Peanut Gallery Commentary on the Staff Log of Bannings and such like.

[Angrboda]

I have no proof, but I suspect he wasn't here of his own volition.  Religious cults like that make a concerted effort to spread their beliefs and it's considered a part of their obligations as an Ananda Marga.   Given the relentlessness with which he proselytized, I strongly suspect he was given the task of spreading his beliefs by someone higher up in the organization.

Which cult was Rik from? As far as I could tell he was a complete and utter troll... his weird sentence construction sometimes had phrases from conventional English that only someone fluent in English is likely to know, so if he was not using correct English on purpose, that to me is the mark of a troll. Besides, I think his religious views were listed as 'laughing all the way to the spiritual bank' or something like that, in which case he wasn't spreading the beliefs or message of a particular cult, at least openly or obviously. And wouldn't Ananda Marga be a Hindu thing? He certainly didn't seem to be a part of any Hinduism-born cult, at least to me.

His English, such as it was, is likely explained by the fact that, despite being from Italy, he has lived in Australia for a long time. I don't know exactly, but I'd guess he's been an Australian for 20-30 years, given his emphasis and knowledge of Indian politics in the 70s. I took his laughing all the way to the spiritual bank as just more of his derision of atheists for failing to recognize the clear superiority and efficacy of his religious practice, as well as his belief, frequently argued, that atheist beliefs were not based on reason and evidence but mere dogma that they had uncritically swallowed. Little Rik was nothing if not egotistical. I think I only saw him admit to being wrong one time, and he pretty much reversed himself in later statements. He firmly believed, or at least claimed, that he had never been proven wrong, and that his Ananda Marga beliefs had never been shown wrong either. He never outright said "you should be an Ananda Marga," but it was clear that was what he was, and that the beliefs which he was arguing that we should embrace are Ananda Marga beliefs. Yes, Ananda Marga is a Hindu-thing, though like in everything else, Rik tried to distance himself and Ananda Marga from Hinduism as a whole. He believed that the Ananda Marga way was a special jewel that derived from the teachings of P.R. Sarkar and, from what I understand of his statements, he refused to acknowledge that it was derivative of other Hindu traditions. It would take a long time to explain, but he was a Hindu who felt that he and his cult didn't have much of anything in common with classic Hinduism.

Addendum to my prior post: Another difference between Mystic and him, not counting the smilies and insulting graphics, was that aside from Mystic's constant harping about disbelievers being under the influence of dark forces, Mystic has been more or less respectful of others. Not so Little Rik. He was constantly calling people fools and idiots and insulting them, and mocking them, warranted or not.