The ashram next door: Alternative religion and community acceptance in rural Pennsylvania

Tiffany Michelle Blackmon, Purdue University

Abstract

In November 1986, one year after the notorious Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was deported, a new social and religious institute for teaching classical Indian studies in a communal setting opened in the United States. Unlike Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, in Saylorsburg, PA has never made headlines because of legal battles with the surrounding community. Unlike the People's Temple in Guyana or the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, the Saylorsburg ashram has not ignited the fear and distrust of the local community. This project focuses on the emergence of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam as a new religious movement that has never been at odds with the surrounding community into which it arrived, despite predictions suggesting that groups with strong cultural differences come into conflict with each other while trying to live together within a community. Data for this project was generated by fourteen-months of dissertation fieldwork at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, participant observation, and interviews with ashram members, staff, and members of the community of Saylorsburg. By living at the ashram and examining the ways that ashram staff and members accommodated, or did not accommodate, their public and private practices and beliefs to the larger community of Saylorsburg, the author found that the ashram emerged in a context that has been exceedingly accommodative, making use of various deliberate strategic accommodations and emphasizing the common values and agendas shared by both the ashram and the local community, in order to be accepted by Saylorsburg. However, recent shifts in ashram agendas, behaviors, and interactions with local residents are altering the highly accommodative context in which the ashram developed, resulting in changing philosophies, accommodation techniques, and the desire to accommodate among ashram members and staff. Presently, it remains to be seen whether the previously harmonious relationship with Saylorsburg will deteriorate as a result of changing accommodation techniques. If constructive interactions between the ashram and Saylorsburg weaken too much, the ashram might be unable to resume the previous positive relationship with Saylorsburg that the ashram has enjoyed throughout its history, contrary to the expectations and predictions of new religious movement literature.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Buckser, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Cultural anthropology

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