I remember bringing a newbie, a good friend, to a summer program in Fallsburg in the late 1990's and after Gurumayi's talk he said: "Yes, but everything she said is just feel good common sense." I smiled thinking, ah you poor thing, what you don't understand is that the Guru's Shakti is behind those common words and humble phrases and new-agey ideas and THAT is what will give you the power to actually attain what others only dream about doing.
Oh, Lord.
25 comments:
Hi! Thanks for that little post, without which I would not have known the holy message that issued forth this year.
With kind encouragement from one of you, I've decided to remain a "non-anon"... ie Janny.... Must admit that part of the reason is that I don't want to be mistaken for any other "anonymous", now that I already identified myself. Guess I have a rather big ego lol.
But my point is this: This is no exaggeration folks, but only last night I finally figured out what is my 2013 New Year's message to myself, and guess what, it actually rhymes....and I notice, so does the Guru's!!
Mine goes: "ALLEVIATE
ABBREVIATE
DON'T DEVIATE"
I feel somehow so....attuned, in touch with the zeitgeist. Don't mean to brag.
Ofcourse this is just my little ol' message to myself; However, if it means anything to any anon else, please feel free to absorb it into your life. By popular demand I would consider submitting a detailed explanation, but really isn't it like totally self-explanatory?
No?
Oh well....
talk soon. xx
A sy yogi I know does spiritual faux raps on facebook. When I read gm's rhyme I was thought : is that xxx? LOL!
Janny ha!
**************
Never did following the guru's words lead to peace. Always more turbulence. Thought that was how it was. Kundalini Stavaha says the goddess will destroy all illusions, wreck your plans. So now guru leads to peace and light? Never happened. Never. Ask anyone in Siddha Yoga always more and more piled on til you crack. Where are they digging up this peaceful result? Complete revision. The Siddha Yoga being pushed now is not the same teachings from decades before. Some kind of simple minded pablum no one would object to or be inspired by. Believing in Gurumayi's shakti is about as useful as believing in the Easter bunny. But not as much fun.
This new ‘poem’ is a new low! Here is one from another time by GM. (I think about 1996) I do remember a time of more challenging material, and more inspiring ideas. I can only conclude that the ghost writers have changed over time. Anyway, why delve into the messy intellectual when sloppy, simplistic ideas sell just as many malas, tee shirts and coffee mugs!
The power of the Infinite Consciousness,
Which is in constant motion
That alone is the reality of all events,
For it penetrates all the epochs of time.
From a devotee's share on SY website:
"I decided do a mind map on the words of Gurumayi’s poem by looking them up in the dictionary and thesaurus. What a world opened up! Each line of the poem expands out into beautiful virtues to live by, and by following them each day I will be living in God's sphere!"
Once again, Gurumayi and SYDA release a "message" that contains no meaning at all, just a jumble of rhyming words. Be crystal clear about what exactly--- the teachings, your commitment to the path, or your frustration at being asked to donate monthly for the upkeep of a local center that only 8 people still go to? Persevere in doing what, mantra japa or finding better uses of your time than following a moribund path? Be sincere about what...your love for the Guru, seeing God in everyone, or wishing that you could be invited to one of those So. Falls celebrations with Gurumayi instead of only leanring about them after they happen and getting the "divine" opportunity to watch them on video?
This poem can mean anything to anyone, and that is the point. The path is on auto-pilot, the Guru only communicates in sweeping statements that require the devotees to fill in the blanks. Judging from above, some of the ones who need more direction are reduced to looking up words they already know in the dictionary in search of hidden meanings and associations.
Reading that "poem" is downright embarrassing. It's almost as if she is thumbing her nose at those who would take it seriously.
Hmmm, wouldn't that be in character, though? Give them a dry bone and see how they grovel, chewing it and chewing it and tasting only their own blood, just like the old teaching story.
OBW
Let nothing trouble you.
Let nothing frighten you.
All is fleeting.
God alone is unchanging.
Patience
Everything obtains.
Who possesses God
Wants for nothing.
God alone suffices.
--st teresa de jesus
Ye gads! That's the worst bit of poetry I've ever read! It's cringe worthy, absolute drivel. It's really embarrassing.
Me again - 3:28 PM. Just to clarify, I do mean GM's "poem", not the moving piece above my post from St Teresa. Thank you for posting that SeekHer.
.">> It's almost as if she is thumbing her nose at those who would take it seriously. "<<
Dear OBW,
That was my first response...The sense of her message is "just how stupid can I make this; how much can I talk down to, exclude, insult and degrade these people before they realize what I'm doing and leave me alone"! On the other hand, gurumayi is focusing on children so perhaps one of them wrote this message and that will be the "surprise"?? Don't you remember writing this kind of thing when you went through that "romantic poetry" phase at around the age of six? I do..lots of "poems" about clouds and GOD and horses and cats...and everything had to rhyme at the end. I hope it was one of the kids; that would be kind of sweet..smile.
OS
Way to phone it in Chidvilas!
Didn't strike me so much as a phone as it did something written last minute on a post-it while sitting on the toilet before heading out the door to go run an errand.
Nice card. If she had a good translator, it would actually read:
"Hey suckers! Here's your dimwitted holiday greetings. Love to laugh my ass off reading your pathetic snivelling comments about how great the card is. The card sucks, morons! Merry Christmas Ha Ha Ha."
did you know one of the definitions of perserverence is "to plod on and die in harness"
Ode to 2013 (world still here, I guess):
Be clear as a mudflat,
be translucent as a wombat,
have a care for the racing snarks,
beware of the hungry sharks.
take a trip to Idaho,
dance with the Great Potato ...have no fear..
god dwells here..in this sphere.. in the atmosphere.. See your Self in a glass of beer...if you are Sincere...My Dear.
Anon.said,"The card sucks, morons! Merry Christmas Ha Ha Ha."
well, yeah, Anon. BUT...does the card actually SUCK MORONS? if it does, than what an act of "guru's grace"!
OS
@1:30 Martin Luther wrote his 99 Theses in the latrine. A place of inspiration for many!
We were held spell bound during talks. We laughed, we cried, we kissed our money goodbye. It is incredible that what is dished up now is just an aggregation of simple minded bon bons. We would never have stayed. I don't understand it either. Where is the Muktabhoda crowd? The dumbing down is plain embarrassing.
Is anyone here enough of an "old-timer" to remember Muk's talks? How different they were. Whatever the true goings on behind the curtains, his public talks were pithy, insightful and often funny. I think he would have cringed at this drivel.
"I think he would have cringed at this drivel" - what drivel are you referring to, do you mean GM's latest New Year's message, or what's on this website? Hope it's not the latter lol....
Anyway, from this old-timer:
I attended most of Baba M's talks in Sydney Australia in 1974. I still have a big (A4 sized) book titled simply "Sadgurunath Maharaj Ki Jay", full of colour photos and many talks that he gave in Australia that year. (By the way, it might fetch a pretty good price on EBay these days, but I'd prefer to keep it for posterity!)
I would agree that Baba M's talks were special - sort of a mixture of quirky and classical. He gave these talks in very diverse public locations, too, like cathedrals, church halls, high-schools, old jail cells, university halls etc, with a diversity of hosts such as the Theosophical society, yoga teachers, the Quakers, Guru Maharaj Ji followers, Ananda Margas, various church heads and even a bunch of school-boys. The talks were infused with his quite unusual personality, wisdom and sense of humour. In many photos, Baba looked alot like some sort of jazz musician, someone very unconventional indeed.
Bear in mind that his talks were always being translated by someone else - at that time it was a good-looking slender young man in orange robes, "Professor Jain", who preceeded Malti.
Malti Shetty, aged 18, was on her first overseas trip with Baba, looking decidedly shy and frumpy, quite in the background.
In those days, almost everyone in Baba's entourage was dressed in orange lungis or saris (but not Malti), though most were not actually ordained swamis. (When I went to Shri Gurudev Ashram in Ganeshpuri the following year, I was presented with a bright orange sari which I wore faithfully for a time. But soon afterwards, it was deemed un-cool to wear orange unless you had actually taken sanyas.)
I remember one day in an informal talk in the backyard of Helen Argent's house in Turramurra Sydney, my ears pricked up when Baba said, referring to Prof Jain (who was all the while translating this for him!) - (paraphrasing) - look at this guy in his orange robes, he appears so serious and spiritual, but any day now he could fall for some pretty woman and easily become just another householder.
Not long afterwards, we heard that Prof Jain had indeed fallen in love with a woman in the USA and taken up the householder life.
This seemed to be taken as some sort of a "downfall", because Baba came from a tradition that believed that only by being celibate could one attain the highest consciousness. Many of us bought into that attitude - (to our detriment, I now believe) that ordinary sexual/intimate relations somehow limited your spiritual power. It's similar with many other religious/spiritual traditions, such as the Catholic church with its celibate priest-hood.
Yes, I believe that in those early days, Baba reached out to everybody in creative ways, which he didn't need to do so much as his power and influence consolidated, especially during those couple of years in the USA after his visit to Australia in '74.
His presentation of yoga was refreshing for the time, but underneath (I now realise) were some pretty old-fashioned,narrow-minded, dare I say even misogynistic attitudes.
Still, I still do remember him with great affection, because of his totally unique personality.
In my next post, I will send a small extract of one of his talks in Sydney in '74. You might enjoy it!
Extract from Baba M's public address at the Theosophical Society, Australia 1974:
"If your body cannot find happiness on its own, but wants to go on living by begging happiness from other things and other people...can it be happy?
Truly, this is what their everyday life is like for so many people! I once read a story which I'll tell you now. People are always believing "I make you happy, you make me happy.' This is what you are always finding in the world today - 'I made him happy, he made me happy".
In India there is a big factory which makes Anacin, you must know it, you take it when you've got a headache to stop the pain a bit. So, on one side of the road was the Anacin factory and on the other side was a tea stall. An old man was sitting between them when he saw two men come out of the factory and go towards the tea stall. He asked them "Where are you going?".
"We've got a headache from working so we're going to have some tea"
After a little while two waiters came out from the tea stall and set off for the factory. The old man said "And where are you going?"
"We've got a headache from working so we're going to get some Anacin pills."
Then the old man began to wonder "What do you do to get rid of a headache - take Anacin or drink tea?"
The same thing has happened with happiness. Happiness should arise of itself, not from the outside, not from this man or that thing. Now, we practise yoga just in order to let this happiness arise."
Janna many of us are aware of Muktananda's charisma we lived it too. Many of us were abused also.
Remembering the harm abusers cause is very important for healing. The tendencies that lead to becoming a victim are the same tendencies that lead to forgiving and forgetting too soon too often. Stockholm syndrome or toxic bonding is a major problem in destructive cults like Siddha Yoga.
When I see the old timers in the photos with Gurumayi on the website I remember how she toyed with them and humiliated them. My heart goes out to them clinging to her when I know the reality of their day to day life serving.
Peace. Enjoying your awesome Aussie sensibility. :-)
Janny:
Thank you for these comments. I never met Muktananda so it's always refreshing to hear remembrances from devotees who spent time with him--it makes me remember my time in Ganeshpuri, which I suppose was the closest I'll ever get to feeling like I was in his presence. The story seems classic Baba, based on what I read in those books that collected his darshan Q&A's. THose books confused the hell out of me, though, because if you read them straight through he contradicted himself over and over!
Janny, "I think he would have cringed at this drivel" - what drivel are you referring to, do you mean GM's latest New Year's message, or what's on this website? Hope it's not the latter lol.... sorry, I've been away. That was my comment.
I'm also from down under and I met Muk in 78, so a little different already from your experience. In my time, they were really starting to tighten up and make sure the show looked slick (remember the girls in their ankle length silk skirts and tightly pulled back hair?).
And to January 17, 2013 at 7:42 AM - yes, no one is taking away from who Muk was in terms of the abuse he perpetrated, not at all. I'm just old enough to remember the charm and real (not contrived) charisma that pulled us in.
Thank you Seekher for providing this space.
have had a tech problem, and am trying to get back to making posts. Janny
Janny you bring a spring a laughter with you. So hope tech problems are slight. 👋
Greetings All,
I too met Muk in 81 & I have some siddha paths I kept & some Muk small publications. I stayed (arrrgggg still forgiving myself on this one) until one week after 9/11/2001 .. Long time..
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