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Date Posted: 11:58:09 11/23/03 Sun
Author: Shivanath - 26 Oct 2003
Subject: Re: Who are you following?
In reply to: a kriya yogi - 25 Oct 2003 's message, "Re: Who are you following?" on 11:57:09 11/23/03 Sun


"Without an "arbiter of the blessing" (what a strange word and a strange concept for something so subtle and sacred)."

You are just attacking my choice of words rather than responding to the issue: how does one validate authenticity?

"...this is not the way of my Guru..."

Au Contraire, my good Kriya Yogi. Yoganandaji laid down very specific directives around who was qualified to teach Kriya yoga in the context of his work, and he discussed the observable qualities of a true Yogi.

"...and thousands of years of spiritual tradition in India."

And I disagree with this sweeping generalization as well. Today in India, Shankaracharyas don't appoint themselves to one of the four seats based upon their intuition of a blessing, no matter how subtle or sacred that blessing may be. They are chosen. Gurus in many yogic traditions often appoint a successor for their lineage. This is very common in India. So in that case, Guru is arbiter. Sometimes they leave it in a will. It is clear to all, not subject to wild imaginings of folks believing they are being guided from the beyond.

"But this wide-open 'system' is responsible for giving us saints, masters, and the sacred Kriya science."

With respect to Kriya, it certainly is not. We are told that Lahiri sought Babaji's permission to teach. He didn't fantasize it, or intuit a blessing and then set himself up as a Kriya Guru. This isn't wide open at all. What your 'wide open' position would condone are the numerous individuals claiming direct, unmediated mandates/blessings from Babaji to teach Kriya, mostly intuited....although at least one guy in CA claims to have stayed with Babaji for years before coming to the USA to dispense - at Babaji's direction, of course - the true Kriya.

"God forbid that India appoint a special Council of the Arbiter of the Blessing to 'protect' us!"

Yes, I am familiar with reductio ad absurdum. The issue is and has been that authorization to be a Kriya Guru in Yoganandaji's tradition, or in the India lineages from Lahiri, is not based upon intuited or imagined blessings from departed Gurus.

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