Godmen Fake Gurus?

 In the very beginning when I started blogging I was looking for shortcuts and solutions to the problems of life. There was a tendency to look for and find men of wisdom and see weather following a few of them would give solutions to life. So one of my first blogs was on the topic of Guru. https://vhjokhi.blogspot.com/2005/02/guru.html  

We find that there were so many such Gurus who could preach with mesmeric skill and excellent oratory powers sway millions of human beings into actions and literally blind faith in the spoken word. Many such persons have touched my life and the gullible trusting me was willing to give them a long rope, but invariably I found that they hung themselves. 

The usual ways in which I found them was word of mouth especially of friends who were educated, men or women with a scientific temper, so called radical intelligentsia. While I have revered and accepted a few relatively good persons who are almost infallible and hard to not accept, these are non living persons who are Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi. If were to look further back the Shankaracharya and Lord Buddha would perhaps fit the criteria of  relatively flawless Guru personalities in my eyes. It s quite possible that they were not entirely revered in their lifetimes or people still find flaws in them, but for better or worse I can relate to them. 

As a country the respect given to teachers has been given in India and great civilizations and philosophical teachings and principles have been established over centuries. However, modern India has neglected education and teachers. Still, I think today's topic is not about these kind of teachers but about Godmen and Spiritual teachers. As a teenager and in the later decades of life, I have been disillusioned and surprised at how gullible many of us have been at different times in our life. Today without any number or pattern I will name some and without ridiculing or disrespecting those who believe in them I will say the reason why I either could not make them my gurus nor did I measure up to the standards they set for me as Gurus. 

On the normal parameters what are the qualities of a Guru. If a Guru is to lead one from darkness to light he has to be a repository of wisdom maybe something on the lines of the description of sthitapragnya described in Chapter 2 last 19 verses of Gita from verse 54 to 72 describes such a person. If Krishna thought that such a person was an ideal worth striving for then it was indeed for me a surprise that most Gurus or Godmen were excellent orators but were found wanting on more than one count. Because many of the followers of Gurus do not like their gurus to be exposed. 

While the extreme cases usually have been sexual molesters and are now well exposed as frauds and are already disgraced in this blog I allude to the ones who have been less controversial and have had quite a lot of wise preachings coming from them but when I started to feel that I had found true Gurus their  true colours were exposed and I could not make them my Gurus. 

BKS Iyengar a great proponent and teacher of Hathayoga with a seminal work and excellent books on the subject, he seemed too dogmatic and at least seemed to appear a bit arrogant. There was anger and he did not seem gentle. I maybe wrong as I didn't really know him. Also, some of his followers and disciples too seemed to have similar qualities and in this manner I was unable to relate to him well enough. 

Then there is the curious case Pandurang Shastri Athavle and his Swadhyaya Parivaar. He made study of the Gita and teaching itself an act of virtue. His emphasis on Self study and Self reflection leading to establishment of temples of trees and living in harmony with nature. It was attractive because it shunned donation in money but wanted volunteers to teach the Gita. Yogeshwar Krishi collective farming etc attracted me but I remember awards recognition money and a kind of succession battle tainted this movement and it has fizzled out. 

Satya Sai baba of Puttaparthi has many rational devotees and his cardiac hospital has saved many lives in this country, but his vibhuti tricks and production of objects from thin air have always left me cold and there are many who have exposed him. In his defence the faithful say that he has been benefitting society so it is ok to turn a blind eye to his faults. 

Swami Ramdev and his crony Balkrishna in the name of teaching Yoga and touting it as a panacea for everything created a business empire on the basis of publicity and fraudulent claims of cures which amounted to misleading people or to put the record straight lies. Such persons could never be gurus. 

While there is nothing concrete against Sri Sri Ravishankar and Sudarshan Kriya, Sadhguru of Isha Foundation and his Inner Engineering program nor Brahmakumaris. I have not for reasons unknown felt comfortable with their views as they seem dogmatic about the prescription and rigid which puts me off. Commercialization make these business empires especially created by the followers of their teachings which become a cult.  

Vedanta Academy and its teacher Swami Parthasarthy seems to be very good, but the cost of his courses and his books are making his teaching an exclusive preserve of the wealthy and his insistence on making statements like nobody teaches people to use intellect again makes me feel that there is a lurking ego claiming a superiority which has a essential taste of arrogance.

So I draw a simple conclusion that based on the following three maxims 

• Perfection is the enemy of progress. 
• There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.
• Live life as though you were to die tomorrow and learn in life as though you are to live forever. 

So I stop searching for the perfect Guru and realize I can learn from everybody especially the most low and humble folk. My daughter Delna young adult with Down's Syndrome teaches me patience and unconditional love and forgiveness, My staff from simple humble backgrounds showing resilience ad will to fight. My teachers and mentors who taught me so much. Stories of our Parsi visionaries, leaders of our freedom struggle and the simple countrymen, our soldiers teachers all are giving me light and dispelling darkness. I see a guru in nature too which gives without any expectation. These more than anything prove that the first two statement are correct. The this leads to a journey of living with consciousness and a striving to realise the purpose of life. The quest to Self realization can never end until final liberation or Moksha.

Vispi Jokhi