Reflections After Leaving Art of Living
by anonymous
The basic essence of spirituality for me is about truth and integrity. All the knowledge that is provided by a spiritual system, to me, is meant to integrate me back to the truth and to nature. For me, the presence of truth is very palpable, its a great feeling….and it moves me very strongly. And, there is much truth that I experienced when I was in AOL. I realize that up to a point they created the platform for me to reach deep within myself and experience the best of who I can be. I am grateful.
Looking at how I am used to operating, at most times, I have noticed, that I am usually just a function of my own acquired habits. There are times however, when I am alert to my own thoughts and programing. At these times, I make it a point to make sure that I do not BS myself….and I make corrections to my perceptions and to the best of my ability I subsequently I attempt to communicate this to all the stakeholders that my new decision will impact.
Overall, for me, it was not really about any criminal prosecution or about any retribution/redemption. What had happened earlier, is that I had aligned myself fully and completely with AOL (actually SriSri) with the belief that this is my home and only path. Soon, I found that I had become a face to the organisation and that many others followed me blindly because I was involved and so also the rest of my family. Their whole thinking was Oh….these guys are involved…..they saw my family as a unit being very dedicated and assumed that the rest of the AOL was the same. This is fine as long as the intent and source was pure. I too, at one time had assumed the same…..and this came of great personal admiration for SriSri’s stamina and the immense travel, work and dedication and tirelessness which I had witnessed. However, as it became evident later, this aspect turned out to be only a part of the Whole picture. Much of manipulation and lies are hidden from easy viewing, until you go close and choose to observe all that happens on the inside with all your senses / values intact your intellect switched “ON” and on to high alert.
Now that I have been away from AOL for a while……..I can see how zombified I was when I was on the inside….and there is only one reason for this. “ME”. The buck starts and ends there. I had bought in totally to my romantic notions about AOL and about life and that clouded my judgement and actions for a very long time. Plus, at that time, I believe that I enjoyed sharing my so called views somewhat passionately with the world at large…and in the process ended up with a fairly large AOL circle with yours truly in the centre. During these times, AOL occupied 80% of my mind and all my external activity. It was a love affair and now I can see, even a major obsession. An end all and fix all for all problems and therefore it was mandatory for very human, as far as I was concerned. There had also been moments with myself when I had asked myself the question………”Dude, would you give up your teachership ?”. And the honest answer was a BIG NO…….”this is my whole life…..what ? Give up he love of my life ? why give it away ?….for what ?. Forget it.
Life has its way of surprising you. It never tires out like we do. It very elegantly showed me from outside the AOL system the flaws within the AOL system. And for those of you that are following this blog ….when this happens it is painful. Life needs to create the pain for us to bring in the voice of reason again. Life wants to set us free with the truth and if we refuse to wake up she has our way of waking us up. Most folks that are caught up deep in the AOL framework are inwardly deeply unhappy. All you need to do is look closely with diligence and you will see that the smile is purely external and plastic. Within them is a lot of conflict. Which human has no conflict ?. We all do to varying degrees. But AOL folks will mostly claim that they have none and that they are in complete acceptance of WHAT IS. Some anger, some frustration etc have been labelled as negative and you train yourself to fake it until you make it. Make it for what exactly ? To be seen as the perfect devotee ? There is just no authenticity of being. The perpetuity of the zombification process starts this way. Soon, you feel drawn to and compelled to conform. You start demonstrating certain characteristics as that is shows that you are happy and positive. You have to smile all the time and say YES to everything an AOL teacher says. Very soon, there is a certain set of prescribed notions that everybody starts to subscribe to rather automatically. (Wear white flowing robes, wear a tikka, say Jai Gurudev, smile all the time, carry the favorite AOL texts with you and talk about it, grow a beard, have long hair, go for follow-up and satsang every week, play AOL Cds in your car).
When my waking up process happened it was easy to identify with the stuff that does not work….(The money management, the potential tax evasion, the lack of integrity amongst the entire 2nd tier AOL fraternity, the bogus fronts and other AOL companies). However, what became important was to me was that I needed to find out the truth behind the many many repeated mystical moments that I had had when I was in AOL. Now how did that work ? Luckily for me, existence provided all of them for me. I could see clearly how the many types of healings that manifested in many of my classes, how certain other elements fell into place….and that many of these phenomenon had several parallel explanations. I could easily relate to this as I had explored deeply with other spiritual schools before coming to AOL. Even while at AOL I never fully restrained myself from reading about other schools and paths. Many a times, Sr AOL faculty and SriSri himself will pass casual remarks and indirect comments that allude the following
1. Anyone still doing spiritual shopping is blind and stupid…!!!! Bawa is very good at making a sales pitch or creating a tag line that indirectly points to such a leaning.
2. All the good stuff cannot happen without the grace of the master. Thats the ONLY stuff you can be sure about. This is pure Myth. SriSri is just one element of existence. At AOL at some point in time they will start drilling into your head that existence had to find a way to reach out to us, hence it decided to manifest itself in the human form of SriSri.
Now I realise what this was. It was to keep us all within the compound. A clear herding strategy.
I wonder whether you have all have seen the Leonardo Di Capiro movie “Inception” ?. In that they show that that the best way to totally brainwash somebody is to plant an small idea in their head until the idea consumes them all together. AOL does that amazingly well. Every follow-up, every satsang, every email, every video….none of this is without the subtle programming. The more frequent and regular you become with the activities, the more deeper you will sink.
Before long you career moves, your home that you buy, your new born’s name, your daughter’s marriage, even your own name, your holidays, your family expenditure, the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the people you invite to your homes and events……..will SOON be all AOL. The many non-AOL people once in your life would have now gone away. You would have not noticed that and even if you did see it you and your family would be saying amongst yourselves “Poor them” they do not know what they are missing. Its good that we are away from them. For those that are within AOL, that is the only world they need and want. Everything they ever wanted is within there. Why look anywhere else. Looked from one angle this almost feels like contentment. Actually, thats only a partial view……viewed from another angle its a complete negation of everything else that Life is offering you. Also, by making you believe that all your answers/requirements are within AOL, they will kill all your skills/abilities and instincts to do well and succeed in the outside world. This is what many of the senior teachers are finding out. Without AOL they cannot fit in anywhere. Hence, here is the moral and ethical dilemma….and they end up taking the easy way out….”for me to survive, I have no choice but to close my eyes to some of the untruth about AOL…. let me take what is good for me and leave the rest”…..and by not calling the untruth a lie and by not stopping its continued propagation …..the madness continues to grow. This growth however, is not sustainable. While there is some goodness in the movement, there is too much darkness, hidden agendas and lies that continue to remain relatively hidden till date….It is only a matter of time before the implosion happens.
For those that actively contribute to this blog, we managed to overcome the AOL stupor. Either we were plain lucky or we have been helped. Somehow, we managed to retain our spirituality and keep our instincts intact. We managed to stay somewhat alert, despite many many years of subtle but powerful influences and lies that we at one time actively subscribed to and allowed to happen, either because we were totally blinded or because it was still convenient and not yet painful enough to start questioning.
I am generalizing here since I do not know any of the other contributors personally. If we could all break free and be happy and pursue active lives, then so can the very many others who are still trapped in the AOL fold. Hence, for me, this BLOG is a symbol and representation of HOPE and therefore Healing for all those people.
By contributing to this BLOG we keep that hope alive. My post is dedicated to all those who are currently caught up with AOL, but have not ceased following their hearts altogether. Some of them, at sometime in their journey may need a sounding board for themselves. I pray that this blog will provide them that service.
Namaste, With Much Love and Blessings
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Beyond The Art of Living 
To all the postings of ex AOLers here, I can only share my learnings through the roller coaster of life- “opposite values are complementary”. The knowledge of the absolute truth taught in the Art of Living is to enable a living in the relative world with eveness. So while the knowledge is abosulte, the Art of Living organisation still belongs to the realm of the relative world- where opposites of all kinds exist. It is foolish to expect absolute perfection in situation, people and events around us. It would be better instead to focus on how one can move on without being shaken by what is happening around us.
Extending your argument to the macrocosmic level, the Creator is perfect, but the world he made is so imperfect. It would be insane to go on complaing about the flaws and unfariness in the creation and the Creator
An enlightened consciousness operating through a worldly body may exhibit a multitude of opposite values. Thatswhy the scriptures say that a Guru is not to be judged, it is not easy to understand the Guru, for He is the totality of consciousness and not the limited form.
Also, being in Art of Living is no gaurantee that one will always be happy and peaceful, unless one also applies the knowledge in one’s life and takes responsibility for keeping one’s mind happy.
Last, assuming all the accusations made by you are true, the Art of Living is still doing good for the world- through the knoweldge, through the satsangs, through inspring people towards higher ideals of selfless service.
We owe a lot to the Guru for showing us this way. How does it really matter what happens to the finances. The end result is that the world at large does benefit from the teachings of the art of living. I have seen that the Art of Living spends money in building centres of meditation, schools etc. These ultimately helps so many people in finding avenues for personal growth and public service.
So why are we complaining so much? Art of Living is not about escaping from the harsh realities of life. The whole purpose is to make one strong. It happens faster in Art of Living. In the routine life also one is progressively evolving, but probably takes a bit longer. And everything has its price. There are no free lunches.
Blessings and love
Quote
THE WHOLE PURPOSE IS TO MAKE ONE STRONG. IT HAPPENS FASTER IN ART OF LIVING. *JD September 15, 2011 12:06 pm
Unquote
Yes, the whole purpose of AOL is to make one strong. However, that ONE is not I or you. He is SSRS. And once you are in Art of Living it happens faster i.e. SSRS becomes stronger.
Once you in AOL. it envelopes you, your time, your thinking, your acquaintances, your friends, your relatives, your partner and practically your whole life. You become an unpaid slave in body mind and spirits. You develop illness, lose thinking ability and become member of a cult.
Whatever savings you have are spent on AOL courses and other activities and if you are still left with anything his frequent or infrequent visits deplete your savings totally. Because of time given to Sudarshan Kriya, Satsang, Courses, Seva and Slavery your earning capacity is reduced.
Finally you become an instrument to recruit more zombies like yourself. It is your recruitment that makes SSRS stronger. SSRS moves from one zombie to another as the Dracula goes from one victim to another once the blood is squeezed.
“We owe a lot to the Guru for showing us this way. How does it really matter what happens to the finances. The end result is that the world at large does benefit from the teachings of the art of living. I have seen that the Art of Living spends money in building centres of meditation, schools etc. These ultimately helps so many people in finding avenues for personal growth and public service.”
No, we don’t. He should be required to spend a good chunk of that “charity” money on the serious health and psychological problems his organisation has created.
How does it matter what happens to finances? If someone claims to be non-profit, then they should be non-profit. AOL is clearly not non-profit. Also, not everyone agrees with your simplistic view that “the world at large does benefit.” Many have suffered to make the sick AOL machine work.
Of course they send money building centres and schools – they want more money and more attention for their agenda.
Your last sentence is true. AOL taught me to become stronger and wiser once I realized it was a cult.
@JD
I appreciate your intention of posting here. You are posting with the pure intent of showing the right to the people you feel have lost their way. But the questions of financial irregularities cannot be ignored. I don’t mind Sri Sri using my money for his jet travel, assuming he is true Guru but I do mind when that money is being spent by his nephews to set up companies and becomes CEOs and world wide inspirational figures.
Why do not B&D goto teach in Bihar,North East and naxalite affected areas, or may be even small areas, why do they always want to teach in places like Mumbai, New Delhi, capital cities etc.
Why do people like Sri Sri Nephews get to lead companies like Sumeru when there are far more qualified people in the organization.
Why are companies like Sumeru Promotions, Soft Solns, etc for profit companies when they have been set up by non profit funds. Funds collected for charities.
Why do AoL tribal schools have only 21500 Students where as a much smaller NGO deepalaya has more than 50,000 poor students under its care.
Why do teachers in tribal schools in North east are paid only Rs 500/- as salary. How do you expect them to earn their bread?? Are they being strengthened?? Why are so many of the schools are just trees under whom the kids are taught?
I do appreciate the work Sri Sri is doing to spread the Satsang, Spirituality, meditation but does that answer the questions above? Does that compensate the messed up lives of volunteers who give up everything?
Is Sri Sri just re branding and selling MMY?
How are the Gift a Smile funds being spent? I have heard millions of dollars from Geneva which are being donated to Gift a Smile Project are not reaching the destination. I as of now cannot prove it as I don’t have access to the bank statements of the Art of Living. Nor do NGOs come under RTI as of now.
Its sad that Sri Sri speaks such great knowledge, which is apt for the world right now, but still seeing the nuts around him one naturally does develop Anti AoL sentiments.
Like the ant, take the sugar, leave the dust and move on! Everything comes in a mixture. what to do!
Also, the flagship seva project of AOL- the Youth Leadership Training Program- has been silently supporting youth volunteers to undertake service activities in villages, all free and it has been going on for more than a decade. I have personally witnessed the change in quality of life in many villages.
People who come into AOL come out of thier own choice. They stay because they are getting joy and some aspect of them is getting fulfilled.
And it is this fulfillment that compels them to go deep and let it take over all aspects of life. We didnt complain when it was joyful. Then why are we complaining now.
The master comes to connect us with the self. Everything on the outside is part of the world and programmed to take us through the polarities of pleasure and pain.
In art of living it is a great mix of knowledge, seva and satsang to keep us centered.
Pain is a signal to come back to the centre.
Complaining about AOL wont take away your pain.
Being thankful and coming to your centre will.
Choice is yours.
That is a very interesting perspective.
George Bush and Tony Blair lied about WMD and set out to wage war against Afghanisthan and Iraq. So, what if 1000s of Iraqi and Afghani kids dies. They created and sustained jobs for so many people with the US, British and NATO forces. These people in turn were able to pursue their dreams because they had secure jobs as long as the war was on.
Despite having tremendous Oil resources, who cares if millions of Iraqi families are living in an environment that is oppressed and is 30-40 years behind compared to the rest of the developed world. Mr Bush and Mr Blair kept the western economy afloat because they managed to sustain the military industrial complex.
If Mr Bush and Mr Blair can walk scott free even today, then for an Organisation like AOL that is doing so much good work (at least they claim they are)…..why bother with the small misdemeanors of a spiritual business ?.
Yeah…..exactly….
Why bother if they keep propagating that their Guru is enlightened when no one can be sure? Why bother if they claim that they adopted 30,000 villages but could not even take anyone to even one model village ? Why bother the Master for proof (any proof) that there was an attempted assassination on him ? Why bother if they published books and magazines with false facts (Similarities between Hinduism and Islam). Why bother if they hid a dozen companies behind a single Not for Profit enterprise ? Why bother if their balance sheets and P&Ls are never visible to the devotees or the public ? Why bother if they booted a poor farmer from his home and acquired 100s of acres of land around the Ashram ? Why bother if they harassed devotees that decided to leave them ? Why bother when they cannot explain how they managed to acquire so much land ? Why bother when they openly and publicly break government regulations (Ayurvedic University) ? Why bother if they cleverly package and fudge so called investigative reports to prove that Sudarshan Kriya is the cure all for everything ? Why bother if they don’t walk the talk ? Why bother if they falsely accuse ex-devotees about things that they never did ? Why bother if they have such huge financial irregularities in most of their chapters and countries and yet get media mileage and visibility when they are seen to be fronting an anti-corruption movement along with Anna Hazare ?…….Yup, I agree…..why bother ??.
Well, for one so advanced in intelligence, such amazing oratory skills, crowd control and knowledge about all life (that they even offer expert advise and comments / interpretations on the Ashtavakra Gita)….AND YET they have allowed all of the above to happen.
How come ?
Its all about informed choice. Everyone that is still in AOL is not really well informed. Many choose not to be informed…even when they see evidence come their way ….that is OK. Its called willful blindness.
This blog however is for those within AOL and those potentially going into AOL……..those that would prefer to make informed choices. This blog is about preserving and cultivating integrity…..and a reminder that we came to the planet without a Guru….and we will also go back without one. It is a myth that your Guru is waiting on the other side. He is really quite indifferent to where you go. Just know, he has got too many problems of his own to bother about you. If he really cared about you, he would settle all your doubts on all of the above. How do I know you have doubts ? Well, you are here on this blog now….aren’t you ?
What JD meant was if God could not create perfect world, how do you expect his incarnate Ravi Shankar to create perfect AOL?????
@Anonymous
Pls. allow me to bow down to you. I know its asking for too much but may your tribe increase.
I second your opinion stupidseeker.
I came across this interview IANS had with ravi shankar. In this interview ravi shankar candidly admits that the Jan Lokpal Bill is incapable of rooting out corruption. This line is in contradiction with that of the other members of Team Anna, who drummed up massive support by proclaiming the bill to be the end of corruption of India.
Its anyone’s guess why ravi shankar revealed his lack of faith in the bill, even as he proclaimed himself one of the prime drivers of the IAC movement.My own take is that he didn’t want to be seen as being too anti establishment either.
But to continue, when he was further asked why then did he support the bill, his open ended and succint two word answer was “common sense”.While the rest of the agitators were supposedly motivated by patriotism, this individual states common sense as the reason for his support of the Lokpal bill, even as he reveals his lack of faith in the same to eradicate corruption.Maybe it was common sense to support a bill that hamstrung the government but kept NGO’s (AOL is second largest NGO in india) like his completely out of it’s purview.
Read the interview here:
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5417534
Spirituality and enlightenment apart, common sense we know, is a virtue ravi shankar prizes.
Thus it was common sense to then sport a beard, wear white garb, flash a million dollar smile and put out stories of, advanced science degrees at age 17, of having mastered the Gita at age 4, of being an enlightened being,to a society that was economically ascendent and and on the lookout for relief from the stresses and insecurities of material life.
Thus the economic ascendency ensured the competency of society to pay for his courses while at the same time the increasing materialism with its usual side effects of mental unease, ensured that he would remain in business, what with his SKY being touted as a cure all and he himself an incarnation of krishna and jesus all rolled into one.
Thus it also was common sense to portray himself and his teachings and his kriyas, as being spiritual as opposed to being religious, as being beyond religion, as being scientific even, when he toured the west and then cosying up to the hindu right when back in his home country to let them know that he was actually in their camp and was willing to act as a softer alternative/conduit for their brand of Hindutva especially in the west. Thus his “scientific” spirituality wins him devotees in the west while his religiosity and indulgence in Hindu rituals, and the validation of the hindu scriptures through his own enlightenment, wins him devotees back home even as his supposed charitable works gets his organisation an NGO status and his books and magazines where he tells the world how similar Islam and Christianity are to Hinduism, keeps his secular credentials intact. An whats more, by giving each one in the organisation the unique identity of being an AOL member, he ensured that his identity is kept unique and distinct from other similar organisations and spiritual leaders in society.After all this it was surely common sense to proclaim than the concepts of ownership of wealth and creation of wealth were not anathema to spiritual growth and that wealth creation walked hand in hand with spirituality.So that put to rest any unease, a by now besotted devotee may have had over the widely proclaimed inverse relationship between wealth and spirituality. Thus wealth was not bad as long as you gave charity to the point that it hurt. And who better to give it to, than an NGO who was engaged in creating a divine society.
Thus by merely applying his commonsense ravi shankar made sure that it appeared, that he had something to could give to everyone in society i.e the stressed in search of relief, the seekers looking for spiritual growth, the dispossessed and oppressed in need for material succour, the militant rightwingers seeking support for their religious identity,the orthodox seeking validation of their scriptures,the sceptics looking for truths beyond the material world etc. etc. etc. etc. You name the pie and be sure ravi Shankars got his fingers in it.
If anything the whole AOL structure and the whole business of these new age gurus by extension is nothing but a validation of how far applying common sense can take you.Thus we now have a multifaceted individual who is spiritual,scientific, religious, compassionate, knowledgeable, all inclusive and yet does not shy away from materialism, orthodoxy and traditionalism.
Sounds too good to be true??? Its delicious to think about the Nobel Peace Prize Committee asking themselves this question, and then applying their common sense and answering, “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn’t” and then summarily trashing his nomination.Common sense cuts both ways, and a man like ravi shankar who has so much of it, should know that best.
I got a mail sometime back. I feel such experiences are definitely not made up. Though things about the org bother me but then I still don’t know whether one can really dismiss the Guru completely just because there are a lot of nuts in the AoL.
Guru Story- MASTER and US!!!
My father had not been keeping well for over a month now. Since Shillong does not have good medical facilities my family decided to take my father to Delhi. To our horror he was suspected of lung cancer. After performing a CT Scan and a PET Scan the doctors were 99% sure that he was sufering from lung cancer with multiple nodules observed in both his lungs. They took him in for biopsy. We decided to fly down to Bangalore to meet Guruji on his bday as the biopsy reports would come only after three days.
The flight from Delhi to Bangalore was painful for him but it was Guruji’s call I guess. Soon things became alright and we reached Bangalore. My father felt that he had reached heaven’s abode. We hired a flat a few kilometers away from the ashram. That evening he could not make it to the ashram for the satsang since he was not well.
We wrote conituous emails to Guruji, Swami Pragyapadji to seek their blessings. All the Swamiji’s in the ashram were with us. Our letter reached Guruji and his secretary Girin Bhaiya called us up to inform that Guruji has read our letter and would meet us by 6.15. We could not make it on time as we were a few kms away from the ashram and there was no way we could make it by 6.15. Girin bhaiya informed that Guruji would meet us on the way to the satsang. How??? How would He recognize us? In the middle of lacs of devotees Guruji stopped in front of my parents. He blessed my father. He waved his hand over his head as though he was moving a magic wand and said that everything will be fine. He blessed my mother as well. We all felt as lite as a feather as though something heavy had been lifted. We were astonished that Guruji gave us such a beautiful darshan.
We left for Delhi the next day surrendering all our fears and worries on our Master’s feet. My brother went to collect his report. In about 30 mins we get a call from my brother who could hardly speak but managed to say ‘Jai Gurudev’ before he broke down. The tests were negative. The doctors were surprised. It was a medical failure for them and a miracle for us.
Our lives our indebted to Guruji. Lets all do his work. Lets spread his message far and wide. He is there for each one of us. None is more blessed or more personal to Guruji. We are all his children and he will take care of us always. Just smile and love. All your messages reach Him. Just surrender.
Very good! now lets have story where ravi shankar actually gave immortality to his devotee just like Vishwamitra made trisanku immortal.
There was a guru. His devotees would line up and each couple would bow in front of him and say “please bless us with a boy baby”. And the guru would say “done”. After 9 or 10 months, 50% of the devotees got their boy baby. They remained devotees. The other 50% got a girl baby. They left saying the guru is a fraud. The first group claimed the guru ‘gave them’ their boy baby.
People have spontaneous cures from cancer all the time. I can tell you of many people who followed Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, taught for him, and died, very young, previously not ill, from a sudden massive heart attack (at his ashram, btw), and those who contracted termial cancer while following him, also relatively young in their 40s and died of that cancer with all his blessings. Believe what you like. As far as I’ve seen, SSRS doesn’t cure anyone, and has multiple physical ailments himself, which his devotees blame on his ‘taking on’ others’ ailments. I don’t believe a word of it.
Quite frequently when I was teaching, I witnessed spontaneous healing manifest in class. At that time because I was brainwashed I would insist with all my participants that it was only because of the grace of SriSri. However, in actuality it had been happening even in those times when I had not been introduced to AOL. It continues to happen after I have left AOL. And, if anyone wants to understand better how this works and how you can make it work for you…. please find Bruce Lipton and/or Greg Braden on youtube and listen to their videos. This is about being fully informed and educated.
Also, you may want to read Herbert Benson’s books. He is an American cardiologist and the founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. You will be exposed to much scientific evidence that most of the human body’s ailments are psychosomatic. Switch your belief system and your body changes (instantly). Dr Bruce Lipton makes easily understandable, scientific illustrations as to how this actually works and how spontaneous healing is effected by change in our belief system / attitude. His style is also very passionate and speaks from his heart. Great viewing actually.
The point is that none of the formal education systems teach us about the magic and functioning of our own human systems (mind and body). All of us mostly take our bodies and minds for granted and do not bother to study or investigate them. Our curiosity about this has never been allowed to grow (especially amazed that it happens within AOL when it is supposed to be spiritual school…..Imagine a debate in Visalakshi Mandap between the world’s best Pranic healers and AOL practitioners). That will never happen, because AOL has to keep its current audience in control and keep them together like a herd. My God….if this audience realises that the magic exists elsewhere and all over the place and that they are not necessarily tied to AOL to experience it…..WHAT WOULD HAPPEN ?
Can’t milk them and tax them anymore can we ?
A little bit of a wild example…just to illustrate a point. It is like this…..you have never seen a car in your life. Even if you see one you would not recognize it or know that it is a vehicle to move things around. And now, you have come to me seeking something. Your life is stressed, dull and difficult…or so it seems, you seek answers and solutions. You need some magic to re-enter your life. You filled out an application form, so I know you live with your grandmother and your home address. I blindfold you, walk you a little, sit you down, and drive the car for 1 hr, all the while playing you music you love. Before long you are in your grandmother’s house. I slowly guide you out of the car and then remove the blindfold. And for you its sheer magic, after all you were just sitting down and listening to music now you suddenly materialised your Grand mom’s house. Amazing. And since your only interaction was with me you attribute the special powers to me. I also know about aircrafts, spaceships, the structure of the fractal universe, the various energy systems that drive the human body, the relationship between these energy sources and the human mind, and many of these principles apply strongly to all other subjects that interest humans. Now, I can do 1 of 2 things. Share them all with you provided you want to learn and then you are free. But, the risk here is that, if I shared all of this with you and educated you about all of this, I will lose your adulation. After all I am not the one that made the car or the aircraft or the spaceship. I just happened to stumble on them (or somebody else showed them to me). I did not create these things. Hence to not lose your adulation, I have to keep this hidden and make it more mysterious as if only I can reproduce them.
Now you go around tom tomming and proclaiming to the whole world that I am God and that I moved you some 40 km in a very short time which is impossible for us human’s to do. I don’t stop you….AND am happy with all the adulation/admiration I get. A crowd starts to follow me wherever I go. In fact, soon, I get addicted to it. Its like a drug. I like the adulation so much, that I never want to lose it. Then I start to live in fear that I may someday lose it. I fear this, because I have been manipulative. I engineered this situation, knowing fully that I was not the creator of the car. My insecurity forces me to develop systems that nobody, yes nobody ever figures out how the car works. So I camouflage it. I hide it. I disguise it. I make sure that none of you is ever exposed to another car from another car maker. If any of you find out the truth, which is bound to happen, in secret I make you my partner in business. However the hidden understanding here is that I am still head honcho and you play 2nd fiddle to me. After all you too for many years created this branding of me being the ULTIMATE savior. After some time some of you partners suddenly awaken to the fact that you do want to be a part of the scam anymore and are unhappy about misleading innocent people. I cant let this happen. This will expose my whole game. So, I badmouth you and do my very best to keep the rest of the herd from following you or even questioning your move. Soon I observe that other scam artists like me have developed other systems and are doing very well. I get jealous, I want them to fail, so my supremacy is not threatened. Its all about timing and when each one of the scam artists started. The earlier guy always feels threatened by the newer entrant. They are eating into his pie. I hope you can see the parallels here. (Nithy, Ramdev)
Now, lets take the case of the reported miracle of the dad being cured of his lung cancer. It could also be any one of the following
1. The doctors goofed and were reporting on somebody else’s Catscan. This happens all the time. However once you plant into someones mind that they have cancer, they start suffering immediately because they trust the doctor, do not question the bad news and most importantly their own mind now starts to panic. Obviously you will feel unwell.
2. The healing (if at all it was needed) could have also have very well happened because of all the prayers of the loved ones. And prayers work…all the time. Thats a whole subject in itself. How to pray and what to pray for. How not to pray. Much of it can be learned from the movie “The secret”. If we notice we will see the relatives were completely sincere, did EVERYTHING they could without holding back on intent, money, effort for dad. For those few days and hours their one and only intent was hat dad recover and become well. They manifested it.
How many of the relatives know and have faith in the power of their own prayers ???
3. The point is that if these people should do the same to another person (other than dad) that is needy with the same intensity they will find that their will manifests again. And it will work again….and again…..The process is the same. Existence has to re-arrange the furniture to suit your will. It works for you, so you can discover your own creative genius. And there are rules that you need to use to communicate clearly to existence what you want. That is all.
4. Take the art of living blessing course for eg. It has been working or not working for you way before you put yourself through the course. You were not aware of it thats all. That, IT is made to look like some major transference thingie is happening from the source (Sri Sri) thru his Blessing teachers and then onto you and NOW you can finally bless someone…..is just a scam process utilized by some twisted minds playing with your low self esteem (Yes low self esteem…..hiw so ? Well, afterall it is you who subscribed to the philosophy that only the AOL teachers and Guruji could bless and you could not since you were not pure enough). Now, do not get me wrong. Deciding to go to the blessing course is in itself a great step. You got out of the rut, decided that its time you have more of yourself to the world…..which is beautiful. That itself will make it work. The rest is just symbolic and irrelevant. It is your readiness that makes it work. However, at no time take the credit away from your willingness to start, to explore, to see, to experience, to transfer and importantly to connect and acknowledge the love and compassion in your own heart. This is what makes things really work, not the 1000s of Rupees you paid or the so called guru grace as is attributed to within the AOL circles.
5. Forget about how sad your past has been. Forget about any guilt that you may have ever held within you. Right at this moment, just go sit next to another human in need. Just be there for them. Listen to them intently and wholly. Bless them (you don’t even have to touch them to do this) with all your heart and pray to existence to deliver the best results to them so they can be peaceful and happy……..
Be completely alert and alive to what happens next (the less you doubt yourself the faster the result) and once you acknowledge to yourself as to what has transpired …simply enjoy every moment of the rest of your journey. Its time….
Guru is simply an excuse to be grateful. It is up to us to choose in which direction we wish our life to flow – gratitiude or complaints. Each has its consequences.
@Anonymous September 17, 2011 3:11 am
That was one beautiful reasoning you wrote. Nicely put it.
@Original Anonymous
If you can spare 45 minutes of your time, just go through this video. Trust me, it would be time well spent. This video has the potential to change one’s outlook towards life. It also talks about how cancer can be cured miraculously.
And this video is not copyrighted. Neither is it patented. Anyone is free to distribute it. Spirituality never ever comes for a price.
@Original Anonymous
If you can spare 45 minutes of your time, just go through this video. Trust me, it would be time well spent. This video has the potential to change one’s outlook towards life. It also talks about how cancer can be cured miraculously.
AOL is a lie….all gurus and religions are telling lies.
its a need unfortunately for us to buy these lies..becaues they give us hope..
life has all good and bad aspects..and its filled with uncertaininty, that arouses fear….
these gurus make promises..that you can have only the good stuff…and we want to buy this lie…makes life easier….
(as i see, nature is cruel…all over hunger, fight killings..love is one of the means of survival…and life is not only that..its destruction too… )
Yes there is pain, insensitiveness and cruelty. We will find the opposite of this if we care to look closely. Look at parents, the amount of hard work and care they put into their kids. Lets look at our own bodies, 100s of 1000s of different bacteria and small form organisms live in our bodies working with each other symbiotically so our larger mechanism can thrive. We don’t take care of any of them, In fact of some of them were not there our food will not get digested. Similarly, millions of types of small organisms (hidden from all view) in the soil, without which our food will not grow. Without them we will not have petroleum and without which our life would come to a standstill today. All the plants and animals that contribute to our species as they become our food. All of this is pretty unconditional. Mother earth has been bearing with all our fairly stupid activity, patiently for millions of years….all the killing, bombing, pollution….wanton disregard……she is still very patient with us.
The reason we miss all the goodness and constantly all the negativity comes to our attention is because, the human mind is like a beautiful reflector and is also a sponge. It takes on the characteristics of what it observes. The media / education system …and the rest of it leave us with little bandwith to see the goodness as negative news sells more. Hence we all need to be more alert and more willful in catching the good things in life. If you look carefully and watch for it with diligence, there is much that is already there…. every moment. Just look only at yourself….sure you may have some lazy qualities and may do a few goofy things…..but overall aren’t you happy to be you ? There is much goodness. We need to be aware that there is all these negative things happening. Otherwise how can we be instruments of change. We might end up believing that change is not required. (Like most AOL insiders, who KNOW that AOL is perfect).
@JD
You may just turn out to be the second enlightened person in AOL after ravi shankar. If that happens then AOL would probably have exceeded its lifetimes quota of producing enlightened beings.