stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

24 STRIPPING THE GURUS
Krishnamurti confronted Bohm in a way that others later
described as “brutal” (Peat, 1997).
As we shall see, that is a common problem among the world’s
spiritual paths for disciples who have endured their own gurufigures’
harsh discipline, and have then assumed license to treat
others in the same lousy way as they themselves had been treated.
The excuse there is, of course, always that such mistreatment is for
the “spiritual benefit” of those others, even in contexts where that
claim could not possibly be true.
Quarrels due to what Raja[gopal] remembers as Krishna’s
frequent lying and undercutting of him, Krishna’s agreeing
to proposals behind Raja’s back, and making promises that
could not be kept, became so severe after several months in
South America that once Krishna, who could only take so
much criticism, slapped Raja. This was not the only time
that would happen, but it was the first (Sloss, 2000).
Krishnamurti lacked ordinary human compassion and kindness;
he was intolerant, even contemptuous, of those who
could not rise to his own high plane (Vernon, 2001).
“Born with a heart two sizes too small,” etc.
At least one of Jiddu’s early “gopis,” however, saw through his
clumsy, “cruel to be kind” attempts at spiritual discipline:
These supposedly privileged and beneficial sessions consisted
of Krishna repeatedly pointing out well-known faults and
picking on everything detrimental and sapping one’s confidence
(Lutyens, 1972).
On at least one occasion, Krishnamurti was likewise inadvertently
overheard making unprovoked, uncomplimentary remarks
about others ... in his bedroom, with the married Rosalind (Sloss,
2000).
Neither Rajagopal nor Rosalind were ever devotees of Krishnamurti.
Nor was David Bohm, whose own response to Krishnamurti’s
(unsolicited) harsh public discipline—in a context where
they were supposed to be in a dialog, not a guru-disciple relationship,
by Jiddu’s own explicit rejection of the latter—was beyond
tragic: