This is a testimony of a TPM worker Sister Juliana(Pseudo name), who was trained at the TPM Headquarters in Irumbiliyur under Sister Kumari who passed away recently.
On 18th April 2020 within the walls of Irumbiliyur, a death occurred. The deceased person was seen off in a hurry without the usual pomp and show exhibited at the funeral of TPM (Clergy) Stalwarts. COVID-19 has proved that TPM Workers are no god. However, I am sure that there would not have been a dearth of condolence messages singing paeans and the Chiefs signing off with the customary quote “One more stone added in Zion” at the Funeral Service of Sis. Kumari.
Who was Sis Kumari? Was she a Center Mother? What stakes did she hold in the power corridors of TPM? Why was she never transferred from Irumbiliyur for nearly two decades, unlike TPM transfer policy? How could she hold her sway in a male-dominated setup like TPM? Why was she indispensable to the successive Chief Pastors of TPM?
Table of Contents
The Job Profile
Well, answers for many of the aforesaid questions have been buried along with her! However, for the knowledge of the readers, Sis Kumari was the highly rated (Personal) Secretary of the TPM Chiefs, in other words, Irumbiliyur Phone Room Incharge (That was her so-called designation). She is privy to total assets and liquid money of tpm.
Anyone, be it a Center Pastor or a Believer, had to go through the ears of Sister Kumari to get an appointment or a phone audience with the Chiefs of TPM. The globe-trotting Chiefs were updated with all the developments of the organization by Sis Kumari. She also conveyed the message of the Chiefs to Center Pastors and others as mandated by the Chiefs. Having direct access to the Chiefs and being privy to all their conversation made her the most powerful and indispensable person in TPM power corridors. You grease her hand with thick money envelopes and your appointment with the Chiefs is fast-tracked.
Apart from her responsibility as the Phone Room In-Charge, She handled many responsibilities such as managing the many requirements of Irumbiliyur, booking tickets; exchanging currency for NRI believers at the current market rate; hospitality; assigning duties to sisters; conducting Praising meetings for the workers, training Leader of newly inducted Sisters; etc. Enjoy a conversation with Kumari and see how bossy, concealing and controlling is the woman. You can listen to her after 1.40 minutes.
My Experiences
I would like to share some of my experiences when I was being trained under Sister Kumari in Irumbiliyur.
The newly inducted sisters were divided into groups of 20-30 called as 1st Area, 2nd Area and so on. Each group had a leader and Sister Kumari was the Leader of the 4th Area. During my training, I was grouped in the 4th Area.
The terror that she unleashed while training her group made everyone shiver at the thought of being grouped in the 4th Area. Such was the terror that senior sisters used to show pity on us at our destiny of having Sis Kumari as our Group Leader. Though all, including Sis. Griselda (Overall Training In-Charge) knew that she was terrorizing the new recruits but no one dares open their mouth against her.
I can never recollect her speaking in a soft and gentle tone rather she would be arrogant in her speech, there was no love in her words, she used to address us as “vaadi…podi “ only. Though we had forsaken our worldly life and reached Irumbiliyur to start a celibate life she would always bad mouth us as if we were at the verge of running away with a person of the opposite sex!
She was an epitome of the Egyptian Taskmasters! She made our lives hard. I believed that the Holy Spirit will lead us to all truth through the Scriptures and make us a chaste virgin for Christ. But she (and many higher-ups in TPM) believed that even though the Holy Spirit and the scriptures may fail to mould a person but her iron-fisted training will do the magic. Training at Irumbiliyur itself is inhumane then one can imagine the training at the hands of Kumari.
Training to Lie
All the trainees except for the 4th area headed by Sis Kumari had a timetable like training. But for the trainees under Sis Kumari, there was something more. During my training time, Sis Kumari was overseeing the construction work of a Faith Home some 75 Kms from Irumbiliyur. The then Chief pastor Wesley had mandated that no training workers should be made to work in Construction sites. But Sister Kumari feared none. She used to send us two by two to the said construction site at her convenience.
She used to instruct us that if the security personnel at the main gate asked us where we were going then we should say that we are going to Adyar FH or some believer’s house. Many times she used to give us 5-10 minutes to pack up and make us start at around 7 pm and we (only two of us) used to reach the construction site (a rural village with no one around except for a few drunkards) at 11 pm in the night, travelling in a government bus. Once it so happened that when we were digging pits, Pastor Sathyanesan came there for a visit. But, before Pas Sathyneesan reached the spot, she instructed her assistant through the phone to shove us into the pits and cover the pit with sheets so that free labour is not noticed. Personally I had a harrowing experience in the dark pit gasping for breath for around an hour or so. Also, she used to transport us back into Irumbiliyur in a mini truck hiding us behind a stack of bricks. The security personnel at the gates of Irumbilyur were fooled and the sisters behind the bricks were “smuggled” in the mini truck. She even instructed us to tell lies if any other area Incharge questioned our absence from Irumbiliyur. Why was all this done? Was she purposefully doing it to torture her trainees? Or was she saving money? What about making us tell lies and make us hide like thieves? Was this all part of our training?
The Cold war and Betrayal
There was this uncanny cold war between Sis Griselda (Overall Sisters Training In-charge) and Sis Kumari wherein each one tries to find fault with the other and the scapegoats are we the training sisters. Once, Sister Griselda noticed two of us sneaking into the Sisters quarters after completing our outside Irimbuliyur errand (as instructed by Sis Kumari) during the Morning Bible Study time. She took us to Sis Kumari and asked if she had sent us out during the meeting time. But to my utter dismay, Sis Kumari outrightly lied having sent us anywhere. Subsequently, we were punished and made to stand near Sister Kumari’s room without food and without entry into our staying quarters for 10-12 hours. Moreover, after having worked continuously in the construction site the trainees under Sis Kumari used to doze off during Bible Studies. Sis Griselda used to keep a close watch on us and punish the ones sleeping by making them stand on one foot in the meeting in front of other brothers and sisters like school-going children. Do you think that Sis Griselda was unaware of the activities and lies of Sis Kumari? No. She knew everything but never wanted to spoil her superficial relationship with the all-powerful Sis. Kumari.
There is a weird practice in Irumbiliyur during the training of sisters wherein different groups along with its In-charge has to spend 3 days and 3 nights fasting in the upper chamber without any contact with the outside world…oops…I mean the Irumbiliyur world, which itself is a different world altogether. It is told that our experience in those three days is going to decide the way our ministry is going to unfold. During those three days Sis. Kumari made our life miserable. She conducted meetings continuously from morning 5:00 AM to next day 3:00 AM all the three days. There were no breaks in between. If we used to doze off she used to literally bang on our heads with her knuckles. All this is bearable but what waited at the end of the three-day meeting was blasphemous. As we followed Sister Kumari and walked down the stairs, Sister Kumari was greeted by a sea of other sisters who kept on saying “Akka your face is shining”. Though there was no visible shining they were subtly trying to do a “Moses” on her and She like Herod (Acts 12: 20-23) never corrected them rather was seen absorbing all the praises.
Conclusion
Sis. Kumari might have been a gifted person making a lot of profit for her masters like the woman in Philippi (Acts 16:16). But Jesus says “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matt 7:16). The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness and temperance. With all responsibility I say during my time with Sis Kumari, I never found her showing the fruits of the Spirit towards me or any trainee. I know many believers have a very good opinion about her, especially about her hospitality. But Jesus says “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” (Matt 7:18) How could she be so cruel to her junior Sisters and act so friendly with certain workers and believers (especially with the NRIs)?
Sis Kumari used to utter lies at her whims and wishes. She used to say lies to the people who came to her seeking the appointment of the Chiefs. She even made us speak lies in an emboldened way. But the irony is that TPM claims that their white-clads are the 1,44,000 on Mount Zion. How will they justify the verse: “ And in their mouth was found no guile: …” (Rev:14:5).
Sis Kumari lived a life filled with arrogance and was ready to tread the wrong path for the sake of the organization that she was serving. She is the master of cover-ups of the scandals committed by various TPM Clergymen and women. In many cases, if believers came up with complaints against the clergy to the Chiefs she made sure that those matters never reached the Chiefs. It may be a different game all-together if this drama was enacted in collaboration with the Chiefs, only God knows.
To the believers of TPM, especially the rich ones, you pay huge money to the white-clads of TPM but their only agenda is to get your money, buy lands, build faith Homes and establish TPM. They are least bothered about you and about the spreading of the Gospel. You strengthen their hand paying them more money; they strengthen their organization by brainwashing innocent Sisters into their celibate ministry and make their life hard with unbiblical lifestyle and a heavier yoke. Keep your daughters and sisters away from this cult. It is not what they say and shows outside. Beware!
To the Chiefs of TPM, I want to say that right under your noses in IBR the junior sisters are tortured both physically and mentally by people having the same traits as Sis Kumari. Your training taskmasters train the young sisters through artificially induced hardships. This is hypocrisy. At least, show an iota of love towards the training Sisters and make sure that you don’t release goons like Sis Kumari to tame the young blood. Try Love instead.
It seemed a thriller fiction in the first half of the testimony. How Kumari smuggled sisters to dig pits , how they came back hiding behind the bricks in a mini truck and how they hid themselves inside the pit covered with sheet. But then we don’t know why she made them dig pits? Was so much danger taken only to save few thousands? Were they burying someone at construction sight during night? Mysterious woman. Even her death is mysterious as no one was allowed to attend it.
Transperency is sign of clean mind and soul. Lying, covering up shows she was a crook. Now kumari would be made as personal secretary of devil in hell. She would be phone room incharge in hell.
The fake home which I left was run by training brothers and training sisters. It is a small fake home in ponmar about 15 kms from IBR. I can say it was experimental lab for new joiners. So every Saturday morning two training sisters in their second year will come there and leave after Sunday class is over. When I interacted with those training sisters they told me some sisters will pee on seeing Kumari. That much fear she had created. This incident was understood by me when I was scolded by kumari when I was sitting in back row. She was very harsh towards me and told me to come forward. I was scared by her scolding. Then kumari was leader of another fake home navalur in Chennai. There she used to conduct convention every year. She was like center pastor for her area. I hope under her area 5 small fake homes would have been there. Navalur was one among them. During taht convention I went to the kitchen area and that sight was shocking. Kumari was sitting relaxed in a chair with her eyes closed and a beliver was massaging her feet. I felt bad on it. Since the believer was poor she was treated like slave. I was shocked at her behavior. Since I was a new beliver during that time, I was wondering why is she behaving with belivers also very arrogantly.
When I came to know about her death, I immediately thought if they would have conducted testimony meeting for her , none of them would have mentioned she was good or kind. Even if someone told she was good that would be a blatant lie.
Kumari also never eats food cooked in convention. She needs mutton biryani from anjappar restaurant. Once my husband was asked to purchase for her. Anjappar is a branded non-vegetarian restaurant in Chennai.
Throughout my life I have never seen anybody harsh than Kumari.
@She needs mutton biryani from anjappar restaurant.
Thanks sister for sharing the info that kumari was mutton glutton.
I’ll share my experience with The Biryani Mission (TBM). I am aware of few pastors and brothers who secretly loved the nonveg food from hotels (especially biryani). Since I was youth, i was the agent 001, to execute such missions. If hotel had to be smuggled inside faith home they used dial my number and place orders. I used to smuggle biryani packets to brothers and pastors in laptop bag. Once one pastor tried to catch me. I was on smuggling mission to one center pastor. That pastor asked me what is in bag. I told him laptop for faithhome computer work. However it had laptop along with vada sambar ordered by center pastor. Center pastor then immediately interfered and assigned enquiring pastor another task. As pastor went center laughed and told me to be aware of the said pastor. Not only male workers but sisters were not behind in this smuggling game. Sisters used call us to at homes and ask me to get biryani packets from hotels ready. Then they would pass by from our home while going to market and collect biryani packets from.my home. Biryani packets smuggled in market bags used to go unnoticed from mother’s notice, directly into sisters rooms. All this was done in hideous manner without letting other workers know about it..
I remember one saga of biryani smuggling as one worker brother narrated to me, from another faith home. It was night. Sisters had prepared some veg meal. Brother incharge was feeling urge to eat biryani from hotel. But he could not get out at night as sisters would ask questions. So he called up a youth living nearby faith home. He made him parcel biryani from hotel. Then the youth came to faithhome without making sound and tied biryani packet to rope, which worker incharge pulled up from his balcony.
These workers are afraid of letting world know that they have no control over their gluttons belly. Almost all of them have huge fat belly, as evidence to their lust for mutton biryani and gluttony. These ascetics who claim self denial in eyes of general public, generally spend lots of money recieved from tithes on hotels, restaurants and non veg food. But all this is done through trusted believers.
Thank you admin for sharing the information. I really feel bad regarding the treatments given to Male and female trainees in Irumbuliyur. It is a brainwash technique used by CPM. I really wonder how a female can do a Mason work in a construction site. Odd hours. No safety for women. No women organizations can question. I understand female trainees were treated like slaves. No female have rights to talk about their sufferings. Tamil Nadu Government should initiate an enquiry in this. I think no standard operating procedures followed inside irumbuliyur headquarters. Females were respected everywhere in south India. It’s high time to inform the government officials. In the beginning of the content i found sisters in training were transported in Van’s that supposed to carry sand, bricks, cement etc., This is the way people are treated in irumbuliyur and other places. Chief pastor and deputy chief pastor dont care about this damn thing. What type people are they. We are living in digital India. Still this people are preaching saying they go to heaven. Female were tortured in this place. Every life in this earth is important. Training in a church means discuss about bible, help each other, cook food, be friendly, sing songs etc., Today my question is why females were engaged in Mason works ,odd hours. It is very pathetic treatment. Cpm preaches in the year 1980s that dont buy houses, land, build properties because jesus is coming soon. Now today cpm is building so much big structures. I think cpm don’t know what to do with the money they have.
Sis. Kumari….was such a sick person (mentally) that whenever parents/relatives of training sisters came to meet them with snacks and other eatables she would simply collect the eatables but never share those with the training sisters. She would give to those who were in her good books. It’s true that this lady was relishing mutton biriyani while the juniors were treated to poor man’s food. The training sisters were never given tea or snacks. Only a coffee at 5:30 am. But the dilemma was should we go for completing our daily chores or go for a cup of coffee !
Where do this type of attrocities will happen. Wearing white dress, not earning money, using money given by innocent people. Eating biriyani in that money. Spending the money on their own. No accountability. No chief pastor or deputy chief pastor will ask about the expenses. Indian government Income tax department don’t know about their debits and credits. No Bill’s will be provided to any income tax officials. Treating men and women who come to church like slaves. Women treating another women like slaves. What type people are they? Is there no one to ask this cpm devils in this world. CPM pastors, sisters and brothers who are saying that they are dedicated to the lords lord’s service. Enjoying all sort if worldliness (eating biriyani, …) . According to the older version of CPM pastors, sisters, brothers should not eat hotel food. Finally CPM has become a place where all the criminals are hiding. Like Joshua in Singapore, Gunaseelan, Now Kumari…… I think in near future generations should be very careful about this cpm pastor and brothers, sisters. We are living in a days that was called professional recession. Only half the salary provided. In this times also people offering money to cpm pastors and sisters. In return no cpm pastor or sister will cure a corona patient. I am asking all the cpm pastors and sisters, where is the DIVINE HEALING doctrines went? Does it went flushed in toilets. Can’t cure a diabetic, can’t cure a Corona patient. Then what for is your living in this earth. Cpm pastors and sisters are burden for the earth. No use to anybody. Except cheating others and eating secret foods.
Coroner : is this case from Tpm, irumbuliyur..?
Worker : Yes sir.
Coroner : oh well.. we can report another case of bhriyani bag death , no need to open the body bag.
# IBR Phone room incharge = PA/PS (personal secretary)
That was revelation to me. Since tpm doesn’t want people to notice that chief pastor needs a lady besides him as his personal secretary, they twisted the term Personal Secretary to ‘IBR Phone room incharge.’ They don’t want us to call things as they are because it exposes their hypocrisy. Calling Sis. kumari as personal secretary of Chief pastor would ruin tpms image So they introduce new term. But this is not the lone case. Here is the list that I can recall, which is new term introduced by tpm to hide the reality.
1. Pastor’s Assistant
This is not a post for someone who handles official white colar job, like looking after emails telephone calls, schedules, etc. This one is basically a servant. But they can’t call him personal servant ! So they call him pastors assistant. Assistant is good word for servant, but in real world there is difference between assistant and servant. Pastors assistant does work of servant. His job is to dance to biddings of pastor. But they have named the post as pastors assistant.
2. . Faith home: Basically it’s house like your and mine. But they call it faith home, fooling people to believe it’s something special. A bunglow is right term. But calling it saints house or bunglow will ruin their image as monk. So they make us call it faith home..
3. Workers meeting. This term is used to describe what is generally called as General Body Meeting (GBM) in registered societies and registered trusts. Such GBMs are necessary according to laws of government governing registered society or charitable trusts. But tpm cannot call it GB meeting as that would make people see it as similar to NGO’s. So they named it as workers meeting. It is basically an event to fool government and general public.
@ Nath
Check this article.
https://www.stas-afke.com/blog/2018/02/28/unlearning-the-codes-of-the-cult/
This was published by admin, two years back in Feb 2018. It’s about brainwashing vocabulary of tpm. I have posted it for sincere and God fearing believers of singapore who are new to fromtpm.
//Faith home: Basically it’s house like your and mine. But they call it faith home, fooling people to believe it’s something special.//
I still believe faith home is something special. Incestuous (sex between close relatives) relationship is unheard of in normal homes (be it Christian or otherwise), whereas, sex between brothers and sisters is very common in faith homes. Is that not reason enough to qualify the faith homes as something special?
@ Brother Nath
4. Elder’s meeting : This term is used for the meeting of the Incharges of FHs conducted every Monday at the Center FH. Actually this meeting is for the Incharges to hand over the collection that they get the previous week. Those who over achieve are appreciated and the ones who fall behind the expectation of the Center Pastor are openly chided.
//She was an epitome of the Egyptian Taskmasters! She made our lives hard. I believed that the Holy Spirit will lead us to all truth through the Scriptures and make us a chaste virgin for Christ. But she (and many higher-ups in TPM) believed that even though the Holy Spirit and the scriptures may fail to mould a person but her iron-fisted training will do the magic.//
This statement cannot be more true.
From the last testimony of Bro. Teju and then this all points to one thing.
This Cult is run by the spirit of deception. The basic Two Commandments of Lord is cleverly counterfeited to trap the new recruits and new believers.
The second generation automatically follows as they had zero knowledge of Bible save a few.
I think the only way to shine some light in this Dark organisation is to make their evil deeds as much visible as possible by sharing these articles within our social media groups and contact groups. There will be heavy opposition and ridicule, but we must push on.
The ‘training’ provided to overseas recruits in IBR is totally different. They are treated like VIP’s , fed with choice food and drinks, to an extent that one sister confessed that the training in charge sister reportedly stated, ” We don’t want to be blamed for not looking after you enough, so please eat more” . This particular sister put on several kilos upon return. Of course, they expect the favour to be returned and dream of one day being posted overseas!
Thanks John for highlighting this. So there are two groups of workers training? Wow,! Needs a testimony on this also. May God open a way for it. Any worker who left tpm and was from foreign countries can shed more light on this.
I have even heard that people joining to tpm ministry from Singapore are not even sent to training in IBR. The more money they bring in while coming to ministry the better posting they get.
Oh Kumari…Great Kumari… It’s a pity to see your dark secrets tumbling out of the cupboard after your death. It’s shocking to hear that Kumari was torturing the junior sisters. But Kumari herself was the epitome of a seductress. The story goes back to 1997 when Adyar was the TPM Headquarters. Pas CK Lazarus was the chief pastor and the likes of Paul Chandran, Mannaseh, Pas Vijayan (Nazareth) were calling the shots at the TPM headquarters. Literally the writ of these people was running all over TPM. I was very close to Pas. Vijayan (Nazareth) who was Asst in Adyar FH. This Vijayan and Kumari used to talk for hours like NEW LOVERS. I remember many a times Vijayan ordering biriyani from outside and secretly sending a pack of biriyani for Kumari through my hands to her phone room. He used to lovingly say to Kumari… “Aṉpē nāṉ uṅkaḷukkāka Biriyāṇiyai aṉuppukiṟēṉ”