Ex-Sahaj Marg(tm) Preceptor, Françoise, Says...

Translation of a comment left by Françoise: "Francoise a dit",  on Alexis's blog and posted on Élodie's blog in Europe: Pour Que Vive Le Sahaj Marg

Françoise said ...

Comment posted on the blog of Alexis:

 

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Sahaj Marg and its essential components":

(I choose the name: "Anonymous" because I do not use social networks, but my name is Françoise)

I have personally been involved in the SRCM for a decade, until 2003. I practiced, I went 3 times to the main ashram in India, I met the "master", and  I was a preceptor for about 4 years. I finally gave up my practice and my preceptorship because the daily discipline of practice did not suit me anymore.  I needed to be more lazy and more informal in my meditation rhythm. That being said, I can not thank Sahaj Marg enough for having crossed my path. This is an approach that has taught me to face myself with confidence and rather than attract me to a utopia, it taught me more than ever to include a certain spiritual aspiration with real life.

So yes, there are in some (not required) devotion and surrender to the physical master but this is especially cultural. In India, even a student of a tabla (drum)  teacher calls his teacher a guru and he is infinitely dedicated. It is true that some Westerners take the path of this devotion, but Christ was a human being (magnificent -it seems, but a human being nonetheless) in which Christians see God. If this is not a spiritual guru, then what! And then, in Catholicism, even the priests are said to be invested with some divine powers, right? Especially when they perform the sacraments. And the sermon is the word of the priest that all the faithful are supposed to swallow ... In Sahaj Marg, I have  learned more to listen to myself, than I had in my Christian education.  The master to whom I have learned to listen to more, in Sahaj Marg, is the interior master in all of us ...

So yes, I happened to come across abyasis (meditators) who were (pseudo?, sarcasm?) "illuminated", others placing in all their sentences: "The master said that ...", but I saw the same thing in the Christian camps when I was young. I particularly remember a totally crazy nun.

In short, the SRCM never extorted money nor sought to get me away from my community or my work (to the contrary... ), nor sought to put me under the mental influence of someone or sought to prevent me from renouncing Sajaj Marg when I left, I do not quite understand why some people absolutely want to see sectarian aberrations.

 

 Aberrations are due to some people, I do not know of any,  but there must be some, it is still (after all)  a movement of some international scale, so it is inevitable and it is necessary that the affected families be very careful, but such abuses are unfortunately the lot of all spiritual movements, right? Catholics, Muslims and Jews have their excesses also some very serious (pedophilia, terrorism ...) This does not mean that they are treated as sects. (cults?)  Bizzarely, and  moreover, the excesses of the great religions, they are called by various ways, but rarely "sectarian" (cultish?) ...

Françoise

Initial reactions:

4d-Don said....

Hi Francoise...

What about  SPIRITUALISM you sold as "spirituality" at Sahaj Marg(tm)?  

What about the yearly spiritualist books of "500-600 messages (Whispers?) from the dead Babuji" as channeled by the "Anonymous French Lady Medium", sold as "The Bible of Sahaj Marg"??   Now, using the "new and natural" Easy Path,  is The Brighter World (or the Central Region) still as "un-attainable" as Babuji used to preach when he was living, or is it now: EASY to reach??

Did you, as a preceptor,  not buy the "Whispers" at the exhorbitant (extortion?)  price they asked?  Or did you simply try and sell it to those they call the: "serfs" (what you call the "abhyasis")?   

Did you not buy the food at their "restaurants" (and did you refuse to participate in the "scam",  that the cost of your meals were called: "donations", allegedly written on the back of your food receipts ... so that SRCM would  avoid the various local sale taxes??) ... Did you use the  mission's "travel agents", rentals, etc...?  

And, as a preceptor, did you not try and sell the "iconography", the books, the photos, etc ...  and the products, which your "religion" was pushing on the "marks", with the preceptors (priests?)  as the salesmen and the promoters (proselytizers)?  Did you collect any of the membership dues?

Did you not proselytize and try to promote their "easy path" (what you now find "not so easy") meditation to your friends and family??  Were you made the "con" (from "confidence")  who was trying to "convert" his/her acquaintances?

Religions are one example of "extortion", but of the "volunteers" and the "pseudo-illuminated"  who really, really want to be "extorted" ...  To be TAKEN and then to be "saved" of course!!

Who is "responsible" at Sahaj Marg?  At SRCM(California-1997)?  The Master or the disciples??   

 

Alexis said ...

@ Francoise,

Sectarianism is not only the prerogative of Sahaj Marg and the spiritual movements, as you say. Religions also have their own excesses. Yes of course, of course! I would even add that they are not alone: some political parties and other movements show a certain sectarian bent ...

 

If you are waiting for a confirmation from me, you have it ... and very much so! But these abuses are pointed to by many others in various media. I will not go into details,  here is not the place ...

 

All the great spiritual movements have sectarian aberrations. SRCM and Sahaj Marg are no longer on safe ground. Growing (in size and age), Sahaj Marg borrows all the codes (rites, rituals)  of religion, all these codes which are loudly denounced, including their aberrations.

 

But why then is Chari so critical vis-à-vis religions and why does he never criticise himself or his movement?
 

To denounce others and to not challenge one's self is a little too easy ...

Alexis 

 

Elodie said ...

Hello Francoise,

Babuji and the  SRCM & Sahaj Marg claim to be the only spiritual path that achieves the goal without giving up one's social and family life (grihastha), as opposed to sannyasins who withdraw from the world.
 

Start by recognizing that you could not keep pace with the practices imposed by Chari, this is further evidence that there is misrepresentation of the product, not to call them: lies.

 

You also confirm that there are among the Abhyasis of "illumitated", people who swear only by the master ("Chariji said ...") in some, it is "devotion and surrender to the physical master."

 

Explaining these behaviors only by cultural differences West / East seems to be an easy shortcut. SRCM constantly uses this argument without trying to solve the underlying problem. It's too easy, especially as Chari is fluent with Western culture.  At the time of Babuji, Chari was considered a Westerner among the  senior preceptors,  among his countrymen.

 

"The sermon is the word of the priest that all the faithful are supposed to swallow," you say; but the speech of Chari and the Whispers of  Babuji are still better gobbled / ingested / absorbed by all Abhyasis.   Overall, Christians seem to show more clairvoyance when meeting with their priests or  the Pope, than the Abhyasis when they meet their Gurus.

 

Affectionately,

Elodie

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