stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

506 STRIPPING THE GURUS
etc., but of course making no mention of how he had merited that
retribution.
If only our world’s guru-figures and spiritual seekers in general
had as much sense as a bunch of thirteen-year-olds. They
might, in that case, consider holding their peers and heroes responsible
for their reported abuses of power, i.e., “As ye beat the
crap out of others, so shall the crap be beaten out of you.” With
even that minimal application of intelligence and real compassion,
there would be far fewer simpering “Rude Boys” in the world.
Much less would those socially dysfunctional idiots be celebrated
for allegedly coercing others into enduring demeaning acts “for
their own good.”
That, however, seems to be far too much to ask from the rabbit-hole
likes of Tweedleken and Tweedlecohen.
* * *
The recurring phenomenon of “bad gurus,” from which no one is
immune so long as he holds on to the hope that one or another of
them can lead him closer to enlightenment, is actually completely
predictable. For, absolute power corrupts, not merely some of the
time, but all (or at least 99.99%) of the time. (It was actually in
response to the 1870 papal declaration of infallibility that Lord Acton
coined the relevant phrase [Allen, 2004].) Against that psychological
reality, whatever public face any “sage” may show in apparent
tolerance for questioning by his celebrity followers or the like,
is typically no more real than one’s temporary mask shown at a
news conference might be.
And beyond even any sagely “best behavior,” human transference
and projection can create a “god” even out of a pile of shit—as
Nityananda knew well. One cannot afford to go into any such “spiritual”
environment with a naïvely positive attitude, “hoping for the
best,” seeing only the good in others while ignoring the red flags for
the bad, and trusting the guru-figure and his guards/henchmen to
guide you right. For, such Pollyanna-ish behavior is exactly, without
exaggeration, how Jonestowns (and Rajneeshpurams, and
“true sanghas” such as Trungpa’s and Muktananda’s and Yogananda’s)
get started.
For my own part, however, even having been through “Hidden
Valley Hell,” I had no idea that things were anywhere near as bad
as we have seen herein, across essentially every long-respected
spiritual path, until I began the systematic research for this book.