Adoration or Adulation? Is The SRCM Feminine?

Taken and translated (by author of this blog) from Elodie's Blog (France) : Pour Que Vive le Sahaj Marg from an article by Alexis called: "Adoration and Sycophancy".

Adoration and sycophancy

Is the Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM) masculine or feminine?

It is often said that there are many women in SRCM, what is the true reality?

If one is limited to men and women preceptors, the answer varies from one place to another. On the one hand we have India (three quarters - 75%) are men, Africa (two thirds - 66%) and USA (58%) all very male, on the opposite hand in Europe (64% are women) with France leading (70%), the British Isles and Canada (two thirds - 66%), then Germany and Switzerland (64%), Denmark painfully reaching less than 57%. Oceania, Latin America and Asia outside of India are in the middle with a slight preponderance of women (53 to 54%).

Checking out (verifying) a sample of more than 500 abhyasis from different European centers, this trend of feminization is confirmed and is accentuated, the proportion of women abhyasis increases by more than 5% compared to that observed in preceptors.

Sociologically, the population of Sahaj Marg is clearly divided in two. On the one hand, a world still very patriarchal in India and Africa and a high proportion of Indians among preceptors in the U.S.; on the other hand a Western world largely dominated by middle-aged women. Male Indian preceptors versus female European preceptors, two worlds that have nothing to do with one another, except for Sahaj Marg. One assumption, the root causes for their commitment to Chari differ completely from one place to another. The divorce between India and the West is blatant!

India is evolving from traditional to modernity, just like Chari. And like their guru, the Indian preceptors are attracted by the fires of power and money. To be near Chari is to integrate a network of well-placed contacts, of political and financial circles hitherto inaccessible, in the hope of personal benefit from the providential spillover (or "trickle down").

In contrast, our dear western female preceptors are a bit lost in the egocentric quest for a very self-centered emotional balance. Their profile is not that of the householder under 50 compiled by the publicists, but rather that of a woman in mid-life crisis, painted in broad strokes by a psychiatrist (social worker, alternative therapy, etc..) preceptor who has already been there (in SRCM) for more than 10 years. On reading of their exchanges with Chari, one can only confirm this alarming tendency. Family distress, emotional and social turmoil turns into a saintly and boundless adoration for their guru. Chari serves them as their psychological crutch, where all else has failed, including our western psychotherapists. The balance is precarious but the relationship is even stronger, ravaging and devastating. "Unique" and exclusive!

(SRCM) France therefore has more than 75% women abhyasis, 70% women preceptors and a vice president, who is a foreign woman. Above that is also a male "zonal-in-charge" (ZIC) and a male regional administrator. The more one climbs up the hierarchy, the more SRCM becomes male. Overall, the rate of women "center-in-charge" (including the National Vice President) already falls to 50%, the regional administrators are almost all men, the Committee chairs are 100% male and the President himself is a man, knowing that he has clearly announced that the Master could never be a woman.

Legions of women "at attention", slaves of a Mission, a President and his few male lieutenants. Hordes of women enamored of a charismatic guru. This looks just like, and justly so, the portrait of hysterical groupies and their favourite "teenage boys band" ...

Two worlds, yes. But in all cases, it is very far from a spirituality that elevates to a higher level of evolution. In all cases, it maintains an exclusive relationship, but towards an unhealthy, very individualistic and self-centered goal. A worship (adoration) and/or a sycophancy (adulation) behaviour that have a limited future. Limited to the life of a providential "Man". Provider of material for some, a great universal psychotherapist for others, the charismatic leader (Chari) has seized the opportunities offered freely in our everyday leisure (laissez-faire).

This is the story of an effective but ephemeral symbiosis. Adoration and sycophancy(adulation) on the part of abhyasis, some seeking power and money from a compulsive upstart!

A terribly ordinary image of our modern world ...