Exposing The Anti-Sai Activist: Robert Priddy
Swami Ambikananda’s Comments About Robert Priddy:
Before Robert Priddy became an overzealous enthusiast of the Indian Guru Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, he was a devotee of Swami Ambikananda. About Ambikananda, Robert Priddy said:
Robert Priddy: “When I was connected in the 1970s with a pure Indian swami who lived in England (Swami Ambikananda), and to whom I had an intense relationship for some period, the same kind of synchronous phenomena occurred... and grew into a whole range of simultaneous thoughts-cum-events. It became very troublesome, for the more I concentrated on my connection to him, the more every other thought remotely I had about it seemed to produce a creak in the woodwork of the house or various ‘signs’ relating to him. During one period, the flame of a candle before his picture would ‘answer’ my definitive mental desire for an affirmation by directly sinking almost down to extinction for some time before burning up again.”
Robert Priddy also discussed Swami Ambikananda in his Pro-Baba book “Source Of The Dream - My Way To Sathya Sai Baba” (without mentioning him by name) and claimed that the Swami visited him in dreams, possessed supernatural and psychic powers, passed his predetermined mental tests, was responsible for his marriage to Reidun and that his eyes shone “like burning embers”. Robert Priddy also claimed that a clap of thunder echoed from a clear sky when he entertained the thought that Swami Ambikananda might be a womanizer!
It is significant to note that Swami Ambikananda told Robert Priddy that he should always remember Sai Baba or he “could go mad”. Although Robert Priddy wrote and spoke favorably about Swami Ambikananda, it is surprising that the Swami actually lambasted Robert Priddy as a “skeptic septic tank” (when he had no reason to do so) years before Robert Priddy became a foaming-at-the-mouth skeptic and years before Robert Priddy defected from the Sai Movement! As a matter of fact, Swami Ambikananda died in 1997, three years before Robert Priddy became a rabid ex-devotee.
By reading Robert Priddy’s current writing against Sathya Sai Baba and others, it certainly appears he has gone mad and most certainly is a “skeptic septic tank”. Apparently, there is more to Swami Ambikananda than meets the eye and his prophecy regarding Robert Priddy is wholly remarkable.
His family name was Meekaparsad Rambhajun and he was born on November 2, 1934 on the Island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. He came from a well-to-do Hindu family who called him MITHI, meaning ‘the sweet’. His maternal great-grandfather had been a priest in the tradition of KABIR, a 16th century mystic venerated by both Hindus and Muslims. From childhood onward he developed a fervent religious zeal and, together with his grand-father, went on pilgrimage to India for the first time in 1953. In 1954 he came to England where he stayed for the rest of his life. After some more trips to India where he spent some time in a Himalayan hermitage close to Rishikesh and, at one occasion met with Swami Sivananda, a small group of devotees founded the QUINTESSENCE Ashram in London in 1969. In 1971 he received initiation according to the traditions of Vedanta taking the vows of a monk and thus became known as Swami Ambikananda.
For Swamiji the teachings of Ramakrishna and the Christ, Vedanta and Christianity constitute the groundwork of direct mystical experience and intimate communion with the Divine. In the Hindu tradition this is known as Bhakti Yoga, the way of love and devotion. The same is true in the western mystical traditions, therefore the lives and deeds of Christian saints such as Thomas a Kempis, Saint Brigitte of Sweden, Anne-Catherine Emmerich, and many more, served as equally important examples for Swamiji, as those of their Indian counterparts Ramakrishna or Shirdi Sai Baba.
Swami Ambikananda gave the musicians in QUINTESSENCE their spiritual names and contributed a number of lyrics and melodies to their catalogue. He remains unforgettable to anyone who was blessed to meet him. SHIVA’S QUINTESSENCE hold his memory dear and alive, bringing his teachings into the new millennium.
In 2003 a small book appeard in French (as Swamiji was bilingual) called LE REPAS DE L’AME (ISBN 2-911438-19-1, Editions Diabase), translated as “A Taste of Nectar”, written by Ghislaine Raby, one of his devotees from France who met Swami-ji in 1974 in England. This is a collection of his sayings and a poetical invitation for personal transformation and spiritual development. As he used to say ‘I am a Swami of God’, or, in French: soi-ami de Dieu!
Reference or View Quintessence Ashram Website
Images Curtesy Of:
- Quintessence Ashram
- Quintessence