Be Aware

Dear Friends,

There are several questions unanswered by spiritual gurus who masquerade as messiahs of the lord and take advantage of hapless devotees.

The current scandals add fuel to pertinent questions that surface whenever the so called saviours of humanity ditch their own ideals and assume that they are above all laws of karma, universe and claim their stature of enlightenment, which by no means is proven.

Spirituality is a hazy battleground where there is no clarity for seekers and the game gets murkier when leaders themselves don’t know where they are headed.

Under the current scenario, its important to throw more light on this topic and awaken the powers of our intellect to discern between the fakes and our true guru within, which is our own soul, driven by our conscience.

Let these provoking questions and contemplations help us explore further. This is a long mail. Read it fully at your leisure. I trust that it will resonate with the exploring spirit that is desperate to burst open to find out the truth.

1. It becomes really evident that even the current crop of self-proclaimed greatest masters on this planet have no clue about their own future and what the universe has in store for them. Paramahamsa Nityananda claimed he has 360 degrees vision and can see through with clarity of his third eye and ultra-sensitive higher sense perception. This hyped skill fell short to identify the hidden video cam in his own ashram bedroom. His strong intuition failed to identify that he has bred foes in his own ashram by his autocratic style of leadership. He didn’t even foresee that he would be caught in the act on camera and would force him to escape from cops, and his own people. I haven’t met anyone who knows the entire picture of what future has in store for them how destiny is in a state of flux. But that doesn’t stop them from predicting other’s future.This reiterates adage that the universe remains a mystery that changes itself when it knows that someone is trying to know it. There is a saying that ‘Grace descends and man ascends’, but when the ascended man falls from elevated grace owing to his own misgivings, the fall becomes really nasty.

2. Living with an enlightened master is apparently just a hyped marketing concept, as it turned out to be shocking experience for all the hapless aspirants. No one got to know that the private life of Swami Nityananda was a closely guarded secret and no one would ever get to know what it is to live with their master, while the glorified darshans would serve as a wow factor with the good looking swami decked up in gold, perched on an emperor’s seat and spewing commentaries on ancient vedas, yoga and shiva sutras. Little did the aspirants of Inner Awakening know that they would be rudely awakened by the sleazy happenings at Ananda Gandha- the quarters of the Swami. By looking at the sad faces of the volunteers in the ashram, it becomes very clear that someone has robbed them of their happiness, and their ananda is a concept meant to be sold to masses and not experienced amongst themselves.

3. A great teacher like Osho Rajneesh was a creative genius who didn’t have to rely on just being a narrator of ancient wisdom which is made available by several great masters from the past. There is hardly anything new in Nityananda’s teachings, apart from re-packaging ancient philosophies with his lucid style of commentary. If you want to know in-depth about shiva sutras, just refer the ‘Book of Secrets’ – interpretation of vigyan bhairav tantra by Osho (audio also available) and you will get a clear comparison in difference in the levels of expertise and treatment of the meditation techniques (between osho and swami nityananda).

4. Despite failures and misgivings of hundreds of cults in the past, the spiritual leaders continue to create autocratic institutions and design them into a neo-cult, so that they control their mesmerized followers, and drive the insiders by a hierarchical order that is subtly dictated by assumed slavery and obviously coded by color of skin, robes and fancy sanskrit names to define the cult.

5. The scant disregard for true seekers of the these enlightened gurus becomes evident when politicians, film stars, VIPs get special treatment and long drawn private darshans while devotees in genuine need of support are standing in serpentine queues till wee hours of the night to get a thumbing on the forehead and false promises of boons. There is an obvious disparity in the way people are treated based on who they are and spiritual guidance always takes a back seat. The boom of youtube videos, spiritual channels on DTH TV only served as intelligent marketing communication vehicle for popularity, while the awe struck sadhakas beeline at ashrams only to discover that they are reduced to a frenzied fan in a mass hysteria ceremony to highlight the importance of the enlightened master. No one is allowed to ask any relevant question that can challenge the superiority of the master on any subject. You can expect to be promptly snubbed or thrown out by the ardent followers, if you doubt the integrity or skills of the master.

6. Does a Master need to call himself one, if so, what mastery are we talking about. If we go to a traditional martial arts school, we can expect to see an expert who can willingly demonstrate feats that most trained people cannot perform. So the expertise is evident. But does that make him a master. There is always someone who is better than us and there is room for excellence and it never will be enough perfection. The disgusting aspect of so called spiritual masters is that they choose to vocalise their so called unseen skills rather than demonstrate it. Swami Rama of Himalayan tradition had the skills to demonstrate his amazing yogic powers at Merringer Research Institute in USA. These feats were super human and never recorded earlier in lab environment and hence revered by scientists. Despite such powers, Swami Rama never claimed that he was a Master and said that he is only a messenger from himalayas. The very term Master is pretty much abused. A true master doesn’t need to demonstrate his powers as he never claims to be a master. So there is no need for him to showcase his skills to win some students or please an audience. In the presence of an accomplished master, the expansion of our energies is obvious. For instance, the kundalini shakti instantly rose in people who were in the company of Ramana Maharishi. He was not even looking at his raving audience, his eyes were transfixed on the Arunachala hills, while he basked in Turiyeeta avasta (4th state of consciousness). Just his mere presence was enough while he made no claims nor mislead or persuade anyone.

Zen philosophy says we that a Master begins his day by being a student. This is called a Beginner’s Mind.

7. Nityananda has claimed in his talks and books that ‘enlightenment’ is a big and serious responsibility and hence he has a immense task on hand. Now it is glaring that he has shockingly escaped his responsibility. He owes a response to his ardent followers and media. He has gone missing while no one knows his whereabouts. This is pathetic, considering the unofficial claims that he has 45 lakh followers in 17 countries. A captain of a ship will never abandon his ship, even if it is sinking. That’s why he is revered for that call of duty. Nityananda escaped when his ashrams and integrity were under threat. There is undoubtedly fear in his reactions. If the ashram vouches that the sex video is doctored and morphed, so why is their leader running away. Any person with a room temperature IQ having met the swami can make out that its the original swami exposed, If there is a body double that is lurching in the ashram, then Nityananda has to be really worried. Because the next inner awakening course will be conducted by some xyz-Ananda claiming to be the original Nityananda, who is going to mess with your happiness.

8. There are hundreds of highly accomplished yogis meditating in the secluded caves of himalayas who never come into the open or sell their skills. They are truly blessing the world without any need for any recognition or fame. Such is our naivety that we get sold over to the large and popular institutionalized cult concepts. For instance 2012 has been enforced upon us as a cosmic event that is going to be impacting our consciousness. All these self-proclaimed saviours like Nityananda, Kalki Bhagwan and many such teachers have promised enlightenment for their thousands of devotees. Sadly for them, the universe had something else in store for them. They got busted in 2010, long before they could even imagine, what was going on or what hit them. As Ramana Maharshi also observed that the events are unfolding and we are witnessing without any control over them.

9. Many skilled teachers have a humble beginning when they start imparting their skills to a few students. However the greed of power, money and fame overrides and their mission gets corrupted with the entry of unscrupulous ideas to make a quick buck in the name of charity. Many people pay hefty sums of money to get awakened but they become victims of a ‘cognitive dissonance’ which forces them to fabricate their experiences to match with the expectations of their peers.

10. If you are going to be sitting in the midst of a 1000 plus, inspired chanters, the sheer collective consciousness and the group energy will bring about amazing sensory experiences in us. Its pure science, our electro-magnetic field is altered, this impacts our flow of prana, movement of chakras, and leads to temporary shift in our bio-energy. The hungry cult gurus cash on these personal experiences and quickly declare you awakened, only to disappoint you that this euphoria is not going to last, as you will need several more engineered courses to achieve enlightenment.

10. Bharatkhand (as indian sub-continent is called) has been the spiritual engine of the world. We have a heritage that has been inspiring us. The contributions from the great Vedic Rishis, Mahavatar Babaji, Adi Shankaracharya, Patanjali, Chaitanya, Ramana Mahrishi, Shirdi Sai Baba, Bhagawan Nityananda (ganeshpuri), Gorakshnath, Ma Anandamayi, Siddhars, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Lahiri Mahasaya, Bengali Baba, Osho Rajneesh and so on, did not have to brag about their skills or stature but remained in the purity of their mission to awaken aspirants on their path to realize the true nature of the soul.

Interesting Swami Nityananda once made an open statement the great Mahavatar Baba is his marketing agent, a haughty statement.

11. There is nothing wrong in sex. Its a natural fountain of life like Food, Self Preservation, and Sleep. Sexual urge is so powerful that it can out-stage all idealisms and cultivated disciplines. However the claim that Paramahamsa, the eternal symbolism of sacred swan that doesn’t even land on the planet earth and claims that Nityananda was enlightened even before he even reached the age of puberty, hence does not need to indulge in sex was propagated. This raises the expectations out of a sacred celibate. Nityanandam – his blissful state of mind was celebrated in dozens of lilting musical compositions sold in audio cds. Why would a state of eternal bliss (that spiritual seekers are dying to achieve) fall prey to a 20 second sexual orgasm that any lowly mortal can achieve is an answer that Nityananda owes to everyone.

His teachers even made open claims during Kalpataru programs that by chanting ‘Om Hreem Nityanandaya Namah’, you will achieve the phenomenal Ashta Siddhi (super normal powers of control over space, time, nature, body, and so on). I bet not a single ashramite has achieved any of these siddhis.

12. Nityananda definitely has some demonstrated meditative skills. For instance, ability to show no activity in the brain was demonstrated by bring the Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta and Gamma brain waves to Zero activity on the EEG instrument. For your knowledge there are Meditators like Ken Wilber who have demonstrated the same skills. He has made no claims to enlightenment. You can see his videos on youtube.

13. On the occasion of 60th birthday celebrations of Kalki Bhagwan. there was a live video to be webcasted. The video was subscribed over zealously on the net and promptly the video frames froze and no one could see the live video. Interestingly just before the video was to be telecasted, one of his top Dasaji made some glorious statements about Bhagwan and went to the extent of saying that his Bhagwan was not even born out of human womb, and I also read incredible statement from an official website that Kalki Bhagwan has created the entire universe. It would be extremely disappointing for any awakened devotee to learn that their God was not even capable of overcoming the network bottleneck on a celebrated occasion. Interestingly the devotees were all in anticipation for the expected boons from Bhagwan on his birthday as promised. Deservingly, even the ever-penetrating golden balls remained dormant in their own little universe created at the oneness university in India. In a human body, we can have human experiences, not necessarily spiritual experiences. All these teachers are human like us, who have walked a few more steps ahead of us, which doesn’t qualify them to have the entire universe in their control or know everything. They are as fallible, insecure, fragile and human like us. So why are we so bent upon creating super heroes, demi-gods and idols by chasing some idealism that is far-fetched for own good.

14. History has its way of repeating itself. Many fake swamis with their strong political nexus have bounced back from thunderous scandals and resumed their operations. There is drift in our way of life that is triggered by global recession, political upheavals, natural calamities, guru busting, etc. No one has a complete picture what is in store for future. The sooth sayers, clairvoyants, and self proclaimed masters are as clueless as we are. We can live our lives with little awareness, one moment at a time, and stay connected positively for a common good of humanity. Let the trust within us become even more reinforced with the true GURU within each of us. The universe works through people. We have to thank a few people who put their lives at stake and expose the monsters hiding in the mask of demi-gods.

PS: I have no claims to any official sources of information or direct knowledge, nor written this to influence anyone to deviate from their life choices, beliefs or way of living. However I pray that each one of us will muster the courage to ask all the troublesome questions now, and seek clarity amidst all these confusions.

Breath is our prayer,
Meditation is our path
Consciousness is our God
Humanity is our Religion

Love, Light, Consciousness

Dr.Pradeep Ullal