Chapter 6
Stretching Beyond Complacency
“At the present moment we see that some of the members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness are tending to leave their preaching activities in order to sit in a solitary place. This is not a very good sign. It is a fact that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura has condemned this process for neophytes. He has even stated in a song, pratisthara tare, nirjanera ghare, tava hari-nama kevala kaitava: “Sitting in a solitary place intending to chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra is considered a cheating process.” This practice is not possible for neophytes at all. The neophyte devotee must act and work very laboriously under the direction of the spiritual master, and he must thus preach the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. (Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya Lila, Chapter 11 The Beda-kritana Pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Test 176p)
Oh My! Be Humble Prabhu!
There will no-doubt, be many who will object to this unapologetic critique of what Adyashanti is doing. I expect that from those who have fallen under the spell of his vasita-siddhi potency.
vasita-siddhi = By this perfection one can bring anyone under his control. This is a kind of hypnotism which is almost irresistible. Sometimes it is found that a yogi who may have attained a little perfection in this vasita mystic power comes out among the people and speaks all sorts of nonsense, controls their minds, exploits them, takes their money, and then goes away (Nectar of Devotion p. 12)
It is virtually impossible to penetrate the Neo-Advaita subterfuge which is why it is so attractive to those who are not really serious about spiritual growth. When one is convinced that thought is a trap, everything is an illusion, sacred scriptures are useless and all ideas are simply meaningless thoughts conceived in man’s imagination, they become completely unreachable. What can be said to a person who believes that there is no difference between right or wrong and that everything is just occurring without any purpose or reason?
“This is radical emptiness where everything is arising spontaneously. There is no more need to discriminate with the mind between what seems to be the right thing or the wrong thing to do…You are operating by the flow of the Tao, which is a higher order of intelligence. You don’t need to intellectually discriminate anymore because the Tao discriminates without discriminating; it knows without knowing; it moves without moving. There is no sense of being enlightened or unenlightened. Since there is no self, there is nothing to be enlightened or unenlightened.” (Adyashanti, Radical Emptiness)
Translation:
Do whatever the hell you like and don’t worry about anything.
Profound! I’ll drink to that!
The impenetrable Advaita wall is further reinforced by an addiction to sense gratification, false pride, and the conviction that there are no karmic consequences for anything. This is why Lord Caitanya used such strong words to describe the fate of those who fall into the trap of Mayavadi philosophy.
“Sankaracarya, who is an incarnation of Lord Siva is faultless because he is a servant carrying out the orders of the Lord. But those who follow his Mayavadi philosophy are doomed. They will lose all their advancement in spiritual knowledge.” (Adi Lila Chapter 7, Text 114)
The quasi-spiritualists are the ones who reduce discretionary thinking into a sin. They are the ones who popularized the admonishment, “Don’t be Judgemental” , and they help perpetuate the indiscriminate Christian idea of turning the other cheek, (accepting everything) as evidence of spiritual maturity.
“I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Bible; Matthew 5:39)
It all feels so warm and fuzzy but is it really a good idea to roll out the red carpet for evil? In the first chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Duruyodana is immediately referred to as: durbuddheu / evil-minded and the whole message of the Gita is to convince Arjuna to: uttistha /stand up and fight!
At the dawn of this age the personality of Kali masqueraded as a Godly man but his behavior revealed that he was actually very demoniac. When the reigning King Parkisit found out about it he was immediately prepared to kill him:
“It is certainly the prime duty of the king to (first subdue those who cause others to suffer.) Therefore I must kill this most wretched man because he is violent against other living beings.” (Srimad Bhagavat Purana Canto 1 Creation, Chapter 17 Punishment and Reward of Kali, Text 11)
Of course I am not suggesting that anyone should perish but Vaishnavas are called to be vigilant about putting an end to demoniac tendencies and one of the most demoniac things one can do is pose as a spiritual leader and say such reckless things like: “There is no karma”, etc.
“…in this age of demoniac tendency, we may not kill the demons like Krsna did it, but we can kill the demoniac tendency.” ( A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, letter to Doug Russell, 18th April, 1973)
Srila Prabhupada Got All Fired Up!
Some Vaishnavas will argue that we should not openly target specific individuals for a serious philosophical critique. That might be good diplomacy when attending a social event and there are no doubt times when discretion is imperative. However our world has changed radically over the last 30 years. Virtually everyone who is a member of a professional trade is held to some type of code of ethics and must conform to peer reviews and continuing education. It is now quite common for people from all walks of life to come under very strict public scrutiny. Professional athletes are literally being recorded, tracked and statistically analyzed at every moment in their career. Politicians are under a public microscope and people who make legal promises are expected to keep them less they be sued for fraud. Consumer Reports is a magazine that compares every possible feature of products that are made to help people understand which products are the best for their dollar.
However when it comes to “Spiritual Matters” any knucklehead can claim whatever they want with little or no critique regarding their credibility? It’s about time that those who have turned church, meditation, kirtan or yoga into a business come under the same type of scrutiny the rest of the world is subjected to. Srila Prabhupada condemned the professional bhagavatam reciters and those who are commercializing Vedic wisdom for their own prophet, are the frauds of our day.
“Professional reciters may ask money to extinguish the blazing fire within their bellies, but they cannot make any spiritual improvement or become perfect. It is therefore strictly forbidden to recite Srimad-Bhagavatam as a profession to earn a livelihood” (Srimad Bhagavat Purana Canto 4 The Creation of the Fourth Order, Chapter 12 Dhruva Maharaja goes back to Godhead, Text 45-50p)
“There are…many thoughtful writers and creative philosophers, but despite all their learning, if they cannot approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they are simply useless mental speculators. There are many sharply intelligent people in this material world, and they discover so many things for sense gratification. They also analytically study all the material elements, but despite their expert knowledge and expert scientific analysis of the whole cosmic manifestation, their endeavors are useless because they cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” (Srimad Bhagavat Purana Canto 4 The Creation of the Fourth Order, Chapter 31 Narada instructs the Pracetas, Text 11p)
It is our duty as Vaishnavas to lead the way thru the jungle of twisted pontificators that are exploiting the natural spiritual yearning of the uninformed innocent public. We find a very good example of exactly what I am referring to in the back of the BBT Book: Life Comes from Life. On page 117 Hamsadutta prabhu and Mahakanta Dasa attacked the foolishness of Dr. Abraham Kavoor’s atheist belief that life has no meaning. Dr. Kavoor was the President of the Sri Lanka Rationalist Association and these two devotees aggressively challenged his assertions that when the body dies, the only thing that occurs is chemicals get released back into the environment.
His Divine Grace particularly appreciated this type of straightforward aggressive preaching. As soon as Tamal Krishna Goswami began reading about how Hansadutta was publicly challenging Dr. Kavoor he became “All fired up.”
“As soon as I began to read your letter, Prabhupada wanted to hear Dr. Kovoor’s response. I thus began to read the news clipping but His Divine Grace became very fired up, more than I have seen in many weeks, and began to interrupt me every minute smashing the rascal scientists: “Rascals. They say it is like this, it is like that. Why can they not produce life?” (NOTE: This type of aggressive commentary about: “Educated rascals, empty words and God kicks on your mouth” etc. went on for more then a page.) (Letter from Tamal Krishna Goswami. Secretary For: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, August 14, 1977)
Stand and Fight!
There is a lot of sentimental propaganda that implies that a “Spiritually” aware person must mindlessly accept all paths are equal and always speak like they are reciting poetry in a library. Adyashanti takes it one step further and preaches that all paths are illusionary nonsense. Declarations like this make it impossible to engage in any serious study about the truth and that is the demoniac mentality which we are repeatedly reminded to vigilantly expose;
“…Ignorance should be slashed by the weapon of knowledge… stand and fight!” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 1 Observing the Armies on the Battlefield, Text 42)
“…destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 10 The Opulence of the Absolute, Text 11)
“…Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser(s) of the enemy.” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 2 Contents of the Gita Summarized, Text 3)
A Vaishnava is expected to act in a kind, gentle, and humble way but that doesn’t mean we should stand by quietly when someone is uprooting dharma and then has the audacity to call it enlightenment.
“Devotees always humbly offer respect to everyone, but when there is a discussion on a point of sastra, they do not observe the usual etiquette: satyam bruyat priyam bruyat. They speak only the satyam/truth, although it may not necessarily be priyam/pleasant.” (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, letter to Madame Sumati Morarji, 9th August, 1976)
For all practical purposes Adyashanti has become the poster boy for the demoniac mode of Ignorance exactly the way it is described in many places throughout the Bhagavad-gita.
“They say that this world is unreal, with no foundation, no God in control. They say it is produced of sex desire and has no cause other than lust. Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world. Taking shelter of insatiable lust and absorbed in the conceit of pride and false prestige, the demoniac, thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent. They believe that to gratify the senses is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus until the end of life their anxiety is immeasurable. Bound by a network of hundreds of thousands of desires and absorbed in lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification.” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 16 Divine and Demoniac Natures, Text 8-12)
“That understanding which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction, O Partha, is in the mode of ignorance.” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 18 Conclusion – The perfection of Renunciation, Text 32)
Those who are engaged in destroying dharma are demons and those who are real teachers of the truth will stand to defend and uphold dharma even at the cost of their own discomfort.
“It is the bounden duty of (the devotee) to clearly and frankly oppose any person who tries to deceive and harm himself and others by misrepresenting the truth, whether due to malice or genuine misunderstanding. This will be possible if the chanter of kirtan is always prepared to submit to being trodden upon by thoughtless people, if such discomfort will enable him to benefit his persecutors but chant the truth in the most unambiguous manner. If he is unwilling or afraid of considerations of self respect or personal discomfort to chant kirtan under all circumstance, he is unfit to be a preacher of the absolute truth. Humility implies perfect submission to the truth and no sympathy for untruth.” (Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati – SBV.1.145)
Duty to Dharma
Transcendent maturity is evident in those who are vigilant about doing whatever they can to maintain an environment that is conducive for the spiritual growth of everyone. This is exactly what Maharaja Pariksit did when he came face to face with the personification of Kali! Well trained brahmanas are always ready to assume the duties of the king if he is incapable of doing them himself.
“The kings were trained systematically to become munificent and not merely be tax collectors. They were trained to perform different sacrifices only for the prosperity of the subjects. To lead the prajas (people) to the attainment of salvation was a great duty of the king. The father, the spiritual master and the king are not to become irresponsible in the matter of leading their subjects to the path of ultimate liberation from birth, death, diseases and old age. … In modern days the people in general occupy the administration by the strength of manipulated votes, but they are never trained in the primary duties of the king… Actually the qualified brahmanas are meant to give direction to the kings for proper administration in terms of the scriptures like the Manu-samhita and Dharma-sastras of Parasara. A typical king is the ideal of the people in general, and if the king is pious, religious, chivalrous and munificent, the citizens generally follow him.” (Srimad Bhagavat Purana Canto 1 Creation, Chapter 9 The Passing Away of Bhismadeva in the Presence of Lord Krishna, Text 27)
In this case there are no saintly kings to preserve an environment conducive for serious spiritual maturity, therefore that responsibility falls on the disciples of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. His birth name was fortuitously given as “Abaya”, and we should become fearless too, just like he demonstrated many times within his life and teachings. The call to be humble is too often used as an excuse for being lazy or cowardly. When a brahmana is witness to a violation of dharma, he has an obligation to do what he can to correct it else he is brahmana in name only. No consideration should be given to personal prosperity or suffering. Mature individuals know that integrity means that every day you have to get up and do your duty… like it or not! That is the core message Krishna communicated to Arjuna. Do your duty!
“Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity is called yoga.” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 2 Contents of the Gita Summarized, Text 48)
Those who wish to skirt their duties find all sorts of creative ways to justify doing so. This is actually the market niche that the New Age movement has rushed in to support. Upstarts like Adyashanti uses his short and informal investigation into Buddhism as a shill to buttress up his own commercially profitable version of it. What’s particularly sad is that he has become a text book case of the cheaters and the cheated. Using svengali-like tactics Adyashanti bewilders his audience into not thinking by peppering his sermons with cute clichés, a hip demeanor, and an informal approach to a philosophically bankrupt study of Zen. All he is lacking is Jay Leno’s chin.
With the expertise of a well-practiced prestidigitator, Adya has redirected the intelligence of his minions so they think of him as the personification of a koan. They now embrace his con with the gusto similar to that of little children being amused by a clown. Those who have enough personal integrity to step back and look at his performance more closely will recognize that all Adyashanti has really done well is prove the old saying: “Those who are not willing to stand for something, are foolish enough to fall for anything!”
“That which the Vedantists describe as unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the supreme destination, that place from which, having attained it, one never returns — that is My supreme abode.” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 8 Attaining the Supreme, Text 21)
End Chapter 6: Exposing Adyashanti’s Ruse – Stretching Beyond Complacency
Addendum
Tooled Up & Ready to Go!
I have taken the effort to compose this study for the very purpose of making it publically available. Anyone who may know someone who is exploring the Non-dual tradition is encouraged to send this paper to them, however keep in mind that it will probably do little good for those who have fallen deeply into the Neo-Advaita well of ignorance.
As I stated in the very beginning of this paper, atheistic and voidist propaganda is being spewed everywhere and it is becoming very fashionable. All of this can be quite challenging for younger Vaishnavas the first time they encounter it on their own. Yet we must do what we can to help the innocent take a closer look at what these spiritual frauds are doing. Those are the people I hope this essay will find its way to.
So I encourage everyone to copy and/or forward this paper to anyone you feel might be able to benefit from it. I wrote a paper very similar to this in 1995 about the therapist turned Advaita guru, Gangaji when she was making the Non-dual lecture circuit with her then husband Eli. (That exposé is also available to anyone who would like me to send it to them.)
Gangaji’s fraud suffered a huge setback when her husband began sleeping around with their disciples. This indiscretion apparently sent Gangaji into a serious emotional frump exposing how useless all her blabber-jabber was to disciples who faced similar situations. Remember… Non-dual? Nothing good or bad… everything just is… no judgment… if your guts are not literally bleeding out on the floor in this particular moment then… well what’s the problem?
The paper I wrote exposing her sentimental therapeutic mush found its way thru cyber space and I later received notice that it was helpful in freeing some of her progenies from her hypnotic trance. However Gangaji is still hobbling along because there is an ocean of suffering people seeking a remedy. Unfortunately the public is too poorly informed to realize that the rapidly spreading Neo-Advaita sham isn’t going to satisfy their soul no matter how many times someone says:
“If we don’t resist whatever is being experienced, then the underlying sweetness of life is found even in the bitterest parts.” (Gangaji, When we are ready to be Free 08/17/2012)
As time moves forward, all the various flavors of Neo-Advaita voodoo will rise and fall. Each New Age guru will perfect their personal spin on the Non-dual lecture scene and cast their net as wide as possible to attract their market share of innocent conditioned souls. Meanwhile it is our duty to make sure the Hari Nama party continues to sing out to those souls who have become exhausted with all the New Age bravado that amounts to absolutely nothing.
Please use this tool however you think might best help free people from the clutches of impersonal and voidist traditions. It is our foremost mission to do all we can to help people distinguish between the useless dust of mundane pursuits and the life giving dust from the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna!
“The person who has ot at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulasi leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing.” (Srimad Bhagavat Purana, Canto 2 The Cosmic Manifestation, Chapter 3 Pure Devotional Service: The Change in the Heart, Text 23)
Personal Request
If you are one of the few devotees who gave this study a careful review then I am interested in gleaning feedback from you who make up the larger sadhu community about the effectiveness of what I have written. It appears that there are two different extreme opinions when it comes to what is considered an appropriate way to present Lord Caitanya’s movement to the world.
I have been in the unique position to study the influence of Mayavadis carefully because my home town of Ojai, California is a Mecca for New Agers. Individuals like Jiddu Krishnamurti lived here, Meyer Babba had a bhajana kutire on the local mountaintop, there is a popular Buddhist center nearby and more recently the author of “Loving What Is”, Byron Katie just pulled into town.
I am seriously considering compiling a book called “Lessons From Ojai” to help share the sankirtan stories I have encountered in this town filled with impersonalists. The book would consist of several shorter articles similar to this one which philosophically identifies how each of our contemporary Neo-Advaita pontificators are grossly misleading the pubic. Would it be appropriate to write such a book? Please share your comments with me at: mdjagdasa @ gmail.com
Thank you!
William Roberts is an ordained brahmana priest under the tutelage of HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. He is the director of the American Vedic Association, which sponsors the free Bhagavad-gita Fellowship on the first and third Tuesday of every month in Ojai, California. He welcomes comments or questions from anyone who is serious about better understanding the Science of the Soul as presented in the Vedic Literatures. For more information he can be reached at the contact information provided below.
How to Contact:
William Roberts MBA/MIS, CCP, ACBSP
687 Villanova Road
Ojai, California 93023
(805) 640-0405 Home
william.roberts @ jagannatha.com
mdjagdasaa @ gmail.com