She was once a Brooklyn housewife. Now, she is Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, the strangest religious leader Florida has ever seen. |
Abstract:
Ivanna Trump attends her fund-raisers. Folk singer Arlo Guthrie considers her his guru. She is a high school dropout who has counted Oxford dons and Harvard professors among her admirers. Noted Harvard religious scholar Diana Eck calls her "a spiritual genius." Her followers call her, simply, "Ma."
Devotees who live there submit themselves to a religious vocation. Many, like Ma, are converts to Hinduism. They worship together near the woodsy temple of Hanuman, in ceremonies called "fire pujas" that begin with chanting and conclude with participants throwing rice into a blaze, symbolizing the release of pettiness and selfish cares. They take a vow of chastity, work long volunteer hours, and assume a new, spiritual name. And they like to pamper the matriarch who oversees their spiritual growth. Ma likes to play roller hockey, so the ashram became perhaps the only religious retreat in the country with a hockey rink, complete with scoreboard and nets. Ma often can be found playing matches with ashram teenagers.
Kimberly Bergalis, the South Florida student who believed she contracted the disease from dental surgery in 1987, came to
the ashram soon after her diagnosis. Before she died in 1991, she often wrote about Ma in her diary: "Ma said, `Look,
honey, we'll fight this together' ... Ma made me feel good when she said, `Of course, sweetheart, I'm here for you - any
time.'"
Full Text:
Copyright ORLANDO SENTINEL Aug 9, 1998
Michael McLeod is a staff writer for Florida magazine. Michael Landsberg is a free-lance photographer. Cover photo by Michael
Landsberg
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