Where do the profits go?

One drain on profits that does not apply to Shri Mataji is tax which she, like some other well-known gurus, has been able to scrupulously avoid. Shri Mataji's brother, a chartered accountant who is partly responsible for handling Shri Mataji's accounts, has revealed that Shri Mataji spends three months of the year in India to avoid Italian taxation. Import duties on large numbers of presents have been avoided by dividing them up between Sahaja Yogis travelling between countries. Sales tax (VAT) has been avoided on building materials delivered at night. The day-to-day running costs of Sahaja Yoga are covered by donations to various tax-exempt charitable trusts [eg Life Eternal Trust (UK) and Vishwa Nirmala Dharma]. Meanwhile Shri Mataji's real income is deposited into her personal bank accounts with no honest accounts available to tax authorities or devotees. All Sahaja Yoga national leaders make transfers of money for national pujas, India Tours, collective presents, school fees and other 'international projects' into Shri Mataji's personal accounts. Only a select few are trusted with the cash-stuffed briefcases.

Given that this vast income is largely untaxed, what are Shri Mataji's outgoings? As noted above, Sahaja Yogis' donations cover the day-to-day running of Sahaja Yoga including advertising and renting recruitment venues as well as Shri Mataji's travel and hotel expenses. Even Shri Mataji's much-loved shopping expeditions usually conclude without Shri Mataji having opened her own purse. Shri Mataji needs no money for a comfortable private life as her husband has a substantial pension and they sold their London home for approximately £ 1,000,000 ($1,600,000) in the mid 1980s. Some of this money was spent on building Shri Mataji's Indian palace which was subsidised by Sahaja Yogis working for free. Shri Mataji may also have inherited wealth as once, when she was asked at a public [recruitment] meeting why she didn't sell her diamonds to help the poor, she said she couldn't because they came from her family (the questioner was then removed from the meeting by a Sahaja Yogi).

During the annual India Tour's 'finale' in Ganapatipule, Shri Mataji does distribute silver items to national centres for use in her worship. The quality and quantity of these items has increased since the 1980s. We estimate that 40-60 presents at an average of $200-400 each costs Shri Mataji $8,000-24,000 in total. This is petty cash when compared to the $350,000-700,000 that Shri Mataji profits from each India Tour.

We are unsure of what Shri Mataji means when she claims to have "also provided audio/video equipment and other electrical goods with her own money." For many years all the audiovisual recordings to Shri Mataji's appearances were paid for by a rich donor, although we are unsure of the present arrangements. It may also be that there has been some expenditure on audiovisual equipment for recruitment meetings in poor countries, although we have not heard of it and do not know how it is financed. Usually any expenditure from Shri Mataji's 'own money' is widely trumpeted. Whatever the case, the expense of 'audio/video equipment and other electrical goods' is unlikely to exceed that of the petty cash spent on silver items.

Given that these sundry items - like the day-to-day running costs of Sahaja Yoga - make no serious impact on Shri Mataji's vast untaxed income, can her profiteering be justified by spending on "Sahaj Projects all over the world" as suggested in the Lettre Subtile? Shri Mataji certainly gives us an impressive (although incomplete) inventory of her current real estate portfolio in her Lettre Subtile. However, this portfolio was almost entirely built up in the 1990s, while Shri Mataji has been collecting guru dakshina and money for 'projects in India' since the beginning of the 1980s. By the late 1980s, all there was to show for the small fortune donated was a roof over a small shrine in Ganapatipule (estimated cost $75).

Given that this vast untaxed income is not used for the day-to-day running of Sahaja Yoga and is not needed for Shri Mataji to live a comfortable private life, where does it all go? Shri Mataji's Lettre Subtile addresses the "question [of] where the money has gone" with an unsubstantiated claim that the profits have been spent on "Sahaj Projects all over the world" plus some other sundry items. Before dealing with the more important 'Sahaj Projects', let us take of quick look at the sundries of which the Lettre Subtile states:

"Shri Mataji has also provided audio/video equipment and other electrical goods with her own money. Even the silver items and ornaments for puja ceremonies are brought from her money. She has continuously showered lavish presents to all the Sahaja Yogis. So this is the answer to your question where the money has gone."

Here Shri Mataji both suggests that these sundry items are paid with her 'own money' and that they are paid for by the profits from Sahaja Yoga that we have highlighted. This tends to confirm our view that Shri Mataji makes no distinction between her 'own money' and profits from Sahaja Yoga - a view based on the fact that profits are funnelled into bank accounts and properties that are in Shri Mataji's name. Given that Shri Mataji is referring to profits from Sahaja Yoga when she refers to her 'own money', we can still ask how far these sundry items eat into this vast untaxed income. The 'lavish presents' that Shri Mataji 'showers' upon her followers are insignificant. They consist mostly of liquidated stock and cheap kilo-sold items from developing countries that are often bought with money from Sahaja Yogis that is not included in our calculations.

When land was acquired for the Dharamsala school, many assumed that it was bought with 'Projects in India' money, yet it was actually donated by a wealthy Sahaja Yogi. This is one of a number of purchases listed by Mataji in Lettre Subtile as paid for by the mythical 'Sahaja Yoga finance committee', that were actually largely financed by donations from Sahaja Yogis. Another example is the school in Rome.

On 9 November 1999 we received a threat of legal action from one of Shri Mataji's rich donors who wrote, "When we meet in court I can disprove with written documentary banking evidence your libellous lies about Sri Mataji's purchases of houses as I financed them from my own wealth." While this donor certainly did not finance all the purchases himself, it is certainly true that much of Shri Mataji's real estate portfolio has been financed by donations that are not included in our estimates of her profits. Another example of the financing of real estate from outside the profits we have estimated, is the purchase of the Palazzo Doria in Cabella Ligure (Italy) with the help of a < A HREF="test5.htm>loan of over 200,000 Swiss Francs ($130,000) from a Sahaja Yogi that was never paid back even after repeated requests.

All this serves to undermine Shri Mataji's claim that her profiteering is justified by spending on "Sahaj Projects all over the world". However, we would not suggest that none of the profits we have calculated go into Shri Mataji's real estate portfolio. For example, Sahaja Yogis attending the international puja for Diwali on 12-14 November 1999 at Delphi were asked to pay in French francs. It is difficult to believe that this unusual request was unconnected with the recent purchase of a chateau in Jausiers (Alpes de Haute Provence, France) for 2,500,000 French francs ($416,000).

Shri Mataji's first big purchase was Shudy Camps Park House in Cambridgeshire (UK) for £300,000 ($480,000). The original idea came from the English Sahaja Yogis who wanted to buy Shri Mataji a house in England in the hope that they would continue to see her regularly after her husband retired from his UN job in London. The idea was that the house should be owned by Life Eternal Trust (UK) Limited but Shri Mataji decided that the house should be in her name. The English Sahaja Yogis were given details of loan companies and managed to collect £250,000 ($400,000), further donations came from abroad. The building was completely overhauled by unpaid Sahaja Yogis, initially working 11 hours a day with only Sunday mornings off for pujas. The amateur renovation work led to the destruction of a historic 300 year old listed ceiling. Shri Mataji never spent much time there, an attempt at a Sahaja Yoga hospital failed and the planned school never materialised. The only saving grace was that property prices went up enough for Shri Mataji to sell up for £1,000,000 ($1,600,000) and shift the capital abroad. None of the donors who had financed the project to give their Goddess a home in their country were consulted or offered their money back.

Shudy Camps set a precedent for buying properties with donations and putting them in Shri Mataji's name. Many (if not all) of the properties listed in Lettre Subtile, as well as the Cabella and Jausiers chateaux, are held in Shri Mataji's name (or that of her husband) rather than Sahaja Yoga's charitable trusts. While some boy-gurus collect Rolls-Royces, it seems that this girl-guru prefers houses. Neither Shri Mataji's devotees, nor her ex-devotees, have seen her will so they do not know where her death would leave these properties (or the Sahaj money in her personal bank accounts).

It is also noteworthy that many of the "Sahaj Projects all over the world" - such as the schools, music academy and ashrams - actually generate income. Even properties like Shudy Camps Park House and the Cabella Palazzo have increased Shri Mataji's profits from international pujas. Any re-investment of personal wealth in money-making projects that are heavily subsidised by donations and bad loans does little to justify Shri Mataji's profiteering from Sahaja Yoga.