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Title: Cartwheels in a Sari

Subtitle: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult

Author: Jayanti Tamm

Narrator: Jayanti Tamm

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-07-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 48 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In this colorful, eye-opening memoir, Jayanti Tamm offers an unforgettable glimpse into the hidden world of growing up cult in mainstream America. Through Jayanti's fascinating story, the first book to chronicle Sri Chinmoy, she unmasks a leader who convinces thousands of disciples to follow him, scores of nations to dedicate monuments to him, and throngs of celebrities (Sting, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela) to extol him.

When the short, bald man in flowing robes prophesizes Jayanti to be the Chosen One, her life is forever entwined with the charismatic guru Sri Chinmoy, who declares himself a living god - a god who performs sit-ups and push-ups in front of thousands as holy ritual, protects himself with a platoon of bodyguards, and bans books, TV, and sex.

Jayantis unusual and increasingly bizarre childhood is spent shuttling between the ashram in Queens, New York, and her family's outpost as Connecticut missionaries. On the path to enlightenment decreed by Guru, Jayanti scrubs animal cages in his illegal basement zoo, cheerleads as he weight lifts an elephant in her front yard, and trails him around the world as he pursues celebrities such as Princess Diana and Mother Teresa. But, when her need for enlightenment is derailed by her need for boys, Jayanti risks losing everything that she has ever known, including the person that she was ordained to be.

With tenderness, insight, and humor, Jayanti explores the triumphs and trauma of an insider who longs to be an outsider, her hard-won decision to finally break free, and the unique challenges she confronts as she builds a new life.

Editorial Reviews:

When two lost souls are joined together in marriage by the charismatic leader they each found in an ashram in Queens, the strangers begin a journey toward spiritual salvation marred early on by a slip-up. Sri Chinmoy has banned his disciples from having sex, but rather than instruct this couple to do the abortion as he had for so many other couples, he anoints their child as special. At first it may seem pretty cool to be told you are the Chosen One, but Jayanti Tamms life is far from perfect. In this haunting memoir of her striving to become God-Realized and then her struggle to escape the cult that raised her, Tamm narrates her own story in a touching manner that humanizes both sides and stops short of either self-pity or moral superiority.

Most people have heard of Sri Chinmoy. He claims to have lifted an elephant, to have been the spiritual guide of the United Nations, to have been close friends with Mikhail Gorbachev and Princess Diana, and so on. But most people have not heard of Jayanti Tamm, who was loyally by Chinmoys side, born to be nothing more than his devotee and ever in his service, until her slow fall from grace and eventual excommunication at the age of 25. Tamms perspective on the Chinmoy cult is therefore delightfully specific. She dwells on the tiniest details of a head nod or a special light blue color, finely attuned to the major significance of the smallest signs of a favored status within the cult. She excitedly tells of her childhood quest to gain Gurus permission to have a pet bunny, and speaks with gravity about avoiding the ominous bust of his head on the family shrine that she thought was out to get her.