Timeline and Narrative, Pt 1 – “1999 to 2010 – WHAT HAPPENED & WHEN?”

1999 to 2010 – Timeline Presentation

Although this lawsuit is occurring in the New York Sector, it is significantly influenced by forces largely outside of the sector that are bent on destabilizing AMPS and its Central authorities. To do this, they are manipulating Ananda Marga, Inc. in this sector as well as other sectorial and national/local offices around the globe.

The timeline below lists the key events from 1999 to 2006 that have led up to the current lawsuit in this sector. Note that the timeline segment published in the previous issue of this newsletter listed events from 2006 onward; the timeline below lists events preceding that timeline. It includes the moving of the AMPS Central Office from its camp location in Kolkata to its headquarters in Ananda Nagar and then to its present camp location in Ranchi and the defections that occurred after that. Although the dissenters incorrectly refer to the AMPS Central camp office as the “Ranchi administration,” it is in reality the same legacy and legal organization created by Shrii Anandamurti in 1955, with the same unhindered authority that Baba bestowed upon it then.

The timeline shows the influences of the various forces seeking to undermine AMPS and the Central authorities. It also shows the numerous efforts of the GS, SS Vimalananda and others to address the situation in AM Inc. through letters, requests and dialog with Ac. Tiirthananda Avt. and the former members of the Board of AM Inc. Instead of cooperation, the GS met a wall of resistance and the newly appointed Board were faced with a lawsuit against them.

December 1999 – The Winter 2000 issue of Crimson Dawn, the New York Sectorial Newsletter is published with an article “Uma Nivas and Ananda Nagar”. The article describes, “In the past year plans have been underway to move our global office in Calcutta to Ananda Nagar”. Since Mahaprayan in 1990, the plans for the move of the AMPS Central Office from its camp location at Tiljala, Kolkata (Calcutta) to its Registered Headquarters at Ananda Nagar, Purulia District were developing. As the article describes, one obstacle to the move was that there was no building or project at Ananda Nagar sufficient to house the central Didis and their global offices. Uma Nivas is announced in the article as the sister’s Master Unit at Ananda Nagar that would provide many service projects to serve the local residents of the area, supply the infrastructure for the Didis and their offices, and further facilitate the eventual move of the entire Central Office to Ananda Nagar.

Mid-2000 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt. assumes the office of the General Secretary of Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha, relieving Ac. Shambhushivananda Avt. working from the Central Camp Headquarters in the Tiljala office and residence compound on the outskirts of Kolkata, West Bengal. The official and registered HQ of AMPS remains at Ananda Nagar.

Mid-2002 – At the direction of the General Secretary, the Central headquarters of AMPS moves to and begins to function at Ananda Nagar, Purulia District, West Bengal. It shifts from the Camp Office at Tiljala, Kolkata.

Many Kolkata-based Acaryas, staff, former Central Office officers and administrators (from previous Central administrations), remain in Tiljala with their portfolios, their assigned projects and in assigned care of the considerable volume of AMPS assets which include substantial real estate holdings, liquid financial assets, office archives, library, Ba’ba’ Archives (museum-like holding of Guru legacy-related objects) and the like.

In a short time, those remaining seize the AMPS projects, offices, and many other assets in Calcutta and elsewhere in West Bengal for their use, benefit and control. Eventually, over the next year or more, the Kolkata group start their own organizational structure with independently declared officials such as President, General Secretary, etc.

2002 – Acarya Raghunathji, a senior and respected family acarya, is appointed President of AMPS by the Purodha Pramukha, Acarya Shraddhananda Avadhuta.

Early-2003 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS posts Ac. Tiirthananda Avt. as SS NY Sector, relieving Ac. Ramananda Avt.

September 17, 2003 – Kolkata-based defectors file a law suit injunction in Purulia District Court against Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha. Regardless of the unresolved status of the suit, the AMPS Central Office in Ananda Nagar continues to function as the legal administration of the organization with no break or change in the spiritual and legal authority of its Purodha Pramukha and officers.

September 18, 2003 – A violent attack on Ananda Nagar and the AMPS Central Office there occurs resulting in the death of one Dada and permanent injury or disabling of others.

Immediately, for security reasons, the General Secretary of AMPS orders the Central Office moved to a new Camp Office location to the city of Ranchi, Bihar (now known as Ranchi, Jharkhand), nearby to the west of Ananda Nagar,.

March 29, 2005 – General Secretary, Ac. Dhruvananda sends a letter to Sectorial Secretary, Ac. Tiirthananda Avt. demanding explanation for his unauthorized absence from the March World Review Defect Solution (WRDS) meeting and his non-response to phone calls and messages inquiring about the absence. All Sectorial Secretaries are personally obligated to attend WRDS five times in the year – in March, May, August, October and December. Non-attendance is to be approved in advance, in the same manner as proposed changes to tour programs are to be authorized. Non-attendance and without proper representation, the mutual exchange of information between a Sector and Central Office, a primary purpose of RDS, is disturbed and is harmful to the mission.

July 3, 2005 – The EC movement group (AKA Way Forward, Effecting Change) starts a private email discussion group at anandamarga.org.au, with membership restricted to members in Suva Sector for EC planning and discussion. This e-mail list-serve is one of six known to be active globally during this time – the other five are: EC Core, EC, EC Global, and EC Delhi.

September 19, 2005 – Meeting of the EC group occurs in Boston, USA. Ac. Tiirthananda Avt. leads the meeting. Participants include approximately twelve senior Ananda Marga lay members and monks and nuns from around the globe. One of the participants, Devanistha, becomes a Director of the Board of AM, Inc. in 2006, following the 2006 amendment to the AM Inc. Bylaws.

October 12, 2005 – The EC group conducts a second meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The meeting participants include official representatives of the Kolkata (Tiljala) splinter group with whom EC is collaborating. The meeting minutes outline a carefully planned strategy with a timeline to take control of the Central Administration of AMPS, indicating a completion target date of early June 2006. Five of the individuals who attended the Boston meeting are in attendance in Kuala Lumpur, including Ac. Tiirthananda Avt. Tiirthananda is travelling and attending this meeting without a tour programme approved by his higher authorities, AMPS Central Office.

October 30, 2005 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt. GS AMPS posts Ac. Shubhatmananda Avt as SS NY Sector, relieving Ac. Tiirthananda Avt., who is posted as SS Suva Sector.

January 6 & 7, 2006 – The Ananda Marga, Inc. Board of Directors hold special meetings to discuss amendments to the AM, Inc. Bylaws.

January 28, 2006 – Ananda Marga, Inc. Board of Directors hold a special meeting to allegedly authorize amendments to the AM, Inc. Bylaws. These changes do not have authorization from the legitimate Sectorial Secretary as required by the corporation’s 1982 bylaws; nor do they bear the ratification of the AMPS General Secretary as required by a 1996 AMPS Central Committee Resolution.

February 28, 2006 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS posts Ac. Vimalananda Avt as SS NY Sector by Office Order and directs Ac. Tiirthananda Avt. to report to SS Qahira Sector [without portfolio] for his future assignment.

October 10, 2006 – Ac. Vishvadevananda Avt., Acting GS AMPS, by Office Order, directs Ac. Tiirthananda Avt. [without portfolio] to handover charge of the office of SS NY to Acarya Vimalananda Avt. and report to assigned posting in Qahira Sector.

September 12, 2007 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS, sends the Board of Directors of Ananda Marga, Inc. a notice of objection to recent unauthorized amendments to Bylaws, directing that the Board reverse the unauthorized amendments under the supervision of Ac. Vimalananda Avt., SS NY Sector.

March 7, 2008 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS, issues a Violation Notice and Disciplinary Notice to Ac. Tiirthananda Avt., noting anti-organizational behavior and giving him a seven-day deadline for compliance.

March 7, 2008 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS, sends a letter to the AM Inc. Board of Directors as a follow-up on the September 12 letter challenging the unauthorized amendments to the Bylaws. This March 7, 2008 letter asks once again for the Board’s confirmation and compliance.

June 10, 2008 – Wayland Secrest (Vishvadeva), Director on the AM Inc. Board replies by letter to Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS. Mr. Secrest’s letter claims that the 2006 Bylaws are in compliance with the Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation of AM, Inc. and therefore legal.

June 11, 2008 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS, replies to Mr. Secrest’s letter and requests immediate delivery to AMPS of authenticated copies of the so-called newly amended Bylaws (2006), the 1982 Bylaws and the Articles of Incorporation of AM, Inc.

August 1, 2008 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS, sends a follow-up letter to Mr. Secrest, Board of Directors, noting that no response has been received in reply to his June 11th letter and repeating the request for copies.

January 9, 2009 – Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS, issues a letter to SS NYS, Acharya Vimalananda Avadhuta, directing him to reconstitute the Board of Directors of Ananda Marga, Inc. because of the unauthorized changes to the Bylaws and the Board’s repeated failures to respond to his requests for clarification.

July 6, 2009 – SS Ac. Vimalananda Avt. begins the New York Sectorial Wholetimer RDS according to the long-standing management systems of AMPS. Those Didis and Dadas not complying with directives of AMPS in regard to posting orders and not in compliance to orders and structural solidarity were informed they were not welcome to attend the RDS meeting. This action closed a period from March 1, 2006, more than three years, during which SS Vimalananda, and AMPS in New York Sector, had been openly tolerant of and patient with adversarial conditions (legally and structurally) and the organizationally-contrary positioning of some wholetimers in the sector. SS Vimalananda’s action is a corrective action, a movement in-line with organizational directives. Its objective and its results, ultimately, are polarizing to those antagonistic to the AMPS structure and order, offering further clarity as to who is on-board with AMPS and who is not.

July 27, 2009 – SS Ac. Vimalananda Avt. issues a letter titled “The TRUTHS of the Cooperation ERA in New York Sector (2006-2009)”. Not only does the letter address strong disinformation and reactions from disgruntled wholetimers, it clarifies non-cooperation and unilateral cooperation which could be not sustained over the long-term, and which prompted him to finally draw a line of authority as his posting as SS and its authority demands.

October 23, 2009 – SS Ac. Vimalananda Avt. reconstitutes the membership of the Board of Directors of Ananda Marga, Inc. with a formal declaration, and Ac. Dhruvananda Avt., GS AMPS, ratifies the roster of new Board members.

February 12, 2010 – Attorneys retained by the newly appointed AM, Inc. Board of Directors send letters to each of the former AM, Inc. Board of Directors, giving them notice of their removal from the Board and asking for cooperation in the hand over of AM Inc. assets and control to the newly appointed board. The letter requests cooperation within ten-days. Soon after this letter, intermittently occuring conversations over the next month begins between the parties in order to seek and share information, understand the underlying issues, and to see where progress could be made to resolve the matter in the best way for Ananda Marga and the New York Sector.

March 12, 2010 – The conversation between the former and the new Board members comes to an abrupt end when the former Board members file a lawsuit in Colorado against the newly appointed Board members.