Guru To Disciple / Swami Muktananda
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 6 years before Sep 18, 2018
MiBeloved 6 years ago
During the night I was mostly with Swami Muktananda. He was staying in the astral world near the same Temple of the Universe place which I visited during the last weekend. There were some persons taking instructions from him there but none of them saw me. With him I was in a slightly different dimension so that I could see them but they could not see me and the Swami was aware of our different astral situations.
He discussed how the Americans take yoga practice and then they do not achieve the results intended. His view was that they lacked proper training in pratyahar sensual energy withdrawal. He said this about how they regard Patanjali:
“As youths under the shelter of a guru, Indians used to have to practice for hours to master these stages of yoga, especially the asanas and pranayama methods. But these Western students have a different idea. It is like they create the process like a person who comes into an aircraft manufacturing plant, selects some items at random, bolt them together and expect that it will fly to New York.
“What is this? You do not want to learn this in the traditional way in which it was handed down from guru to disciple over centuries in India. You will now bolt it together in your own way. You will skip the first five stages and sit and do the last three in one click. You are expert already even though you have no training, have not sat at the feet of any guru, have not served any master. How will there be success in that way? I am tired of these people. I tried everything to help them but it is to no avail. They just do not understand what it is to be under the shelter of a yoga-guru. I did it. I wrote about what I had to do under Nityananda Dada and still they read that and just thrown the book in a corner. Then they tell me what they are to do and what I am to do to help them to do what they are determined to do.”
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When he said this, I made no reply. What is there to say? Those who are satisfied with their nuts and bolts aircraft as he put it and who think that they are now enlightened by it, can be assisted no further because their needs are met. They got what they wanted.
Marcia Beloved 6 years ago
This seems to be a direct consequence of wide circulation of books, accepting hefty financial donations, not working with students personally, giving lectures and expecting listeners to read between the lines, enjoying large audiences. It has to do with shifting the focus from restrictive ashram life to making a name and having many casual followers. Perhaps it was a failure on behalf of the teacher-gurus to see that Western students absorb a great influx of influences simultaneously and to see ahead further that the teachings would be diluted, distorted, and misinterpreted. There is a frustration on behalf of the teachers, when the responsibility to clean up the fiery aftermath of the nuts and bolts propaganda, of which they kindled the first sparks, is traced back to them.
It is the same for all of us, whereby we as spirits, become liable for the actions of our physical and subtle existence. We all experience the cause-effects of our own actions. We may get relief from complaining and trying to shift the responsibility around, but in the end, we must endure the effects which come to us from our involvements, actions and words spoken. Blaming and criticizing others does not, by itself, rectify anything, unless as we complain, we are making plans to avoid similar implication in the future.
