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Date Posted: 11:53
Author: Hendrik
Subject: pig droppings
In reply to: knonymous-13Aug02 's message, "Re: Question for Anil?" on 11:52

The highly structured belief systems also create a lot of room for happiness. The faithful believers are often happier people than common men. I can vouch for that as I know a number of them. Those who are not capable of strong belief or have fallen from certain beliefs, like us two for instance, are those who are prone to be miserable. We revolt against our earlier convictions and feel at home nowhere, therefore the depressions. But as a consequence declaring homelessness as our true home is hardly the right answer and probably won't help us.

Look at Yogananda's great disciples, those that followed him steadfastly: were Rajarsi, Gyanamata, Durga Mata, Dr. Lewis etc. unhappy people? I don't think so. Not at all they were. Do they look like misguided people, being led by Yogananda into delusive notions of reality? It doesn't seem so. Still they believed in Christ and all kinds of mythology like saints etc. that to our eyes may look silly. They also believed that Yogananda could help them. And obviously he could. We may not want to accept the fact as from our intellectualized standpoint we don't see a deepest philosophical insight in his teachings; but this doesn't change the fact that he could and did help in his own way more than most teachers ever did. In his final years Dr. Lewis saw the "Face of God" beyond the Impersonal. Don't ask me for quotes but this has been described by several mystics and yogis as being an extremely profound realization that only few people do attain. It is simply beyond the reach of people who belief only in zeroness. Yogananda the bad guy - eh?

Yogananda was not an intellectualizer, and perhaps it is this trait that helped him so much in advancing on the spiritual path. People who are mentally focussed appear to create big stumbling blocks for their sadhana.

This philosophical mind is a sort of curse that has befallen us. In India people are mostly different, at least to my experience. Perhaps all the incredible amounts of superstition, gods, traditions, holy books, and rites prevalent there create a mass mind of utter chaos whose features are both with and without form(s) and therefore the optimal breeding ground for spirituality. Everything is accepted, there is no aversity to worship, maya and such. Everything is possible, everyone their own ways; there is no highest.

Do you think the abrasive philosophies/personalities of U.G. Krishnamurti, Osho, or even Shibendu Lahiri will lead people to a deeper insight, make them come to terms with themselves in a better way, or illumine them more or in a profounder way than Ramakrishna or Yogananda did with those who stayed with them?

I for one became unhappy partly as a result of losing the little beliefs I had before, but altogether it didn't bring me an inch further. It is detrimental to my psychological health and finished off my yogic drive almost completely. I had little, now I have nothing. Presently I find even business life more valuable for my inner understanding than leading crusades against belief systems. I did so many times and continue to do so occasionally, but I feel more and more that these are just impulses of my ignorance.

The massive troubles you mention I know too well, but during my time in SRF they were created through my contact with SRF and people, not because of Yogananda whom I never met.

Buddhism and the like I perceive mainly as substitute belief systems for intellectual people many of whom are chronically disoriented and self-conscious. They don't get along with life around them and try to declare it at once unreal and awesome. Like everything that comes from India it becomes something different when it is exported to USA.

The fashion of recent decades among traveling gurus (Osho for instance) and their followers to criticize all teachers and systems of the past and present, no matter how many good those may have brought to the people who knew them, while posing themselves as representatives of the highest and only real illumination is a constant annoyance of our times. These people thrive because many of us are eager to support their activities. We only get what we deserve. U.G.K. describes himself as a 'spiritual terrorist'. Wonderful. Osho even surrounded himself with real-life terrorists who murdered apostates, poisoned villagers while himself he indulged in untold luxury and at the same time drove maybe hundreds of people into suicide. This under the guise of disrupting thought structure and satisfying cumbersome primal urges. Great. Are these the people for inspiration and spiritual guidance? They say, 'Osho is Jesus is Ramakrishna is Einstein: only your mind stops you from seeing that and all your notions are merely pig droppings'. - What an unparalleled profoundness of insight! It will blast our minds at an instant!

I am keen to learn just how many people found enlightenment or just an enduring happiness by their acquaintance with any of those contemporary philosopher-gurus. A master is someone who first of all has mastered himself, especially his own tongue, and none of the mentioned has achieved this, in fact even less than I.


"Treat the other man's faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his own thoughts, not yours or mine."


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