Standardizing Sahaj Marg and Radicalizing SRCM

Translation of an article by Élodie: "Standardisation du Sahaj Marg et Radicalisation de la SRCM", on her blog in Europe: Pour Que Vive Le Sahaj Marg.


March 12, 2014 

Standardizing Sahaj Marg and Radicalizing SRCM

To reach the Westerners tempted by meditation, the Mission trivializes the content of its own teachings in order to attract the greatest number without discouraging anyone. This is what Alexis described in detail in his previous message on Meetup (social network) and the new internet portal of SRCM. 

If this approach is new in that it uses new vectors of transmission (internet and social networks), it's been a while since we started condemning the impoverishment of Sahaj Marg in its most essential content.

Dr. K.C. Varadachari was already expressing his concerns to Babuji in 1970 about the liberties taken by preceptors vis-à-vis the teaching. Upon his arrival, Chari has staked everything on the quantity - proselytizing - to the detriment of quality. Imagine what it would give with more than 3,000 preceptors today, when there were fewer than a hundred then.

Result: the spiritual evolution promised by Sahaj Marg, this unique method for the world, is no longer the rendezvous for most Abhyasis.  Only a select few receive the attention of the Master and the "benefits" of his spiritual teaching.

For all others, the common person, the so-called spiritual effects are reduced to a trickle: the benefits of regular meditation (well-being and stress management) and the feeling of belonging to a group (the whole is more than the sum of its parts), which they take as the exceptional side of Sahaj Marg, a so-called "unique and unforgettable spiritual experience".

Globalization has stretched the traditional link between religions and their home of origin, stated Olivier Roy. The religious market is globalized and the religious products no longer have borders. He also announced at the time the standardization of religions, de-cultured and de-territorialized.

This CNRS researcher stated: "But for a product [religious] to be accessible everywhere and by the greatest number, it must be standardized. If it is too identified with a particular culture, it will not sell outside this culture. Hence the phenomenon of de-culturization." (See Article Alexis September 2009, quoting an interview with Olivier Roy in Le Monde 21/12/2008).

Replacing religion with spirituality, the situation is identical; then replace them with Sahaj Marg and see once again that nothing changes. The evolution of Sahaj Marg and SRCM is a perfect example of what Olivier Roy described.

In his mad rush towards the West and its New Age public, Chari emptied Sahaj Marg of all its original contents. The Indian philosophical and spiritual system designed by Babuji, but transposed by Chari on every continent, suffered in its globalization. It has been standardized to suit everyone. In short, de-territorialized and de-cultured.

The teaching provided by the Mission, and by Chari and his preceptors, today resembles nothing more than a common method of personal development, a common tool for managing stress in the case of well-being through one meditation technique among others. But this is what people are looking for today, be they Western New Agers or Indians from the rising classes, uprooted and de-cultured.

The meditation technique practiced today at SRCM offers nothing better than the others. And as Alexis said, "the global plethora of meditation techniques is bloated while the global market share of meditation techniques is not infinitely expandable."

How to seduce and attract new followers in these conditions?  Especially since, unlike many other meditation groups, the Mission imposes its own significant constraints: a Guru Master, discipline, obedience to the Master and service to the Mission, for example. It is not free access to Sahaj Marg which can solely offset the difference and counterbalance these additional constraints.

Chari and his experts in communication and marketing have found a simple solution: sell their technique, coated in an upscale New Age philosophy. In the absence of significant and immediate results, it is necessary to produce the myth, enrich the imagination of the followers, offer an ideal for the future. In short, offer a vision of the world, that is to say, create a religion with its own Apocalypse and its future, Paradise and/or Hell.

Inspired by the New Age themes, they were able to develop this wonderous religious myth. A psychic chats daily with Babuji, the Special Personality in a Brighter World (the famous Central Region which allegedly, only two or three of the disciples will reach). This special personality promises first the Apocalypse and all its avatars. But she also promises an egregore, a future elite to regenerate mankind, an elite already in training at their Omega school.  How to blow hot and cold at the same time!

The Mission has thus arrive at a falsely paradox situation: to the spiritual needs of its members it brings no more than a simple meditation technique, but it develops a rich collective myth around which everyone raves about. This is not the method of Sahaj Marg which is extraordinary and unique, it is the myth conveyed today by the SRCM which seduces and unites the disciples. The small restrained group to which they belong becomes the new holy grail of Sahaj Marg.

Impoverishment of the method, and enrichment of myth. The shell is empty, but the more it is empty, the more they dress it in pretty attire, supposed to seduce the followers. Still, one needs to know how to seduce them without scaring them off. The myth is rich but dangerously sectarian, hence the importance of gradually spreading it in small doses, not to scare away the newcomers. This is where the group can acquire its weight: it must be sufficiently attractive and reserved for an elite, for the sense of belonging to be stronger than all the centrifugal effects that could be caused by the SRCM and Chari.

Those who succumb to the poisonous charm can not be seduced by the virtual absence of spiritual evolution related to meditation. They succumb to the false belief of belonging to a small group of elite ahead of its time (the ecstatic, unforgettable and incomparable experience of the group). So they do everything that the Guru calls from them: discipline, obedience and service.

Élodie