SELF-DIAGNOSIS & THE GURU SYNDROME

If a beggar clad in a saffron robe knocked on your door demanding entry with a sob story about how the food another family fed him gave him a heart attack, would you admit him or direct him to the nearest pharmacy to buy a bottle of antacids? I know what I would do. Hypochondriacs at least do not intend to commit fraud by their habits of self-diagnosis, but the wandering sannyasi clearly does.

This type of emotional appeal to decent people is a favorite tactic of con artists everywhere. The modus operandi is simplicity itself: pose as a representative of a recognized charity or religious order and pull the heart-strings of the target with stories of your selfless devotion to your noble cause and the poverty you have endured in its pursuit. If you are lucky, your target will confide in you and he will receive from you a solemn promise that you will keep any information he divulges strictly confidential. However,  this business is nothing more than an attempt to blackmail a trusting soul. Better be prepared:  once the ruse is discovered, all hell will break loose.

These Indian Wizards of Oz will continue to practice their ruses in the West as long as gullible truth-seekers look to them for easy and exotic pathways to the truth. Legions of such fools have wasted their lives pursuing these illusions, and more seem to come out of nowhere bent on the same foolishness. We are all familiar with the claims of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi camp in the sixties that he could teach them “yogic flying,” which turned out to be nothing more than a matter of a guy in a lotus position jumping up and down on a foam mattress. Wildly exaggerated claims abound; for example, followers of Sri Chinmoy claim that “he has written 1,200 books, 62,000 poems, and 14,000 songs.” What is beyond dispute is that these gurus are two-legged myth-making machines and two-faced liars. Osho Rajneesh gained considerable infamy for calling his disciples “sannyasins” and then encouraging them to satisfy their sexual urges like a bunch of frenzied animals in heat. Secretive illicit sexual connections were widely reported of Sri Chinmoy, and more recently, have characterized the sexual proclivities of the youthful guru Nithyananda.


In the case of the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, his self-diagnosis of the “heart attack” he suffered on the Jaladuta (the ship that he took to travel to the U.S. in 1965 with just a few dollars in his pocket) has become the stuff of legend. Trouble is, the extreme distress some travelers experience due to bad food and turbulence is often mistaken for a heart attack, but it is usually just a severe case of acid reflux. You simply do not suffer a heart attack at an advanced age and get up and walk off the ship with your little suitcase. It might be hard to digest, but it’s the truth.

For a new, related essay, please go to:

https://harekrishnacultexposed.blogspot.com/2015/08/new-eastern-cults-as-incubators-of.html

Also see:

http://www.behind-the-tm-facade.org/Transcendental_Meditation-myths.htm.
.
http://www.salon.com/1999/10/20/osho/.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/57807/cult-preying-feeding-anxieties.html.


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3 comments:

  1. Love your blog please keep it up.Wish i could get my ex wife to read your writing and hear your experiences with Bhaktivedanta swami.

    This movement has been central to my divorce and has caused endless suffering and misery to myself and friends alike.
    The wealthy 'renounced' leaders i have come into contact with are like the Taliban and have lost all sense and reasoning,every unreasonable answer to any question seems to be something from a fairytale that -'Prabhupada said' or 'it is written'- they are breaking up families to keep these myths and fairytales alive and my child is suffering because of this type of 'brainwashing'.
    Could you please help or give me me some kind of guidance

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  2. Anonymous8:35 PM

    Good stuff, very good stuff. In this day and age when people are looking for real spirituality, guidance is needed to stay away from hard core cults like Iskon.

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  3. Anonymous2:14 PM

    Kudos to you for exposing their lies. ISKCON is a bigoted cult with a very large following. I have personally seen a colleague turn into a blubbering mass of incoherent half truths after attending a few "Educational Sessions".

    They have proved time and again, they are nothing more than a hive of foolish cultists pretending to be Hindu. ISKCON is cancer in the heart of True Hinduism. It is a stain on the rich fabric of Indian Dharmic traditions.

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