Another One Bites the Dust

You have got to be kidding me…

So this might be old news to some of you, particularly those of you who keep a close watch on all things Indian (from India) but another “Godman” of India (i.e guru) has been exposed as the fraud that he is and was duly arrested. What is different in this case was that following his arrest, thousands of his followers went on a rioting rampage resulting in at least 30 dead.

Dude, get a professional waxer ASAP.

To those of you who did not hear of this story, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the so-called Godman and spiritual leader of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, was found guilty and convicted for raping two of his female followers. What happened afterwards was that about 200 000 of his followers in the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana then went crazy resulting in these deaths and thousands of arrests.

This is nothing new. I was in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts last week, an area largely known to be the summer haven for America’s Gilded Age billionaires. The robber barons, people like the Astors and the Westinghouses had their summer “cottages” there (if you can call 100+ room mansions a cottage). These days, it’s an uber-liberal, hipster heaven of mostly wealthy New Yorkers and Bostonians, full of art galleries, yoga studios, home bakeries, shabby-chic eateries, high-end outlet malls and retreat centers. The Kripalu Center is here and not all that long ago, their founder Amrit Desai was found guilty of conducting sexual affairs with some of his followers AFTER he had basically added celibacy to his teachings among his followers. (I wish this could be tattooed on some folks because they need the constant reminder: “Just because someone is brown or “exotic” does not automatically make them genuine teachers and worthy of your devotion.”).

It’s not just among Indian gurus and teachers. It has also been happening among American “pastors”. Joel Osteen, the plastic-looking senior pastor of the Houston-area megachurch. The Lakewood Church,  hid in his $10 million dollar home while refusing to open up his church to Hurricane Harvey flood victims until he was publicly shamed on social media and then had no choice except to open his doors to the down-trodden.

I’ve written before that fake gurus and teachers are increasingly going to be exposed during the Shift of the Ages. When you have an oncoming age where the primary energies are going to be rooted in truth, integrity, respect for the Feminine as an equal, respect for the natural world and real egalitarianism outside of meritocracy, race, culture, sexual orientation, tribalism and income bracket, then you can bet on the house that gurus and teachers who preach the opposite aren’t going to last very long and will be exposed for the frauds and shysters they really are.

Yeah, OK. Whatever Adi Da.

There’s something deeper to look at as well. These fake teachers and personalities wouldn’t go into this line of work in the first place if there weren’t specific trade-offs to be had, namely access to money, sex and power (and influence). I don’t see any evidence of authentic altruism and genuine personal empowerment. Instead, there is an implicit thread of co-dependency on the “teacher” or cult or “teaching”. I’m also afraid that as long as things like money, sex and power are the primary rewards, these kinds of assholes will continue to pop up regularly and it will be up to individuals like you and I to use our own judgement and discernment to sniff these fakes out.

Here’s a thought: What would a spiritual teacher or guide look like if the only reward is a planet of 7 billion+ enlightened, self-sufficient empowered individuals who don’t need a spiritual teacher or guide anymore? What kind of individuals would then be attracted to this line of work? What would they look like?

I’ll end with some lyrics from one of my favorite (yet criminally under-appreciated) alternative pop bands of all time, British band XTC and their song “King for A Day” which pretty much catches the general vibe of these gurus gone wild.

Everyone’s creeping up to the money god
Putting tongues where they didn’t ought to be
On stepping stones of human hearts and souls
Into the land of “nothing for free”

Well the way that we’re living
Is all take and no giving
There’s nothing to believe in
The loudest mouth will hail the new-found way
To be king for a day

Everyone’s licking up to the new King Pin
Trying to get way up with a smile
Sing for your supper boy and jump to a finger click
Ain’t my way of living in style

‘Cause the ladder gets longer
And ambition gets stronger
I can’t satisfy the hunger
That bad old moon has got you in its sway
To be king for a day