In the morning of 18 March 2004, starting with 8:00 am, masked police forces stormed a series of homes of yoga practitioners in Bucharest. The troops stormed in without consent, shattering the windows and breaking the doors. Wherever they found persons inside the houses, they held them at gun point. These yogis were kept several hours under the threat of weapons, while the policemen loaded trucks-full of books and personal objects, practically devastating their homes.
Everyone inside the targeted buildings were handled roughly, shocked and treated as criminals; later they were loaded in armored vehicles and transported to the police station where they were interrogated for many hours. Some of the yogis tried to capture these abusive actions on video camera and were stopped violently, grabbed and forcefully taken to police for interrogation. The Romanian police forces intimidated to yoga practitioners, refused their right to have an attorney present during interrogation and refused to tell the victims the reason of this huge action. Even tough they did not actually find anything illegal or compromising, the whole action was deployed as a mega-show for the media - and they managed to do just that.
The yoga professor Gregorian Bivolaru was treated similarly. When he returned home he had the "pleasure" to find his apartment devastated and EMPTIED by the jandarms. It looked like just like a robbery - like when you find your home emptied of everything inside - and paradoxically it was the handy work of the police forces. His vast library, containing a very large number of spirituality related books he collected over the years was lifted along with all his personal objects. We can only hope the police will return everything back in the end of this investigation, considering that Mr. Bivolaru was not present during this raid and did not witness the official inventory, as required by law.
We ask ourselves, why all this? Why so much hate and lack of humanity, not to mention abuse of constitutional and human rights. Absolutely every police inquiry and raid must follow due procedure - only this time no procedure was NOT followed and no one was respected.
Surprisingly, the mass media announced the police was trying to uncover a prostitution and drugs organization. Well, Mr. police man, this time you crossed the line. Of all the people to accuse of such things, you picked us - just read our yoga courses and see what we are taught : to be vegetarians, not to drink alcohol, not to use drugs (illegal substances), and base all our relationships on love and spiritualizing sexuality.
Even tough we taught we got rid of communism 14 years ago, the gross human rights and democracy abuses didn't disappear at all. In fact they start to show up now, contrary to any decency and common sense.
What should we understand from this massive and penible action? Is someone scared that more and more people take to the practice of yoga and gain real benefits like equilibrium, happiness and independence? Is this too much for the "national security" that a few thousand yogis congregate to meditate together, from time to time, for the good and peace of humankind? But there are much more hidden interests here in play ... a society where money rule has an interest in controlling and even annihilating any tentative of spiritualization, which could awaken in the consciousness of people new and more elevated ideas, about Truth and Divinity.
TRUTH SHALL TRIUMPH IN THE END!
More information available on the official MISA website including personal accounts , and the reports of human rights associations such as the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (APADOR-CH) and Amnesty International , official press statement and background info.
Translated from www.YogaEsoteric.net, the official website of MISA.