Swami Chetanananda went dark a few weeks ago on his Instagram account. Then recently he returned to the world of name and form – and made it public again.
Inclusive of his return were some messages of hope and wisdom. You may sing this to the tune of “For All the Girls I Loved Before.” Substitute the word “loved” for “hurt.”
Here is one quote:
If you cannot take responsibility for your choices, no matter how disastrous they might be…(no one makes all good choices).… you cannot grow. Mistakes are the pathway to really learning… Blaming others for your choices is the doorway to hell.
If we truly seek to live our life authentically, we must celebrate and be grateful for the Madness we become. Inside the box, normal, there is fear, and hate and anger. Outside the box… there is joy, freedom, love… and madness. I am mad. To see the lie that is life on earth… makes any caring person insane. Celebrate insanity… become intoxicated with joy… dance your freedom… Be liberated from Normal… which is death by boredom.
Some of the best advice I’ve ever been given: “Don’t take criticism from people you wouldn’t ever go to for advice.”
The Swami posted this view from the Hermitage.
Sunrise and sunsets are pleasant for the Swami at the Hermitage. Not so much for some of his consorts.
He still has his pujas. Though not as many are in attendance at Gold Beach as once flocked to him at the Movement Center.
The Swami is still working out. He shows off those powerful arms, strong enough to choke the tenderest female neck.
No, he is not strangling her. He is dancing with a young woman.
Now let us turn our attention to Natasha.
Natasha has been a yoga teacher for over 13 years. In 2016 she experienced a series of injuries that landed her in the hospital for four months. The cause of her injuries was jumping off an overpass in Portland.
At the time of this lamentable event, she lived at The Movement Center. She was in a sexual relationship with her guru, Swami Chetanananda.
His relationship with her, he told her, was tantric and yogic in nature. Its outward form was BDSM and drugs. These are two parts of the Swami’s teachings. He partakes in the drugs and, in the case of Natasha, takes a drug-free woman and makes her a drug user.
He was her guru. Those were his teachings, his commands for her welfare, and spiritual advancement.
It was the command of the guru. She came to him seeking wisdom. He did depraved and dangerous activities to “open her up.”
Here is what she had to say about him after she left the Swami a few months back.
Natacha Swami Chetananda
By Natasha
It gives me no joy, only sadness, to speak up about my experience with Swami Chetanananda.
If you knew me before I moved into the Movement Center, you know how passionate I have always been about yoga. I was passionate about cultivating and honoring the sacred and living a life of truth, love, open-heartedness, open-mindedness, and curiosity.
If you knew me from The Movement Center, you know how much love I poured into that place, and how strong and quiet my love was for Swamiji. It was not flashy, but rather honest and a struggle for me.
I was willing to make a fool of myself for him again and again for years, with no complaint or call for attention. I never spoke about my personal relationship with him. It was something I deemed sacred.
I assume Swami Chetanananda will respond with nonsense about me to make fun of me. He will portray himself as the victim.
“Poor me. Why does this always happen to me?”
I’m unsure exactly what he will say. Maybe he’ll say I want public recognition, or I’m unhappy with not getting what I wanted.
With his gift of speech, he will make fun of me. He will discredit me. Remember, he is a politician and frat boy first, before being a “yogi.”
It is not true.
If I had wanted public recognition as a yoga teacher, I could have had that long ago.
I walked away from that when I moved into The Movement Center and decided to dedicate myself to serving my teacher and community there.
Whatever other nonsense he says about me is honestly his PAIN.
And an inability among his students to understand the paradox that yes, your teacher has the power to awaken something beautiful inside of you. He also abuses that power and privilege by sexually engaging with young women.
He calls it “giving them an opportunity” rather than what it is: Lies upon lies, manipulation, abuse of power, and an attempt to ameliorate his own great discomfort from taking on way too much in his life to prove a point, and then having to “burn it off” with the girl du jour.
Of course, it is more fun to have a fun and flirty relationship than deal with your actual problems and life. Who wouldn’t prefer that?
Totally justified, except that it keeps ending badly for the woman in question, and he absurdly keeps painting himself as a victim!
“Why does this always happen to me?” Boo hoo.
Point 1: ‘He Never Did That to Me.’
To all the middle-aged people who say, “He never hit on me. I never witnessed anything like that in my 200 years studying with him,” I have a reply.
He never hit on you because you were not an attractive young woman when you met him – or because you were not part of the “inner circle.”
Point 2 “Natasha, how can you be so ungrateful to your guru?”
I am grateful for the experiences of my innermost self-awakening, the wisdom that arose from that awakening, and the experience of my Kundalini energy becoming alive and on fire within.
All these experiences occurred before I moved into the Ashram. I became completely disconnected from it when I became involved personally with Swami Chetanananda.
I became mind-controlled and focused on serving him, attending to his every insecurity, working overtime to pacify it, and burning the candle at both ends.
For him, I ran a yoga studio, contributed to the yoga teacher trainings, and taught the only growing yoga classes in the studio. I managed the front desk until a new student came along who gratefully took over.
I managed Swami Chetanananda’s personal life and needs.
Work that I have yet to be acknowledged for by the The Movement Center staff. Rather than being supportive to me and helping me find a better way and deeper truth, they shunned me from the beginning and made me feel rejected, isolated, and alone with no one to go to or talk to. They did this because they knew of my relationship with Swami Chetanananda and did not approve. Yet they were powerless to say anything or do anything for fear of being rejected by their guru.
Point 3 Thanks to everyone who wrote me personally to say #metoo.
Mostly young women my age, some of them my students (I’m horrified!!) – who on the first private meeting with SC found themselves being hit on. Of course, he will laugh at and deny it.
Yet, women know. And the truth is, his students know.
Point 4 “But he didn’t have sexual relations with all of them.”
No, but he tested the waters, and he tried.
Point 5 “I had a BDSM relationship with Swami. It was wonderful.”
Good for you! I bet you weren’t a sexually inexperienced young girl in your twenties when he engaged you, but rather older, more rooted in yourself, and more experienced.
So you could just open up to it and take it in, rather than dealing with multiple layers simultaneously, including awkwardness with feeling your body breathing and feeling another, and being made to feel like shit when constantly reminded of your inability to “open up”.
Had he given me a year to get situated in myself and the practice and being around him and his big energy, we might all be in a vastly different place today.
Shoemaker and Rudi
I believe the practice given by Rudi and taught by Swami Chetanananda resolves the blockages within a person. But getting fucked five times a day to get me to “open and relax” only had the opposite effect for me and spun me out.
It did not ground me in my own Self, my capacity, and my innate beauty, wisdom, and power.
It tanked my self-esteem and confidence, and made me feel like an inadequate human.
Point 6 “But you must open and become unconditionally loving to your guru, Natasha.”
I have opened my heart to that man way more than anyone within or outside the Ashram walls will ever understand.
First, I’ve loved him through some really dark shit and received a lot of mockery in response.
Secondly, do you feel that a man who still tells the tales of when his students “screwed him over” back in the 70s and 80s is unconditionally loving?
The number of people he talks ‘shit’ about and blacklists is in the hundreds. Yet this man claims to be an example of unconditional love and respect?
Stop lying to yourself and HOLD THE PARADOX:
He has real light and a lot of real darkness – and it devoured an exceptional girl, and has devoured many. And it’s all good and games until that pendulum lands on YOU.
Isa Raim
Point 7 “Lastly…”
the lovely Isa Raim, who lives in Europe, has had some short but powerful stints at The Movement Center. I have a lot of respect for him.
He said he has only seen Swami Chetanananda be respectful towards me and so generous with his support of me through a difficult time.
He deleted his comment, but I want to share with you what I replied to him.
Yes, I am grateful that I am as healthy as I am today. And I refer you to the last 16 minutes of the Dave Chapelle show that I posted on my feed to speak to “what happened to me” and my feelings around the amazing care I received.
I reiterate, I am grateful. I’m also thankful for staying away and speaking publicly for my safety and the safety of others.
Swami Chetanananda has a LOT of compensation patterns that he is not honest about.
This is a danger to real students, who might make endless excuses for him and end up “in the drink,” as he likes to say. He has no awareness and takes no thoughtful responsibility for his energy.
This is crude, but it’s fucking real.
