Michael a fait partie de la SRCM aux USA de 1979 à 88 et est très vite devenu précepteur. Il nous parle de toutes ces personnalités qui ont compté dans l'histoire du Sahaj Marg : Babuji et Rajagopalachari, mais aussi André Porey ou Mme Kasturi entre autres. Il nous dévoile surtout les jeux de pouvoirs qui ont eu lieu dans le cercle rapproché (inner circle) du maître, celui de Babuji d'abord, celui de Chari ensuite.
Voici son témoignage, mais n’hésitez pas à aller sur http://innercircleofsrcm.blogspot.com pour en savoir beaucoup plus :
Introduction
Over 20 years ago when I was young and impressionable, I decided to react against my protestant upbringing and explore eastern thought and meditation pracitces. Living in the northeast, there were ample choices from the Tibetan Buddist temple down the street to the Vipasana Meditation Center out in Western Massachusetts. I sought something more personal, and discovered a rag tag group of people in the US who were learning a reformed version of Raj Yoga that had somehow had combined Sufism with Yoga to create a meditative, spiritual practice. The organziation was called the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. The method of meditation they practiced was called Sahaj Marg, which means natural path.
I traveled to India to meet Ram Chandra, or Babuji as they called him. He was an aging retired bank clerk with an impressive presence. He still traveled to the west occasionally, but within a few years he passed away. One character who dominated in the organization was Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari, kindly referred to as Chari. This man was an imposing westernized, cigarette smoking Indian who ran a mill in India. He had the financial freedom and drive to attend most of Ram Chandra international travels.
When Babjuji passed, Chari surfaced as his hand picked successor. This caused great controversy in India and parts of Europe, as many were offended by his strong and apparently arrogant personality and aggressive approach to running a spiritual organization. For Americans, it was normal, so many of us just accepted this behavior as status quo.
This story is about my hasty indoctrination into Chari's inner circle and just as hasty removal. The lessons learned from human behavior around people and positions of power and influence has guided my life for more than a decade of experience. I attempt to explain in this story the evolution of my thinking starting from this experience of over 15 years ago to present day.
The other objective of this blog is for those who currently belong to this organization, which has evolved into a large international organization that hungrily buys real estate like castles in Europe and entire neighborhoods in India. Those who choose to leave the organization are confronted with subtle and not so subtle threats of great spiritual destitude and abandonment. While I have no intention to convince anyone to leave, I do want to let those who choose to leave, that life on the other side is fine and ones spiritual quest, what ever form it takes when one leaves such an organization, does indeed continue.
1. The Founder's Last Years - describing my experiences in the Mission during Babuji's last years from 1979 to 1983
2. Death of the Master - Chariji's Early Days - outlining the power struggle that followed Babuji's death and Chari's establishment as the new President and Spiritual Representative of Babuji.
3. The Publishing Commitee - my experiences during my invovlement in recording and publishing Chari's speeches.
4. Establishing New Principles - observations regarding Chariji's efforts to establish "Service and Obedience to the Mission" as a new key directive in the practice of Sahaj Marg
5. My Departure - description of my departure from the mission
6. Meeting New Masters - exploration of the history of Sahaj Marg
7. Recovering from SRCM - my recovery process from more than 10 years of indoctrination
8. Analysis - My personal analysis of how cultism evolves and the source of a Guru's power.
LESSONS IN POWER Part 1: The Founder's Last Years
When I joined SRCM in 1979, I was 19 years old. I had taught myself to meditate at the age of 13 and wished to receive some training and guidance. I sought out a low key organization that didn’t want money or exploit people. I was not interested in joining a cult but sincerely wanted to explore how meditation could calm the mind and help one in their journey towards God. Sahaj Marg seemed perfect for me. This organization seemed not to be about money at all. Several key factors attracted me.
1. Prosthelytizing was not encouraged
2. Training was offered for free
3. There was no focus on buildings or property
4. The practice did not involve cultural or religious indoctrination
5. Focus on experience as opposed to study of the practice
At the time I joined, Babuji was in his last years. I traveled to Denmark in 1980 to meet him for the first time. Here I also met Chari, his apparent right hand man when traveling abroad. Chari was a very westernized, Dunhill smoking Indian executive. He seemed very European and interacted well with the westerners. He was clearly part of Babuji’s inner circle.
The Danish center was one of the first in the west, with an impressive group of middle aged, successful abhaysis who seemed to love Babuji had integrated Sahaj Marg into their European lifestyle. This impressed me, as they did not dress up as Indians or pretend to be something other than Danes.
Babuji spoke little, preferring to sit with his disciples and smoke his sweet tobacco smelling hooka pipe. When he traveled, he would publish a short message in lieu of giving public talks, and instead remained available for people to simply sit quietly with him. Occasionally, he would offer to meditate with the group. It was a compelling experience for a young impressionable 20 year old such as myself.
I followed him to Munich where things turned dark. Andre Poray, who was a senior French Preceptor was there and appeared to be a rival of Chari’s. The rumors were that Andre, while extremely successful in attracting large numbers in France, had also attracted people who were not necessarily sincere in their spiritual practice but were interested in black arts. I can’t say for sure whether these rumors were true or not, but, I witnessed the beginning of a very dark series of events. Babuji suddenly stopped being available to the larger group, and Chari’s demeanor went from jovial westernized Indian to being very curt and secretive.
I left Munich this point, but others close to me told stories of Babuji and Chariji showing up for a group meditation dressed in black. A group meditation occurred where some one meditating in the crowd shouted out and became delirious. Andre Poray helped to remove him from the room and the sitting was topped. Babuji quickly left the scene with Chari. Later Chari was quoted as saying, “I will never go to France again”. Given that he was in Germany, the assumption was that this little incident had something to do with the goings on in France and the rivalry between Andre Poray and Chari. Having missed some of these incidents, I choose not to think too much about them until much later in my practice.
Prior to my first trip to India in 1981, three Indians did an un-authorized tour of the US. Babuji’s son, Umesh Saxena, and two senior preceptors, Ragavendra Rao and RamaChandra Reddy. They stayed in my center for a week or more, and traveled a bit to centers in the US. It was made clear however that this was an “unofficial” visit. The intent of this trip seemed innocent at the time. I befriended the two senior Preceptors, and they clearly made great efforts to get favor with the Americans, going so far as to dress up in western suits when meeting prospective abhyasis for the first time.
Umesh, Babuji’s son, seemed to me to be along for the ride. He was not a preceptor, and occasionally took sittings. He told a few stories about pretending to give sittings to kids while growing up. There was some talk about him being able to transmit because he was Babuji’s son, but, he was for some reason not allowed to do so. In retrospect, this was the second incident I witnessed that indicated some internal strife within the organization that had been created to make Sahaj Marg available, but at the time, I was young and naive, and willing to overlook the obvious.
I traveled to India in 1981 and stayed in the Ashram in Shahjahanpur. It was the only property the Mission owned at the time – a beautiful complex located a few miles from Babuji’s house. Prior to this property, abhyasis would stay at Babuji’s house. The ashram was built to accommodate the larger numbers that started to travel to visit Babuji. No money was requested, but donations were accepted to pay for food and operations. The basic feeling was that of hospitality, we were Babuji’s guests.
The last time I saw Babuji was in France. Chari, who was not invited, went against his statement in Munich and showed up anyway. It was clear at this time that Andre Poray and Chari were in a bitter power struggle and a public display for the masses was put on. Andre ran the show, giving long talks and being seen with Babuji. Chari hid in his room and gave sittings. Privately he complained about the goings on in France. At one point he said, “I want to get up and give a talk of my own by putting a microphone to my heart and say, hear the voice of the Master”. He was allowed to give a talk, his talk was lengthy as well. I remember innocently telling him that it was a good talk but it was a bit long. He seemed shocked by this comment.
During this last visit to the west, Babuji was frail and made few public appearances. In one appearance he was walked down the isle to give a sitting, two large men held each arm. His legs would give out and he would start to fall, they would hold him up and continue to walk him down towards the stage. I was sitting at the edge of the isle looking down sadly when Babuji was being walked by me. At that instant, in spite of the two men holding him up, he fell over on top of me. I was shocked and devastated. The message I received from this was that he was dying. This overshadowed the rest of the gathering, and overwhelmed any thoughts of the ongoing power struggle between Poray and Chari.
LESSONS IN POWER Part 2: Death Of The Master - Chari's Early Days
In 1983 Babuji grew sick. Conflicting messages came from various factions throughout India. Umesh Saxena clearly was attempting to take the stage by sending notices that Babuji would be healed and would live to the age of 100 or more. Babuji finally passed. At this point in time, the battle began for control of the Mission.
Chari immediately produced his letter from Babuji stating that he was the designated successor. Umesh Saxena wrote a letter to all centers saying in broken English “I have little evidence that Chari’s claims are not correct”. Ragavendra Rao and his associates appeared to side with Umesh, and a legal battle ensued which prevented Chari from having control of the Ashram in Shahjahanpur. Chari eventually gained sufficient legal status to establish himself as the President of the Mission. He garnered support from the west, having befriended the more senior disciples in Denmark, Germany and the US. Almost immediately, he traveled to the west to establish his base, making speeches and publishing every talk he made for the masses to read.
I made one trip to India to where Lalaji’s birthday was to be celebrated in Shahjahanpur. Chari choose to be there, although he was clearly not invited. A large group of Chari supporters arrived with Chari a week before the celebrations. Chari stayed in Babuji’s cottage, and kept Babuji’s Chair empty and visible as a symbol. I had married an Indian and spent my time with the Indian contingent and was asked to help with nighttime security, walking the compound. On the third night, an Indian friend told me that my help was not needed and that I should do and sleep. A jeep had pulled up and there was lots of talking going on. Clearly some sort of incident was about to happen, and the Indians were trying to protect me from it. That morning, I awoke to find gates locking the entrances to the dormitory. The water shut off, and all the staff who ran the Ashram were gone or hiding.
People were able exit from small doors from the dormitory, and eventually it was decided that we were to all move to the farm next door run by the Tandon family, who were loyal to Chari. We stayed in tents and camped there in view of the Ashram. I was delegated as the Western Representative as I had recently had a suit tailored in India and had it with me. Chari seemed to like my innocent, and sincere way of explaining things. I was asked to have my account typed up by a typist, but in fact Chari dictated the entire account himself while I was present. I was sent to speak with the local magistrate and gave interviews to the press about the “international incident” that had occurred in Shahjahanpur. I took a letter signed by US abhyasis to the US embassy to file a formal complaint about our treatment there. This gained me lots of favor from Chari and allowed me a peek into his Inner Circle. The next year I was made Preceptor.
Lessons In Power Part 3: The Publishing Committee
Prior to my becoming a preceptor, the Zonal Secretary of the US had befriended me and asked me to be involved in the North American Publishing Committee. Since I was an engineer who designed digital recording equipment for a living, my skills were directed towards recording and editing Chari’s speeches. I remained on the periphery of the NAPC. The members of that committee were senior abhyasis who were loyal to Chari. Their efforts were clearly important to Chari and being a member of this committee afforded up close and personal meetings with him that often pre-empted other activities. Members of this committee used their involvement to gain exclusive access to Chari as a result. The atmosphere within the committee was that of exclusivity and importance. Chari’s style of managing this group was to insist on his total control of the flow of his words into published tapes, videos, and books. My involvement was tolerated due to the need for technical expertise, but in no way was I accepted into the inner fold. Secret meetings occurred without me on regular basis. These meetings generally involved discussions around the content of what was being published and I was only involved in discussions that required logistical or technical decisions.
While I was sufficiently trusted to be allowed into this exclusive circle, activities in this committee required intense interaction with Chari and members jealously guarded that privilege by keeping me at arms length. Here I saw for the first time how a Guru uses his inner circle draw people in, and test their devotion to him. Others clearly saw that this was an opportunity for relative new comers such as myself to shine and gain favor. Subtle efforts were made to insure that my work was overshadowed by theirs. I was tasked with the un-glamorous work of running tape recorders and editing the recordings for publication. My job was to insure that Chari had a copy of every speech as soon as the speech was over. This was sufficiently important to him that I was allowed to deliver these tapes personally, however, other members of the committee would occasionally insist on intervening and delivering these tapes themselves. The unique attention I created from this new attention getting task was not going be allowed to be exclusively mine!
Volumes of tape recordings were produced on a yearly basis, and it was my job to edit out French translation and delete harsh language. Chari appeared to improvise many of his speeches, and there were times when he needed his words changed by recording over phrases that he did not intend to say for posterity. Chari insisted on absolute control over his words. My job was to insure that bootleg recordings were discouraged and even confiscated.
There seemed to be a dire concern that if abhyasis were allowed to make their own recordings Chari’s control over his intellectual property was breached. Rumors of abhyasis caught sharing bootleg speeches with others were investigated, and if found to be true, I would be asked to approach them and get all copies of tapes to secure Chari’s absolute control over the distribution of his words. By this time there was a large and growing group of French abhyasis who followed Chari around the world. They were particularly upset with me, as many were not fluent in English and used the tapes to interpret his speeches and private conversations. I was instructed to promise them that a French translation of the speech would be available at a later date.
The Publishing Committee became increasingly interested in recording Chari’s private discussions. There was constant pressure to “know” when to turn on a tape recorder, and when, to shut it off. I was often chastised by members of the Committee for not recording something said in private, and at other times for allowing discussions to be recorded. Chari always reserved the right to have certain discussions erased or confiscated. Often in private, he would interrupt and ask if the tape recorder was on, when he was going to say something he particularly did or did not want published.
He had established a sense of urgency within the Committee members to produce as much volume as possible, and left things sufficiently vague to create second guessing and rancor amongst the Committee members. Over time it was resolved that there were two primary objectives, generate as much of his published words as possible, and maintain absolute control over the content and distribution of his words.
These objectives had two benefits for Chari. First was the revenue that the constant flow of new publications generated, as a supply and demand relationship was exploited around any new material that Chari produced. The second and more insidious benefit was that Chari could now re-interpret the practice of Sahaj Marg and systematically insert himself and any new messages of his own, into the constant flow of published speeches. Since Chari was particularly verbose, there was no shortage of opportunities to generate more content to be published. Eventually the pressure to record private talks evaporated as public speeches provided plenty of opportunities to find material.
The Mission was still young in the west, anddid not charge money to abhyasis for training. This created challenges early on as these publications required up front money. Chari devised a plan where disciples were encouraged to purchase life subscriptions for puplications of Chari's new works. A sufficiently large fee was charged such that the bank interest from the fees could be used to fund the publishing efforts. Members had benefits of early access to new publications and in some instances exclusive access. With the publishing machine now funded and well oiled with capital, Chari used this machine to gradually shift attention away fro Babuji and his written words, and focus it squarely on himself and his dedication to grow the Mission as an example of devotion to his Master.
Lessons In Power Part 4: Establishing New Principles
While Chari kept Babuji’s primary message of heart based meditation alive and accurate, he was also slowly inserting new principles and directives for abhyasis. He presented himself as the model abhyasi. His devotion to serving his Master by growing his Mission in size and numbers was becoming a new and repetitive addition the core practice of Sahaj Marg.
As abhyasis came to accept Chari as the Master, a Master whose example should be emulated, they began to accept the same sense of urgency to grow the organization in numbers as a new integral part of their practice. By the sheer volume of text generated annually from Chari’s speeches and the absolute control over its distribution, this new concept of “Serving the Mission” as part of the actual practice of Sahaj Marg was being introduced as a constant underlying message in practically every speech Chari published. Success was measured in the quantity of new abyasis joining the Mission. The lack of growth in numbers was systematically equated to a lack of spiritual growth. A particular Preceptor or even Center was judged by the annual growth of abhyasis and chastized when numbers did not grow significantly on an annual basis.
Integral to the "Growth In Numbers" directive, was a new urgency to move group meditations out of the homes of Preceptors and into purchased or rented meditation halls. In addition, for the first time, Chari began planting the idea that the US should purchase property for its own Ashram. These efforts required money. More wealthy abhyasis eagerly donated to the cause which spawned a flurry of activity to raise more money. Dedicated abhyasis were approached and asked to make regular monthly donations to support this new costly effort to acquire property.
By this time Chari had established a powerful and well financed communications machine to spread the not so sublte message that with Mission Growth, came the need for abhyasis to dig into their wallets and donate money. Large gatherings became revenue generating events, where fees charged for attendance exceeded the expenses. Once gatherings became profitable, the need to reduce overhead by owning, not renting the halls where gatherings took place became tantamount. It was insisted that, these purchased properties were important as the Master could infuse his spiritual power into them and they would become holy places for spiritual gatherings.
By the mid 1980s France had purchased an estate in Augerans and the castle on the estate was transformed into a residence hall for visiting abhyasis and the visiting Master. The US could not be outdone and privately some wealthy Indian abhyasis conspired to purchase some property in Troy New York from an abhyasis. Somehow this deal was not officially sanctioned by Chari. It posed an interesting problem that an individual abhyasi was financially benefiting from the Mission by selling his property to it. The wealthy Indians believed that if they executed a private deal between themselves and the property owner, then donated the property to the Mission, this could be worked around. This created difficult political problems and eventually Mission funds were used for the transaction.
Meanwhile, the initiative to build an Ashram in the US spawned competition between various centers throughout the US to find the perfect site for an Ashram. This flurry of activity was fueled by the belief that an Ashram in your center equated to more favor and access to the Master, Chari.
Within a short 7 years, Chari had completely transformed the Shri Ram Chandra Mission. New principles were being introduced in Chari's speeches that focused on "service to the Mission". This new Mission was being transformed into an organization that required unquestioned loyalty and obedience. Rather than being a light structure used to serve in the spiritual training of abhyasis, service to the Mission was becoming an integral part of the practice of Sahaj Marg.
Lessons in Power Part 5: My Departure
The Gathering:
I arrived at an SRCM gathering in 1988 showered with congratulations from abhyasis I didn't even know. Apparently, without my knowledge, it had been announced to the entire group that I was to become a preceptor. This disturbed me a bit as I wasn't even asked if I wanted the job, and I lived in a particular center that was plagued by in fighting amongst preceptors and senior abhyasis.
In those days I was still impressionable with position and authority, and the glamour of being appointed by the Master to this position without being asked was intoxicating, so I fell for it. In reality, the correct response should have been to just say no, but that would be done for me a few years later.
The reality was that I wasn't appointed because of my spiritual abilities or sincerity, but as a political ploy by a Zonal Secretary who wanted to have the senior preceptor in my center removed. It was a political appointment, and was made clear to me that my job was to help. I reacted by simply making my home open to people for meditation. I tried to avoid the politics by having a quiet place where people could come and meditate without being subjected to the in fighting in the center. I did what I could to shield new abhyasis from the inner rancor of our center.
The Inner Circle Event:
Then a year later it happened. I was drawn into one of Chari's many inner circle love fests - Select abhyasis sitting in Chari's presence without the "riff-raff" present.
Chari, was handing out prasad saying things like, "this is for the beautiful wife of so and so" and "this is for he who wears a scarf"... In retrospect, the scene was not unlike that of a dog trainer throwing treats to his animals to see what tricks they would do for him.
Then he got serious for a moment and said, "This is for he who is pure of heart". The Zonal Secretary blatantly put out his hand to take the prasad, instead, Chari handed it to me. I reached out my hand in awe and took it. Jokingly I told the Zonal Secretary, “If it makes you feel better, that was extremely hard to swallow”.
This was the beginning of the end of my preceptor-ship in Sahaj Marg. From that day on, the Zonal Secretary turned from being my "friend" to doing what he could to marginalize me which ultimately led to my removal as preceptor.
If I was ambitious like others in the inner circle, I would have fought to retain my position, but, by that time, I had learned a little bit about the lure of power, and chose not to. I resigned all my administrative positions within the organization and proceeded to take a very low profile hoping that somehow the Master would intervene.
This is how things work in the inner circle. Those who desire influence and control, fight for it amongst each other in the presence of the Master and behind his back. The Master rewards those left standing with positions of authority. It’s an interesting version of "survival of the fittest". The Zonal Secretary eventually lost to a more ambitious individual; in fact his position was all but eliminated. There's truth to the saying, "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword."
Retrospect:
Chari eventually did intervene. I was removed as a Preceptor in the same manner as how I was made one. No warning, just a letter announcing that while my services as a preceptor were appreciated, they were no longer required. Aside from the method of delivery of this message, I was relieved. Chari was completely unable to tell me what I did wrong other than a cryptic message stating that I should, "Just sit tight and keep a low profile. In six months, I'll make you a preceptor again." He seemed oblivious to the lessons I was learning from all of this. I had just paid a price for selfishly accepting a position of power to begin with, why would I want to be lured into taking it again?
Whatever reasons Chari has for tolerating these goings on in his circle, it was clear that he wasn't about to confide in me. Having still much to learn about the temptations of power, and Chari’s assumption that I was driven by my desire to have it in the form of preceptor-ship, it was clear that he was in no position to guide me at that critical time in my existence. I needed to leave the SRCM to learn this important aspect of reality. I am relieved that I left when I did, as Chari was in no position to provide me with the support or guidance during the dark times ahead of me, nor was any of his "preceptors". SRCM encourages dependence on the Master, what I needed to do was face what was ahead of me alone to learn that in reality, I am not alone nor am I independent.
I have proceeded in my "material" life to have power and authority positions in companies and organizations, reaching a pinnacle in the corporate world. While no doubt I still have much to learn, my conclusions today are as follows:
When Given Power:
1. Understand your responsibility in accepting it
2. Understand why you are given it.
3. Treat it responsibly and execute selflessly
4. Remember that no one is master of the power they have.
5. Power becomes the master to one who becomes attached to it.
In SRCM, these aspects of power are implied in the teachings and philosophy, but no practical training is provided. Worse yet, the SRCM administrative hierarchy is itself entangled in a web of power that takes on a life of its own. Surely Chari understands this, but apparently is willing to let this happen for some end that he cannot explain other than "I am following the instructions of my Master".
We can only hope that the end does justify the means. For myself, I've taken refuge in the private sector and found a bounty of spiritual lessons to learn there. While there is no living, breathing master to guide me through the dark times, guidance comes from the most unexpected places if one remains sensitive to it. To this day I remain grateful for the lessons I have learned from all these events.
I have nothing but love and best wishes for those who practice Sahaj Marg today. I hope that all find their way. For those who wish to leave but fear the consequences, I only hope that I can stand as proof that ones journey continues even outside the bounds of SRCM.
In his early days as a master, Chari was fond of saying, "The Proof of the Pudding is in the eating of it", when justifying spiritual practice verses scholarly study of spirituality.
I would counter; "The goal of one's life is to live it.”
Lessons In Power Part 6: Meeting Other Masters
Right up to the end of my involvement in SRCM, I had truly believed that Chari had a noble objective and somehow the right thing would happen. Instead I was betrayed and treated like a pawn within the inner circle. My example caused fear in the ranks, followed by an unspoken assumption that I clearly must have done something really bad. It was assumed by some, that I was simply a hot head who stood up to authority and questioned the intentions and integrity of people like the Zonal Secretary, but I tried to do the right thing in a very bad situation. I was punished for not completely surrendering to the temptation of spiritual attainment and power.
I exchanged a couple of fruitless correspondences with Chari only to find his story towards me evolve with every iteration. It started with tempting me with restoration of my preceptor position if I would just keep a low profile and stay in the Mission, to insisting that I had been “Disobedient in matters of the Mission”, then praising me as one of his most sincere disciples, one of only two westerners whom he blessed marrying an Indian woman. After saying my good byes to a few friends in the SRCM, I left with a huge sense of relief, never to looked back.
Meanwhile, my troubled marriage with an Indian woman continued. We had not been able to have children for 7 years of marriage, suddenly, after leaving the organization, this difficult relationship became more complicated with the birth of my first son. Chari would always tell us that we should not expect to have children and accept our fate - yet, almost as soon as we departed from the organizaton, the situation changed.
In all this I began my search for answers. A close Indian friend, PEN, who knew and was associated with Ramana Maharshi took me under his wing. This gentle fellow, an engineer by trade, introduced me to a wealth of knowledge about spirituality and yoga. Never once did he expect me to join anything, but simply share in the knowledge and quest. I got interested in the writings of Vivekananda and started to learn about traditional Raja Yoga. PEN took me to a Vedanta society center to get books and explore their culture. PEN, being an extremely westernized Indian, acknowledged strange attitude people associated with Vivekananda had towards women, keeping them separate from men in meditation. I was immediately reminded of how Chari started to enforce this in SRCM in the west. Indian culture seems to want to deal with sexuality in spirituality by pretending its not there. This created a bit of turmoil in me, having just left a cult, I was certainly not going to join another one. I was sufficiently indoctrinated into Indian culture through my marriage. Getting involved in any organization like this would require me to give up entirely my heritage as a westerner. My exploration in this area was acedemic and short.
I had also discovered through an abhyasi who came to me for meditations, that an Indian fellow who knew Lalaji was still alive. I was introduced to a local doctor who had met this man and was starting to have meditation sessions in his home. I met with the Doctor and started to meet people who had gathered in his home, most refugees from a local academy that taught eastern thought. I hesitated to get too involved, but this Indian, who we called Ranaji Saheb, came to stay in the Doctor’s home.
I took time off work to meet him. His demeanor was similar to Babuji’s. He loved to hear people to sing. People would simply sit with him silently with occasional discussion or song. I liked this man, but both he and I knew that I was not about to give my obedience and trust to him or any one else. While Ranaji had made it clear to the Doctor that he must completely submit to him if spiritual progress was to occur, he told me quite a different thing. Ranaji advised that I should explore my Christian roots. Both the Doctor and I had observed the inner circle culture revolving around this man. Ranaji didn’t seem to exploit it, but people attracted to the possibility of gaining spiritual power and advancement by association with him, showed all the typical signs of fighting for his favor and attention. Both the Doctor and I decided to cease our association with Ranaji and I have completely lost track of him and do not even know if he is still alive.
From Ranaji, I learned about Lalaji and his brother. Both were considered spiritual twins. Ranaji explained that Lalaji was a Hindu Sufi of the Naqushabandhi path. Teachers of this path typically did not create organizations, or had singular lineages, but strove to elevate humanity around them by association. Many travel to live with their disciples like a grandfather. Then move on so as not to foster too much attachment to them personally. I learned that a Russian woman, Irina Tweedie, had spent time with a disciple of Lalaji’s brother and started an organization called the Golden Sufi.
Irina had gotten old and reclusive, but her successor Llewellyn Vaughn Lee, and I corresponded for a year or two. This organization focused on dream analysis and meditation. I was not particularly interested in joining, but was very interested in learning more about the history.
My life by this time was flooded with dream like experiences far more profound than those found in my sleeping dreams, so dream analysis intrigued me. I decided to make a trip to New York City when Llewellyn was visiting there. We met in a small group at a book store. He seemed happy to see me and treated me with respect, like a peer of sorts. I appreciated this. The group meditated, followed by people telling Lewellyn about their dreams. A woman who was casually visiting told of a dream, and was convinced that she should attend the next day as a guest of Llewellyns. Others were chastised for their dreams. It was starting to become clear to me that this telling of dreams puts the teller in an extremely vulnerable position. Analysis of dreams can be used to pump up a deflated ego, or tear down an inflated one.
The next day, I attended another meeting. This time, I spoke about one of my real life dream like experiences - my son being born. His mother would not touch him or hold him at the time of birth. The nurse in frustration this unresponsiveness handed my son to me instead. The surroundings became surreal, everyone seemed to disappear. It was only me and my son. In spite of being less than a couple minutes old, he opened his eyes for the first time and looked straight into mine for what seemed to be an eternity. This shook me to the core as it was as if I was looking into the eyes of God. We stood together by a window looking out over the city together for at least 10 minutes. A silent communication occured during that time, that could not be explained in words.
After explaining this story in a somewhat emotional manner, Llewellyn proceeded to tear me apart. Asking me what I really wanted, and why I was there. I stated that I was there to learn about his path. He went on to tell me that I had already been lead down the garden path, believing that spiritual achievement was the goal when simply being was the path.
I left New York City by train that night, thinking about what he had said. What he said was true. I had already concluded that before hearing it from him, but the message was delivered in a manner such that I was humiliated in front of his disciples. I had broken the peer relationship by sharing a dream like experience and becoming vulnerable to a master. Yet again another inner circle experience had occurred. Humiliation was used to determine the sincerity and trust of a potential disciple. I had seen enough. I wrote one last letter thanking Llewellyn for the meeting and never heard from him again.
My last meeting was by happenstance. I met an old local Indian man named Mr. Rao. He taught yoga at a community center and had a small following. He seemed humble and took no money and seemed uninterested in creating much attention around himself. Mr. Rao came to my house for dinner and decided to read my palm and tell me something about myself. He did not read my palm at all, but simply took my hand and looked at me in the eyes. He said the following:
“You were a prodigy in your youth. Had you developed your material and spiritual self simultaneously at an early age, you would have achieved great things by the age of 27, but you did not receive proper guidance and got distracted in the spiritual path you took. Because you did not develop materially at the same time, your efforts in spirituality were fruitless. You lost that chance and must now focus on your material development. By the age of 47, you again will start to find your spiritual and material ballance. You then must develop both aspects of yourself in tandem for some time. You will truly succeed and by the age of 54 will have achieved all that is possible from a balanced existence. Guidance will come to you and you do not need to seek it out.”
It was as if Mr. Rao was using my own words, not his. Intuitively I knew that I had to focus on my career, which was starting to blossom, and somehow deal with an incredibly unhealthy and abusive family life that was evolving in my home.
I had finally come to the end of my quest of eastern spirituality only to find out that I had to develop my western existence and embrace who I already was. I focused the next several years on entrepreneurial efforts, developing my executive management skills and starting my own technology companies. I saw great success materialy. All along, my spiritual quest continued, not in a spiritual setting, but in corporate America. I saw demons and saints in the corporate world. It was there that I finally met a handful of people who knew how to handle positions of power in a selfless manner.
I realized that power, whether spiritual, political or corporate, is power. Humans in positions of power are easily corrupted by it, be it spiritual or corporate. The likelihood of discovering a person who is not corrupted by power is equally possible in a spiritual organization as it is in a corporate setting. Inner circles are created for the same reason in both types of organizations. I found at least the corporate world far more honest about the inner circle’s purpose. The hierarchy has a purpose and is know by all. A President has a function. When they cease to perform, they move on. If they violate ethics they are removed. Unfortunately this does not occur in spiritual organizations. My spiritual quest continued in the offices of corporate America for quite some time. It was several years before I took Ranaji’s advice and re-explored my roots in Christianity.
Lessons In Power Part 7: My Recovery From SRCM
Sahaj Marg is a system of energy manipulation and power. The basis of the practice is to create a craving, or sense of urgency for God realization in the heart. The disciple performs a daily cleaning process using their own will force, to remove the effects of experiences that cause impressions that limit ones spiritual approach. The Guru/Preceptor further uses their own will force to push these spiritual impurities out of the disciple. Transmission is a transfer of spiritual energy through the will force of the Master or a Preceptor to the recipient to establish more advanced spiritual conditions in the disciple.
This entire system revolves around all participants using their own will force to achieve spiritual attainment at a rate that is accelerated compared to ones natural evolution. While Sahaj Marg stands for “Natural Path” it is in fact a practice that cheats nature by using the force of will to accelerate ones natural development. It is based on accepting that one starts from a place of spiritual inadequacy and requires the external will force of others to rectify the situation. The problem that occurred in me practicing Sahaj Marg, was the constant reinforcement of the need to push to a higher level of attainment, no to mention the constant reinforcement of spiritual inadequacy. At the same time humility is required to keep the ego in check. Sahaj Marg solves this problem by establishing the need for a living Master to surrender to.
A forced craving is established within that causes one to become obsessed with spiritual development which diverts ones priorities away from other worldly activities. This is often mistaken for non-attachment, but is in fact the establishment of a new attachment to the achievement of spiritual power through the dependence on the will force of a living Master.
Recovering from spiritual obsession developed under this system is an involved and time consuming process and my case was no exception. I continued to desire spiritual attainment after leaving SRCM and explored spiritual practices that involve manipulating ones inner energy and power to that end. Having cut off my association with any Guru, I was on my own, which turned out to be my saving grace. Every effort to manipulate power for my own spiritual gain resulted in failure. I started to practice Raja Yoga breathing exercises and immediately contracted bronchitis, which discouraged me from continuing.
My experience with the Golden Sufi organization, being publicly humiliated for being associated with a practice that had spiritual attainment as it’s goal was another shock. Meeting Ranaji Saheb, Lalaji’s disciple was another revealing experience. His recommendation that I explore my Christian roots, caused me to question further whether having a goal of ultimate spiritual attainment at all was a worthy endeavor.
As I proceeded in my business career, I started to notice some successful people leveraged their success as good stewards to humanity, while others selfishly pillaged what they could for personal gain. This reflected back to my experience in SRCM, seeing how some “advanced” abyhasis appeared very selfish an self serving, yet others did not.
I started to learn about the boundaries that one must place around oneself to protect against malicious attacks. Such attacks can come from the financial, physical, emotional and spiritual levels. One of these important boundaries was learning how and when to trust another person. When one achieves a level of attainment on any level, those who desire to topple or steal their attainment often attack them. This is equally prevalent in spiritual groups as it is in corporate and secular environments.
My practice of Sahaj Marg, and the resulting dependence and trust in a Master at such an early age caused me to not properly develop my boundaries with the world around me. This became a harsh lesson as I learned to deal with an abusive and mentally ill spouse and the Machiavellian politics of corporations and venture capitalists.
From my experiences after departing SRCM, I learned that the Inner Circle created by Gurus, is in fact a useful tool for self-preservation. A Guru of course has lots to loose, and must only trust those who have completely submitted to him. On a personal level, I learned that my trust must be earned, not simply due to repeated association, but by observing how individuals around me reacted to difficult situations. Under such pressure, one shows their true self. I learned the importance of establishing my own trusted inner circle, which to this day is a small group of individuals. I also learned that the strength of having others one can trust, establishes a base for ones own actions and contributions to the world. Inner Circles like anything can be used as a valid setting of boundaries, or as a base for power and manipulation. My experiences outside of SRCM helped to define these differences and determine exactly how I should use this concept to protect myself without falling into the lure of power and imposing that power on others.
The most difficult Sahaj Marg artifact to eliminate was the sense of urgency to become a more spiritually evolved person. This urgency ingrained in Sahaj Marg abhyasis reinforces a low self-image and a desire to overcome ones limitations through the dependence on the strength of others. The humility of this dependence on others is in fact not humility at all, but self-deprecation. Left unchecked for years on end, it creates a behavior pattern that assumes false security that the Master will eventually correct ones faults and one will achieve spiritual greatness.
My re-examination into Christianity led me to the Catholic Church. I found people there who practice silent prayer, and re-learned Jesus’ message of forgiving ones self and others for their humanity and non-judgment. Meeting regular people doing charitable work within the church was the most inspiring message for me in my recovery of a power based spiritual practice. These people did not pretend to be anything other than what they were, humans with imperfections, but through their imperfect but sincere action they did extraordinary things.
After 15 years of struggling with my addictions to spiritual power, I sat in prayerful meditation one day. I felt restless, not very inspired, no swirling energy around the heart, head or central point at the base of the skull. In spite of this I felt my being. I accepted my spiritual being as it was, a gift from God, sacred in all its mediocrity. I suddenly felt free to accept my spiritual self for who I was. All sense of inadequacy faded, and I realized that the true subtle condition that is spoken about in SRCM has nothing to do with attainment through will force and power, but through acceptance of ones self. This can be achieved in an instant without the dependence on a Master, but it does require one to accept and live the life that is laid before them. True humility and charity is developed in real life as one learns their own humanity and human limitations.
A long path was taken to get me back to where I started at the tender age of 19 when I was first introduced to SRCM. I finally learned that it was ok to be me - that my lack of spiritual prowess was in fact an illusion. Accepting this allowed me to finally start my spiritual practice - the practice of accepting my life and living it, accepting my humanity and being it. The lessons in power learned from the process, however will serve me for the rest of my life.
LESSONS IN POWER PART 8: ANALYSIS
History
Sahaj Marg was introduced as a revised method of Raja Yoga by Ram Chandra of Shajahanpur, India in the 1940s. Ram Chandra, referred to as Babuji, was a young disciple of Ram Chandra of Fategar, no relation, and affectionately referred to as Lalaji. Lalaji and his brother were a disciples of a muslim Sufi master who taught them the Sufi method of meditation and acknowledged its historical foundation in Vedic meditation practices.
Being young Babuji visited Lalaji only a couple times, and spent most of his time practicing meditation at a distance from Lalaji and corresponding with him by letters. When Lalaji passed away, he left many sincere disciples behind. It remains a controversy as to whether Lalaji intended an organization to be formed around his legacy or chose to have a single successor. His Sufi Master clearly had no organization, nor did he delegate anyone his sole successor, nor did Lalaji establish any organization around himself or his teachings. His brother, considered a spiritual twin also left a legacy of disciples, who also appear not to have claimed sole successor-ship nor created any organization. Yet, Babuji claims to have gotten direct orders in a dream from Lalaji to establish the Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM), and claim himself as Lalaji’s sole successor.
This history leaves many loose ends. What is known is the series of events that proceeded as Babuji established the SRCM and began to attract very dedicated and evolved disciples into his inner circle. The most notable was the scholar Dr. Vadarachari, who died unexpectedly leaving a void in Babuji’s Inner Circle.
The practice of Sahaj Marg, Babuji’s reformed Raja Yoga, devoid of any Sufi references, was intended to be accessible to householders, and was not to be associated with any specific religion. It was a method for the disciple or abhyasi (aspirant) to have direct experience with God.
In the early 1980s, Babuji passed away, leaving an embattled organization behind. This spawned a series vicious legal challenges between senior disciples, fighting over who controlled the Mission. Parthasarthi Rajagopalachari (Chari), appeared to have the most credibility with his legal paperwork and legacy of accompanying Babuji on his various trips abroad, and was adept at early on establishing himself as the new President and Successor to Babuji. Splinter groups were spawned revolving around the son of Dr. Vadarachari, and Babuji’s son, Umesh among others. At the same time, competing organizations founded around Lalaji and his brother were also established.
Root Cause of the Failure of SRCM
Yoga acknowledges the power of thought, that though focused on a thing, gives that thing power. The Yogic principles are based on the concept that creation is the result of an initial thought from the Ultimate, and that each human being a spark of the same initial thought also has their own creation spawned from their own thoughts.
SRCM promotes a process of meditation on the heart, a cleaning meditation done in the evening, and a prayer done at bedtime that acknowledges the living Master as the goal of life. The intent, was that thought, redirected towards the divine within would promote a more spiritually evolved human being. While the practice is supposed to empower the disciple to experience God and Reality directly, this is done under a veil of complete and total dependence and on and obedience to a living Guru. The danger with this type of practice is that if the Guru is not truly selfless, it becomes a power based relationship that benefits the Guru more than it benefits the disciple.
Core to the problem that has evolved as SRCM has progressed, is a culture that is fostered around spiritual attainment. Babuji established that a new vista of human attainment was possible through his practice, referred to as the Central Region. The resulting culture around attaining the Central Region has established a very dangerous precedent. Disciples, who are supposed to be reducing ego, are developing a self centered desire to achieve this spiritual goal and earn entry into a Brighter World at a highly evolved level in the afterlife. Exclusivity established in the SRCM culture caused disciples to believe that only through the SRCM and the support of the living Master could such high attainment be possible. This dependence on the Mission and Master promoted a competitive atmosphere where people vie for attention and favor of the Master in order to achieve their selfish spiritual goals and serve the Mission at all costs to self and family in order to gain spiritual favors. Lost in this culture, is any sense of selfless charity. All selfless actions revolve around serving the Mission and are in fact not selfless at all. The disciple assumes that their “selfless” contribution to the Mission will be rewarded with spiritual attainment and entry into the Brighter World. Clearly something is expected in return for unquestioning obedience to the Mission and Master.
In fact the very principles within the Yogic traditions around realities being created by thought, have been used to create a culture of psuedo-selfless disciples, who serve a Mission and a Master, in expectation of getting something in return. A grand deception results where the disciple believes they are promoting selflessness, but in fact, are selfishly sacrificing what they can to achieve something perceived as better for themSELVES. In the end, the ego develops a new veil. While the Master blames his disciples year after year in public admonishment, about the lack of progress, in fact, the grand deception itself has created its own barrier. Disciples have been trained to selfishly strive to attain something by serving a Master and the Mission that hungrily requires new disciples yearly.
SRCM has in fact created a culture that has completely deviated from the very principles that Sahaj Marg promotes. The root cause appears to be the Mission itself and a singular Master who claims sole successor-ship, without peer, and cannot be questioned. Disciples are encouraged to cease questioning the contradictions and in fact are told to ignore them as they are of this world, and it is only the next world that they should worry about.
Like the Wizard of Oz, they are told to ignore the man behind the curtain and focus on the light show before them, on the Master who will grant them their selfish wish to gain entry into the Central Region and be assured access to the Brighter World upon death.
Invertendo Revisited
Invertendo is a principle that has been aggressively promoted with in SRCM to explain every contradiction that one comes across in spirituality. The root of this principle comes from Lalaji’s book “Truth Eternal” where he claims that by starting from an ignorant state, we strive for knowledge, but after pursuing knowledge comes true ignorance.
In my own practice I have learned that in fact we start where we end. In fact, all this attainment and lust for achievement, once exhausted, resolves back to the very point of simply being, with the love of God in one’s heart. The journey itself appears only to serve the function of wearing down of one’s ego until one returns to the ignorant state that one started the journey with, eager to be part of God’s mystery. In fact, the Path or “Marg” itself is an illusion. This explains the contradiction of the Master bowing before the beginning disciple. Perhaps it is because the innocence that exists in at the start is corrupted and lost along the path, only to be regained when one finally gives up all desire for spiritual attainment, and simply desires to be near God for God’s sake, for Love’s sake. Perhaps, all along the disciple was never very far away to begin with.
This brings into question why so much focus and pressure is put on growing the numbers of disciples. If a new diciples bring their own personal power and surrender it to the Mission/Master, and provide their own thoughts to empower the Mission/Master, we have a process in which a Master can gather power and focus thoughts towards himself and his Mission to strengthen his own personal power. The most insidious concept of Invertendo could be that while by outward appearances, the diciple comes to the Mission/Master to get something, in fact the real power transfer is from the disciple to the Mission/Master.
Summary
The fundamental mistake made within the SRCM is the obsession with attaining a spiritual goal “The Central Region” rather than simply promoting “being” which in fact IS all that is left when one has achieved the elusive “Central Region” as, apparently any sense of self is all but lost and only identity or “being” remains. Sadly this fixation on attainment coupled with un-questioning obedience to a singular Mission and living Master creates the very scenario being seen in the history of the SRCM. The symptoms of this include:
1. Lack of true selfless charity
2. Selfish in-fighting amongst Inner Circle members of the Mission
3. Struggle between Inner Circle members for control of the Mission
4. Sacrifice of careers and family for the sake of the Mission
5. Intolerance of debate or independent questioning of the Mission
6. Intolerance of other religions - especially Christianity
7. Fixation on myths rather than direct experiences.
The last point is the most destructive of all as it degrades SRCM into a religion - Religion of the worst kind, one that has no checks and balances as it is controlled by an Absolute Leader who cannot be questioned. Propagation of these myths increase as tangible results from the practices fade. Myths include channeled messages from the Masters in the Brighter World, stories of Masters cavorting with the likes of Krishna and Kabir, and edicts from Masters delivered in dreams declaring the current living Master as “The Master of the Universe”.
As myths replace actual experiences, disciples thoughts are deflected away from their own experiences and towards these myths, which make them their own reality. The very yogic principles of thought focused on a singular thing, giving it power, has been turned upside down to establish power in Myths that now become a reality of their own with the collective thoughts of disciples focused on them.SRCM, initially established as an organization that promotes a simple spiritual practice of God Realization that can be practiced by the common householder, has now become a power based organization using yogic principles to create a new Mythology and as a result a new religion. The question is, with all the divisions
La SRCM de Babuji et de son fils Umeshchandra
Voici le témoignage de A(nonyme), un indien qui a été membre de la SRCM créée à Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh, Inde) en 1945 par Babuji. Il y est entré comme simple abhyasi en 1987 et devenu précepteur vers 1996.
La version des faits historiques qu'on lui a rapporté est qu'à la mort de Babuji en 1983, Rajagopalachari a tenté de faire valoir ses droits à la présidence de la SRCM mais que cela a été contesté. Babuji l'aurait démis de l'ensemble de ses fonctions vers 1980. Un groupe de travail a été mis en place et S.P. Srivastava en a été nommé président.
En 1994, le fils de Babuji, Umeshchandra Saxena a fait valoir ses droits à la présidence et ils ont été reconnus. S.P. Srivastava a démissionné au profit d'Umeshchandra qui préside donc la SRCM historique depuis lors. En 1996, A. est parti aux Etats-Unis, nommé par Umeshchandra secrétaire de la SRCM historique dans ce pays. Il a créé un site web sur lequel il publiait les 2 lettres de nomination d'Umeshchandra et de Chari signées par Babuji. Cela a débuté une bataille juridique entre les 2 mouvements…
Comme le dit si justement Michael, il n'y a pas un, ni deux mais 3 mouvements aujourd'hui qui se réclament de l'héritage du Sahaj marg de Babuji : la SRCM historique présidée par Srivastava de 1983 à 94 puis par Umeshchandra depuis 1994, la SRCM® de Rajagopachari depuis 1983 qui est une société à but non lucratif enregistrée en Californie et enfin l'ISRC de Narayana depuis août 1991. Sans compter tous les individus qui ont démissionné et véhiculent en leur nom personnel les enseignements de Babuji (Kasturi, etc.) …
Vous pouvez retrouver plus complètement les extraits cités ci-dessous de la discussion entre A., Michael, Christian, Don et moi sur le blog de Michael (http://innercircleofsrcm.blogspot.com) :
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
At age 17 (1987) i had strong desire to understand the meaning and purpose of life. Studied Vivekananda, and started meditating on my own. I came across 'Reality at Dawn'. I was impressed and decided to meet Babuji.(I am an indian living in India). I met a local preceptor Mr.M. After couple of meetings he said "I know what you are looking for, I request you to join our mission. Give me six months of time. Do what i say for six month. At the end we will sit on same platform. If you feel i have wasted your time, your free to give me any abuses you like".
I was touched by the humility and openness. I told him, i would not question for one year.
Later during sittting and talks i realized, Babuji had passed in 1983. I went to Shahjanpur for 'Lalaji's Birthday celebration', the same year. I was already feeling the difference in my condition/experience the grace at Babuji's Samadhi and his house. As i got involved i learnt that there is some issue going on with Babuji's Sucessor. Mr.M told me that Babuji left none. We have a working president Dr.S.P.Srivastava.
I used to meet my preceptor almost three times a week. During talk, i understood that Chari is claiming the sucessorship and came to know about all the legal issues in India too. He mentioned to me that, while Babuji's body was still burning at Shahjanpur, Chari had the paper circulated that he is nominated as the president of mission. Chari was general secretary of the mission till 1980(?), he was removed from all postions after that. Chari was the only person appointed by Babuji to make new preceptors. My preceptor was made a preceptor by Chari!.
But he refused to accept chari as the representative. The personality he described to me about chari and what i read from your blogs are identical!
Infact, Chari send out a letter to my preceptor, that his preceptorship is cancelled, and his powers are revoked. He showed that letter to me when i went for a sitting to his home. Asked me to sit for a sitting and tell him how true it is. I felt no difference in the sitting, it was still the same grace i have been receiving.
Unfortunatly, my preceptor left us in 1993. Babuji that i know, SahajMarg i know, the grace i feel is all due to his efforts. In my very close association with him for six plus years, I have never, not even once, seen him lose his cool or a change in the tone or pitch of his voice. I was like his son, so there nothing hidden from me or as a matter of fact anyone. There was no 'inner circle'.
I had developed good relation with preceptors of neighboring cities too by that time. And i saw very similar personalities. None of them accepted Chari as the successor though.
Since they wanted to run the Mission, they met with the president S.P.Srivastava and decided on ways to make new preceptor and made new one for my city. I took regular sitting from him and felt similar grace too.
I have also heard from my preceptor that Andre Porey was a strong contender for the successorship. Babuji had more liking for him, but Lalaji disapproved him, since Lalaji felt that Andrey Pore or people around him are not introvert and would utilize the power for material purpose. I recollect this as i read your post on people dressed in black showing up for meditation.
As far as i know, my preceptor told me that till the end Babuji was always saying that i did not find one to nominate.
The center was working fine, but we got a letter now from Umeshchandra saxena that he is the sucessor representative. We all got copies of the letter that Babuji Maharaj wrote to him on mission letter head with Babuji's Signature.
I have seen the letter that Umeshchandra produced and the one that chari has produced. I still have copies of both. I rejected the copy chari produced simply by reading its content. Babuji, as i have known him from my preceptor, does nothing without mentioning his guru Lalaji Maharaj. A successor nomination letter without the name of Lalaji Maharaj is 'impossible'.
The letter that umeshchandra produced seemed more in line with Babuji's style. "By the grace of God and Lalaji Maharaj..."
I must mention here, my preceptor told me that when Babuji used to travel west, he used to leave few blank signed papers on mission letterhead for administrative reasons. Since he worked in court, he was very perticular and always checked back on the papers when he came back. In one of his last trips, he saw three blank signed letters were missing. He registered a complain at local police station for records.
Since one of the senior preceptor (he was one of the few, who had soul connection with Babuji-initiation) in neighbouring city, accepted that letter, we all accepted it.
I took sitting from umeshchandra when he came to my city. The sitting reminded me of the condition i felt, at Babuji's Samadhi and Babuji's house. Tremendous grace. But i was very perplexed with the petty talk and other behaviour of Umeshchandra. I question this to the Senior preceptor-whom we were relying on.
He agreed with my observation, asked me to watch and not react. I kept did not question much.
Umeshchandra has accused Chari of 'poisioning' Babuji Maharaj in court papers! He said that something was done to Babuji in his trip to west. I recollect this when i read michael's post of Babuji falling down.
Umeshchandra, later asked me to come and stay at his house near Delhi. I went there for four days, and he made me a preceptor. He seemed sincere in trying to run the mission as Babuji intended. I saw all the menuscripts that Babuji wrote while he as getting dictations from Lalaji Maharaj, Lord Krishna, Swami Vivekanada, Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha etc. (there is a autobiography published from it, not many people has that copy)
Later I came to US on work (1996). Having made preceptor and US secretary of the Mission, i tried to see if i can find some good abhyasis. I tried to contact old abhyasis's from a list i got from Umeshchandra. I even attended a sitting conducted by a local preceptor made by Chari. I did not divulge my identity- said i am an abhyasi from India. I noticed that there were no pictures of Babuji Maharaj or Lalaji Maharaj in the center. There was a picture of Chari. I did not find any grace in that sunday group sitting.(my sensitivity is very good to surrounding, i can catch good and bad vibrations, thoughts etc.)
After the sitting a book was being read written by Chari. I never went there again or talked with the preceptor.
I created a website 'sahajmarg.org'. Put some basics of Babuji's teaching and the issue of sucessor representative. I scanned the court papers, Chari had presented in the court as successor representative and the one Umeshchandra presented.
This started a legal battle here in US. They(Chari's zonal secretary) contacted the domain registrar and disputed the domain. The issue went to arbitration. I worked with Umeshchandra, and presented the response to the arbitration. The decision came in our favour that we can keep the domain name. I was delighted, and so were people in india, this was probably the first time, we had won something.
This did not last long, as Chari, approched the federal court, virginia to dispute the outcome. I too hired an attorney to fight the case. My financial power and other means were extremly limited. There is nobody here that can support me in this issue. It was a drag on me personally and finacially.
When, Chari(zonal seceratary) realized, i am fighting it out, they hired one of the biggest law firm in US to fight the case (100K + would be their fees)
In 1999, I went to india to attend Babuji's centenary celebration in Shahjahanpur. I saw obvious change in Umeshchandra at that time. He did not have any Job or financial backing. He had started depending on the Mission to support himself. I did not have any problem with it, since he was doing a full time job as the president. But i saw, that the attitude was to get more money in the mission, so that he and his family can use more- support a lifestyle.
I saw politicians invited at the celebrations on the stage. They are bad everywhere, but in india its - i don't have words here.
I saw i was being used for some publicity. There were fears for Umeshchandra's life due this dispute and he was carrying a revolver in his pocket at shahjahanpur ashram.
I was sad. I realized Umeshchandra is not the representative. I discussed with the senior preceptor on whose word we had accepted him as president. He used to manage all the accounts for the ashram. He acknowledged, grave money mismangement in the mission.
I came back to US, very sad. I still had to deal with the court case, since Chari's attorney refused to accept Shri RamChandra Mission, Shahjanpur, India as an identity and was personally dragging me in the case for violating his trademarks.
My attorney, advised me to backoff, He told me he does not have means to fight the biggest law firm in US, and even if we won, they can always challenge the decision and go to supreme court and drag this for a long time. I did not have the money, or power and now no faith in Umeshchandra.
I signed the papers that i have nothing to do with the SRCM, nor will my kids! have anything to do with it.
My heart cried...still does.
Let me add one more...
There is a CD/cassette available of Babuji's talks with Danish abhyasis (1974?) The western abhyasis are impressed with Chari and inquirying about Kasturi and Chari to Babuji. A lady asks Babuji, "is Chari a saint?", Babuji gives some vague answer, but she repeats the questions. Babuji answers "Chari is Bachelors of Science"!!!
These are Masters own words, recorded, published even by Chari's organization.
Michael a dit…
Dear Brother,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. Your story is astonishingly similar to mine! Having met one of Lalaji's last living disciples, I am convinced that there was no desire on Lalaji's behalf to start an organization, or have successors.
I sincerely believe this whole SRCM was Babuji's creation, not Lalaji's, and it has created a life of its own that has nothing to do with the spiritual advancement of humanity.
To this day I don't understand the need for yet another spritual organization that will untimately degrade to another organized religion (if it hasn't already).
I have to say, when I met Umesh back in 1980, he did not seem very active spiritually.
Given my training as a preceptor, I know quite well how easy it is to present a facade of holiness around oneself. Umesh and Chari have done this. This facade conceals real objectives, desires and intentions.
Privately, Chari complained constantly about his disciples, their whining and foolishness. I saw people he kept close to him keeping people away from Chari when he got into that kind of mood, Yet publically, he presented a Masterly Facade.
When it all comes down to it, I believe that SRCM as an organization (either the Shajahanpur or Mumbai versions of it), does little to advance how its disciples interact in this life, and instead have them fixated on serving an organization and Master so that they can advance in the Brighter World.
This now includes aggressive legal action against opposing groups and detractors. Rumor has it, that there have been "inner circle" discussions about our blogs and a US attorney has been asked to look into how to shut us down. Of course, in the US free speech laws prohibit the expression of personal opinions. However, if this is indeed true, it is yet another sad fact of just how self centered and defensive this organization has become!
I share your sadness. Feel free to keep in touch with us.
Michael
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
Michael,
The organization SRCM was created with Lalaji's approval and wishes. Babuji had lost his ego-individuality. The Autobiography i mention which contains numerous day to day events in intercummunication form says so. Infact the dictations give details that there was a big issue of successor representative after Lalaji passed away. It is in 1944, Lalaji's birthday celebration Babuji was declared as his sucessor by Ishwar Sahai (?). Lalaji, Lord Krishna, Swami vivekananda and many more had left the brighter world and were present to take care of Babuji. Lalaji Maharaj, Swami Vivekanada and Lord Krishna were his constant companions. This was printed in India around 1989. 3000 copies. From your response i am assuming you have not read it. I have read those intercommunication papers written by babuji originally in Urdu, all dictations from swami Vivekananda were in english. These were translated by Dr.S.P.Srivatava. That book is my 'Gita'. There is so much information in there, i wish more people could read it.
Michael a dit…
My Dear Friend,
Nothing of what you write can be confirmed. All comes from Babuji's dreams and creations in his mind. Even Ishwar Sahai's announcement is something only Babuji can attest to. Meanwhile there were dozens of Lalaji's disciples who present different facts. Now Chari allegedly claims to have "dreams" or have Babuji "channeled" by a third party and this information. Conveinient for him as these facts are totally un-proveable, just as your Autobiography myths are.
My friend, what I am saying is that Missions and Successors, do not matter. This may seem a bold statement to you but I believe it boils down to how the system trains its adherents to treat their fellow man/woman in this world in order to evolve and prepare for the next. If selfishness remains, then all the detachment in the world won't save you!
Personally, I was attracted to Babuji's personality, not his credentials and always bristled when these myths were propogated as they are extremely manipulative. They represent clear signs of a spiritual organization degrading to a religion. Spirituality is about experiencing God. Religions are about believing in God. Now what have you written here that is about Spirituality?
Please, keep the focus on facts and experiences when writing here, not mythology and legend determining who's in charge. We're interested in YOUR EXPERIENCES not the myths propogated to benefit a few in charge of a large organization.
Sorry for being so blunt, but you must be careful presenting un-verifiable information here as truth. Not only does it serve no purpose, but it belittles YOUR experience, which, in spirituality IS important. The facts you present are not important in any spiritual sense and only serve to sway the masses to believe in a religious hierarchy without experiencing anything.
So, if you have experiences of your own that you'd like to share, then share them here, but understand that unless you personally witnessed Vivekananda and Krishna leaving the Brighter world to be in Babuji's presence, or if you've visited the Brighter World and confirmed these facts with these individuals, I suggest that you reserve posting these myths elsewhere.
Regardless, I hope you find happiness and benefit from the path you are on.
Michael
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
Michael,
I agree w.r.t the autobiography, nothing can be confirmed. Babuji said it, wrote it in his dairy and now few have it as book.
Anybody can claim it. There are few things one can look for 'Motive'
-Either the person claiming such dictations was mentally unstable
-Had desire for fame, money, material values
- or pass the 'truth' to the masses.
There could be more analysis on the isssue of motive, but my friend, i don't blame you the world is filled many pseudo guru's. Having never seen the 'good' side of the system, one would think in similar direction. I guess even i might have taken similar position.
I agree with you, the mission, sucessor does not matter. What matters to me is, my personal transformation. Am I still the same person, getting affected by every circumstances or have i 'naturally' moved to a more divine state.
There is a reason, many highly developed spiritual soul do not come out in public. The original emphasis, as i have learnt for 'sahaj marg' was propogation thru word of mouth. An abhyasi would introduce another person, if he/she sees that the there is a internal craving in the person.
I have seen that there was emphasis on 'quality' of abhyasi and never 'quantity'. We never wanted quantity. This is not for everyone to digest.
My preceptor used to tell me, this is power, and if tendencies are not understood and changed, a small thief would become very big thief. If utilized properly, the thief can become a saint.
I take trouble to write this, since it hurts when the finger is pointed to Babuji Maharaj. Please don't be hasty, leave the benefit of doubt. The system, organization did perform as ideally it should, i can attest to it. But when the quantity increased due to some organizer's enthusism, it went down.
Michael a dit…
Dear Anonymous
Apparently you have not read the blog and seem to think I did not know Babuji, but I did. I joined SRCM in 1979 and travelled to Shahjahanpur multiple times.
I am not sure whether Babuji wrote this "Auto"biography or if it was created by those around him. I was impressed with Babuji, but then again, I was also impressed with Chari. I also met some other very impressive Gurus, one was also associated with Lalaji.
I am by no means ignorant of the SRCM, or the practice of Sahaj Marg as I was a Preceptor and practiced it for over 10 years. I stand by what I say.
It is well documented that Babuji had very limited contact with Lalaji. He determined that he should announce his successorship from a dream he had after Lalaji passed away. By this time many of Lalaji's disciples and disciples of Lalaji's brother had established themselves as spiritual teachers and saw little need to follow Babuji. (Yes even Babuji mentions Lalaji's brother as a spiritual twin).
I am not judging Babuji, but am simply stating the facts. I do not believe even mentioning the dreams and visions that Babuji may or may not have had of Vivenkenanda, Krishna, Lalaji or other dead people is even remotely relevant to the spiritual experience one has in the presence of someone like Babuji.
Sadly, Anonymous, whomever he is, has decided Babuji's autobiography, which I have read, is a new religious document that everyone should read. This defeats the purpose of a spiritual practice that is supposed to develop one's own discrimination.
In today's SRCM discrimination is DEAD. It is all about blind obedience. Lions are turned into sheep while the wolves in the inner circle fight over morsels of meat.
It is a sad state of affairs, yet still some manage to extract some nectar from this rotting fruit.
Babuji was an impressive person, but he was human. He was able to convey something spiritual to others, but his legacy is rotting away as his hand picked inner circle fight over what remains of it.
I will be bold here and say that I believe he indeed made a mistake in creating SRCM and claiming exclusivity in the Sufi/Vedic heritage he gleened from his association with Lalaji. Other disciples of Lalaji chose claim any exclusive lineage. His doing so has done nothing but to muddy an otherwise simple spiritual path and establish a new religion based on myth and blind faith in dreams and visions and possibly illusions.
Michael
Alexis a dit…
Mr. Anonymous,
I just have discovered your comment (thanks to Don). It is terribly interesting. But there are things which I don't understand. Perhaps, you could explain me…
- You said Dr SP Srivastava was the 'working president' of the Mission, and yourself were the secretary when you went to the USA. Is it the SRCM of Chari or another one ? Is there two Missions : Umeshchandra's Mission and Chari's Mission ? Who is Srivastava ?
- You said that in your area of origin, people do not like Chari. What area is it? Uttar Pradesh ?
- You said Lalaji didn't like André Porey. How could they have known each other ?
Thanks for explanations
4d-Don a dit…
Anonymous and Michael...
Could one of you clarify a few things for me:
1. Which region of India are you from?
2. Who is Dr. Srivastava? What Mission is he from? Are we speaking of another Mission and not the SRCM?
3. You say you arrived in USA as "secretary of the Mission". Which Mission? SRCM of another Mission?
4. You mention 2 letters, one to Chari and one to Umeshchandra, do you have copies? Do you know who does?
You say:
I have also heard from my preceptor that Andre Porey was a strong contender for the successorship. Babuji had more liking for him, but Lalaji disapproved him, since Lalaji felt that Andrey Pore or people around him are not introvert and would utilize the power for material purpose. I recollect this as i read your post on people dressed in black showing up for meditation.
Did Lalaji know Mr. Porey? Could you clarify how that can be?
Thanks for your testimonial, anonymous, and your info.
If anyone else can clarify, or shed some light on these issues, please do so.
4d-don
Christian a dit…
Hi Anonymous,
You said you have copies of the letters used by ChariTM and Unesh to claim their succession.
These letters could be published on Michael's blog if he agrees as well as you - in the form of pictures resulting from a scan.
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
Thanks to all who have expressed interest in the posting.
-When Babuji left and chari came out with the sucessor letter, there were problems. There were factions.
- A working group was formed and S.P.Srivastava was choosen as the president. This is the same group -original SRCM shahjanpur HQ center. This was not immediate, it took a while (few years). The ashram was not getting properly maintained after Babuji.
Later this-Presidentship was passed on to Umeshchandra. Since Umeshchandra came out with a letter showing(1994), he is the appointed representative by Babuji.
Just to clarify, I have never had any association with SRCM-Chari. I have never met chari. My association has always been with SRCM, Shahjahanpur, India. BTW, alexis, there are many factions of SRCM, Chari's is one of them and it has large number.
Regarding Andrey Porey, What i wrote i got it from my preceptor. This was in 1990. How does Lalaji know Andrey? Well we are going to cross the physical boundry here to answer that.
Lalaji was almost a constant companion of Babuji Maharaj, it is evident from Babuji's dairy. From the kind of questions, doubts, i get here, I almost certain, nobody in this group has read it. I have not read the book 'Whispers of Truth ?" from Chari, so i cannot say whether its the same as what i am referring.
Chari has no access to Babuji Maharaj's diary. It was Lalaji's wish as well as Babuji's wish to have it printed after Babuji Maharaj leaves the physical body. Umeshchandra and now his son Navneet has it. Babuji used to have daily communication with departed souls. Originally written in urdu and english. This work was translated by Dr.S.P.Srivastava.
This is offcourse a very controversial aspect. We all need proof. A material proof, of a non-material 'thing'!
I have been discouraged by Michael, not to put stuff that cannot be proved or can be imaginary. The Irony is, What is false is getting proved in the courts! and survives in masses! (in this physical world!)
Friends, please remember Chari was not the only person close to Babuji Maharaj, I have known many senior perceptors who were very close to Babuji Maharaj.
It should not matter which region i am from in India. I did visit Shahjahanpur every year from 1987 onwards with 1996.
I have no objection to providing the letter chari or Umeshchandra is using to claim successorship, this were submitted to Supreme court of India towards the court dispute.
Just a word of caution to the enthusiastic folks here. I have been burnt by this and i personally would not like others to take that road.
My 'only' purpose to write all this is to share and help and never to 'bitch'. I can never do that for any thing that involves 'Babuji's' name.
call me 'A'
Michael a dit…
A,
Thanks for providing more information. As for your disappointment in me for not accepting the un-proven myths, It is not about tangible vs untangilbe or Supreme Court vs Babuji's visions, it is the deflection of focus on one's own spiritual experiences and the creation of Myth that is faith based rather than experiential that I have an issue with.
These Myths tend to cause the Masses to "follow" a Master rather than pursue their own spiritual practice.
Michael
Christian a dit…
1) So, how do we proceed with these letters if you are ok to display them?
2) I have asked on this blog to RK Pilani how to get the book you are talking about but had no answer. Is there a way to buy it somewhere?
3) I surely do not want to go in the direction of an open conflict and that's why I try to discourage it by showing that the cure could be worse. Our situation is not to claim being the SRCMtm as was yours or that of others who had this kind of problem.
Alexis a dit…
If I well understood, Babuji died in 1983, Chari presents its successor letter which is refused and a working group is created and chaired by Dr SP Srivastava (1983-94). Chari didn't be pleased and he constituted its own movement in parallel.
In 1994, Umeshchandra shows a letter which is recognized, SP Srivastava dissolves the group and Umeshchandra becomes official president of the Mission. You (Mr A.) are named secretary of the Mission in the United States in 1996 and you create a website...
It means there are 2 Missions, one official chaired by SP Srivastava first (1983-94) and after by Umeshchandra (1994-today), the other one unofficial chaired by Chari since 1983.
Am I mistaken ?
Do you know why Umeshchandra waited 1994 to show its letter ?
KC Narayana, son of Dr KC Varadachari, said he saw this letter in 83 or before. He said also Chari's letter was authentic, Umeshchandra's letter wasn't...
Do you know Narayana ? What is your impression ? And about Dr Varadachari ?
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
Alexis,
your summary/understanding of the mission situation is correct.
Why did Umeshchandra waited for so long? I did not get a clear
answer. I did ask it.
There many division or preceptors practising by themselves, like Ragvendra rao, KC Narayana, Kasturiji and many more.
I have never met Dr.Vardhachari, But i know my preceptor used to speak very high of him. From some of the letters that are published online between him and Babuji, he was the chosen sucessor by Babuji, but he did not live long here.
I do not have much knowledge about KC Narayana. He seems to keep the door not wide open, maybe from bad experiences from abyasis following different group.
Here is my thought - purely personal, Most of the preceptors in India are doing good service and are keen on following the principles of Babuji maharaj, except the well known SRCM-Chari. There may be some good folks in there too.
Michael, i understand where you are comming from, but the onus of blindly following the Master and not the principles lies on the disciple.
I did accept the letter Umeshchandra produced, i did experience the 'grace' from him. But when the worldly actions were not based on 'principles' i moved on.
As the indian system, the guru is regarded as 'living god'. There is no other form of God you can experience physically. You may hit me for this, but i do accept that. But please remember Babuji has mentioned that it is better to remain without a Guru, instead of choosing a wrong one. The tests for such a guru are very high. I have and would test a guru to almost every doubt that comes across in my mind. Real faith develops following that, otherwise its all sheeps following.
Christian, The book i am refering, i have serious doubts if its available now.
My 2 cents to all the abhyasis, The method is correct, the principles are correct, pray directly to Babuji maharaj and he will help you. Its from my experience.
I am not sure how i can upload the documents here.
A
Michael a dit…
All,
There are not 2 but at least 3 SRCM groups now that KC Narayana has started ISRC.
The point that I would emphasize is that all these senior members, who claim all to have achieved the "Central Region" are fighting over an organization and successorship to it. This entire dynamic makes a mockery of spiritual attainment - and personally makes me not give a hoot about their spiritual achievments. They are behaving like the worst of human beings here on Earth and making a mess of things - Perhaps the brighter world is just a safe place to keep these dangerous souls safely away from humanity after death?
I will state again, and I know you all will not like this, but Babuji created this mess! He decided to create the Mission, claim himself sole successor of Lalaji and claim that only through Him and His Mission could one practically attain the Central Region. He attracted lots of impressive people into his fold and develped a strong power base with their combined energy.
I'm not questioning Babuji's sincerity or whether he had the dreams and visions that he wrote about, I am simply saying that he has created an organization and a culture that fostered power mongering and narcisissim.
Meanwhile there is a legacy that goes beyond SRCM - Lots of groups following Lalaji and his Brother. The Golden Sufi folks, associated with Irina Tweedie (Author of "Daughter of Fire") come from Lalaji's Brother's lineage. I believe they have preserved more of the basic principles that existed in Lalaji's days - no sole successor, etc...
So Babuji chose to deviate from the direction that Lalaji, his brother and their other disciples took of not having any real organization, nor any sole successorship to fight over.
I stand by my claim that the SRCM and the whole concept of Successors is done to control the masses. Spiritually focused individuals will find the right person or group to be associated with. Legal papers, organizations, and castles to meditate in, are not necessary - that is unless one desires to build a powerbase and a mass of sheep-like disciples to control. Who benefits from that?
Sorry to dissappoint those who still hold onto Babuji's legacy, but the truth is, his legacy is rotting away with every splinter group and "Central Region" disciple who claims to be pure path to the Brighter World.
Honestly, what is lost in all this is the whole concept of human development. There seems to be little concern for acting selflessly, and serving humanity without expectetion of getting something in return. It's all about "THE MISSION"...
What about HUMANITY? What about charity and forgiveness? What about honoring one's family and serving one's community?
How did all these principles get lost? Because everyone is so fixated on serving the Mission so that they can attain the Central Region so that they can become the next Master or at least become part of is Inner Circle!
Sad, very sad.
La version des faits historiques qu'on lui a rapporté est qu'à la mort de Babuji en 1983, Rajagopalachari a tenté de faire valoir ses droits à la présidence de la SRCM mais que cela a été contesté. Babuji l'aurait démis de l'ensemble de ses fonctions vers 1980. Un groupe de travail a été mis en place et S.P. Srivastava en a été nommé président.
En 1994, le fils de Babuji, Umeshchandra Saxena a fait valoir ses droits à la présidence et ils ont été reconnus. S.P. Srivastava a démissionné au profit d'Umeshchandra qui préside donc la SRCM historique depuis lors. En 1996, A. est parti aux Etats-Unis, nommé par Umeshchandra secrétaire de la SRCM historique dans ce pays. Il a créé un site web sur lequel il publiait les 2 lettres de nomination d'Umeshchandra et de Chari signées par Babuji. Cela a débuté une bataille juridique entre les 2 mouvements…
Comme le dit si justement Michael, il n'y a pas un, ni deux mais 3 mouvements aujourd'hui qui se réclament de l'héritage du Sahaj marg de Babuji : la SRCM historique présidée par Srivastava de 1983 à 94 puis par Umeshchandra depuis 1994, la SRCM® de Rajagopachari depuis 1983 qui est une société à but non lucratif enregistrée en Californie et enfin l'ISRC de Narayana depuis août 1991. Sans compter tous les individus qui ont démissionné et véhiculent en leur nom personnel les enseignements de Babuji (Kasturi, etc.) …
Vous pouvez retrouver plus complètement les extraits cités ci-dessous de la discussion entre A., Michael, Christian, Don et moi sur le blog de Michael (http://innercircleofsrcm.blogspot.com) :
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
At age 17 (1987) i had strong desire to understand the meaning and purpose of life. Studied Vivekananda, and started meditating on my own. I came across 'Reality at Dawn'. I was impressed and decided to meet Babuji.(I am an indian living in India). I met a local preceptor Mr.M. After couple of meetings he said "I know what you are looking for, I request you to join our mission. Give me six months of time. Do what i say for six month. At the end we will sit on same platform. If you feel i have wasted your time, your free to give me any abuses you like".
I was touched by the humility and openness. I told him, i would not question for one year.
Later during sittting and talks i realized, Babuji had passed in 1983. I went to Shahjanpur for 'Lalaji's Birthday celebration', the same year. I was already feeling the difference in my condition/experience the grace at Babuji's Samadhi and his house. As i got involved i learnt that there is some issue going on with Babuji's Sucessor. Mr.M told me that Babuji left none. We have a working president Dr.S.P.Srivastava.
I used to meet my preceptor almost three times a week. During talk, i understood that Chari is claiming the sucessorship and came to know about all the legal issues in India too. He mentioned to me that, while Babuji's body was still burning at Shahjanpur, Chari had the paper circulated that he is nominated as the president of mission. Chari was general secretary of the mission till 1980(?), he was removed from all postions after that. Chari was the only person appointed by Babuji to make new preceptors. My preceptor was made a preceptor by Chari!.
But he refused to accept chari as the representative. The personality he described to me about chari and what i read from your blogs are identical!
Infact, Chari send out a letter to my preceptor, that his preceptorship is cancelled, and his powers are revoked. He showed that letter to me when i went for a sitting to his home. Asked me to sit for a sitting and tell him how true it is. I felt no difference in the sitting, it was still the same grace i have been receiving.
Unfortunatly, my preceptor left us in 1993. Babuji that i know, SahajMarg i know, the grace i feel is all due to his efforts. In my very close association with him for six plus years, I have never, not even once, seen him lose his cool or a change in the tone or pitch of his voice. I was like his son, so there nothing hidden from me or as a matter of fact anyone. There was no 'inner circle'.
I had developed good relation with preceptors of neighboring cities too by that time. And i saw very similar personalities. None of them accepted Chari as the successor though.
Since they wanted to run the Mission, they met with the president S.P.Srivastava and decided on ways to make new preceptor and made new one for my city. I took regular sitting from him and felt similar grace too.
I have also heard from my preceptor that Andre Porey was a strong contender for the successorship. Babuji had more liking for him, but Lalaji disapproved him, since Lalaji felt that Andrey Pore or people around him are not introvert and would utilize the power for material purpose. I recollect this as i read your post on people dressed in black showing up for meditation.
As far as i know, my preceptor told me that till the end Babuji was always saying that i did not find one to nominate.
The center was working fine, but we got a letter now from Umeshchandra saxena that he is the sucessor representative. We all got copies of the letter that Babuji Maharaj wrote to him on mission letter head with Babuji's Signature.
I have seen the letter that Umeshchandra produced and the one that chari has produced. I still have copies of both. I rejected the copy chari produced simply by reading its content. Babuji, as i have known him from my preceptor, does nothing without mentioning his guru Lalaji Maharaj. A successor nomination letter without the name of Lalaji Maharaj is 'impossible'.
The letter that umeshchandra produced seemed more in line with Babuji's style. "By the grace of God and Lalaji Maharaj..."
I must mention here, my preceptor told me that when Babuji used to travel west, he used to leave few blank signed papers on mission letterhead for administrative reasons. Since he worked in court, he was very perticular and always checked back on the papers when he came back. In one of his last trips, he saw three blank signed letters were missing. He registered a complain at local police station for records.
Since one of the senior preceptor (he was one of the few, who had soul connection with Babuji-initiation) in neighbouring city, accepted that letter, we all accepted it.
I took sitting from umeshchandra when he came to my city. The sitting reminded me of the condition i felt, at Babuji's Samadhi and Babuji's house. Tremendous grace. But i was very perplexed with the petty talk and other behaviour of Umeshchandra. I question this to the Senior preceptor-whom we were relying on.
He agreed with my observation, asked me to watch and not react. I kept did not question much.
Umeshchandra has accused Chari of 'poisioning' Babuji Maharaj in court papers! He said that something was done to Babuji in his trip to west. I recollect this when i read michael's post of Babuji falling down.
Umeshchandra, later asked me to come and stay at his house near Delhi. I went there for four days, and he made me a preceptor. He seemed sincere in trying to run the mission as Babuji intended. I saw all the menuscripts that Babuji wrote while he as getting dictations from Lalaji Maharaj, Lord Krishna, Swami Vivekanada, Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha etc. (there is a autobiography published from it, not many people has that copy)
Later I came to US on work (1996). Having made preceptor and US secretary of the Mission, i tried to see if i can find some good abhyasis. I tried to contact old abhyasis's from a list i got from Umeshchandra. I even attended a sitting conducted by a local preceptor made by Chari. I did not divulge my identity- said i am an abhyasi from India. I noticed that there were no pictures of Babuji Maharaj or Lalaji Maharaj in the center. There was a picture of Chari. I did not find any grace in that sunday group sitting.(my sensitivity is very good to surrounding, i can catch good and bad vibrations, thoughts etc.)
After the sitting a book was being read written by Chari. I never went there again or talked with the preceptor.
I created a website 'sahajmarg.org'. Put some basics of Babuji's teaching and the issue of sucessor representative. I scanned the court papers, Chari had presented in the court as successor representative and the one Umeshchandra presented.
This started a legal battle here in US. They(Chari's zonal secretary) contacted the domain registrar and disputed the domain. The issue went to arbitration. I worked with Umeshchandra, and presented the response to the arbitration. The decision came in our favour that we can keep the domain name. I was delighted, and so were people in india, this was probably the first time, we had won something.
This did not last long, as Chari, approched the federal court, virginia to dispute the outcome. I too hired an attorney to fight the case. My financial power and other means were extremly limited. There is nobody here that can support me in this issue. It was a drag on me personally and finacially.
When, Chari(zonal seceratary) realized, i am fighting it out, they hired one of the biggest law firm in US to fight the case (100K + would be their fees)
In 1999, I went to india to attend Babuji's centenary celebration in Shahjahanpur. I saw obvious change in Umeshchandra at that time. He did not have any Job or financial backing. He had started depending on the Mission to support himself. I did not have any problem with it, since he was doing a full time job as the president. But i saw, that the attitude was to get more money in the mission, so that he and his family can use more- support a lifestyle.
I saw politicians invited at the celebrations on the stage. They are bad everywhere, but in india its - i don't have words here.
I saw i was being used for some publicity. There were fears for Umeshchandra's life due this dispute and he was carrying a revolver in his pocket at shahjahanpur ashram.
I was sad. I realized Umeshchandra is not the representative. I discussed with the senior preceptor on whose word we had accepted him as president. He used to manage all the accounts for the ashram. He acknowledged, grave money mismangement in the mission.
I came back to US, very sad. I still had to deal with the court case, since Chari's attorney refused to accept Shri RamChandra Mission, Shahjanpur, India as an identity and was personally dragging me in the case for violating his trademarks.
My attorney, advised me to backoff, He told me he does not have means to fight the biggest law firm in US, and even if we won, they can always challenge the decision and go to supreme court and drag this for a long time. I did not have the money, or power and now no faith in Umeshchandra.
I signed the papers that i have nothing to do with the SRCM, nor will my kids! have anything to do with it.
My heart cried...still does.
Let me add one more...
There is a CD/cassette available of Babuji's talks with Danish abhyasis (1974?) The western abhyasis are impressed with Chari and inquirying about Kasturi and Chari to Babuji. A lady asks Babuji, "is Chari a saint?", Babuji gives some vague answer, but she repeats the questions. Babuji answers "Chari is Bachelors of Science"!!!
These are Masters own words, recorded, published even by Chari's organization.
Michael a dit…
Dear Brother,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. Your story is astonishingly similar to mine! Having met one of Lalaji's last living disciples, I am convinced that there was no desire on Lalaji's behalf to start an organization, or have successors.
I sincerely believe this whole SRCM was Babuji's creation, not Lalaji's, and it has created a life of its own that has nothing to do with the spiritual advancement of humanity.
To this day I don't understand the need for yet another spritual organization that will untimately degrade to another organized religion (if it hasn't already).
I have to say, when I met Umesh back in 1980, he did not seem very active spiritually.
Given my training as a preceptor, I know quite well how easy it is to present a facade of holiness around oneself. Umesh and Chari have done this. This facade conceals real objectives, desires and intentions.
Privately, Chari complained constantly about his disciples, their whining and foolishness. I saw people he kept close to him keeping people away from Chari when he got into that kind of mood, Yet publically, he presented a Masterly Facade.
When it all comes down to it, I believe that SRCM as an organization (either the Shajahanpur or Mumbai versions of it), does little to advance how its disciples interact in this life, and instead have them fixated on serving an organization and Master so that they can advance in the Brighter World.
This now includes aggressive legal action against opposing groups and detractors. Rumor has it, that there have been "inner circle" discussions about our blogs and a US attorney has been asked to look into how to shut us down. Of course, in the US free speech laws prohibit the expression of personal opinions. However, if this is indeed true, it is yet another sad fact of just how self centered and defensive this organization has become!
I share your sadness. Feel free to keep in touch with us.
Michael
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
Michael,
The organization SRCM was created with Lalaji's approval and wishes. Babuji had lost his ego-individuality. The Autobiography i mention which contains numerous day to day events in intercummunication form says so. Infact the dictations give details that there was a big issue of successor representative after Lalaji passed away. It is in 1944, Lalaji's birthday celebration Babuji was declared as his sucessor by Ishwar Sahai (?). Lalaji, Lord Krishna, Swami vivekananda and many more had left the brighter world and were present to take care of Babuji. Lalaji Maharaj, Swami Vivekanada and Lord Krishna were his constant companions. This was printed in India around 1989. 3000 copies. From your response i am assuming you have not read it. I have read those intercommunication papers written by babuji originally in Urdu, all dictations from swami Vivekananda were in english. These were translated by Dr.S.P.Srivatava. That book is my 'Gita'. There is so much information in there, i wish more people could read it.
Michael a dit…
My Dear Friend,
Nothing of what you write can be confirmed. All comes from Babuji's dreams and creations in his mind. Even Ishwar Sahai's announcement is something only Babuji can attest to. Meanwhile there were dozens of Lalaji's disciples who present different facts. Now Chari allegedly claims to have "dreams" or have Babuji "channeled" by a third party and this information. Conveinient for him as these facts are totally un-proveable, just as your Autobiography myths are.
My friend, what I am saying is that Missions and Successors, do not matter. This may seem a bold statement to you but I believe it boils down to how the system trains its adherents to treat their fellow man/woman in this world in order to evolve and prepare for the next. If selfishness remains, then all the detachment in the world won't save you!
Personally, I was attracted to Babuji's personality, not his credentials and always bristled when these myths were propogated as they are extremely manipulative. They represent clear signs of a spiritual organization degrading to a religion. Spirituality is about experiencing God. Religions are about believing in God. Now what have you written here that is about Spirituality?
Please, keep the focus on facts and experiences when writing here, not mythology and legend determining who's in charge. We're interested in YOUR EXPERIENCES not the myths propogated to benefit a few in charge of a large organization.
Sorry for being so blunt, but you must be careful presenting un-verifiable information here as truth. Not only does it serve no purpose, but it belittles YOUR experience, which, in spirituality IS important. The facts you present are not important in any spiritual sense and only serve to sway the masses to believe in a religious hierarchy without experiencing anything.
So, if you have experiences of your own that you'd like to share, then share them here, but understand that unless you personally witnessed Vivekananda and Krishna leaving the Brighter world to be in Babuji's presence, or if you've visited the Brighter World and confirmed these facts with these individuals, I suggest that you reserve posting these myths elsewhere.
Regardless, I hope you find happiness and benefit from the path you are on.
Michael
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
Michael,
I agree w.r.t the autobiography, nothing can be confirmed. Babuji said it, wrote it in his dairy and now few have it as book.
Anybody can claim it. There are few things one can look for 'Motive'
-Either the person claiming such dictations was mentally unstable
-Had desire for fame, money, material values
- or pass the 'truth' to the masses.
There could be more analysis on the isssue of motive, but my friend, i don't blame you the world is filled many pseudo guru's. Having never seen the 'good' side of the system, one would think in similar direction. I guess even i might have taken similar position.
I agree with you, the mission, sucessor does not matter. What matters to me is, my personal transformation. Am I still the same person, getting affected by every circumstances or have i 'naturally' moved to a more divine state.
There is a reason, many highly developed spiritual soul do not come out in public. The original emphasis, as i have learnt for 'sahaj marg' was propogation thru word of mouth. An abhyasi would introduce another person, if he/she sees that the there is a internal craving in the person.
I have seen that there was emphasis on 'quality' of abhyasi and never 'quantity'. We never wanted quantity. This is not for everyone to digest.
My preceptor used to tell me, this is power, and if tendencies are not understood and changed, a small thief would become very big thief. If utilized properly, the thief can become a saint.
I take trouble to write this, since it hurts when the finger is pointed to Babuji Maharaj. Please don't be hasty, leave the benefit of doubt. The system, organization did perform as ideally it should, i can attest to it. But when the quantity increased due to some organizer's enthusism, it went down.
Michael a dit…
Dear Anonymous
Apparently you have not read the blog and seem to think I did not know Babuji, but I did. I joined SRCM in 1979 and travelled to Shahjahanpur multiple times.
I am not sure whether Babuji wrote this "Auto"biography or if it was created by those around him. I was impressed with Babuji, but then again, I was also impressed with Chari. I also met some other very impressive Gurus, one was also associated with Lalaji.
I am by no means ignorant of the SRCM, or the practice of Sahaj Marg as I was a Preceptor and practiced it for over 10 years. I stand by what I say.
It is well documented that Babuji had very limited contact with Lalaji. He determined that he should announce his successorship from a dream he had after Lalaji passed away. By this time many of Lalaji's disciples and disciples of Lalaji's brother had established themselves as spiritual teachers and saw little need to follow Babuji. (Yes even Babuji mentions Lalaji's brother as a spiritual twin).
I am not judging Babuji, but am simply stating the facts. I do not believe even mentioning the dreams and visions that Babuji may or may not have had of Vivenkenanda, Krishna, Lalaji or other dead people is even remotely relevant to the spiritual experience one has in the presence of someone like Babuji.
Sadly, Anonymous, whomever he is, has decided Babuji's autobiography, which I have read, is a new religious document that everyone should read. This defeats the purpose of a spiritual practice that is supposed to develop one's own discrimination.
In today's SRCM discrimination is DEAD. It is all about blind obedience. Lions are turned into sheep while the wolves in the inner circle fight over morsels of meat.
It is a sad state of affairs, yet still some manage to extract some nectar from this rotting fruit.
Babuji was an impressive person, but he was human. He was able to convey something spiritual to others, but his legacy is rotting away as his hand picked inner circle fight over what remains of it.
I will be bold here and say that I believe he indeed made a mistake in creating SRCM and claiming exclusivity in the Sufi/Vedic heritage he gleened from his association with Lalaji. Other disciples of Lalaji chose claim any exclusive lineage. His doing so has done nothing but to muddy an otherwise simple spiritual path and establish a new religion based on myth and blind faith in dreams and visions and possibly illusions.
Michael
Alexis a dit…
Mr. Anonymous,
I just have discovered your comment (thanks to Don). It is terribly interesting. But there are things which I don't understand. Perhaps, you could explain me…
- You said Dr SP Srivastava was the 'working president' of the Mission, and yourself were the secretary when you went to the USA. Is it the SRCM of Chari or another one ? Is there two Missions : Umeshchandra's Mission and Chari's Mission ? Who is Srivastava ?
- You said that in your area of origin, people do not like Chari. What area is it? Uttar Pradesh ?
- You said Lalaji didn't like André Porey. How could they have known each other ?
Thanks for explanations
4d-Don a dit…
Anonymous and Michael...
Could one of you clarify a few things for me:
1. Which region of India are you from?
2. Who is Dr. Srivastava? What Mission is he from? Are we speaking of another Mission and not the SRCM?
3. You say you arrived in USA as "secretary of the Mission". Which Mission? SRCM of another Mission?
4. You mention 2 letters, one to Chari and one to Umeshchandra, do you have copies? Do you know who does?
You say:
I have also heard from my preceptor that Andre Porey was a strong contender for the successorship. Babuji had more liking for him, but Lalaji disapproved him, since Lalaji felt that Andrey Pore or people around him are not introvert and would utilize the power for material purpose. I recollect this as i read your post on people dressed in black showing up for meditation.
Did Lalaji know Mr. Porey? Could you clarify how that can be?
Thanks for your testimonial, anonymous, and your info.
If anyone else can clarify, or shed some light on these issues, please do so.
4d-don
Christian a dit…
Hi Anonymous,
You said you have copies of the letters used by ChariTM and Unesh to claim their succession.
These letters could be published on Michael's blog if he agrees as well as you - in the form of pictures resulting from a scan.
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
Thanks to all who have expressed interest in the posting.
-When Babuji left and chari came out with the sucessor letter, there were problems. There were factions.
- A working group was formed and S.P.Srivastava was choosen as the president. This is the same group -original SRCM shahjanpur HQ center. This was not immediate, it took a while (few years). The ashram was not getting properly maintained after Babuji.
Later this-Presidentship was passed on to Umeshchandra. Since Umeshchandra came out with a letter showing(1994), he is the appointed representative by Babuji.
Just to clarify, I have never had any association with SRCM-Chari. I have never met chari. My association has always been with SRCM, Shahjahanpur, India. BTW, alexis, there are many factions of SRCM, Chari's is one of them and it has large number.
Regarding Andrey Porey, What i wrote i got it from my preceptor. This was in 1990. How does Lalaji know Andrey? Well we are going to cross the physical boundry here to answer that.
Lalaji was almost a constant companion of Babuji Maharaj, it is evident from Babuji's dairy. From the kind of questions, doubts, i get here, I almost certain, nobody in this group has read it. I have not read the book 'Whispers of Truth ?" from Chari, so i cannot say whether its the same as what i am referring.
Chari has no access to Babuji Maharaj's diary. It was Lalaji's wish as well as Babuji's wish to have it printed after Babuji Maharaj leaves the physical body. Umeshchandra and now his son Navneet has it. Babuji used to have daily communication with departed souls. Originally written in urdu and english. This work was translated by Dr.S.P.Srivastava.
This is offcourse a very controversial aspect. We all need proof. A material proof, of a non-material 'thing'!
I have been discouraged by Michael, not to put stuff that cannot be proved or can be imaginary. The Irony is, What is false is getting proved in the courts! and survives in masses! (in this physical world!)
Friends, please remember Chari was not the only person close to Babuji Maharaj, I have known many senior perceptors who were very close to Babuji Maharaj.
It should not matter which region i am from in India. I did visit Shahjahanpur every year from 1987 onwards with 1996.
I have no objection to providing the letter chari or Umeshchandra is using to claim successorship, this were submitted to Supreme court of India towards the court dispute.
Just a word of caution to the enthusiastic folks here. I have been burnt by this and i personally would not like others to take that road.
My 'only' purpose to write all this is to share and help and never to 'bitch'. I can never do that for any thing that involves 'Babuji's' name.
call me 'A'
Michael a dit…
A,
Thanks for providing more information. As for your disappointment in me for not accepting the un-proven myths, It is not about tangible vs untangilbe or Supreme Court vs Babuji's visions, it is the deflection of focus on one's own spiritual experiences and the creation of Myth that is faith based rather than experiential that I have an issue with.
These Myths tend to cause the Masses to "follow" a Master rather than pursue their own spiritual practice.
Michael
Christian a dit…
1) So, how do we proceed with these letters if you are ok to display them?
2) I have asked on this blog to RK Pilani how to get the book you are talking about but had no answer. Is there a way to buy it somewhere?
3) I surely do not want to go in the direction of an open conflict and that's why I try to discourage it by showing that the cure could be worse. Our situation is not to claim being the SRCMtm as was yours or that of others who had this kind of problem.
Alexis a dit…
If I well understood, Babuji died in 1983, Chari presents its successor letter which is refused and a working group is created and chaired by Dr SP Srivastava (1983-94). Chari didn't be pleased and he constituted its own movement in parallel.
In 1994, Umeshchandra shows a letter which is recognized, SP Srivastava dissolves the group and Umeshchandra becomes official president of the Mission. You (Mr A.) are named secretary of the Mission in the United States in 1996 and you create a website...
It means there are 2 Missions, one official chaired by SP Srivastava first (1983-94) and after by Umeshchandra (1994-today), the other one unofficial chaired by Chari since 1983.
Am I mistaken ?
Do you know why Umeshchandra waited 1994 to show its letter ?
KC Narayana, son of Dr KC Varadachari, said he saw this letter in 83 or before. He said also Chari's letter was authentic, Umeshchandra's letter wasn't...
Do you know Narayana ? What is your impression ? And about Dr Varadachari ?
Un utilisateur anonyme a dit…
Alexis,
your summary/understanding of the mission situation is correct.
Why did Umeshchandra waited for so long? I did not get a clear
answer. I did ask it.
There many division or preceptors practising by themselves, like Ragvendra rao, KC Narayana, Kasturiji and many more.
I have never met Dr.Vardhachari, But i know my preceptor used to speak very high of him. From some of the letters that are published online between him and Babuji, he was the chosen sucessor by Babuji, but he did not live long here.
I do not have much knowledge about KC Narayana. He seems to keep the door not wide open, maybe from bad experiences from abyasis following different group.
Here is my thought - purely personal, Most of the preceptors in India are doing good service and are keen on following the principles of Babuji maharaj, except the well known SRCM-Chari. There may be some good folks in there too.
Michael, i understand where you are comming from, but the onus of blindly following the Master and not the principles lies on the disciple.
I did accept the letter Umeshchandra produced, i did experience the 'grace' from him. But when the worldly actions were not based on 'principles' i moved on.
As the indian system, the guru is regarded as 'living god'. There is no other form of God you can experience physically. You may hit me for this, but i do accept that. But please remember Babuji has mentioned that it is better to remain without a Guru, instead of choosing a wrong one. The tests for such a guru are very high. I have and would test a guru to almost every doubt that comes across in my mind. Real faith develops following that, otherwise its all sheeps following.
Christian, The book i am refering, i have serious doubts if its available now.
My 2 cents to all the abhyasis, The method is correct, the principles are correct, pray directly to Babuji maharaj and he will help you. Its from my experience.
I am not sure how i can upload the documents here.
A
Michael a dit…
All,
There are not 2 but at least 3 SRCM groups now that KC Narayana has started ISRC.
The point that I would emphasize is that all these senior members, who claim all to have achieved the "Central Region" are fighting over an organization and successorship to it. This entire dynamic makes a mockery of spiritual attainment - and personally makes me not give a hoot about their spiritual achievments. They are behaving like the worst of human beings here on Earth and making a mess of things - Perhaps the brighter world is just a safe place to keep these dangerous souls safely away from humanity after death?
I will state again, and I know you all will not like this, but Babuji created this mess! He decided to create the Mission, claim himself sole successor of Lalaji and claim that only through Him and His Mission could one practically attain the Central Region. He attracted lots of impressive people into his fold and develped a strong power base with their combined energy.
I'm not questioning Babuji's sincerity or whether he had the dreams and visions that he wrote about, I am simply saying that he has created an organization and a culture that fostered power mongering and narcisissim.
Meanwhile there is a legacy that goes beyond SRCM - Lots of groups following Lalaji and his Brother. The Golden Sufi folks, associated with Irina Tweedie (Author of "Daughter of Fire") come from Lalaji's Brother's lineage. I believe they have preserved more of the basic principles that existed in Lalaji's days - no sole successor, etc...
So Babuji chose to deviate from the direction that Lalaji, his brother and their other disciples took of not having any real organization, nor any sole successorship to fight over.
I stand by my claim that the SRCM and the whole concept of Successors is done to control the masses. Spiritually focused individuals will find the right person or group to be associated with. Legal papers, organizations, and castles to meditate in, are not necessary - that is unless one desires to build a powerbase and a mass of sheep-like disciples to control. Who benefits from that?
Sorry to dissappoint those who still hold onto Babuji's legacy, but the truth is, his legacy is rotting away with every splinter group and "Central Region" disciple who claims to be pure path to the Brighter World.
Honestly, what is lost in all this is the whole concept of human development. There seems to be little concern for acting selflessly, and serving humanity without expectetion of getting something in return. It's all about "THE MISSION"...
What about HUMANITY? What about charity and forgiveness? What about honoring one's family and serving one's community?
How did all these principles get lost? Because everyone is so fixated on serving the Mission so that they can attain the Central Region so that they can become the next Master or at least become part of is Inner Circle!
Sad, very sad.
Extraits de propos de K.C. Narayana
Le célèbre docteur en philosophie K.C. Varadachari (1902-1971) était un grand ami de Babuji, et même selon certains son successeur désigné s'il avait vécu plus longtemps. Il a créé le Sahaj Marg Research Institute en 1967, précurseur du SMRTI actuel. Son fils, K.C. Narayana, est devenu abhyasi en 1955, précepteur en 67, directeur du SMRI en 84 et démissionnaire de la SRCM en 91 pour fonder une organisation dissidente, l'Institute of Sri Ram Chandra Consciousness (ISRC, www.sriramchandra.org).
Narayana reconnaît que Chari a été nommé président de la SRCM par Babuji dès 1974, mais lui refuse le titre de représentant spirituel. Il rejoint les analyses de son père qui déplorait les compromissions de Babuji pour obtenir des moyens matériels au détriment de la qualité de l'enseignement spirituel.
Narayana et ses fidèles disent enseigner aujourd'hui la méthode originale héritée de Babuji sans la moindre déformation et en l'absence de tout maître vivant. Peter et Inès, anciens abhyasis de Chari qui ont rejoint l'ISRC, ont d'abord longuement échangé avec lui par mail en mars et avril dernier. Voici des extraits des réponses de Narayana qu'on peut retrouver plus longuement sur le blog de Christian (http://spydi.blogspot.com) :
Dear brother
Thank you for your kind mail. I have been in the system of Rev. Babuji since 1955 and worked as a preceptor of SRCM from 1967 to 1991. I have been in personal contact with the Master Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur who took me to the acme of perfection in this system of sadhana though I still feel I am a beginner in the path. I worked very closely with Parthasarathy Rajagopala Chari from the beginning till 1991 and more closely since the physical veiling of the Master in 1983. I knew Brother Andre Poray of France as he used to visit my respected and venerable father Dr. K.C.Varadachari but I did not have any opportunity to discuss with him at any point of time. We ( some serious practicants of the system) separated when my brother Parthasarathy was projected as a Living Master and less emphasis was sought to be given to the methods of Rajayoga given by the Master Babuji Maharaj and a casual approach was taken towards the Commentary on Ten Commandments of the Master which Master is on record to say that is his master piece. We believe and feel sure that Rev. Babuji Maharaj is the eternal master governing the destinies of spiritual life of all aspirants in the world for the millennia to come. Also we consider Pranahuti to be a yogic achievement and is not dependant on any person for its source thus converting the process itself to the ridiculous level of being a medium. We do not charge any fees for any work that we do and in fact provide lot of material free of cost and books which may cost in the market around ($20) for a just about ½ a $ towards the handling charges that also being optional. We are more interested in conveying the message of the Master as also propound it according to our capacity and approach and all the material is available in our site www//sriramchandra.org and www// imperience.org. We also believe in assisting the aspirants to evaluate themselves according to the Ten Commandments of the Master and also the map given in the book Towards Infinity. I have recently published and made it available in the internet for free down load my commentary on the book called Path of Grace. We do agree that brother Parthasarathy is the President of SRCM as a successor to Babuji Maharaj but not as a successor to the spiritual Master or Special Personality who is guiding all of us. I have by the grace of my Master link with Him and am serving those who seek to serve the Master by enabling them have the connection with the Master. It is only when a person has access upto Brahmand Mandal the case is taken up at the request of the individual aspirant to get him connected with Master and then he is permitted to work as a trainer in the ISRC. You can get more information by reading our site patiently under the head Dr.K.C.V. Order. I think I gave more information than normally I do and hope this would enable you to understand our position better.
Yours in the service of the Master
K.C.Narayana
Q: Indeed, I worry about what Chari said recently concerning 95% of abhyasis : they are still at the 1st point, and the rest are at the 2nd... my wife and I have been meditating for 18 years and we feel completely lost and powerless in front of such a reality... We don't have tools, answers, which could help us to overwhelm these obstacles.
K.C.N: Bro. Chari did not deviate much from the procedure of permitting persons as PREFECTS. During Rev. Babuji also used to permit like that and there were very few PRECEPTORS (known as full fledged permission those days.
We used to receive a Big certificate while the Prefects used to receive a smaller one.) In ISRC no permission is given unless a person has access upto the Brahmand and this is after a thorough assessment by a group of persons forming what we call Governing Council. When we separated from SRCM Bro. Chari wanted the certificates given earlier to be returned to him which was duly complied with. We are of the firm opinion that Spiritual progress is not dependant on the papers given to us. To assess the spiritual progress we have since developed certain self evaluation tools to assess oneself regarding the compliance on the Ten Commandments given by the Master. We have also a questionnaire to evaluate oneself of his progress in the Pind desh. The ISRC insists on practice of meditation on points A and B which was fully explained by the Master in his book Efficacy of Rajayoga. Also we practice the prayer at 9 P.M. stating " That all the persons in the world are brethren and they are all developing true love and devotion to the Master." These were all found as omissions by us in SRCM in 1991 though there has always been some serious aspirants insisting on these since 1967.
Q: In our little center of meditation, we sent two days ago a letter to the responsible for Europe; we are everyone of us very dedicated but upset by the recent transformation of the SRCM into something like a "multinational enterprise". (it is very hard for me to speak like that of my spiritual organization, but...).
We worry about the prices of subscriptions, fees for seminars (200, 250, 300 euros...), books... I have got a question concernig the latest book called"Whispers from the Brighter World", which is a "series of messages transmitted from Babuji to a French abhyasi "( for information, this book was sold like a subscription for 250 euros last year and the center paid to have one; but it is proposed now in french, which is the original language, for 300 euros... without the possibility of regrouping to buy it...Many abhyasis cannot afford it...) I read it and felt sweetness but there is no spiritual teaching in these messages... What do you think about it?
K.C.N: Dear brother, I am very sorry I cannot say anything about these organizational matters. I do not believe that Institutions can help much in spirituality. I was told earlier that the book mentioned by you is a series of messages that brother Chari got and now you say something else. Anyway I am not interested in that as my approach to Spirituality does not permit any deviation of attention from the Homeland.
Q: We worry about "sales by auction" which took place... in the meditation hall instead of meditation twice during the last seminars in Italy and Denmark....
K.C.N: This ofcourse is bit odd but what can I say about that? It is all organizational matters. Have you at any time read the books "letters of the Master Vol. 1 and 2. My revered father writing to Master stated in his letter dated18th June.1970, that "I fully realise that you require freedom from organizational work for the sake of spiritual work. I trust everyone will cooperate with you. But I must utter a word of warning if I ought not to be misunderstood. Let us not commercialise our Mission in our haste to secure financial stability for the Mission and in embarking upon works which are not immediately helpful to spiritual development for the abhyasis. We have to imbue the sense of Mission- spiritual and not mix it up with other ends. If I am not misunderstood I believe some things can be thrashed out with other seekers who also know about the deviations that take place in spiritual work. I trust you will not misunderstand me." {pps412-413}.
Q: We worry because of the project of giving 5 euros when a spiritual gathering (satsang+meal for instance) is organized. We worry because we don't find anymore the fraternal, generous, loving and studious spirit we found there at the beginning..
K.C.N: In ISRC also when there are celebrations of the birthday of Rev. Lalaji and beloved Master when large number of persons gather ( 5 to 6 hundreds) they do donate some money but no fixed charge is there. Usually the donations are more than our requirement and we donate the extra amount to the Sahaj Seva Samsthan. { Please see our site www// Sahaj seva Samsthan.org} which runs a free school for slow-learners, and a highly subsidized Hospital in the name of Sri Ramchandra memorial hospital. We consider and promote the feeling fraternity and service and sacrifice are the virtues that we need to develop in spiritual life.
Q : Dear Brother, I could add that I don't feel we are progressing on the spiritual path; as a preceptor, I would like to see that everybody is changing but it isn't the case. I would like personnally to be more aware of where I am, how I can learn better, and how I could be useful to help my brothers. I am longing for a real spiritual teaching with spiritual questions, answers and ethics. I would be glad if you could give me some advice : what and how can I do from France?
K.C.N: It is very good that you have sincere feelings of serving others in spiritual life. The spiritual teachings of the Master Babuji is the best that I am aware of. We have provided the same in our site as down loadable material. I suggest that you do read our 1. Showers of Divine grace 2. Sruti and 3. Path of grace. Also try to browse the site Imperience and go through the papers presented in our seminars. As for actual spiritual training, I do not know whether brother Chari has given any manuals of training. The ISRC has one which from my point of view is a good commentary on the manual 1 and 2 given to me by my Master. But we have a policy not to give to those who are not trainers in ISRC.
Q: Today, by a (very!) strange way, it seems that we are going back way home and it is very disturbing because we have always been told that Chari was Babuji's spiritual successor, appointed by him, in presence of witnesses. Thus how can we explain this? Is it possible to explain this? Can you explain this?
K.C.N: I do not know whether I can explain things but I can tell you certain facts.
1. Brother Parthasarathy was nominated as President of SRCM in March 1974. The words Spiritual Representative IS NOT there in the original document. This document was NOT attested by witnesses.
2. I being one of the members of the Working Committee nominated by Rev.Babuji Maharaj was the first to say the document need not be doubted as another document produced by one of the sons of our Master was a fake/bogus one.
3. The confusion arises only the position of the President of SRCM is confused with Spiritual Master who works for a millennia. Rev. Master is on record saying that he would be more useful after his physical veiling.
4. The problem or pseudo problem is necessity felt by some for a physically present Master. That there are realms beyond the physical is the basis of spirituality- as you can see the word spiritual would loose its sense the moment we want to have in the physical realm.
5. As a Prefect of SRCM you should be knowing that we do not do anything physically and all our work is in the astral plane only. { I do hope you were supplied with copy of the Manual of training issued by Rev.Babuji. This I am stating because since middle of Seventees this practice was stopped- I understand later some manual is being given}
Q: In reality, we are divided: mentally, we have got a sort a culpability in relation with Chari; within our heart, we have the certainty that we are right, that something very important is happening, that we are coming back to our Homeland...
K.C.N: Happy to hear this: the Master always guides the sincere and devoted.
Q & R:
From yesterday night, there were some clouds in my heart when I thought about the meeting which occurred today with a SRCM responsible for the southern zone. Indeed, she came because we sent a collective letter to express ourselves on our concern about SRCM financial options. The official answer to our anxiety has been:
- you don't have faith enough
K.C.N: Faith is a big subject. We need to have faith in ourselves, we should have faith in the method and faith in the guide/Master in the path. The subject of faith is dealt with very seriously in the philosophies of Surrender of various religions. The chapter in Reality at Dawn relating to Guru can be read by you with profit.
- you should be confident in the Master
- you should obey the Master
K.C.N: The whole problem is who is the Master? If it is God who is the real guru there is no problem and the co traveler in the path is duty bound to help us reach the feet of the Lord or gain Oneness with Him.
- only Master can know the Divine planes and your critics are only the expression of your ego.
K.C.N: If the words “ planes” in your mail is right I do not think so. God has only one Plane and that is the Blessing Splendour as I call it which is the nature of the 23 ring towards the centre. How we can judge ourselves regarding the plane of consciousness in which we normally function is what is sought to be explained in the book “ Towards Infinity” by the Master. I tried to put on record my thoughts in the book “ Path of Grace” available for free down load.
If otherwise you meant “ Plans” then surely the Supreme Personality alone knows it; no matter whether a person is the President of SRCM or not. That the Supreme Personality is the one who is working to better the quality of human being and he has his own plans is a fact beyond doubt. Human transformation is happening and that will happen very soon.
- all this shows that you have got a problem with money and materiality
K.C.N: What answer can I give on this. Every one has a need for money and body has its own requirements. That is why the system of our beloved Master is essentially meant for house holders and is not a method of the renounced/ ascetics.
- give up your dreams, you must face materiality within your spiritual organization.
K.C.N: Some person advised you and who am I to say on these matters. All that I can say we should live happily working for the transformation of humanity incessantly with total conviction in the cause of the Master and his method. 9 P.M. Prayer is the most important tool that we should invariably use for this purpose.
Q: I felt very bad because for me, obediance comes from the heart naturally when it is the good moment and , more important, love doesn't exclude critical sense, on the contrary...
K.C.N: I totally agree with you. If this freedom of expression is lost what freedom are we seeking in spirituality? May be I can suggest you to read the volumes 1 and 2 of Masters letters which is the correspondence between my revered father and the Master.
Q: Finally, the minimum of fraternity should be to listen with the heart different opinions. But it was not the case of course...
K.C.N: Any brand of Spirituality worth its name should encourage constructive individual development. Further it should be motivated by unselfish service to humanity. It should enable the individual to find out the narrow path of self effort and individual responsibility for spiritual development. It should appeal to reason and common sense and encourages verification through direct personal experience. To say Master will take care of all this is simple laziness at its worst and slavery at its best.
True spirituality supports the spiritual prosperity of the individual through holding out the vision of continuous progress through self effort and support of the Master
Real spirituality should encourage free discussion and rational explanations. And it should make its instructions and teachings of the Master available to all the worthy persons.(No discrimination intended)
Q: If I summ up, when I am thinking about all this, I don't feel very well with an impression of treason, culpability, irrespect in relation with my Master Chari. When it is my heart which is speaking, I would be crying with gratefulness the whole day. Do you see the problem?... I have a certain impression of "doing the splits"... and my wife too.
K.C.N: No other person can understand this agony than me. Since that will lead to my story of agony and ecstasy in spirituality I refrain writing further on this.
Dear brother
Thank you for your kind mail. Letters of the Master Volume I and II is published by SRCM only. I gave the correspondence from 1954 to 1971 maintained by my revered father Dr.K.C.Varadachari to brother Parthasarathy on his request in 1984. He provided me with a Xerox copy of the same in 1985. He got it published first in 1992 and the copy right is held by the SRCM North American Publishing Committee Pacific Grove CA USA. Then Mr. Thomas J. Whitlam who edited the correspondence sent me a copy of the two volumes. I do not have them now as my son Srihari took it from me. I do not know anything about other volumes of Letters of the Master and I wonder whether any of them contain my letters and Rev. Babujis’ replies to me which were also given to brother Parthasarathy in 1984. However Sri Ramchandra Publishers Hyderabad have published a book titled “Event Horizon” which is an abridged version of the correspondence based on the Xerox copies of the letters with me. This is available for down load from the site www// sriramchandra.org
Regarding the manual of training given by Rev. Babuji Maharaj it consists of two volumes. Volume I is meant for prefects and Volume II is also given to Preceptors who were very few in number those days. I was given both of them by the Master and so was brother Parthasarathy. Perhaps he has given Volume I only to prefects. Since you are referring to the period 1988, I have to say I have a copy of the same given by brother Parthasarathy saying that he started giving the manuals.
With blessings of the Master
K.C.Narayana
Dear brother,
Your mails have raised many questions and I do not know how far I can answer them satisfactorily to you.
The issues raised may be stated broadly as:
1.Regarding the manuals of training
2.As to why I parted ways with brother Parthasarathy.
3.The evaluations of the aspirants as whole done by the President SRCM and the ethical and otherwise correctness of the same
4.If the evaluation of no evolution in majority of the aspirants in the SRCM is correct whether it is not a joke played by the system.
5.The progress made by the aspirants in ISRC and a few supplementaries to that.
I shall try to answer them one by one and I promise you that it is going to be a tedious reading for you but the nature of your questions is such. Bear with me for that.
First and the easiest one to answer is the Manuals of training given to you by brother Parthasarathy. It does cover to some extent the manuals given by Master particularly the part I. It would not be proper for me to say anything more than this.
Regarding why I parted with SRCM I wrote about this earlier in a small way. However as you desire me to answer again I shall do so. The story is really long but to make it short I should say that it was way back in late Nineteen Fifties and early Sixties the problem arose regarding the relative importance of the institutional structures (Ashram buildings etc.,) and spiritual procedures and progress. This was when the first Ashram of SRCM was getting constructed at Tirupati. A substantial donation was offered by a lady doctor and wife of a senior police official in Andhra Pradesh but she would not accept any receipt from my father for that and therefore it was not accepted. But as things were to happen the amount was paid at Shahjahanpur and Master sent the money to Tirupati for construction which was reluctantly received by my revered father. Construction means bricks and mortar: very gross matters. My father wriggled himself out of this problem. The correspondence between my revered father and our Master Babuji Maharaj in this matter can be seen in the letters when you get the books. To be more precise the problem is the relative importance of materialism and spirituality. My revered father wanted spirituality to be given more importance and the system of training should not become casuality. Others members of SRCM had different views. The simmering discontent was there since then. The problem blew into greater dimension when the SRCM was getting commercialized in the language of my revered father and Rev. Babuji was trying to convince him that no curvature was developing as feared. I apart from being a son was a close disciple of my revered father and studied under him Indian Philosophy, Western Philosophy including Henri Bergson as part of philosophies of evolution which included Aurobindo and others too. Further I specialized in a branch of Vedanta called Visistadvaita. Apart from that my professors in Psychology were close associates of my revered father and I studied Psychoanalysis for two years along with Constitutional Psychology. With all this back ground I found myself in total agreement with my revered father that Institutions are also a powerful binding influence in the path of spiritual freedom and one needs to keep a close vigil on Institutionalism. But the process of constructing Ashram buildings in various centres started and funds were getting raised for the purpose with all good intentions. Our books which costing very little ( as little as less than a rupee) were getting printed and published surely in better manner at a cost that is high according to the then prevailing Indian standards. The marketing skills of brother Parthasarathy were being fully utilized and he is a very efficient person as you also know. But this disturbed my revered father and he thought spirituality is gaining low priority as the aspirants were all busy in fund collection for the books, magazines, advertisements for the magazines and souvenirs published on annual celebrations of the Masters. He wrote to Master about this commercialization and the curves that are getting formed in SRCM which ofcourse Master explained away; all this can be seen between the lines in the correspondence between him and the Master.
In addition to this, the criteria for correct evaluation of spiritual condition of the aspirants were posing problems which could not be sorted out easily. Evaluations made by the Master also were not acceptable to some Preceptors and this put persons like my revered father in anguish. He expressed to Master his anguish stating “It has grave consequences in our appraisal of the ultimate state possible under our system.” Different Preceptors were evaluating aspirants differently and the SRCM was taking more and more the position of leaving the matter of evaluation to the Master and the prefects and preceptors were asked to keep their mouths shut- a practice that is being continued even now if I am right. The responsibility for performing Yatra in the abhyasis was thrown on the Master stating that it is not the task of the preceptors. This problem emanated mainly because the number of prefects were more and they were expecting to be treated on par with preceptors. The task of promoting them to the level of the preceptor being tougher because of their lack of sadhana and other difficulties, the easiest solution is to treat them as equal and there by effectively nullifying the original distinction and in the process the motivation to grow in spiritual stature. But this ensured increase in the number of persons getting enrolled as members of the SRCM. The quantity as usual killed the quality in this case also. All these are unpalatable to many of us.
Further Master himself has evaluated differently the same person in some cases and this led to the need for arriving at standardization of evaluation techniques and procedures. This has led to the Master clarifying that there are two positions for the person being evaluated 1. Aksi and 2. Kasbi or 1.Potential and 2. Actual. Or 1.Reflected and 2 Acquired. I am sure you have some information from the manuals supplied to you by brother Parthasarathy. It is absolutely essential to understand these concepts in work to assess properly the condition of the aspirant. Two seminar were held at Tirupati in late Nineteen Seventy and in one of them Master talked about the “Method of Training” which to my knowledge was not published by SRCM so far. It is part of the book “Showers of Divine Grace” published by Sri Ramchandra Publishers available for download in the site of sriramchandra.org. The Master stressed in the article that “moulding is the responsibility of the preceptors”. But this was ignored to such an extent that the article itself will be difficult for you to locate in SRCM.
In addition to these the prefects and some preceptors of SRCM were not giving enough importance to the “Ten Commandments of Sahaj Marg” though Master is on record that the book is his Master Piece. They went to such an extent during his life time itself to call the book “Ten Maxims of Sahaj Marg”.
Also the importance of the meditations on points A and B explained in the book “Efficacy of Rajayoga” was bypassed in preference to what is called love for the Master. That A and B points are discoveries of the Master the purification of which alone enables the aspirants to move into the higher realms of consciousness and also the cleansing of the points A1, B1; A2, B2; and A3 and B3 which enable one to stabilize in the higher realms of consciousness is totally neglected and ignored and to a certain extent denounced. The matter came up for discussion before the Master and I contended that if Master agrees that these are not necessary he in all fairness and honesty should withdraw the book “ Efficacy of Rajayoga” from the public where it is already in circulation for over 2 decades and give an open apology for misguiding aspirants. Shocked at this he sat immediately in meditation and communed with his master Rev. Lalaji and confirmed that what he wrote in the book is correct and should be practiced. A few hundred copies of a booklet listing the duties and responsibilities of the aspirant which I took with me to Shahjahanpur were given to the then Secretary Brother Parthasarathy and Master said they are to be treated as Mission publication. But the weak and fragile Master was ignored by many and majority of the prefects/ preceptors said that Master can do everything and there is no need for any practice other than love and devotion. This meant total abdication of responsibility for the Yatra by the preceptors and the whole responsibility was shifted to the Master.
I differed and was keeping a low profile busy as I was with my duties as a senior official of Government of A.P. However I continued my contact with Master and practice as I was advised and wrote letters to Master who also replied in some cases.
Later in Oct.1979 he wrote
“My dear Narayana,
Your letters received. But I could not reply due to illness. I have been thinking over the suggestions offered by you for educating abhyasis into Sahaj Marg system. I am very happy to read your previous letters that you have got the courage and will for the work. May you live long.”
You know Narayana that I have done whatever the need was for the spiritual life of man and the work is still continued. The system is there, my support is there, yet it is for the persons like you to first educate abhyasis and then do further research. I have great hope from you. I wish to have you and Parthasarathy together for the work…”
Slowly and steadily I have been telling the importance of the discoveries of the Master in spiritual growth and the fragile frame of the Master slowly deteriorated though it has not affected the quality of transmissions received from him directly or through the preceptors and prefects showing that the physical body is not all that important for spiritual work. The physical veiling came as you know in April 1983 and the claims for the Chair of the President started between several parties. If I am correct some of the legal cases are still on and that is but natural for persons who seek power and status. The status of Guru can be very attractive! (Read Guru Chapter in Reality at Dawn)
As already informed to you in the earlier mails brother Parthasarathy came to me in 1984 and asked for cooperation and I readily agreed. He asked me to be in addition to the membership of the working committee as nominated by Rev. Babuji Maharaj, take additional responsibilities as the Zonal Secretary, Director of S.M.R.I. Centre in Charge of Hyderabad. I did accept all the responsibilities and discharged them to his and my utter satisfaction.
Then I mooted the idea of Training classes for the aspirants in 1987 and participants who were kept ignorant of the important practices mentioned above in this mail started asking brother Parthasarathy and other prefects and preceptors why they were not told the importance of these methods and more particularly the 9 P.M. prayer advised by the Master. In this atmosphere I was able to conduct about 6 or 8 training classes and brother Parthasarathy was uncomfortable with the growing demand for admission to the course and also the growing discontentment among the aspirants in the system.
In one such training session, in 1991 some speakers were suggested by brother Parthasarathy to speak more about the newly developing concept of Living Master and the need to love and be devoted to him more than practicing the system. As this was something totally unacceptable I was watching the program and keeping quiet. Major. Dr. Madhava a senior practicant of the system and a member of the research committee was talking on the Essential of Sahaj Marg and was covering all the aspects explained by the Master. After the talk he was summoned by brother Parthasarathy and was chided for not talking of the importance of the Living Master as an essential aspect of the system and was asked to make amends. He came to me and I advised him to do as the President told for I convinced him that Rev. Babuji is the Living Master in the astral plane and physical plane does not matter much. That evening on that fateful day there was a lecture session in the head quarters of State Bank of India in which one speaker went to the extent of saying that the great saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa could convert only one Narendra into a Vivekananda while brother Parthasarathy is making every person going to Chennai a Vivekananda. As I was on the Dias of the function sitting by brother Parthasarathy I kept quiet but as soon as the function was over went home and thought well over the happening on the day and came to the conclusion that the Organization has taken a deep curve and is drifting away from spiritual goals. Two days later brother Parthasarathy spoke to me why I have not met him to which I told him I have not been fortunate to become a Vivekananda inspite of several transmissions from Rev.Babuji and Rev. Lalaji Saheb and felt totally unfit in the field. This in short is the story you desired to know. I have omitted many details which if mentioned would make a good movie. I attach to this long mail a document on what is written as a Preamble for the ISRC which may throw light on why we parted ways. What lessons you can draw from this I do not know
3. Regarding your questions about the ethically correctness of the alleged statements of brother Parthasarathy about members of the SRCM do you not know that it is improper for me to say anything about that since I left the organization long back. However I must say that routine practices for any number of hours a day for any period of time without taking regular individual sittings, cleaning sessions and without love and devotion to Master may not lead a person in the path far. Further when the responsibility for performing Yatra is not vested with the prefects and the whole responsibility rests with the President SRCM I do not know how he was able to assess and evaluate the aspirants to make such sweeping statements as he did. I must however tell you I donot know the context in which it was said and may be you are over reacting to the same. I must also inform you that for over twenty years I have not been reading literature about this system from any other source than that of the original books of Rev. Babuji, my revered father and Rev. Lalaji. Ofcourse I keep track of many developments in transpersonal psychology and para psychology. Ofcourse for amusement sake I do read the writings of the modern day self declared Masters available dime a dozen- humour is a good medicine you know. In the context of what is written in the earlier paragraphs any evaluation has to take into consideration the position of Aksi and Kasbi in respect of each individual. So I am not able to help you to find whether the judgments of the President are ethical or otherwise.
4. Regarding the position of the ISRC I should bring to your kind notice that it is a administered by a Governing Council and no one is superior to the other. This council is an elected body during general body meetings held on Rev. Babuji Birthday celebrations. It after due examination of the candidature of the person permits a person among the Governing Council to seek permission to work under Dr. K.C.V. Order. In the Institute permission to work is given only when a person has access to Brahmand mandal in the Aksi manner though his/her Kasbi position may be only 3rd or 2nd knot. As there are about 150 persons working as trainer in ISRC it may be safely said that so many are in Brahmand mandal. We have about 12 or more persons moving in the Rings of Splendour and atleast 2 in the Central Region itself. There are quite a few souls after having crossed Para Brahmand mandal coursing at the various points in the 64 points before the Sahasrara.
You may kindly note that persons are admitted into the system of sadhana only after go through 2day training program in India and in Western countries it varies for 1 to 2 days. This is an intensive introduction to the system which makes it all the more sure that only serious person seeking the transformation of humanity as the main goal of life is admitted. Then only the 3 introductory sittings are given according to a fixed procedure; and it is not just sit for half an hour and go.
I may safely say that who ever has been coming for individual sittings regularly to me have all started yatra and in 100 % of the cases Ajapa is experienced very early enabling me to take up their Yatra without delay. Those who are very sincere and earnest have traveled considerable distance and many are both in Aksi and Kasbi manner crossed the Pind desh. Regarding the persons who go to other trainers who number about 150, I do not have records for all the persons maintained by the trainers and/or the Institute so I cannot give you the percentage of persons who have moved considerable distance in the path and the extent to which they progressed. I have however a feeling that those who attend the annual congregations which number about 5 to 6 hundreds they have all advanced to the extent I see my Master in them and I do offer Pranams to all of them before conducting the Satsang most of the times. My co travelers in the path in the Institute here are working out various methods by which we can present a more cogent picture of the work done. You may care to see the site www//imperience.org.
Regarding your question how much time it may take for a person to move into the 2nd knot, it depends. If the aspirant is serious and has a good trainer to work on him it may not take more than a year and this can be much earlier also.
As already pointed out that in order to ensure the objectivity of assessment or evaluation of the condition of the aspirant the ISRC has adopted a system of evaluation by 5 or more persons who are advanced and sensitive enough to study the conditions. The evaluation of all these persons is taken into consideration while arriving at the final evaluation of the aspirant. This procedure at present is confined to the aspirants who are going to be granted permission to work under the Dr. K.C.V. Order. For more information on this please see the site. Apart from the evaluation of the condition through this method, we do take into consideration the compliance of the Ten Commandments of the Master by the aspirant. Evaluation tools are developed and is available in the site. Further we have developed a beta version of the Pind desh Evaluation which gives an idea about the progress of the individual in respect of the conditions of the first five knots. We also administer a questionnaire on Altruism to find out the progress of the individual in transpersonal consciousness. What is mainly sought to be studied are the qualities of the Truth, Non-Injury ( Compassion), love ( non –jealousy), Non covetousness and celibacy the five basic pillars on which the structure of Super consciousness rests. It is the considered view of ISRC that the U portion of the heart as depicted in the book “ Efficacy of Rajayoga” signifies these qualities compared with the lower nature of the individual located in the L portion of the heart diagram. We are trying to utilise the statistical technique of Meta Analysis to present our evaluations of the aspirants. This is broadly the position.
5.Regarding whether the system itself is not a joke played I must say the information that the membership of the SRCM which was around 20,000 in 1991 now has grown to approximately 300,000 persons is heartening. I am very happy that so many know about Rev. Babuji and that itself is a great service to humanity.
6.Regarding the non-evolution of its members I appreciate your concern. But really speaking how many of this large numbers are seekers? Are you not aware of the categories of sadhakas who come to us classified by Rev. Babuji? It is a spiritual truth that when the disciple is ready the Master knocks at the door. Institutions can only spread the messages and it is the individual relationship between the Master and the disciple that matters in spiritual progress. The Institutions however have the onerous responsibility to spread the message of the Master in purity of content and that is where I find the SRCM erred more than in other aspects mentioned already in this mail.
7.As for the point regarding your spiritual condition I hope these letters are written by you and I can venture an assessment. You should have completed about 60% yatra in 1st knot and 2nd knots and about 75 % percent in the 3rd knot and 40 % in the 4th knot and are coursing in the 5th knot. These are based on the feelings and thoughts that were expressed in your mails. For more information on how Yatra is possible simultaneously on different knots you may kindly ask Dr. K. or any other trainer who may be there on the day of your visit to explain. Broadly speaking you are a sincere seeker and can be classified as the 3rd category of Sadhakas and aspiring to become the 4th category according to the categorization of aspirants made by Rev. Babuji Maharaj. (See the article “ Types of Gurus and disciples” of Rev. Babuji in Voice Real a publication of SRCM). I pray that you realise your true nature soon and serve mankind even as Master would wish us all to.
8. Brother Dr. K. is an excellent person and I am sure you will be benefited by the transmission from him, if you are so willing.
I do hope I answered your queries to some extent. However answers are to well up from within the heart by the grace of our beloved Master Babuji Maharaj.
With blessings of the Master
K.C.Narayana
The Sri Ramchandra Mission named after the Samarth Guru Mahatma Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Fatehgarh was founded by Mahatma Sri Ramchandraji of Shahjahanpur in 1945 to fulfill the sacred Mission of the Master and serve humanity in an organized way However over a period of time, the status of the Master and that of the President of Sri Ramchandra Mission, in view of both being the same in the form of Sri Babuji Maharaj have got intertwined This has however created confusion in the minds of spiritual aspirants. That the great Master is none but God is an established truth of spirituality.
The Guru as a means many times got identified with God and more so in the case of Avatars like Lord Krishna, Buddha or Rev Babuji Maharaj. Such Gurus who may be classified as Azli-Fazli Gurus or Gurus who are of the caliber of Sambhava as explained in Tejo Bindu Upanishad are rare and far and few between They are said to come once in a millennia The propagation of the system founded by them rests on lesser mortals who however have the capacity to serve others to the extent they can and hand them over spiritually to the original source or founder They are classified as Fazli gurus or Shaktas which by itself is of a very high order of attainment However illusion crept in thinking and these persons also now and then claim to be of the status of original founders of the system. This unfortunate situation arises out of Gurudom getting into their heads and pomp and glory attract them. Such a trend is a big curvature and has a path down the hill and these are to be corrected.
That Pranahuti is a spiritual capacity of a salik is forgotten and is most often confused with mysterious mystic force. The head of an organization who arranges to establish training centers and gives permission to the deserved, chooses to think that the persons permitted without proper preparation will automatically develop the power of transmission is very unfortunate. It so happens due mainly to the human frailties that the head of the organization thinks himself to be having the exclusive privilege of preparing persons to be in charge of training centers and impart training through Pranahuti. The capacity to foment in others spiritual dynamism is essentially a yogic achievement (all yogic achievements are divine gifts) should not be forgotten. Also the responsibility of training others cannot be entrusted to all and sundry and one has to be circumspect in obtaining permission from the Master not withstanding one’s capacity to instill some divine light in others.
Unfortunate as it is, these two errors have crept into the Sri Ramchandra Mission and there is an urgent need to rectify. Accordingly, a society for bringing in the corrections in the main stream of the Mission is formed with the explicit purpose of achieving the above two objectives. The society shall be wound up the moment the objectives are achieved.
Q: I went on Internet and I found a page where it is said that Lalaji was a Master in a Soufi Order (Nashqbandi), that he has been initiated by this Order and that he has been the only non muslim Master of this Order. 1- Is all this true?
K.C.N: True. Rev. Lalaji had a Master called Rev. Fazl Ahmed khan. But my Masters’ opinion about his Master is that he is blessing to humanity from God and he was born perfect even as Lord Krishna an Avatar had a guru in Sandeepani.
Q: 2- If yes, why don't you speak about it in your site?
K.C.N: The story of Rev.Lalaji in ISRC site is essentially the version of Rev. Babuji on his Master. I accept only my Masters version and that is why the site of ISRC does not mention about that.
Q: 3- Did Babuji use to speak about this?
K.C.N: He did say about the Master of his Master but he said we have nothing to do with Naqshabandi order. His system has taken the best of all other streams and fused into forming the well knit modified system of Rajayoga.
Q: 4- Why don't we find any reference to this in Babuji's books?
K.C.N: If you read the Part 2 of the Autobiography of Rev. Babuji you will get to know more about the Master of his Master in the context of forming a new system of Yoga. This book is not published in its original form by SRCM (Charis’). It was published in 3 volumes by the family of Rev. Babuji and may be available with SRCM Shahjahanpur. I had a talk with Dr. Srivastav few days back and he is of the opinion that this may be reprinted soon.
Q: Thank you for your answer; I transmit to you the adress of this site if you want to have a look to these informations.
K.C.N: Brother Christian also sent me the address sited in this mail. I am busy with my work and do not like to spend time on these matters of historical interest. The transmission in the system has its origin in the Centre and that is not the access of the Master of the Grand Master. Discovery of the Central region is something that was totally new and none of the Sufi Orders had access upto that during their life time including the saints of the Naqshabandi order (and even saint Kabir).
Narayana reconnaît que Chari a été nommé président de la SRCM par Babuji dès 1974, mais lui refuse le titre de représentant spirituel. Il rejoint les analyses de son père qui déplorait les compromissions de Babuji pour obtenir des moyens matériels au détriment de la qualité de l'enseignement spirituel.
Narayana et ses fidèles disent enseigner aujourd'hui la méthode originale héritée de Babuji sans la moindre déformation et en l'absence de tout maître vivant. Peter et Inès, anciens abhyasis de Chari qui ont rejoint l'ISRC, ont d'abord longuement échangé avec lui par mail en mars et avril dernier. Voici des extraits des réponses de Narayana qu'on peut retrouver plus longuement sur le blog de Christian (http://spydi.blogspot.com) :
Dear brother
Thank you for your kind mail. I have been in the system of Rev. Babuji since 1955 and worked as a preceptor of SRCM from 1967 to 1991. I have been in personal contact with the Master Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur who took me to the acme of perfection in this system of sadhana though I still feel I am a beginner in the path. I worked very closely with Parthasarathy Rajagopala Chari from the beginning till 1991 and more closely since the physical veiling of the Master in 1983. I knew Brother Andre Poray of France as he used to visit my respected and venerable father Dr. K.C.Varadachari but I did not have any opportunity to discuss with him at any point of time. We ( some serious practicants of the system) separated when my brother Parthasarathy was projected as a Living Master and less emphasis was sought to be given to the methods of Rajayoga given by the Master Babuji Maharaj and a casual approach was taken towards the Commentary on Ten Commandments of the Master which Master is on record to say that is his master piece. We believe and feel sure that Rev. Babuji Maharaj is the eternal master governing the destinies of spiritual life of all aspirants in the world for the millennia to come. Also we consider Pranahuti to be a yogic achievement and is not dependant on any person for its source thus converting the process itself to the ridiculous level of being a medium. We do not charge any fees for any work that we do and in fact provide lot of material free of cost and books which may cost in the market around ($20) for a just about ½ a $ towards the handling charges that also being optional. We are more interested in conveying the message of the Master as also propound it according to our capacity and approach and all the material is available in our site www//sriramchandra.org and www// imperience.org. We also believe in assisting the aspirants to evaluate themselves according to the Ten Commandments of the Master and also the map given in the book Towards Infinity. I have recently published and made it available in the internet for free down load my commentary on the book called Path of Grace. We do agree that brother Parthasarathy is the President of SRCM as a successor to Babuji Maharaj but not as a successor to the spiritual Master or Special Personality who is guiding all of us. I have by the grace of my Master link with Him and am serving those who seek to serve the Master by enabling them have the connection with the Master. It is only when a person has access upto Brahmand Mandal the case is taken up at the request of the individual aspirant to get him connected with Master and then he is permitted to work as a trainer in the ISRC. You can get more information by reading our site patiently under the head Dr.K.C.V. Order. I think I gave more information than normally I do and hope this would enable you to understand our position better.
Yours in the service of the Master
K.C.Narayana
Q: Indeed, I worry about what Chari said recently concerning 95% of abhyasis : they are still at the 1st point, and the rest are at the 2nd... my wife and I have been meditating for 18 years and we feel completely lost and powerless in front of such a reality... We don't have tools, answers, which could help us to overwhelm these obstacles.
K.C.N: Bro. Chari did not deviate much from the procedure of permitting persons as PREFECTS. During Rev. Babuji also used to permit like that and there were very few PRECEPTORS (known as full fledged permission those days.
We used to receive a Big certificate while the Prefects used to receive a smaller one.) In ISRC no permission is given unless a person has access upto the Brahmand and this is after a thorough assessment by a group of persons forming what we call Governing Council. When we separated from SRCM Bro. Chari wanted the certificates given earlier to be returned to him which was duly complied with. We are of the firm opinion that Spiritual progress is not dependant on the papers given to us. To assess the spiritual progress we have since developed certain self evaluation tools to assess oneself regarding the compliance on the Ten Commandments given by the Master. We have also a questionnaire to evaluate oneself of his progress in the Pind desh. The ISRC insists on practice of meditation on points A and B which was fully explained by the Master in his book Efficacy of Rajayoga. Also we practice the prayer at 9 P.M. stating " That all the persons in the world are brethren and they are all developing true love and devotion to the Master." These were all found as omissions by us in SRCM in 1991 though there has always been some serious aspirants insisting on these since 1967.
Q: In our little center of meditation, we sent two days ago a letter to the responsible for Europe; we are everyone of us very dedicated but upset by the recent transformation of the SRCM into something like a "multinational enterprise". (it is very hard for me to speak like that of my spiritual organization, but...).
We worry about the prices of subscriptions, fees for seminars (200, 250, 300 euros...), books... I have got a question concernig the latest book called"Whispers from the Brighter World", which is a "series of messages transmitted from Babuji to a French abhyasi "( for information, this book was sold like a subscription for 250 euros last year and the center paid to have one; but it is proposed now in french, which is the original language, for 300 euros... without the possibility of regrouping to buy it...Many abhyasis cannot afford it...) I read it and felt sweetness but there is no spiritual teaching in these messages... What do you think about it?
K.C.N: Dear brother, I am very sorry I cannot say anything about these organizational matters. I do not believe that Institutions can help much in spirituality. I was told earlier that the book mentioned by you is a series of messages that brother Chari got and now you say something else. Anyway I am not interested in that as my approach to Spirituality does not permit any deviation of attention from the Homeland.
Q: We worry about "sales by auction" which took place... in the meditation hall instead of meditation twice during the last seminars in Italy and Denmark....
K.C.N: This ofcourse is bit odd but what can I say about that? It is all organizational matters. Have you at any time read the books "letters of the Master Vol. 1 and 2. My revered father writing to Master stated in his letter dated18th June.1970, that "I fully realise that you require freedom from organizational work for the sake of spiritual work. I trust everyone will cooperate with you. But I must utter a word of warning if I ought not to be misunderstood. Let us not commercialise our Mission in our haste to secure financial stability for the Mission and in embarking upon works which are not immediately helpful to spiritual development for the abhyasis. We have to imbue the sense of Mission- spiritual and not mix it up with other ends. If I am not misunderstood I believe some things can be thrashed out with other seekers who also know about the deviations that take place in spiritual work. I trust you will not misunderstand me." {pps412-413}.
Q: We worry because of the project of giving 5 euros when a spiritual gathering (satsang+meal for instance) is organized. We worry because we don't find anymore the fraternal, generous, loving and studious spirit we found there at the beginning..
K.C.N: In ISRC also when there are celebrations of the birthday of Rev. Lalaji and beloved Master when large number of persons gather ( 5 to 6 hundreds) they do donate some money but no fixed charge is there. Usually the donations are more than our requirement and we donate the extra amount to the Sahaj Seva Samsthan. { Please see our site www// Sahaj seva Samsthan.org} which runs a free school for slow-learners, and a highly subsidized Hospital in the name of Sri Ramchandra memorial hospital. We consider and promote the feeling fraternity and service and sacrifice are the virtues that we need to develop in spiritual life.
Q : Dear Brother, I could add that I don't feel we are progressing on the spiritual path; as a preceptor, I would like to see that everybody is changing but it isn't the case. I would like personnally to be more aware of where I am, how I can learn better, and how I could be useful to help my brothers. I am longing for a real spiritual teaching with spiritual questions, answers and ethics. I would be glad if you could give me some advice : what and how can I do from France?
K.C.N: It is very good that you have sincere feelings of serving others in spiritual life. The spiritual teachings of the Master Babuji is the best that I am aware of. We have provided the same in our site as down loadable material. I suggest that you do read our 1. Showers of Divine grace 2. Sruti and 3. Path of grace. Also try to browse the site Imperience and go through the papers presented in our seminars. As for actual spiritual training, I do not know whether brother Chari has given any manuals of training. The ISRC has one which from my point of view is a good commentary on the manual 1 and 2 given to me by my Master. But we have a policy not to give to those who are not trainers in ISRC.
Q: Today, by a (very!) strange way, it seems that we are going back way home and it is very disturbing because we have always been told that Chari was Babuji's spiritual successor, appointed by him, in presence of witnesses. Thus how can we explain this? Is it possible to explain this? Can you explain this?
K.C.N: I do not know whether I can explain things but I can tell you certain facts.
1. Brother Parthasarathy was nominated as President of SRCM in March 1974. The words Spiritual Representative IS NOT there in the original document. This document was NOT attested by witnesses.
2. I being one of the members of the Working Committee nominated by Rev.Babuji Maharaj was the first to say the document need not be doubted as another document produced by one of the sons of our Master was a fake/bogus one.
3. The confusion arises only the position of the President of SRCM is confused with Spiritual Master who works for a millennia. Rev. Master is on record saying that he would be more useful after his physical veiling.
4. The problem or pseudo problem is necessity felt by some for a physically present Master. That there are realms beyond the physical is the basis of spirituality- as you can see the word spiritual would loose its sense the moment we want to have in the physical realm.
5. As a Prefect of SRCM you should be knowing that we do not do anything physically and all our work is in the astral plane only. { I do hope you were supplied with copy of the Manual of training issued by Rev.Babuji. This I am stating because since middle of Seventees this practice was stopped- I understand later some manual is being given}
Q: In reality, we are divided: mentally, we have got a sort a culpability in relation with Chari; within our heart, we have the certainty that we are right, that something very important is happening, that we are coming back to our Homeland...
K.C.N: Happy to hear this: the Master always guides the sincere and devoted.
Q & R:
From yesterday night, there were some clouds in my heart when I thought about the meeting which occurred today with a SRCM responsible for the southern zone. Indeed, she came because we sent a collective letter to express ourselves on our concern about SRCM financial options. The official answer to our anxiety has been:
- you don't have faith enough
K.C.N: Faith is a big subject. We need to have faith in ourselves, we should have faith in the method and faith in the guide/Master in the path. The subject of faith is dealt with very seriously in the philosophies of Surrender of various religions. The chapter in Reality at Dawn relating to Guru can be read by you with profit.
- you should be confident in the Master
- you should obey the Master
K.C.N: The whole problem is who is the Master? If it is God who is the real guru there is no problem and the co traveler in the path is duty bound to help us reach the feet of the Lord or gain Oneness with Him.
- only Master can know the Divine planes and your critics are only the expression of your ego.
K.C.N: If the words “ planes” in your mail is right I do not think so. God has only one Plane and that is the Blessing Splendour as I call it which is the nature of the 23 ring towards the centre. How we can judge ourselves regarding the plane of consciousness in which we normally function is what is sought to be explained in the book “ Towards Infinity” by the Master. I tried to put on record my thoughts in the book “ Path of Grace” available for free down load.
If otherwise you meant “ Plans” then surely the Supreme Personality alone knows it; no matter whether a person is the President of SRCM or not. That the Supreme Personality is the one who is working to better the quality of human being and he has his own plans is a fact beyond doubt. Human transformation is happening and that will happen very soon.
- all this shows that you have got a problem with money and materiality
K.C.N: What answer can I give on this. Every one has a need for money and body has its own requirements. That is why the system of our beloved Master is essentially meant for house holders and is not a method of the renounced/ ascetics.
- give up your dreams, you must face materiality within your spiritual organization.
K.C.N: Some person advised you and who am I to say on these matters. All that I can say we should live happily working for the transformation of humanity incessantly with total conviction in the cause of the Master and his method. 9 P.M. Prayer is the most important tool that we should invariably use for this purpose.
Q: I felt very bad because for me, obediance comes from the heart naturally when it is the good moment and , more important, love doesn't exclude critical sense, on the contrary...
K.C.N: I totally agree with you. If this freedom of expression is lost what freedom are we seeking in spirituality? May be I can suggest you to read the volumes 1 and 2 of Masters letters which is the correspondence between my revered father and the Master.
Q: Finally, the minimum of fraternity should be to listen with the heart different opinions. But it was not the case of course...
K.C.N: Any brand of Spirituality worth its name should encourage constructive individual development. Further it should be motivated by unselfish service to humanity. It should enable the individual to find out the narrow path of self effort and individual responsibility for spiritual development. It should appeal to reason and common sense and encourages verification through direct personal experience. To say Master will take care of all this is simple laziness at its worst and slavery at its best.
True spirituality supports the spiritual prosperity of the individual through holding out the vision of continuous progress through self effort and support of the Master
Real spirituality should encourage free discussion and rational explanations. And it should make its instructions and teachings of the Master available to all the worthy persons.(No discrimination intended)
Q: If I summ up, when I am thinking about all this, I don't feel very well with an impression of treason, culpability, irrespect in relation with my Master Chari. When it is my heart which is speaking, I would be crying with gratefulness the whole day. Do you see the problem?... I have a certain impression of "doing the splits"... and my wife too.
K.C.N: No other person can understand this agony than me. Since that will lead to my story of agony and ecstasy in spirituality I refrain writing further on this.
Dear brother
Thank you for your kind mail. Letters of the Master Volume I and II is published by SRCM only. I gave the correspondence from 1954 to 1971 maintained by my revered father Dr.K.C.Varadachari to brother Parthasarathy on his request in 1984. He provided me with a Xerox copy of the same in 1985. He got it published first in 1992 and the copy right is held by the SRCM North American Publishing Committee Pacific Grove CA USA. Then Mr. Thomas J. Whitlam who edited the correspondence sent me a copy of the two volumes. I do not have them now as my son Srihari took it from me. I do not know anything about other volumes of Letters of the Master and I wonder whether any of them contain my letters and Rev. Babujis’ replies to me which were also given to brother Parthasarathy in 1984. However Sri Ramchandra Publishers Hyderabad have published a book titled “Event Horizon” which is an abridged version of the correspondence based on the Xerox copies of the letters with me. This is available for down load from the site www// sriramchandra.org
Regarding the manual of training given by Rev. Babuji Maharaj it consists of two volumes. Volume I is meant for prefects and Volume II is also given to Preceptors who were very few in number those days. I was given both of them by the Master and so was brother Parthasarathy. Perhaps he has given Volume I only to prefects. Since you are referring to the period 1988, I have to say I have a copy of the same given by brother Parthasarathy saying that he started giving the manuals.
With blessings of the Master
K.C.Narayana
Dear brother,
Your mails have raised many questions and I do not know how far I can answer them satisfactorily to you.
The issues raised may be stated broadly as:
1.Regarding the manuals of training
2.As to why I parted ways with brother Parthasarathy.
3.The evaluations of the aspirants as whole done by the President SRCM and the ethical and otherwise correctness of the same
4.If the evaluation of no evolution in majority of the aspirants in the SRCM is correct whether it is not a joke played by the system.
5.The progress made by the aspirants in ISRC and a few supplementaries to that.
I shall try to answer them one by one and I promise you that it is going to be a tedious reading for you but the nature of your questions is such. Bear with me for that.
First and the easiest one to answer is the Manuals of training given to you by brother Parthasarathy. It does cover to some extent the manuals given by Master particularly the part I. It would not be proper for me to say anything more than this.
Regarding why I parted with SRCM I wrote about this earlier in a small way. However as you desire me to answer again I shall do so. The story is really long but to make it short I should say that it was way back in late Nineteen Fifties and early Sixties the problem arose regarding the relative importance of the institutional structures (Ashram buildings etc.,) and spiritual procedures and progress. This was when the first Ashram of SRCM was getting constructed at Tirupati. A substantial donation was offered by a lady doctor and wife of a senior police official in Andhra Pradesh but she would not accept any receipt from my father for that and therefore it was not accepted. But as things were to happen the amount was paid at Shahjahanpur and Master sent the money to Tirupati for construction which was reluctantly received by my revered father. Construction means bricks and mortar: very gross matters. My father wriggled himself out of this problem. The correspondence between my revered father and our Master Babuji Maharaj in this matter can be seen in the letters when you get the books. To be more precise the problem is the relative importance of materialism and spirituality. My revered father wanted spirituality to be given more importance and the system of training should not become casuality. Others members of SRCM had different views. The simmering discontent was there since then. The problem blew into greater dimension when the SRCM was getting commercialized in the language of my revered father and Rev. Babuji was trying to convince him that no curvature was developing as feared. I apart from being a son was a close disciple of my revered father and studied under him Indian Philosophy, Western Philosophy including Henri Bergson as part of philosophies of evolution which included Aurobindo and others too. Further I specialized in a branch of Vedanta called Visistadvaita. Apart from that my professors in Psychology were close associates of my revered father and I studied Psychoanalysis for two years along with Constitutional Psychology. With all this back ground I found myself in total agreement with my revered father that Institutions are also a powerful binding influence in the path of spiritual freedom and one needs to keep a close vigil on Institutionalism. But the process of constructing Ashram buildings in various centres started and funds were getting raised for the purpose with all good intentions. Our books which costing very little ( as little as less than a rupee) were getting printed and published surely in better manner at a cost that is high according to the then prevailing Indian standards. The marketing skills of brother Parthasarathy were being fully utilized and he is a very efficient person as you also know. But this disturbed my revered father and he thought spirituality is gaining low priority as the aspirants were all busy in fund collection for the books, magazines, advertisements for the magazines and souvenirs published on annual celebrations of the Masters. He wrote to Master about this commercialization and the curves that are getting formed in SRCM which ofcourse Master explained away; all this can be seen between the lines in the correspondence between him and the Master.
In addition to this, the criteria for correct evaluation of spiritual condition of the aspirants were posing problems which could not be sorted out easily. Evaluations made by the Master also were not acceptable to some Preceptors and this put persons like my revered father in anguish. He expressed to Master his anguish stating “It has grave consequences in our appraisal of the ultimate state possible under our system.” Different Preceptors were evaluating aspirants differently and the SRCM was taking more and more the position of leaving the matter of evaluation to the Master and the prefects and preceptors were asked to keep their mouths shut- a practice that is being continued even now if I am right. The responsibility for performing Yatra in the abhyasis was thrown on the Master stating that it is not the task of the preceptors. This problem emanated mainly because the number of prefects were more and they were expecting to be treated on par with preceptors. The task of promoting them to the level of the preceptor being tougher because of their lack of sadhana and other difficulties, the easiest solution is to treat them as equal and there by effectively nullifying the original distinction and in the process the motivation to grow in spiritual stature. But this ensured increase in the number of persons getting enrolled as members of the SRCM. The quantity as usual killed the quality in this case also. All these are unpalatable to many of us.
Further Master himself has evaluated differently the same person in some cases and this led to the need for arriving at standardization of evaluation techniques and procedures. This has led to the Master clarifying that there are two positions for the person being evaluated 1. Aksi and 2. Kasbi or 1.Potential and 2. Actual. Or 1.Reflected and 2 Acquired. I am sure you have some information from the manuals supplied to you by brother Parthasarathy. It is absolutely essential to understand these concepts in work to assess properly the condition of the aspirant. Two seminar were held at Tirupati in late Nineteen Seventy and in one of them Master talked about the “Method of Training” which to my knowledge was not published by SRCM so far. It is part of the book “Showers of Divine Grace” published by Sri Ramchandra Publishers available for download in the site of sriramchandra.org. The Master stressed in the article that “moulding is the responsibility of the preceptors”. But this was ignored to such an extent that the article itself will be difficult for you to locate in SRCM.
In addition to these the prefects and some preceptors of SRCM were not giving enough importance to the “Ten Commandments of Sahaj Marg” though Master is on record that the book is his Master Piece. They went to such an extent during his life time itself to call the book “Ten Maxims of Sahaj Marg”.
Also the importance of the meditations on points A and B explained in the book “Efficacy of Rajayoga” was bypassed in preference to what is called love for the Master. That A and B points are discoveries of the Master the purification of which alone enables the aspirants to move into the higher realms of consciousness and also the cleansing of the points A1, B1; A2, B2; and A3 and B3 which enable one to stabilize in the higher realms of consciousness is totally neglected and ignored and to a certain extent denounced. The matter came up for discussion before the Master and I contended that if Master agrees that these are not necessary he in all fairness and honesty should withdraw the book “ Efficacy of Rajayoga” from the public where it is already in circulation for over 2 decades and give an open apology for misguiding aspirants. Shocked at this he sat immediately in meditation and communed with his master Rev. Lalaji and confirmed that what he wrote in the book is correct and should be practiced. A few hundred copies of a booklet listing the duties and responsibilities of the aspirant which I took with me to Shahjahanpur were given to the then Secretary Brother Parthasarathy and Master said they are to be treated as Mission publication. But the weak and fragile Master was ignored by many and majority of the prefects/ preceptors said that Master can do everything and there is no need for any practice other than love and devotion. This meant total abdication of responsibility for the Yatra by the preceptors and the whole responsibility was shifted to the Master.
I differed and was keeping a low profile busy as I was with my duties as a senior official of Government of A.P. However I continued my contact with Master and practice as I was advised and wrote letters to Master who also replied in some cases.
Later in Oct.1979 he wrote
“My dear Narayana,
Your letters received. But I could not reply due to illness. I have been thinking over the suggestions offered by you for educating abhyasis into Sahaj Marg system. I am very happy to read your previous letters that you have got the courage and will for the work. May you live long.”
You know Narayana that I have done whatever the need was for the spiritual life of man and the work is still continued. The system is there, my support is there, yet it is for the persons like you to first educate abhyasis and then do further research. I have great hope from you. I wish to have you and Parthasarathy together for the work…”
Slowly and steadily I have been telling the importance of the discoveries of the Master in spiritual growth and the fragile frame of the Master slowly deteriorated though it has not affected the quality of transmissions received from him directly or through the preceptors and prefects showing that the physical body is not all that important for spiritual work. The physical veiling came as you know in April 1983 and the claims for the Chair of the President started between several parties. If I am correct some of the legal cases are still on and that is but natural for persons who seek power and status. The status of Guru can be very attractive! (Read Guru Chapter in Reality at Dawn)
As already informed to you in the earlier mails brother Parthasarathy came to me in 1984 and asked for cooperation and I readily agreed. He asked me to be in addition to the membership of the working committee as nominated by Rev. Babuji Maharaj, take additional responsibilities as the Zonal Secretary, Director of S.M.R.I. Centre in Charge of Hyderabad. I did accept all the responsibilities and discharged them to his and my utter satisfaction.
Then I mooted the idea of Training classes for the aspirants in 1987 and participants who were kept ignorant of the important practices mentioned above in this mail started asking brother Parthasarathy and other prefects and preceptors why they were not told the importance of these methods and more particularly the 9 P.M. prayer advised by the Master. In this atmosphere I was able to conduct about 6 or 8 training classes and brother Parthasarathy was uncomfortable with the growing demand for admission to the course and also the growing discontentment among the aspirants in the system.
In one such training session, in 1991 some speakers were suggested by brother Parthasarathy to speak more about the newly developing concept of Living Master and the need to love and be devoted to him more than practicing the system. As this was something totally unacceptable I was watching the program and keeping quiet. Major. Dr. Madhava a senior practicant of the system and a member of the research committee was talking on the Essential of Sahaj Marg and was covering all the aspects explained by the Master. After the talk he was summoned by brother Parthasarathy and was chided for not talking of the importance of the Living Master as an essential aspect of the system and was asked to make amends. He came to me and I advised him to do as the President told for I convinced him that Rev. Babuji is the Living Master in the astral plane and physical plane does not matter much. That evening on that fateful day there was a lecture session in the head quarters of State Bank of India in which one speaker went to the extent of saying that the great saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa could convert only one Narendra into a Vivekananda while brother Parthasarathy is making every person going to Chennai a Vivekananda. As I was on the Dias of the function sitting by brother Parthasarathy I kept quiet but as soon as the function was over went home and thought well over the happening on the day and came to the conclusion that the Organization has taken a deep curve and is drifting away from spiritual goals. Two days later brother Parthasarathy spoke to me why I have not met him to which I told him I have not been fortunate to become a Vivekananda inspite of several transmissions from Rev.Babuji and Rev. Lalaji Saheb and felt totally unfit in the field. This in short is the story you desired to know. I have omitted many details which if mentioned would make a good movie. I attach to this long mail a document on what is written as a Preamble for the ISRC which may throw light on why we parted ways. What lessons you can draw from this I do not know
3. Regarding your questions about the ethically correctness of the alleged statements of brother Parthasarathy about members of the SRCM do you not know that it is improper for me to say anything about that since I left the organization long back. However I must say that routine practices for any number of hours a day for any period of time without taking regular individual sittings, cleaning sessions and without love and devotion to Master may not lead a person in the path far. Further when the responsibility for performing Yatra is not vested with the prefects and the whole responsibility rests with the President SRCM I do not know how he was able to assess and evaluate the aspirants to make such sweeping statements as he did. I must however tell you I donot know the context in which it was said and may be you are over reacting to the same. I must also inform you that for over twenty years I have not been reading literature about this system from any other source than that of the original books of Rev. Babuji, my revered father and Rev. Lalaji. Ofcourse I keep track of many developments in transpersonal psychology and para psychology. Ofcourse for amusement sake I do read the writings of the modern day self declared Masters available dime a dozen- humour is a good medicine you know. In the context of what is written in the earlier paragraphs any evaluation has to take into consideration the position of Aksi and Kasbi in respect of each individual. So I am not able to help you to find whether the judgments of the President are ethical or otherwise.
4. Regarding the position of the ISRC I should bring to your kind notice that it is a administered by a Governing Council and no one is superior to the other. This council is an elected body during general body meetings held on Rev. Babuji Birthday celebrations. It after due examination of the candidature of the person permits a person among the Governing Council to seek permission to work under Dr. K.C.V. Order. In the Institute permission to work is given only when a person has access to Brahmand mandal in the Aksi manner though his/her Kasbi position may be only 3rd or 2nd knot. As there are about 150 persons working as trainer in ISRC it may be safely said that so many are in Brahmand mandal. We have about 12 or more persons moving in the Rings of Splendour and atleast 2 in the Central Region itself. There are quite a few souls after having crossed Para Brahmand mandal coursing at the various points in the 64 points before the Sahasrara.
You may kindly note that persons are admitted into the system of sadhana only after go through 2day training program in India and in Western countries it varies for 1 to 2 days. This is an intensive introduction to the system which makes it all the more sure that only serious person seeking the transformation of humanity as the main goal of life is admitted. Then only the 3 introductory sittings are given according to a fixed procedure; and it is not just sit for half an hour and go.
I may safely say that who ever has been coming for individual sittings regularly to me have all started yatra and in 100 % of the cases Ajapa is experienced very early enabling me to take up their Yatra without delay. Those who are very sincere and earnest have traveled considerable distance and many are both in Aksi and Kasbi manner crossed the Pind desh. Regarding the persons who go to other trainers who number about 150, I do not have records for all the persons maintained by the trainers and/or the Institute so I cannot give you the percentage of persons who have moved considerable distance in the path and the extent to which they progressed. I have however a feeling that those who attend the annual congregations which number about 5 to 6 hundreds they have all advanced to the extent I see my Master in them and I do offer Pranams to all of them before conducting the Satsang most of the times. My co travelers in the path in the Institute here are working out various methods by which we can present a more cogent picture of the work done. You may care to see the site www//imperience.org.
Regarding your question how much time it may take for a person to move into the 2nd knot, it depends. If the aspirant is serious and has a good trainer to work on him it may not take more than a year and this can be much earlier also.
As already pointed out that in order to ensure the objectivity of assessment or evaluation of the condition of the aspirant the ISRC has adopted a system of evaluation by 5 or more persons who are advanced and sensitive enough to study the conditions. The evaluation of all these persons is taken into consideration while arriving at the final evaluation of the aspirant. This procedure at present is confined to the aspirants who are going to be granted permission to work under the Dr. K.C.V. Order. For more information on this please see the site. Apart from the evaluation of the condition through this method, we do take into consideration the compliance of the Ten Commandments of the Master by the aspirant. Evaluation tools are developed and is available in the site. Further we have developed a beta version of the Pind desh Evaluation which gives an idea about the progress of the individual in respect of the conditions of the first five knots. We also administer a questionnaire on Altruism to find out the progress of the individual in transpersonal consciousness. What is mainly sought to be studied are the qualities of the Truth, Non-Injury ( Compassion), love ( non –jealousy), Non covetousness and celibacy the five basic pillars on which the structure of Super consciousness rests. It is the considered view of ISRC that the U portion of the heart as depicted in the book “ Efficacy of Rajayoga” signifies these qualities compared with the lower nature of the individual located in the L portion of the heart diagram. We are trying to utilise the statistical technique of Meta Analysis to present our evaluations of the aspirants. This is broadly the position.
5.Regarding whether the system itself is not a joke played I must say the information that the membership of the SRCM which was around 20,000 in 1991 now has grown to approximately 300,000 persons is heartening. I am very happy that so many know about Rev. Babuji and that itself is a great service to humanity.
6.Regarding the non-evolution of its members I appreciate your concern. But really speaking how many of this large numbers are seekers? Are you not aware of the categories of sadhakas who come to us classified by Rev. Babuji? It is a spiritual truth that when the disciple is ready the Master knocks at the door. Institutions can only spread the messages and it is the individual relationship between the Master and the disciple that matters in spiritual progress. The Institutions however have the onerous responsibility to spread the message of the Master in purity of content and that is where I find the SRCM erred more than in other aspects mentioned already in this mail.
7.As for the point regarding your spiritual condition I hope these letters are written by you and I can venture an assessment. You should have completed about 60% yatra in 1st knot and 2nd knots and about 75 % percent in the 3rd knot and 40 % in the 4th knot and are coursing in the 5th knot. These are based on the feelings and thoughts that were expressed in your mails. For more information on how Yatra is possible simultaneously on different knots you may kindly ask Dr. K. or any other trainer who may be there on the day of your visit to explain. Broadly speaking you are a sincere seeker and can be classified as the 3rd category of Sadhakas and aspiring to become the 4th category according to the categorization of aspirants made by Rev. Babuji Maharaj. (See the article “ Types of Gurus and disciples” of Rev. Babuji in Voice Real a publication of SRCM). I pray that you realise your true nature soon and serve mankind even as Master would wish us all to.
8. Brother Dr. K. is an excellent person and I am sure you will be benefited by the transmission from him, if you are so willing.
I do hope I answered your queries to some extent. However answers are to well up from within the heart by the grace of our beloved Master Babuji Maharaj.
With blessings of the Master
K.C.Narayana
The Sri Ramchandra Mission named after the Samarth Guru Mahatma Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Fatehgarh was founded by Mahatma Sri Ramchandraji of Shahjahanpur in 1945 to fulfill the sacred Mission of the Master and serve humanity in an organized way However over a period of time, the status of the Master and that of the President of Sri Ramchandra Mission, in view of both being the same in the form of Sri Babuji Maharaj have got intertwined This has however created confusion in the minds of spiritual aspirants. That the great Master is none but God is an established truth of spirituality.
The Guru as a means many times got identified with God and more so in the case of Avatars like Lord Krishna, Buddha or Rev Babuji Maharaj. Such Gurus who may be classified as Azli-Fazli Gurus or Gurus who are of the caliber of Sambhava as explained in Tejo Bindu Upanishad are rare and far and few between They are said to come once in a millennia The propagation of the system founded by them rests on lesser mortals who however have the capacity to serve others to the extent they can and hand them over spiritually to the original source or founder They are classified as Fazli gurus or Shaktas which by itself is of a very high order of attainment However illusion crept in thinking and these persons also now and then claim to be of the status of original founders of the system. This unfortunate situation arises out of Gurudom getting into their heads and pomp and glory attract them. Such a trend is a big curvature and has a path down the hill and these are to be corrected.
That Pranahuti is a spiritual capacity of a salik is forgotten and is most often confused with mysterious mystic force. The head of an organization who arranges to establish training centers and gives permission to the deserved, chooses to think that the persons permitted without proper preparation will automatically develop the power of transmission is very unfortunate. It so happens due mainly to the human frailties that the head of the organization thinks himself to be having the exclusive privilege of preparing persons to be in charge of training centers and impart training through Pranahuti. The capacity to foment in others spiritual dynamism is essentially a yogic achievement (all yogic achievements are divine gifts) should not be forgotten. Also the responsibility of training others cannot be entrusted to all and sundry and one has to be circumspect in obtaining permission from the Master not withstanding one’s capacity to instill some divine light in others.
Unfortunate as it is, these two errors have crept into the Sri Ramchandra Mission and there is an urgent need to rectify. Accordingly, a society for bringing in the corrections in the main stream of the Mission is formed with the explicit purpose of achieving the above two objectives. The society shall be wound up the moment the objectives are achieved.
Q: I went on Internet and I found a page where it is said that Lalaji was a Master in a Soufi Order (Nashqbandi), that he has been initiated by this Order and that he has been the only non muslim Master of this Order. 1- Is all this true?
K.C.N: True. Rev. Lalaji had a Master called Rev. Fazl Ahmed khan. But my Masters’ opinion about his Master is that he is blessing to humanity from God and he was born perfect even as Lord Krishna an Avatar had a guru in Sandeepani.
Q: 2- If yes, why don't you speak about it in your site?
K.C.N: The story of Rev.Lalaji in ISRC site is essentially the version of Rev. Babuji on his Master. I accept only my Masters version and that is why the site of ISRC does not mention about that.
Q: 3- Did Babuji use to speak about this?
K.C.N: He did say about the Master of his Master but he said we have nothing to do with Naqshabandi order. His system has taken the best of all other streams and fused into forming the well knit modified system of Rajayoga.
Q: 4- Why don't we find any reference to this in Babuji's books?
K.C.N: If you read the Part 2 of the Autobiography of Rev. Babuji you will get to know more about the Master of his Master in the context of forming a new system of Yoga. This book is not published in its original form by SRCM (Charis’). It was published in 3 volumes by the family of Rev. Babuji and may be available with SRCM Shahjahanpur. I had a talk with Dr. Srivastav few days back and he is of the opinion that this may be reprinted soon.
Q: Thank you for your answer; I transmit to you the adress of this site if you want to have a look to these informations.
K.C.N: Brother Christian also sent me the address sited in this mail. I am busy with my work and do not like to spend time on these matters of historical interest. The transmission in the system has its origin in the Centre and that is not the access of the Master of the Grand Master. Discovery of the Central region is something that was totally new and none of the Sufi Orders had access upto that during their life time including the saints of the Naqshabandi order (and even saint Kabir).
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