stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

GURUS AND PRISONERS 389
Part of the blame lies with the student, because too much
obedience, devotion, and blind acceptance spoils a teacher....
Part also lies with the spiritual master because he lacks the
integrity to be immune to that kind of vulnerability (in Butler,
1990).
Of course, by parity of argument, one would equally place
“part of the blame” on abused women for giving up their power to
men, or ridiculously regard too-obedient children as “spoiling” their
parents, etc.
Much more sensibly:
The guru system, the Zen Master system and every other
variation on that theme is just as horrible and destructive to
folks with amber skin and almond shaped eyes as it is to
folks with white skin and blue eyes. It didn’t work two thousand
years ago in Rishikesh, India any better than it works
right now in Racine, Wisconsin (Warner, 2004).
Charaka, the first-century court physician whose writings
help form the basis of ancient Indian medicine, wrote that a
student was free to ignore a guru’s orders if they jeopardized
health or were against the law. One suspects, though, that it
would have been difficult for a student so trained in obedience
to decide when the time for rebellion had come (Brent,
1972).
* * *
Even if the guru-figure was ever all that he claimed to be, it would
take at most a few years for an inner circle of “guards” to accumulate
around him or her. Those high-ranking followers will then
work roughly within the overall constraints set by the guru/superintendent
and immediate culture. They themselves are always
looking up to the guru-figure with respect, being at times harshly
disciplined by him, and feeling always inferior to him. They will
thus exact their own craved measures of respect, obedience and
superiority, to re-inflate their own self-esteem, from the only
source available, i.e., from those below them in the closed community.
And the obedience of the latter can only be unconditional,
with no threat of rebellion, when their wills are completely broken.
(Absolute power in any context is mutually exclusive with a tolerance
for discontent. For, it is exactly the vocalization and acting-