It is all very appealing, especially to those of a somewhat naïve, trusting and innocent nature. In fact, those of us with these endearing qualities are sought out avidly by others who know only too well how to seduce and manipulate for their own betterment and narcissistic gratification. We make perfect spiritual guru fodder.

The more we want to believe, the easier it is to be manipulated into believing what we want to believe. With our eyes wide shut, with promises of spiritual enlightenment, ascension, meetings with the Ascended Masters (Buddha and Jesus are counted amongst their number) we the faithful are bound in covenants, accepted as disciples, and we willingly enter the temple of empty promises, leaving our everyday common sense at the door. We embark upon a surrealistic journey filled with the heady aroma of incense, subtle subliminal music, beaming smiles, warm hugs and words of unconditional and universal love. Love and light. Love heals all. All you need is love. The words might change but the message is the same. Welcome to the world of the spiritual Guru.

Altogether now, sing with me

“Oh my Guru come to me, come to me, come to me. Oh my Guru come to me, come to me right now””

Oh my guru, I am helpless without you; you are my salvation, my only hope for escape from this earthly oppression. You are my guiding light; only you can show me the way.

If anyone ever says to you “I am the only way”, or words to that effect, you should turn tail and run as fast as you can. Clear off before you’re cleaned out. Flee before you’re fleeced, because, once inside this ethereal, ungrounded world, it is difficult to escape; not least because you are unlikely to want to. It is so appealing. Once you have sampled the warmth, the soporific glow of unconditional love, you will want more and more. Once you have been on the receiving end of a transmission of the energy of love from celestial beings, channeled through your spiritual Guru, nothing else compares. You want more. Nothing else matters. After all, you are now growing closer to God aren’t you?

The appeal is not difficult to understand, and the Guru’s promises are impressive.  Enlightenment, ascension, the acquisition of super-human powers (known as “sidis”), clairvoyance, clairsentience, the power to heal, and even control over matter (Jesus had this power which accounted for his physical miracles, turning water into wine for example). Become a Master Healer, a Master Teacher, a Bodhisattva, a channel for the words of the Ascended Masters. Heady stuff this.

If you think all this sounds too good to be true, you are absolutely right. It is. These promises are the carrot held in front of the donkey’s nose. Walk as fast and as far as you like, but you will never get any closer. Shrouded in carefully fashioned spiritual vernacular, the spiritual Guru speaks, and the followers listen, entranced, without judgment, all-accepting, soaking it up like a sponge. In the world of the spiritual Guru discernment is replaced by obedience. Never mind that we don’t actually understand what our Guru is saying, faith is everything. In fact we don’t understand what our Guru is saying because he is not really saying anything.

Here is an example:

“Each and every soul merge and initiation passage opens the Divine Corridor of the higher dimensions to a greater degree here in the physical. This blessing allows passage for the legions of solar angels to descend into the temple of the human body. The solar angel has always been your true self, patiently waiting for your spiritual development to progress from the halls of ignorance, to the halls of learning, to the halls of knowledge, and to the halls of wisdom, making possible the merging of spirit and matter"

Did you understand any of that? Nice words but what does it mean? How is it verifiable? Words, words and more words. The problem is, you see, that none of this “love and light” methodology is of any practical use in the real world. It does not help to pay the grocery bill nor does it improve relations with your children. I don’t know anybody who is actually better off for having followed and obeyed their spiritual Guru. Almost all leave eventually, and almost all are scarred from the experience, thereafter harbouring deep feelings of deception. Where do you go and who do you trust after the self proclaimed embodiment of God himself has cheated and deceived you?

A real spiritual Guru, who genuinely loves his followers, would say something like this:

“I can show you one way, but there are others. You should investigate them for yourself, and find the one which suits you best, the one which “feels” right for you.”

We are all different, individual, and unique and so it is improbable that one “way” would suit us all. Even the Buddha is reputed to have said:

“Seek not to be like me. Seek what I sought”.

This is true wisdom born out of true unconditional, universal love

For it is a contradiction in terms here, that a “real” spiritual Guru would not want to be followed in the first place. He would not allow it as it would not be for our highest good. How can you find your own spiritual path to God if you’re all crammed together on his?

Osho Rajneesh and Sri Sathya Sai Baba are prime examples of spiritual gurus gone astray, but there are many more. Osho promoted making love as often as possible, with as many partners as possible, and so he became understandably popular. He also possessed more than a dozen Rolls Royce limousines (gifts from his followers), plus various properties and other assets.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba a self proclaimed “avatar” (God on earth), has been accused by many, including some of his closest disciples, of inappropriate sexual conduct with his younger male followers and of using trickery masqueraded as miracles. He is famous for making objects materialize out of thin air. The best known is “vibbuthi” (sacred ash) which appears from the palm of his hand. I actually saw him do this in his ashram at Putthaparthi, and I was totally convinced. However he was subsequently filmed secretly and shown to be a fake.

Another example of a spiritual Guru gone astray is Devra West of Montana, USA. Surya Ma as she now likes to be called is accused of extorting money from her disciples. Some even sold their homes to fund her ambitious projects, whilst it is alleged that she diverted their money into her personal bank accounts; thus embezzling millions of dollars donated to her non-profit foundations. She apparently has a penchant for luxury homes, and expensive jewelry. She is also accused by many of her disciples of physical and mental abuse, and degradation; hardly a model example of spirituality in action.

There comes a point of course when enough is enough. Once the evidence of manipulation, exploitation and deception becomes overwhelming and difficult to refute, even the most devout, committed disciples and adepts will eventually turn their backs and leave. By this time, however, they are often already damaged psychologically, and financially.

Of course not all Gurus are corrupted by money, power and fame. There are many whose names and reputations rest unblemished. Sri Ramana Maharshi and Amma are two examples. Both managed to retain their humility, simplicity and sincerity long after they became internationally renowned. Sri Ramana Maharshi said he did not want any followers as he had nothing to teach them, but the disciples came anyway, just to be near him and bask in the peaceful energy he radiated. He lived his whole life, simply, in the same village of Tiruvannamalai, as he said there was nowhere else to go. He said “God, Guru and the Self are the same”.

Amma is a simple person also. She works tirelessly and indiscriminately to help the poor and underprivileged. She is known as the hugging Saint because at her “darshans” she takes people’s head against her chest, as a mother would a baby, and hugs them. She will do this all day long, not stopping until every person who wants it, has had heir “hug”. Again, Amma does not set herself up as “the way”, and she claims no magical powers. She simply does what she does, and keeps on doing it. This is her lesson.

However, the most flagrant and best known example of a spiritual Guru gone astray is the Pope of the Catholic Church. A political state unto itself, with its own army and its own bank, the Catholic Church is immensely powerful, and the possessor of incalculable wealth. The Pope wields more influence in the world than many of his fellow politicians, as his influence covers the entire globe and his devotees are counted in hundreds of millions. However as the self proclaimed representative of God on Earth, he has scant regard for the spiritual or physical welfare of his flock. Over the centuries since its inception, the Catholic Church has been responsible for more wars, slaughter and cruelty than any other country or organization, interested only in preserving its own power and ruthlessly subjugating any rivals or dissenters.

As regards the Pope himself, did you know that when he was a cardinal, he was personally responsible for protecting from criminal prosecution, many of the priests who sexually abused children? The acts of these priest pedophiles had been hidden by a Catholic Church fearful of tarnishing its image. For years the Church had been simply moving sexual offenders around from one parish or country to another. They went unpunished, and were free to continue their sexual abuse of children elsewhere. It was only when the evidence of sexual abuse became overwhelming, and irrefutable that the Church was forced to act. What did it do? An order was issued that offenders were to be notified to Rome directly, where they would be dealt with by the Vatican. The offenders were indeed brought to the Vatican, where they were hidden and protected from police prosecution by the Cardinal in charge of the whole affair. Who was this Cardinal? Why none other than the current representative of God on earth. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI. How is that for a spiritual Guru gone astray?

But you see, what we need to realize is that we don’t need priests, Popes or Gurus. It is they who need us. They feed upon us. It is we who nourish them, not they who nourish us. We are all capable of finding our own, individual path to God, to Enlightenment, to Salvation. We already have a spark of the Divine within us. We are already connected to Source. Every time that we interpose another entity in between ourselves and God, it is actually pushing us further away from the very thing that we are seeking.

Every spiritual Guru secretly knows that he or she is surplus to requirements.

Thanks to our spiritual Guru, we become empty inside; we lose our independence, and also our own sense of divinity, able only to follow blindly and unthinking; eternally grateful for any small indulgence bestowed upon us from our Lord and Master. If we follow any false Guru long enough, it will inevitably end in deception, disillusionment, and even despair.

How do I know all this? Well I used to have a guru, but I’m all right now.

So now I sing,

“Oh my Guru leave me be, leave me be, leave me be. Oh my Guru leave me be, leave me alone”

It’s healthier that way.

END

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