stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

4 STRIPPING THE GURUS
and possess no option of questioning the leader while still
remaining a member in good standing. Further, to leave
the community is typically claimed to be to throw away
one’s only “chance in this lifetime for enlightenment” [van
der Braak, 2003].) She has further rejected Cohen’s claims
of enlightenment, comparing him instead to the “cult” leaders
Jim Jones and David Koresh, and even to Adolf Hitler
• Ken Wilber, the “Einstein of consciousness studies,” who
has at times spoken with unbridled enthusiasm for the effects
of discipline under both Adi Da and Cohen. The pandit
Wilber and his approved community of thinkers, however,
have already exhibited numerous troubling characteristics,
unbecoming of any alleged sagely genius
• Yogi Amrit Desai, formerly of the Kripalu yoga center,
whose followers there, when news of the claimed sexual activities
between the married Desai and his devotees surfaced,
displayed unique discrimination in reportedly forcing
him to leave the center he himself had founded
• Assorted sexually active Roman Catholic priests—pedophile,
ephebophile and otherwise
• The Findhorn community in Scotland, which actually functions
without a guru-figure, arguably doing more good than
harm for exactly that reason
• Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic
Autobiography of a Yogi, whose troubled ashrams the present
author can speak of from first-hand experience
With only a few exceptions, the above figures have taught authentic
Eastern philosophy of one variety or another. They have
further been widely recognized and duly advertised as possessing
high degrees of spiritual realization. Indeed, one can easily find
loyal followers singing the praises of each of these individuals and
paths, in books and sanctioned websites. (Both Steven Hassan’s
www.freedomofmind.com site and the Rick A. Ross Institute at
www.rickross.com have many such links to “official” websites.) To
find the reported “dirt” on each of them, however, requires a fair
bit more effort. Nevertheless, it is those alleged worst aspects, not
the often-advertised best, which leave formerly devoted disciples
picking up the pieces of their shattered lives, and wondering aloud