Fw: Backbone

[Guest guest]

I am taking the liberty of placing this message to our list.

 

-

<lokema

<vivekananda

Saturday, January 06, 2001 08:10

Backbone

 

 

> Dear Jay,

>

> Good work! We are tired of sensationalist psuedo-gurus, spiritual

> marketplace opportunists and philosophical pretenders misleading the

> general public and giving true spirituality a bad name. The Sai Babas,

> Rajneshes, Maharishi Mahesh Yogis and others are entrepeneurs amassing

> wealth, not enlightened luminaries working for the highest good of

humanity

> and to relieve the sufferings of others. If such as these can promote

> their " message " of success as measured by wealth and power, certainly a

> lover of Truth can stand up and not only call down the limitations of such

> schemes, but lift up and broadcast the purity and integrity of authentic

> spiritual transmission via the likes of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, and

> Swamiji. You have nothing to be ashamed of in that, quite the contrary.

>

> My teacher, Swami Aseshanandaji, while living and teaching in

> Portland, sometimes got bomb scares at his ashram from people who thought

> his Vedanta center was somehow associated with Rajneshe's ashram in

Oregon.

> He never said anything about it but one day, on the podium, he said: " If

> you want power you get Rolls Royces, if you want peace you get God. "

These

> two, peace and power, are two different things and characterize those who

> desire to exert control over others as compared to those who strive to

> control their own mind and senses. The latter become true teachers of

> mankind. The former are the false prophets that Jesus and others warned

> about.

>

> Before Maharishi M. Yogi got famous, he came here through Hawaii.

> Mr Eli Marozzi was the leader of the Vedanta Society subcenter here at the

> time. The " Maharishi " attempted to take control of that center but was

> stymied by Swami Vividishananda of Seattle who told him he must accept Sri

> Ramakrishna in order to join us. M Yogi's reply is telling. He said that

> the Master's way was too slow and that there is a faster way. This

reveals

> it all. Westerners who are used to and who seek a " quick fix, " - a swift

> solution to the problems of samsara or immediate attainment of spiritual

> fruits - will follow such a person. M Yogi later became the leader of a

> materially-oriented empire whose spirituality is about herbs, pleasurable

> music and yogic hopping (levitation). Now such questionables as Capra and

> others flock around such a banner.

>

> " Grant unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but take unto thyself what is

> God's to give. " Not only must we stand against those frauds who have had

> the world the way they want it for centuries, we must also carefully and

> completely install the true teachings of realized beings and revealed

> scripture in the mind's of aspiring beings, filling in the void created by

> the destruction of their false philosophies. How was it put by Vedavyasa

> and Patanjali? Bhrantidarshana - deluded and confused misconceptions.

> Wrong thinking, much of it based upon distorted teachings given by

> fundamentalists, on one hand, and permiscuous charlatans on the other, is

> responsible for humanity's present condition of spiritual poverty. When

> someone calls out the Truth, it is a stroke against the citadel of

> compromise, the death knell to spiritual complacency. That is one of the

> qualities we loved about Vivekananda - that he decried " a mere lip-service

> religion " - and he did not make himself popular doing it.

>

> So, I was prompted, as you can tell, to respond. I could go on and

> on about this, really. But what good does it do. You understand already.

> Now to make the world do the same. It is a seemingly impossible task, but

> as Swamiji said, " It is better to wear out than to rust out. "

>

> Babaji

>