I have been listening on YouTube your commentary on guru worship in India. Which is a refreshing breeze to what I experienced with Sri Chinmoy. I understood that my experiences of God through visions with him was the SELF all along. And also had many visions on the spot with his consort Alo Devi. Later I discovered this lady wassuper inflated and mentally disturbed.
Ramji: She learned from the best. He was one of the most disturbed so-called gurus of modern times, a meaty, vain, cunning, predatory master manipulator, a proper poseur and a real ghoul Anyone with a lick of common sense could feel needy insufficiency oozing from every pore. I met him once and my take-away? Slimy. Unfortunately a significant fraction of desperate spiritually-inclined people tend to be gullible and are easily fooled by good looks, six-pack abs, smarmy smiles on faces uplifted toward the heavens. Over the years I met quite a few people who were duped by him. He was particularly clever in so far as he hid behind a carefully curated image of public service.
Paul: The problem is that many of the followers never understand that it is the ATMAN in their own hearts that are being projected upon that person on stage. Moreover, the devotees most of the timedon’t know the gurus personally. If they did their power of projection would be neutralized and they would become disillusioned. But many spiritual people are escapists who are in love with the transcendental fantasy so they become disassociated guru junkies . Anyway, thank you for your commentary and clearing up this issue for me.
Ramji: My pleasure, Paul. I forgot that you were a Shi Chinmoy guy at one time. Falling for the guru act is really unfortunate as far as freedom and non-dual love is concerned. It is the experiential notion of enlightenment on steroids, a complete tribute to duality’s ugly downside: exceptionalism, denial, deceit, conceit, vanity etc. As true non-dual teachers everywhere say, “What isn’t God?
This is not to say that evil belongs to God, which is pure and perfect in every way. It belongs to Maya, ignorance of God, the benevolent all-pervasive unseen but always experienced innermost Self.
Much love,
Ramji