RT Article
T1 Channeling a Tantric GuruThe Ananda Seva Reformation
JF Nova religio
VO 15
IS 2
SP 70
OP 92
A1 Crovetto, Helen
LA English
PB University of Californiarnia Press
YR 2011
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1816080306
AB Ananda Seva Mission (Blissful Service Mission) is an international Hindu tantric organization that resulted from a schism within Ananda Marga (Path of Bliss), a million-member, international socio-spiritual organization that teaches a type of Hindu tantra yoga. Ananda Marga’s founder and guru is Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (1921–1990). The ostensible cause of Ananda Seva Mission’s formation was the purported ability of one of its co-founders to channel the spirit of Sarkar and the subsequent acceptance of this claim by some Ananda Margiis. However, Ananda Seva’s rapid establishment internationally should be partially attributed to its reformist agenda addressing some former Margiis’ dissatisfaction with what has been described as Ananda Marga’s control by a monastic order dominated by male renunciates. Ananda Seva created a more egalitarian organization based on Ananda Marga’s ideology, which gives married individuals a greater decision-making role and increases social opportunities available to women.
DO 10.1525/nr.2011.15.2.70