The Day Every Pot Called All Kettles Black
File under: Gurubusting and The Siddhi of PR
If hypocrisy were an extreme sport, this would be its greatest performance:
Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Sankar has called for stringent action against pseudo-spiritual leaders.After all, he is an accomplished expert in pseudo-spirituality.
Labels: Gurubusting, The Siddhi of PR
posted by guruphiliac @ 10:14 PM
13 Comments:
.."religion per se should not be blamed or ridiculed".. because of some spiritual leader doeing something wrong!!
That leaves me utterly amazed! Who is he talking about. WHY should not religion NOT be blamed or ridiculed.. Does he know anyhting about the harm done in the name of religion? KNOWING the torture, killings, abuse, rape, violence that continues to happen in the name of religion, maybe he protecting something - but what? The article is written in Argentina, I believe there is a dominant catholic religion, plus many more.. Who is he referring to? - what about the S.Sai Baba dude, using his spiritual power to make his way with young boys?? - eithter the article is poorly written, leaving out the clues as to where the finger is pointing, or it is an act of defence!!
What more - it would take extreme guts to claim one self to be a spiritual communist!! or anarchist, because it would imply thinkning for one self, and NOT using RELIGION and SPIRITUALITY as a sleeping pillow and a drug.. that is OPIUM FOR THE PEOPLE.
>>Sri Sri Ravi Sankar said since there was a lack of hierarchy and no authority to instal or remove a swami or guru, the Sanathana Dharma was more vulnerable of being misused.
gee, I wonder who he sees at the top of such a hierarchy if one existed, hmm?
I'm put in mind of a late-night info-mercial I've seen: "Tired of all those fake psychics? So are we! That's why if you call us, you'll always talk to a certified psychic!"
Stuart
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
Jody,
It seems you really have spent some time studying the wisdom that Sri Sri
offers in order to be able to debunk
him as "an expert in pseudo-spirituality". And sure you perhaps know better than people like the Dalai lama who has co-founded an organisation with Sri Sri and endorses the Art of Living programs.
Sure, you are the ultimate judge of who is spiritual and who is not oh great blogger! Get over yourself dude!
Get over yourself dude!
An endorsement from the Dalai Lama holds little water here, especially given the possibility that he only allied with Sri Sri out of political and/or bureaucratic expediency.
Sri Sri's "wisdom" is nothing special. It's the same old Hindu syncretism any other guru offers to the West. Like his own guru the Maharishi, he's cribbed bits of Yoga to sell at maximum markup.
yes my dear all knower Jody,
you definitely seem to be omniscient of all eastern spirituality and perhaps even wiser than Dalai Lama on the topic to be able to judge these people. I guess it is owing to your apparently superhuman expertise in eastern thought that you have taken to this lowly mudslinging?
or perhaps it is a vested attempt by a westerner to undermine the faith of the people of the east as has been done since centuries of "Divide and rule" by the Brits-It very well could be that you are one of those undercover christian missionaries whose sole aim is to show the locals in any place how their faith is good for nothing and how their leaders are farcical and in the end the saviour is only Jesus the christ...
in this case Jody the blogger ;)
Just know one thing my friend, it is easy to judge and criticise someone, but much harder and much nobler to set an example correcting what you perceive as their mistake and to inspire and teach by example instead of lowly fingerpointing.
I guess it is owing to your apparently superhuman expertise in eastern thought that you have taken to this lowly mudslinging?
Nope, I'm just some jerk who thinks he knows.
it is a vested attempt by a westerner to undermine the faith of the people of the east
Actually, not at all. It is a defense of the truth expressed by Shankara and the Upanishads, which I read to say: no one human being is ever more God than another. Sri Sri has encouraged the idea that he is somehow more divine than the rest of us, even while he may occasionally deny this in public. I have a resignation letter from a former AoL teacher who observed this firsthand.
inspire and teach by example instead of lowly fingerpointing.
I like to call it critical thinking, but whatever floats your boat.
"I like to call it critical thinking, but whatever floats your boat."
To quote from wikipedia entry on "ciritical thinking"-
"To develop one's critical thinking abilities, one should learn the art of suspending judgment". Clearly you have already arrived at judgements from scanty letters of aol teachers who are disgruntled with the inefficacy of the organisers and volunteers and by the way nowhere in that letter does the teacher, who also happens to be my close friend accuse that SSRS paints himself as god and others as lesser mortals-merely that the organisation is not going by the tenets it was founded to preserve.
It is dishonest and irresponsible to take vague statements and turn them to support your own predisposition without first hand investigation of the person or their intent, which is precisely why I call what you are doing as fingerpointing rather than balanced "critical thinking".
About Shankara-well that is whole another topic, and we shall talk about it separately!
In any case, assuming that you are willing and able to think and observe your own biases "critically", it indeed is fun to debate with you-you indeed are a clever cookie, whether a honest/critical thinker or not!
nowhere in that letter does the teacher... accuse that SSRS paints himself as god and others as lesser mortals-merely that the organisation is not going by the tenets it was founded to preserve.
The letter clearly states that the idea of Sri Sri's special divinity is a problem for the writer, and that this supposed special status is broadcast by the AoL. This very fact is an indictment of Sri Sri and AoL, regardless of how much "distance" he attempts to put between himself and these claims.
Regarding Shankara, he knew there was no such thing as more God here and less there. The Upanishads refute the idea of special divinity for the individual, an idea that AoL employs in their quest for membership.
Okay on to Shankara then!
Saying there is no more divinity here than there is different from saying there is as much divinity there as here. Just like if i say there is no more beauty in picasso as there is in van gogh, or i can say-there is so much beauty in picasso and so much in van gogh's work too!
Acknowledgement of what is
is different from refutation of what is not! Get it?
Get it?
What I get is that the Upanishads make clear that self-realization does not increase any quantity of divinity, something that many believe Sri Sri to possess, making Sri Sri someone who pisses on the Upanishads rather than promote their truth.
I really don;t care about Sri Sri or about his personality. What I do care about is the pranayama, meditation, and yoga techniques. If these are effective for individuals, the rest is not important (unless they become in love with the guru). But I was wondering if you have tried his methods? And/or which methods you would suggest.
I was wondering if you have tried his methods?
No. I already had adequate methods before I encountered the existence of Sri Sri. My health is good and mind mostly calm, so I have no need to make myself dizzy just to believe I'm making some kind of spiritual "progress."
And/or which methods you would suggest.
Personally, I've found Goenka's Vipassana to be refreshingly free of superstitious ideology and mostly clear of money-grubbing Kool-Aid drinkers.
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