Friday, May 26, 2006



Identifying Guru Exploitation

What I am posting below is not intended to be a cynical rant or to single out SRCM specifically. In fact many of the things I mention below are actual tools used by capable Leaders to run corporations and organizations around the world.

I am outlining these Seven Techniques as a way of leveling the playing field. It is important for every individual involved in any organization to discrimiate between necessary techniques used by good leaders to achieve a noble end, verses exploiting techniques for the drunken lust for power and control.

It is not a bad practice to review every organization one belongs in order to determine if un-warranted exploitation is occuring. I encourage those within SRCM to examine these techniques used in their organization and ask themselves if a "light structure" has been created for the achievement of high spiritual ideals, or if a autocratic power structure has been established to manipulate and control the masses.

I leave this determination up to each individual.


Seven Techniques Used By Gurus to Control The Masses


Establish High Ideals

• Establish noble, high sounding principles, such as selfless service, closeness to God, and brotherly/sisterly love.


• Insist that your teachings are free and the birthright of all.


• Demonstrate charity in a highly visible manner.

Define and Enforce Exclusivity in the Organization


• Every Guru must have an exclusive hook to differentiate themselves from others.

• The exclusive nature of the system or Guru must be re-emphasized at every opportunity.


• Disciples are trained to also extol the virtues of the system’s exclusivity in every conversation.


Exploit a Higher Authority

• Designate a “Higher Authority” that can be attributed to for literally everything.


• Higher Authority must be easily identifiable by disciples. Abstract higher authorities such as “God” are generally not as effective as a dead person.


• It is critical that the Guru can claim to be in direct communication with this Higher Authority.

• The Guru’s example of love and servitude to this Higher Authority serves as an example to disciples as to how to treat their Guru.


• Miracles, which happen naturally in an emotionally charged environment, can be attributed to this Higher Authority


• Disciples will naturally transfer all things credited to the Higher Authority to their living Guru.


Establish and Maintain an Inner Circle


• Guru creates contentious environment around themselves for people to earn their trust.


• Those who fight the hardest and most effectively for inner circle status are rewarded with positions of authority and grandeur.


• The Guru must treat inner circle members with strictness and humiliation when necessary to maintain their loyalty and subservience.


• The Hierarchy established through the Inner Circle is a critical tool for a Guru to maintain exclusive control as the organization grows.

Foster the Image of Humility


• The Guru will exploit any ailments or physical injuries to get sympathy by silently suffering.

• If no physical ailments exist, the Guru can use exhaustion from serving his disciples as an ailment.


• The Guru does not directly complain about ailments, but uses the Inner Circle to propagate stories of his humble suffering for the cause.


Establish and Maintain Total Control

• Demand total devotion and trust


• Guru uses their own total devotion and trust to their “Higher Authority” as an example


• Blame all disciples failings on not having sufficient faith in the Higher Authority or lack of dedication to the practice.


Reap the Benefits


• Establish an organization to hold and manage wealth collected.


• Exploit that wealth through the organization, not directly


• Enjoy the services of devoted disciples as their expression of devotion to the Higher Authority.

11 comments:

4d-Don said...

Michael...

This comment came on my blog, under a letter from you, from a person claiming to be be wife of a preceptor...I will send her to your site with a short message....She seems to want a reassurance from you...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "5/08/2006 11:12:00 AM":

I am suffering the continuos absentism of my husband who is a preceptor giving all his free time to that organisation I am a foreign person in Belgium and after giving him a son , he found that I am a selfish person who wants to have him all to myself but I sincerely think that having a poor salary all this idea to run to celebrate Chari for his birthday to Dubai ! and later to Denmark in the same month is unacceptable and all this nights alone because he is giving sittings are leaving me empty ... do you think Chari will approve this in the name of his mission ???

Posted by Anonymous to Our World from Another Dimension at 5/31/2006 07:04:20 AM

Thaks and God Bless...

4d-Don.

Michael said...

Here my response posted on 4d-don's Blog:

My direct experience as a Preceptor in this system is that a spouse gets little sympathy when they complain a Preceptors time spent doing Mission work.

Chari puts significant pressure on Preceptors to introduce new abhyasis to the system without much regard for the impact it has on Preceptor's families.

My speculation is that Chari sincerely believes that he is building an organization (SRCM) to serve some urgent need that he believes will exist at some point in the future. This is the only explanation for the lack of concern for the impact this "growth at all costs" has on the behavior exhibited by his inner circle associates, the spiritual progress achieved by disciples, and the impact on the families of disciples.

It's not that I think Chari doesn't care about you or your family, it simply is not his priority given the urgency of his Mission.

I am sorry you are going through this, and even more sorry to tell you that neither the SRCM nor Chari will not come to rescue your marriage. Only a change in your spouse's behavior can change the circumstances you find yourself in.

I will pray for you and your family.


Michael

Christian said...

I must add that you have a very simple, but very difficult choice, to face:

1/ either you are strong enough to believe in your love for your husband and for your child, and you stay. Your faith, patience, and repeated communicative efforts (please do not neglect communication), will maybe bring him back to his senses, and I do hope it will be so. You may also find help from professionals outside of your familly, which will help you to find strength for that task, and will be better than friends and parents.

2/ either you understand that your husband is the victim of a sect. This will help you to pardon him, and understand that there may be very little to do if he refuses to hear you and to wake up. Preceptorship can theoretically go side by side with a happy familly life, except if the preceptor is a fanatic and egoistic person, which seems to be the case. Considering the fact that we have only one life and that life is very short, you can therefore think about finding love where it is and try to build a happy life for yourself and your familly.

Whatever the solution you adopt, you must be happy and at peace with your decision, and that can be the criteria to guide you. But maybe that it is not yet the time to do so.

I do not know if this helps clarifying your vision, but as Michael says, I fear that you are all alone in this struggle, and that is why I encourage you to seek help, either for 1 or for 2.

Cordially.
Christian

Anonymous said...

Thank you all of you, for your words and support. Regarding last advices from Christian, I will start doing 1 but also I am opening my eyes to 2 … It is indeed very important to me to enjoy life in a simple way as I am a simple person and I think option number 1 will give me the force to understand option 2 and probably the decision to chose to live my own life in another place. Also I already save him from a crisis as when I met him even tough he swear me that he had a beautiful life full of beautiful sisters and brothers and extraordinary experiences in his organization, his sexual life was 0 and he was alone even with all those sittings and satsangs !!! And I don’t need to tell you that his sexual performance was horrible and null as a partner! We needed a great job and patience from my side to have better couple life! And I think ( as Terrine said in one of the testimonies in French ) that it was the result of a depression as a man…. Now we have a little boy and I don’t touch the subject anymore but I think that it is not my mission to save him again and again, specially as when he returned from Dubai mentioning about something terrible that will happen in the world (crisis, disasters etc ) and the need to invest his time and himself more and more in his mission at SRCM !!! (do you have an idea about this urgency ?? )

I don’t find logical the idea to make a man a GOD as they make with Chari and I think there is nothing more important than a happy family and to practice love in our own people instead of saving other people’s life!!! I am ready to fight to my family and my love.

I felt a little bit confuse and ignorant when I read all this blogs !!! but I am sure of the magnitude of my love to GOD and to my family without making myself many reflections ( maybe I am so lazy !!! ). I hope this kind of ‘’ simple and quotidian ‘’ inquietudes are not decreasing the level of your discussions !!!

Thank you again

She-wolf

Michael said...

She-Wolf

From the sounds of it, you are doing what you can and making the decisions only you can make about your marriage and family. Again, my heart goes out to you and your family and I will pray that you all find balance in your lives.

Its sad that the Mission is now pushing the urgency of impending world Crisis to extract even more effort from it's disciples.

Major world crisis is always inevitable. Its not a matter of if, but when. Humans are less sensitive to this than animals, but still we all can sense when an imbalance occurs in our world and know intiutively that a violent reaction occurs as a result of extreme imbalance.

Spiritual practice of meditation and silent prayer enhances sensitivity to imbalance. Spiritual cults exploit the fear of crisis to gain more control and power over the disciples.

Sadly, God Realization appears to be completely eliminated as a goal in SRCM and is now instead the reward for working towards the new Mission Goal of growth in numbers and property. I witnessed the beginning of this shift in my early days as a Preceptor. I am working on an article on this early history and hope to publish it soon.

Descriptions such as yours and others convinces me that the shift is complete. Abhyasis are now expected to sacrifice their personal lives, careers, family, to grow the Mission, and believe that they will be rewarded with God Realization as a result. This creates an imbalance in and of itself which will create an equal and opposite reaction at some point in time. This is how nature works, there is no cheating this fact.

The training has become backwards in the truest sense of Vedic, Christian and Sufi mysticism as I have studied it. The spiritual Work, that Chari is demanding from his disciples must come from God Realized individuals. It is not a result of doing the work. God Realization comes from living the life that God puts before you. If God puts a world crisis before you, then that is your path to God Realization!

I am sad to say that so many have gotten lost in this twisting of what was once a pure spiritual message. In the early days there were few books. The principles were simple and did not require much discussion or the constant re-interpretation and massive publication efforts to make them known. The new message creates confusion through re-interpretation, and an overwhelming volume of writings in order to conceal the simple principles. These simple principles are like the sound of the wind on a vast grassy plain. Any other noise will conceal the sound.

If it helps to settle your confusion, the simple message is as follows:

"God exists in all of us. The Mind cannot comprehend this, but the heart can. A pure spiritual practice involves learning to listen to ones heart. Only then will you see the presence of God in everything."

Beyond that, God gives us what we need to grow. We need not attempt to create artificial enviromnents for spiritual growth as what is now happening in SRCM. These environments are only a base of power to be exploited by the few who control the many.

I hope that your family is healed an you find true happiness and peace.


Michael

Christian said...

Hi She-wolf, Hi All,

This emergency you are talking about is one more guru trick used by Chari to maintain power over people.

This is nothing but true terrorism.

He is instiling fear in the mind of people, to make them convinced more easily.

The danger does not exist (or to be more correct, the danger is always there: life is dangerous), but he makes it so diffuse that the menace becomes real in our mind.

Look at it:
1/ a major crisis
2/ soon to come
3/ something terrible

If he knows what it is (and as the divine incarnation, I hope he does), why doesn't he say what it is ? It could be more helpful. But he doesn't know, that's why he is vague.

And for such an anouncement to produce the desired impact (terror), it has to be vague. Otherwise, people can isolate the source of the problem and work on it or work on protecting themselves from it.

Now, because we don't know what it is and when it will come, we are powerless, just waiting for it to be. But, we do have the divine incarnation to protect ourselves, so this puts us in a positive mood towards him, he can do everything, he will protect us if he is happy with our work. Therefore, you can see which goal this terror is intended for.

As far as I can remember, I have always heard about major crisis to come in the SRCM discourse. Some were dated, but of course, never happened.

And do you know why ?

Because, thanks to Chari's spiritual work, the course of history was changed.

Unverifiable.

There is no need to be a guru to say that humanity has developped in such a way that a cataclism is unavoidable. Nature has its laws, which cannot be cancelled.

When a population grows too far, it is reduced to a more reasonable size by natural agents, and if natural agents can't succeed in that, the environment modifications that the population creates contain a further growth or reduce the population.

Humanity could develop during the last century because of science and technics, but future war for resources can be a scenario as reasonable as pandemia.

However, there is probably no emergency. My guess is that europe will fall in so important civil problems that europeans will be overwhelmed in their own countries. There will be no savior Chari when it occurs, the same irresponsible man who said in a message adressed to French abhyasis that we must not be affraid of imigration, that we must open our heart and share our wealth...

So, what will he invent now to maintain control through fear ?

When love is not enough...

Christian

4d-Don said...

Hi all...

When spirituality becomes religion, it's the apocalyptic writings and teachings that define it. Christ's Christianity was "go inside", "find God in your heart" and "do not fear...as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death" etc...

Now with Sahaj Marg, it's almost like reading and living "Revelations" in the Bible. It can and will be interpreted for any age that the "leaders" want so as to "yank the chain" of the serfs and suck another million dollar or so...

As P.T. Barnum says, there is one (sucker) born every minute. Some religions could be defined as the harvesters of the crop of gullible and naive masses. And then there are some individuals inside religions who take care of the needy in their hard times and attempt to dispell fear. If we could get all religions to do social work and get out of the "fear" manufacturing business, we could create a better (less frightened) world.

Information will set the masses free. This is probably the first time in our recorded history that we as the "masses" have the ability (internet) to defend against our abusers who would frighten us with their "revelations". And we won't do it through intellect but through saturation. At some point, after we hear so many apocalyptic prophesies, we just blanket them out and live our lives to the fullest in the time we have at our disposal. Time is just an illusion (a measuring tape) anyway. We have all the time and no time at our disposal. One second in joy and bliss is one second saved. One second in fear (via Chari and his ilk) is one second in hell....The choice is ours...

Keep on the Sunny Side of Life...

Choice...
We can face the Source (the Divine) and see the Shady side of Material life or we can turn our back to the Source and see the Sunny Side of Life....Until we see as Picasso and the cubists ie: in 4d ....
;-))....Reality has n...dimensions and consciousness is our mode of tranportation or our vehicle.

We are all the braves and the heroes
We feel fear and we control it, we do not eliminate it.

4d-Don

Anonymous said...

I really like last comment from Don .... Information will set the masses free now I am feeling better and more sure about the need to know in deep my problem (among others SRCM ) I have found in one of Chari's speeches the following:

A talk given by Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari on 16th February, 2004 at the Inauguration of the Mysore ashram, Karnataka, INDIA:

…….”We have to have more Open Houses, become more energetic in inviting people to start Sahaj Marg, talk about it to friends, to relatives, because I know many houses where the father is the abhyasi, not the wife, not children, and for twenty years they don't change. If a man cannot influence his own wife to start Sahaj Marg, who else is he going to influence? I know wives are very difficult to manage, but that is female nature, you see, and we are here to change nature by starting with our own family first.”
“If you drop a stone in a pond and the ripple stops there, what will you think? There is something wrong, no? You know what I mean by ripples? Where the stone falls, there the ripple must start. Our people, whether they are men or women, in grihasthashrama [family life], they don't take their job seriously. "No, no, Sir, my wife is not interested." Or, if the wife is an abhyasi, she says, "My husband will not come." So you see, you must take your responsibility as abhyasis, first for your own development, next for the development of your family, and it must spread like that through the world. Ashrams are only physical structures for helping you to do all this. If that aim is not achieved, this ashram is useless. It will become like so many things on the roadside - useless mathas [monasteries], useless temples, where only bats and owls live”. ........

Honestly, only looking at this manipulation we can explain they are still thinking they accomplish what they promote in their brochures ….
“Where to find a Guru? Where to find a system? There are so many. Well, let your intuition guide you. As Babuji Maharaj has said, it is simple. A sincere prayer will bring the guru to your door. If you have one goal, it is easy to find guidance” …Chari

According to that I don’t need my husband or anyone else teach me or influence me !!!

Christian said...

Incredible that he says such things. While aging, he must have become insane.

So, if you want to evolve, you must take your wife or husband to practice Sahaj Marg, even your friends, otherwise...

It is a schame, really, to read that from a "spiritual master". He has completely lost the way, even for himself.

The SRCM has therefore an open proselyte policy, which was denied for years. But now that the master has said so, who would dare to continue denying the fact...

Christian

Kate Arrowsmith said...

Great testimony on the right use of power and the importance of balance. Best regards.

Anonymous said...

Hi Michael,

Myself: S M Saxena (India)
Age: 25yrs

Its good that you shared your experience. I wish you all the best in your journey.
No body can claim as being the successor of his master. The moment you think you will be his successor you have started on the opposite path. Guru never die.... they are always present in hearts of the disciple.. You will find millions like Chari in this world...

My only concern is that name of Param Pujya Lalaji Maharaj's name is linked to persons like Chari etc.

Well I would like to share an informaton with you:

Babuji came in contact with beloved Lalaji Maharaj through his great disciple Param Pujya Madan Mohan Lal. He took advantage of Param Pujya Jagmohan Narainji's(son of P.P. Lalaji Maharaj) 1941's and started his own mission. P P Lalaji Maharaj was opposed to creation of oganization etc for Satsang. Spritual enlightment only needs pure hearts which keep their focus on the almighty (nothing more or less). The Babujis circle tried to break away disciple form the real persons who were following the path prescribed my P P Lalaji maharaj.

I am not disclosing any further details cause in Naqshbandiya silsila - Everything is silent. There is no need to do advertize anything. Those who are destined will get it. And those who dont then they have some blessings that formers dont have.


Anyways thanks,
Your blog has cleared many doubts that I had in my mind about SCRM