Sunday, November 11, 2012

Sahaj Marg (tm) and Myths for a New Religion

Taken and translated from an article: "Des Mythes pour une Nouvelle Religion", by Élodie on her French blog in Europe: Pour Que Vive Le Sahaj Marg


November 7, 2012


Myths for a new religion



Sahaj Marg, the alleged "unique" and universal spiritual method modernized by Babuji, can work very effectively as long as the master remains in close contact with his disciple.
 
It's more complicated with preceptors, some are ill-intentioned, others are quite honest but not always competent. When a preceptor acts for his own personal ends, it becomes useless to hope for spiritual growth. When a preceptor is led by the teacher, all the benefits of the method are possible.   It would be fair that the disciple be able to choose his preceptor with as much care as he chooses his master.

The first disciples of Babuji, such as Kasturi or Varadachari received all the benefits of Sahaj Marg.  But his method has competely failed in its globalization, because of the preceptors.

With the exception of an elite which has the good fortune of being able to approach the Master, most abhyasis today stagnate spiritually. Chari has appointed so many perceptors, often without even knowing them, that  mal-intentioned or incompetent preceptors have become the majority.

Even though Chari is moved to act from time to time, he prefers to make the abhyasis responsible for their own condition, the wage of their non-progression in his eyes, rather than questionning the hierarchy he created. Still, let us remember the basic principle is that it is the master, and in a pinch, the preceptor, who is the principal architect of the spiritual progress of his pupil, as Lalaji and Babuji before him, clearly stated.  As Michael said, one can judge the quality of the Master by looking at his disciples.  Chari's adepts prove to us every day his mediocre spiritual worth.
 
Nobody is fooled, only a small elite who meets the master progresses spiritually. A savage struggle is established between the abhyasis so as to gain the attention of their Master.  Love for the master has  grown, the cult of the personality became established  and Chari gave the rules: Obey and Serve.
 
Alexis has already described the effect: an autocratic and totalitarian guru, the adepts have become groupies, fans of the star. The spiritual effects of Sahaj Marg have become so attenuated in contact with the preceptor caste and Chari, that they do not bring anything better than a vague conventional tool for personal development.  Chari's Sahaj Marg is only effective as a self-help or as a stress management technique.

If Sahaj Marg has become ineffective, how has Chari retained as many followers?
Why has the disciple of yesterday, who has become the adept of today remained in the Mission when he/she has lost almost any chance of seeing his/her spiritual quest become realized. Has he/she forgotten his/her original purpose?  Has he/she been brainwashed? And what else?
 
Undoubtedly, there a little of this and other things also, but mostly, Chari is a clever and dangerous manipulator. He has shown an ability to recycle the myths which act as vehicles for Sahaj Marg(tm) and to build from it a religion.
 
Three myths come immediately to mind, there may be others: the myth of the Central Region, the myth of the Special Personality and the myth of a grand plan that is beyond us.
 
Everyone knows that the purpose of Sahaj Marg is the divine fusion, the promise of a quick access to the Central Region or the luminous World (Brighter World). This undefined place, described by Babuji is erected as the holy grail, the ultimate goal to reach as soon as possible.
 
Long eclipsed by Chari so as to impose himself, Babuji has recently been resurrected by the "Whispers", as the timeless (eternal) master of the Mission, the Special Personality designated by the spiritual hierarchy of all the great saints of history.
 
Babuji put in place a spiritual method for all spiritual seekers, but he also evoked a collective grander design to achieve: to make the whole entire world fall into spirituality. Whispers is the last stone which was missing from the edifice. the formalization of these myths at the center of  a religious sect.

In the absence of individual spiritual progress, Chari's adept has a false impression of   participating in the largest collective and spiritual adventure of all time, to make  humanity fall into  another dimension.  The Grand Design is there, and for that, he/she have the reinforcement of the "Special Personality" who is now established in the World of Light, in the midst of the great saints of all times.
 
Every day in Whispers, Babuji is apt to reveal to ordinary mortals, some of the mysteries of this inaccessible and incomprehensible path, of which we can not understand all the ins and outs, but we are the linchpin.

All the necessary ingredients for the emergence of a new religion are in place: a dogma, some sacred texts, Heroes with the qualities of saints, a strong belief system which overcomes a feeling of threat and the need for protection, some certainties, some simple principles and some immutable truths.
 
A Recent human fabrication, Chari's Sahaj Marg now offers a total vision, a "unique" model, a worldview where each problem finds its solution. It guarantees the abhyasis  that they will emerge victorious of the turmoil, as long as they identify with the ideal that transcends them, and to comply with the requirements laid down.
 
I am here paraphrasing Serge Moscovici, a specialist in social psychology, in "The Age of Crowds", cited by Alexis. Here is a direct quote to conclude: "Religions are the work of the "sons", of the successors of the founding fathers (...). They exonerate and at the same time legitimize them, by concealing their crime to the point  that nobody sees in them, their authors."
 
Babuji was a remarkable spiritual personality, but he certainly is not THE Special Personality, if it can be that one can exist one day.  Access to a Central Region is not an end in itself, it is the journey and spiritual quest that matter.  As for the mysterious Grand Design, it is an mystification without name which cements the abhyasis around their chief and allows all kinds of abuse. We do not know what it is, we can not even imagine, but we are asked to adhere blindly.

With Whispers, Sahaj Marg(tm) has achieved its transformation into a dangerous religious sect, empty of all spiritual content.

Elodie

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