Digest Number 908

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/19/03 7:23:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

Ammachi writes:

 

> What I am finding among many of Amma's devotees is that they are

> faced with adversity, with challenges - health, wealth, relationship

> etc. and feel that they can turn their lives over to Amma and let

> her run it for them. In my opinion, it is a recipe for disaster and

> westerners are more likely to be taken advantage off. The Hindus

> themselves (I am not talking about expatriate Indians who I think

> are as clueless as we are) but the Hindus living in India have the

> social context in which to place the guru.

Dear ONS: I am not so sure about the following:

They go to a guru for >

> advice but use their own discrimination, experience and judgement to

> apply it to their lives unlike us westerners who have largely failed

> to grasp the essence of the guru-disciple relationship and follow

> blindly.

 

 

Usually, the opposite arguemtn is made, that we Westerners want to use the

Guru for advice, holding on to our own judgment. The Easterners are the ones

who are supposed to have blind faith, and they get upset when Westerners cavil

with the Guru. I personally have had that experience, that when I questioned

what Ammachi said, I was cajoled to "have faith," with a note of mild disgust.

Nealu has said that if the Guru says the wall is blue and you see it as

white, that there is something wrong with your eyes. He believes this to be an

accurate, correct view of the Guru/devotee relation, which Westerners do not

understand. I don't know where you are getting this from, since in other

traditions, like Tibetan B;uddhism, the same kind of absolute faith in the Guru

is

prevalent in the Easterners.

 

Faith in the Guru: the last word has not been said about this. but, I think

you misrepresent the issue. I agree with someone's point that Westerners do

not believe in black magic, and actually, I wuld like to learn about it so as

to recognize it. Does anybody know a good source of this stuff? But, as far

as Amma goes, this of course does not apply to Her at all. I know Andrew's

past Guru and I know both of them. It is always possible that some mixture of

good and bad, high and low is there, even with best of intentions.

 

So, is it a recipe for disaster, when people take Amma's words "blindly?" I

don't think so, unless they misunderstand them. I have been with Amma for

well over a decade, and I have not seen this. Avram