingly used these days as a code word for the Bible or for orthodox Christianity). She openly states that she does not accept Jesus as the only way to God, and so "Strictly speaking, then, I cannot call myself a Christian" (14). I have to give her points for honesty. Gilbert is a classic New Ager, even if she may reject that label (I do not know how she feels about such a label). But having followed New Age and Eastern beliefs for many years, I have no hesitation in saying this. I once had her god as my god as well.
Although Gilbert rejects the Christian Jesus, she has no problem accepting the teachings of Hinduism, and those of her medicine man teacher, Katuk, while in Bali. She readily and without question accepts the Balinese teaching, one that is quite alien to her, that everyone is born with four spirit brothers who "collect your soul and bring you to heaven" when you die (251). She eagerly learns how to do the meditation with these "four brothers." Indeed, she begins to speak to these spirit brothers the very day she hears about them (253). She imbibes these beliefs with no question and does not flinch at the elaborate rituals Katuk performs to appease demons.
Gilbert had been taking yoga classes in New York before her journey and already had a guru, so she began the sojourn with an Eastern worldview firmly in place, making this not as much of a voyage of discovery as some might think. At least she acknowledges that the Hatha yoga positions, so trendy now in the U.S., were not developed "for personal fitness" but "to loosen muscles and minds in order to prepare them for meditation" (121). This is fairly accurate: Hatha Yoga is a preparation for deeper and more rigorous forms of yogic meditative states. She also is clear that yoga is to find union "between the individual and God" (121). Gilbert discusses the use of mantras (words or phrases repeated during meditation as an aid to keep thoughts away) and how the "monkey mind" (Hindu and Buddhist phrase) needs to be subdued and tamed. This phrase is one I heard and read a lot from Hindu and Buddhist sources in my own pursuits of spirituality. It is typically Eastern: thoughts are barriers to the meditative state, which would impede enlightenment, so techniques such as mantras and a focus on breath are used to "still" the mind.
Gilbert discusses the Guru's role, that one hopes that "the merits of your master will reveal to you your own hidden greatness" (124). Later while meditating in India, she has a vision of her Guru's dead Guru, whom she calls by the title "Swamiji," rather than reveal his name. This powerful encounter drives her into spiritual breakthroughs, including the realization of his teaching that "To know God, you need only to renounce one thing ? your division from God" (192). Gilbert has a compelling experience before leaving India, in which she feels she was briefly united with God and understood the "workings of the universe completely" (199). The bottom line of these teachings is that no repentance is needed, only realization. And yoga and the meditation and chanting are all designed to bring this realization about.

The "Eat, Pray, Love" guru's troubling past "Accusations of financial misconduct, sex abuse scandals: The dark history of Elizabeth Gilbert's yoga mentor " Riddhi Shah, Salon, Aug. 14, 2010
Known to her followers as just Gurumayi, Malti Shetty is undeniably beautiful — slender and brown-eyed, with dimples that dig deep commas below her high cheekbones. Shetty says she is the sole successor to SYDA, a new Hindu religious movement that is based on the tradition of Vedanta. Her predecessor and guru, the man who appointed her to his throne, is Swami Muktananda.
SYDA is headquartered in a large complex in South Fallsburg, N.Y., a town set in the Catskill Mountains. In the 1980s and '90s — the decades during which the SYDA reached its height of popularity — the foundation was said to have some 70,000 followers across the world. Its devotees, mostly the wealthy and well-educated, included celebrities like Melanie Griffith, Isabella Rossellini, Diana Ross and Don Johnson.
In 1983, an exposé by journalist William Rodarmor in CoEvolution Quarterly (a Stewart Brand magazine that eventually became Whole Earth Review) suggested that before his death, Muktananda had been having sex with several young girls in his ashrams. The septuagenarian guru, said the piece, used to stand behind a curtain and spy on girls in the female dormitory. He even had a special area equipped with a gynecologist's table that was used for his sexual dalliances. In public, he announced that he was celibate, insisting that sexual acts took away from spiritual energy. But in private, a parade of girls would be trooping in and out of his bedroom all night. The story even describes the violence and intimidation used by Muktananda to control his devotees. There are accounts of him beating hapless Indian peasants outside the ashram grounds, of stabbing his valet with a fork, and of sending burly enforcers to take care of devotees who refused to toe the party line.
[...]
In 1994, the New Yorker revisited these accusations in the article "O Guru, Guru, Guru," written by Lis Harris. Harris found several other women who said that Muktananda had forced them to have sex with him. But she also chronicled Shetty's behavior as the new guru. Shetty displayed many of the same traits as her mentor. She ran a hate campaign against her brother, who had been named as a co-successor by Muktananda, beating him and isolating him until he finally gave up his claim on the SYDA's spiritual mantle. She denied all allegations of Muktananda's sexual abuse and shielded other sexual predators inside the ashram, including a man called George Afif, who was convicted of statutory rape. Harris' piece even hinted that Shetty herself had had sexual relations with Afif. "While I was working on the story," Harris told Salon, "I was constantly followed [inside the ashram]. Men with walkie-talkies wouldn't let me go anywhere on my own. They were always asking my driver questions. A woman who I worked with in the ashram's kitchen was even noting down every word I said. It was very Big Brother-like."
The organization tried hard to keep the New Yorker from publishing the story, even threatening it with litigation. According to Marta Szabo, a one-time devotee of SYDA who wrote the book "The Guru Looked Good," Shetty once called a secret meeting to chant and perform "weird Reiki" against Lis Harris and the New Yorker's then-editor, Tina Brown. "When the article finally came out, they took every copy of the magazine that they could find and burnt them in a great pile," Harris says.

Eat Pray Love Inspired by Gurumayi, Leader of Cult-Like Ashram Roger Friedman, Showbiz411.com, Aug. 13, 2010
The whole “Eat Love Pray” movement -- now the inspiration for a Julia Roberts movie -- comes from a cult=like ashram that gained popularity in the early 1990s, guided by a woman named Gurumayi.
And it makes you wonder: has Julia Roberts, who now says she’s a practicing Hindu -- found her own Scientology?
Now 55 years old, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda -- her real name is Malti Shetty -- is the swami whom Elizabeth Gilbert went to meet in India in the book, "Eat Love Pray.” Alas, Gurumayi wasn’t there when Gilbert arrived. She was never anywhere as I recall. I wrote a piece about her and her cult-like ashram back in the early 90s. Her disciples -- mostly young women -- met in a church basement on the Upper East Side. There were dozens of them. They were glassy eyed. They were mostly white, upscale, and having trouble with relationships. Sound familiar?
[...]
Her SYDA Foundation -- about which it is hard to gain much information -- is worth millions in real estate holdings. She also runs an international organization called Siddha Yoga, a business posing as a religion. Both organizations are tax exempt because they’re registered as churches.
[...]
Marta Szabo knows all about Gurumayi. She worked for her for over 10 years. Now she’s published her own memoir, called “The Guru Looked Good.” Szabo has never met Gilbert, and her book was published before “Eat Pray Love.” What she says is quite different than Gilbert’s movie would lead anyone to believe.

O, Guru, Guru, Guru by Lis Harris, The New Yorker, Nov. 14, 1994
It seems in SYDA, the unspoken motto is: the end justifies the means. The end is doing Gurumayi's work. The means is anything and everything, illegal, immoral, it doesn't matter.
There are many more examples, but I think I will stop here. You get the idea. Suffice to say, Fallsburg is operating on a different set of rules than anyone else. Fair play, truth and respect have little to do with how they operate; or how we are asked to operate. Lies are common. Stories change with the wind.
I used to think this was just the people around Gurumayi that were doing this. But I know now that it is coming from the very top; it's the way to conduct business in SYDA. Gurumayi lies constantly. Lies to take blame away from herself for anything. Lies to screw with people's heads. Lies for her own amusement. A friend who once worked for another SYDA person was told by this person, when she caught her lying to clients, that she was just preparing her for what it was like to work in Fallsburg at Gurumayi's ashram. It was the way it was done. Even Gurumayi lied. The implication being, if Gurumayi lies, it must be ok.
It's not ok. Not for an organization that pretends to be based on love, respect and truth. For not only isn't SYDA based on love or respect or truth; it's not based on much of anything. You can't follow the lineage of masters back even to Nityananda. He never appointed Muktananda, Muktananda appointed himself. SYDA is a thief. It steals peoples hearts and minds and money for its own selfish gains. It stole from Nityananda, making a mockery out of him.

Books

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Guru Looked Good by Marta Szabo
This is a personal memoir of over ten years spent in a Siddha Yoga ashram, a yogic monastery.
Marta describes clearly what drew her into the movement, what working closely to the guru was like, and how she came to move away from the organization. It is a revealing behind-the-scenes look at a major international spiritual organization written with skill and artistry.

Websites

Leaving Siddha Yoga
This website was started in July 1996 to provide information about the problems in Siddha Yoga, past and present. By doing so we would provide support for those who have left or are thinking of leaving.
For our purposes, Siddha Yoga is first defined as the organization started by Swami Muktananda after Nityananda of Ganeshpuri died in 1961, and now controlled by Swami Chidvilasananda.
This site points to several concrete abuses in Siddha Yoga, such as sexual abuse by Swami Muktananda and other Siddha Yoga leaders, and the long term stalking and harassment of Gurumayi's rival, her brother Swami Nityananda. While these concrete abuses are the most immediately recognizable, there are other more subtle ways that we believe Siddha Yoga abuses its followers. As you read the stories and articles here, it is our hope that you can see that Siddha Yoga creates dependence, not liberation, in its followers, and requires its members to live in dissociative denial, pushing truth away. Critical thinking and questioning is punished by banishment from the community. Suppression and falsification of truth, submissive dependence, and acceptance of one's insufficiency as a human being compared to the perfection of the guru, is rewarded. We believe that induction into this masochistic state of submission is the universal harm done to Siddha Yoga followers. Sexual abuse, illegal activities and other forms of harmful exploitation are just some of the concrete manifestations of this demand for submission to the control of the guru and her group.
Some ask, isn't all the wrongdoing in the past, and haven't those who did wrong in the past left Siddha Yoga? The answers, respectively, are no, and no. Even if it were the case that Siddha Yoga had "cleaned up its act," the retrospective falsification of Siddha Yoga's history has been undertaken systematically by its leaders, and this is a wrongdoing happening now. The failure to openly confess and apologize for: 1) extensive sexual abuses by Muktananda, and other Siddha Yoga leaders; and 2) the more than ten year vendetta orchestrated by Gurumayi against her brother, including world wide stalking and harassing (which some say continues to this day), -- is a profound moral and ethical failure, a wrongdoing happening now, for which Gurumayi is ultimately responsible. Her refusal to accept this responsibility, to take appropriate actions to make reparations and apologies, is a wrongdoing happening right now. The demand that followers ignore and deny the truth of Siddha Yoga's history, and Gurumayi's inability to recognize how submission and dependence, indeed, psychological enslavement, is created in and demanded of her followers, is a wrongdoing happening now.

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