Note from Guru Kurt: This e-mail was sent to Ramagiri ashram via the Nilgiri Press website. In it, I present my first analysis of Easwaran's "Eight Point Program," which is a recipe for disaster in the hands of spiritual aspirants. It is difficult, dangerous, and ineffective. It can only be successfully implemented by someone who has been illumined before, in a past life, for it requires intimate psychological knowledge. You have to "put the needs of others first," and how do we know what we ourselves need, spiritually and emotionally speaking, much less those around us? I counsel instead the attitude of universal love, and actions to fulfill the obvious needs of others such as for food, clothing, shelter, and medical and dental attention which arise naturally out of this attitude. This is what God really wants from us, not subtle psychological ploys, which can turn into ugly attempts at manipulation in the hands of the inexperienced. Ramagiri has given a black eye to real religion, for the purpose of an ashram is to seek enlightenment, yet when I wrote them to tell of my enlightenment, I was ignored. This is black, niggardly behavior befitting cavemen or worse, marauders or vultures, taking advantage of Easwaran's good name for their own fame and benefit, and retreating from all responsibility. An illumined person should be supported by the religious community where his sadhana was performed, not rejected like some animal or beast. This is one idea I hope to make perfectly clear before I go, that although claims to enlightenment should be subjected to rigorous tests, they should be respected and taken with real interest. Had the denizens of Ramagiri responded to this e-mail, I might have worked with them and tried to put Easwaran in a more favorable light. Their failure to respond shows clearly the dubious value and misleading character of his entire "Eight Point Program," which I shall proceed to denounce at every available opportunity as being unsuitable for most of mankind, ineffectual, foolish, and serving the ego instead of the Self.
To Whom It May Concern:
In May of this year I attained nirvikalpa samadhi, an experience that lasted
about a week. Yes I, even I, the lowest and most despised member of your ashram,
cast away from you like a mangy dog or refuse from your print shop or kitchen,
have attained that state described in the Hindu scriptures.
I am going to present a point-by-point analysis of Eknath Easwaran’s
eight-fold program. I do not expect a response from you. One may as well ask an
orangutan to sing Verdi. Easwaran, an illumined being, would have recognized the
validity of my claim and humbly met my statements with reasoned, calm
counter-point. Your minds are still clouded with ignorance, avidya. I doubt
whether any of you has the intelligence of a six month old infant. Yet I
proceed.
Where Easwaran was right, he was leaning on the world’s scripture. Where he
was wrong, he proceeded by his own light, his own illumination. His path was
good and wholesome in its effect on man, yet it pales into insignificance in the
light shed by the Avatars of history, who have shown the best path for man in
all truth. He would have been wiser to stay closer to their revealed teachings.
Meditation
This is the main contribution of Easwaran to the world, and a solid proof of
his illumined state. This has not come from Eknath Easwaran, but is verily from
God Himself, acting through Easwaran. The idea of using world scriptures as
tools for meditation is fresh, bold, and best of all extremely effective. One
meditating on a scriptural verse gets a real imprint of divinity on his mind
that lasts throughout the day. One also experiences the joy that the scriptural
verse was intended to convey, for the word of God is indeed meant to inspire and
enlighten the reader. It is possible to go through all the stages of meditation
using passages from scripture, and certainly sweeter than with most of the other
meditation techniques available today. I would only point out that other
techniques have been revealed in scripture, notably the visualization of the
cosmic form of the Lord as described in the Bhagavatam. This form of meditation,
revealed by God, is most efficacious, and should be allowed for meditators who
are more visual and less verbal in their orientation, such as artists often are.
Easwaran has nevertheless made a real contribution to the world with his
meditation technique, one that will become widely known and used, I do not
doubt.
Easwaran’s choice of passages was not always good, however. He did not
stick to scriptural passages, words revealed by God, but instead relied on the
teachings of other illumined people. This is erroneous, and does not benefit the
meditator as much as meditating on real scripture does. It is best to stick to
scripture, which was intended for man’s use. I will give two examples here of
passages that are not the best and explain what is wrong with each. Note that I
also include my own positive teaching beside my criticism, and am myself open to
critical remarks. As I said above, I think you are all morons and incapable of
any rational response, but so be it.
First, you include a remark made by Ramakrishna’s wife in your "God
Makes the Rivers To Flow" anthology. Sarada Devi was not God incarnate, as
she seemed to imply in some of her statements, but was an illumined woman. She
became illumined through contact with Ramakrishna, who was an actual divine
incarnation or Avatar. Her teachings shine with the inner light of a liberated
soul, who has become free from the tinge of self-will and selfish attachment to
the world. Ramakrishna was however a personification of Brahman himself, and his
teachings were therefore the best the mighty divine mind could create for the
moment of history in which he spoke. Sarada, like Easwaran, spoke from her own
experience of life and her illumined state. Ramakrishna spoke with the full
force of the Creator Himself. Here is her quote, with which I am sure you are
familiar:
Sri Sarada Devi
The Whole World Is Your Own
I tell you one thing –
If you want peace of mind,
do not find fault with others.
Rather learn to see your own faults.
Learn to make the whole world your own.
No one is a stranger, my child;
this whole world is your own.
The verse describes a positive sentiment, but that the source is a human
being and not God is immediately clear. Not finding fault with others is indeed
a common scriptural injunction, and Sarada is good to repeat it here. It is not
right, however, to link peace of mind to this idea. The goal of life is not to
find peace of mind, but to attain God in samadhi. The mind of an illumined
person is peaceful at times, but at other times becomes a raging fire of divine
energy, as is obvious from watching any of Easwaran’s talks. Jesus said he
came not to bring peace, but a sword, and this is partly what he meant with this
statement. One should not be entirely happy with one’s current state, but
should strive hard on the path to enlightenment. Coupling the idea of peace of
mind with a means of effort tends to encourage slothful thinking and acting. An
Avatar does not promise peace at the end of the path. He promises the state of
illumination, which is filled with divine bliss and never-ending joy, but is a
truly energetic and active state of the soul.
Learning to make the whole world your own is a vague concept, and is not
based on truth. It is based on the egoic conception of ownership of property,
from which Sarada was free but which she obviously remembers from before she
attained illumination. She appears to be looking at the bound state of the souls
around her, and concluding that if they could just extend their bound condition
to the whole world, then they would be free. In other words, I own my house. If
I can think of the whole world as somehow also belonging to me, I will be free
from this misconception that only a small part is mine.
While good in theory, this idea is bad in practice. It does not do very much
to free the soul from its bondage. There are two reasons for this. The first is
that the soul actually holds itself in its own bound condition. It forms a world
conception that contains all the objects around it, classifying them as
"mine" or "not mine." It also forms similar world
conceptions about people, as for instance "friend" and "not
friend" that are also part and parcel of its bound condition. In
illumination, the soul becomes free from all these ideas. As Easwaran himself
was fond of saying, such a one no longer compares this with that. The problem
here is that Sarada is actually recommending more bondage as a method to attain
freedom from bondage. The result one will achieve when trying to practice this
is a mind stuffed with images of material things, and a soul that gets very
tired and worn out.
The second problem with the idea that the whole world could be our own is
that it is not true. The world belongs to God, and God alone. We are merely
passing through, on our way to liberation, the illumined condition that Easwaran
exemplified. Indeed, he set a good example with his life of the ideal of
non-possession. It is much better as a practical means of moving along quickly
on the path to see the whole world as belonging to God, as a gift from Him meant
for our use, but not our possession. In truth, nothing in the world belongs to
man, not everything as Sarada asserts. All the objects, and all the people,
should be seen as having their own independent existence, and I am merely the
soul fortunate enough to have been born into a condition where I can strive on
the path, enjoying the companionship of other sannyasins and the beauty of the
natural world around me.
Mahatma Gandhi
The Path
I know the path: it is strait and narrow.
It is like the edge of a sword. I rejoice to
walk on it. I weep when I slip. God's word is:
"He who strives never perishes."
I have implicit faith in that promise. Though,
therefore, from my weakness I fail a thousand times,
I shall not lose faith.
I know that Gandhi was one of Easwaran’s favorite mystics, and here you
will throw down my document in disgust for I am offending your deep prejudices.
Thus will you demonstrate the open minds you have at least attained in your
strivings! Nevertheless, I still assert that Gandhi was merely an illumined man
and not God in human form. In meditation one should use only the revealed word
of God, of the God-man, not the man-God. Meditating on these words of Gandhi
instead of on, say, an Upanishad, is like choosing a horse-drawn carriage
instead of sophisticated monorail that travels 100 mph. The impact on the mind
is much less, and the resulting progress on the path is much slower.
Gandhi is echoing here the words of the Katha Upanishad that the path unto
reality is sharp like a razor’s edge. His sentiment, like Sarada’s, is good.
However, it emphasizes the wrong thing. It emphasizes human weakness. It allows,
again, more peace of mind when it should be encouraging effort. One meditating
on this verse will indeed go forward, but he will not move so swiftly as one who
actually chooses to meditate on the Katha Upanishad itself. Again, this passage
emphasizes the path of knowledge, where there is indeed weeping and sorrow, for
this path is very difficult for man to tread. One may bypass all this sorrow by
choosing instead the path of love, where there is no failure. On the path of
love the aspirant fixes his mind on God, and quickly becomes free by God’s
grace. He does not even notice he is on a narrow path, for God makes his path
wide and straight.
If you are curious, I will also show you the flaws in these next two
passages. Or perhaps you can tell me yourself.
Mahatma Gandhi
In the Midst of Darkness
I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around
me is ever changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a living
power that is changeless,
that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and
re-creates. That informing power or spirit is God.
And since nothing else that I see merely through
the senses can or will persist, He alone is.
And is this power benevolent or malevolent? I see
it as purely benevolent. For I can see that in the midst
of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth
persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is
Life, Truth, Light. He is Love.
He is the Supreme Good.
St. Teresa of Avila
Let Nothing Upset You
Let nothing upset you;
Let nothing frighten you.
Everything is changing;
God alone is changeless.
Patience attains the goal.
Who has God lacks nothing;
God alone fills every need.
The Mantram
Easwaran was right to introduce the concept of japam to the West. It is
indeed a powerful tool for transforming all negative emotions into positive
ones, and for bringing the states attained in meditation out into daily life. I
agree with him wholeheartedly that the mantram should form a major part of
one’s spiritual practice. I also agree with the selection of mantrams he has
given for people to choose from. My only disagreement with him is in the nature
of the practice.
Chaitanya, who was a real incarnation of God, wrote in his second precept:
"O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living
beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names like Krsna and Govinda.
In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental
energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my
Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach You by Your holy names,
but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them."
The key here is that God has given no hard and fast rules for japam. The
practice is meant to be refreshing, invigorating, stimulating, not boring and
tedious. Easwaran’s ideas about sticking to one and the same mantram, and
about the quantity of the repetitions as being more important than the quality,
are both false. One may choose any of the names of God for repetition, depending
on one’s mood. Today, I may feel like worshipping the Golden Avatar, Chaitanya,
so I will repeat his name. Tomorrow, I may feel inspired by Jesus, so I will
repeat his name. Or, I may combine both their names if I so choose. One inspired
by Rama may simply repeat his name, or he may use the Om Sri Ram jai Ram mantram.
Japam should be delightful and joyous, not a deadly monotonous chore.
We have it on Chaitanya’s authority, and I add my voice to his, that one
may use any divine name at any time. In truth, it is Brahman himself who reveals
himself as the incarnation time and again on earth, and he has established this
as a true path for man. There is no added spiritual value to repeating one and
the same mantram over and over as Easwaran claims. There is however increased
monotony and tedium, which is not at all what spiritual life is about. Repeat
any name of God, and you will taste the divine nectar contained in that name.
Variety increases the sweetness of spiritual practice, and indeed the speed with
which one travels on the path.
Again, quality is more important than quantity when it comes to japam. One
must remember that the Lord is a real person, not an imaginary being. If he
especially likes to hear you repeating his name, he will be moved to aid you
more in your journey. One must always strive to please God and God alone. The
best method of japam is therefore with a loving and grateful heart, full of
tenderness. One may add the idea of intense longing for the vision of God, as
Ramakrishna suggested, which speeds the soul’s journey considerably.
God, ever the realist, does know the human soul’s fickle and intemperate
nature, so he also enjoys and respects repetition in other modes as well. One
may repeat it in the mode of anger, as though one were very angry at God for not
revealing himself right now, at this moment! One may even use the mode of
hatred, as though one is filled with annoyance at the very idea of God. As
Easwaran does correctly state, the mantram will quickly convert any and all
negative emotions that one is able to dig up from the depths of the soul into
positive energy, and will generate feelings of divine bliss and real
encouragement along the path. Strangely, Easwaran’s idea of quantity as being
better than quality also works, for this is the mode of repetition in
indifference or sloth, which creates more energy and assiduousness. It is just
not the only way.
Slowing Down
This is the weakest link of Easwaran’s eight-fold path. People, especially
in the modern age, do try to fit too much into a small amount of time. This is
not necessarily evil. In fact, it is a sign of a rajasic person, a person of
action. Rajas is not in and of itself evil. It is most definitely better than
tamas, or sloth. The speed of American life is a sign of spiritual development,
and is not a bad sign. Easwaran fights this speed by counseling tamas, in effect
suggesting people should go backwards spiritually from where they already are.
Slowing down is not the way to solve the problem of a speeded up mind. A rajasic
person should not fight his rajasic tendencies, but should apply them to
selfless work. This naturally elevates the soul and achieves the end that
Easwaran desires, more peaceful and satisfying human relationships. It is just
not helpful to call the acts of a rajasic person wrong, as Easwaran does, and
recommend that he stop these actions, as he recommends. Such a person is indeed
impaled by himself, and in an unhappy state. He or she must go beyond this state
by elevating the energies, which currently circulate about his or her selfish
and low desires. You must understand, sattva is a much more energetic state than
rajas! The energy expresses itself in a calm, collected mind that is capable of
deep thought, wise action, and compassion for others. The best counsel for a
rajasic person is volunteer work combined with the mantram if possible, as
Easwaran himself actually does counsel in other places.
One-pointed Attention
This point is not a practical spiritual discipline. Attention is naturally
one-pointed, the problem is that it darts about quickly, and is caught up in
worldly attractions and desires. If I am doing two or three things at one time,
as the modern age calls "multi-tasking," my mind is not actually
split. It merely moves quickly from one thing to the next. It is another sign of
a rajasic mind, as I stated in the point above, and the method to alleviate this
is the same, selfless work combined with the mantram. Easwaran has represented
the mind of an illumined man as being able to attend to one thing at a time, to
the exclusion of everything else. However, his very talks demonstrate a
different and more profound kind of mind, one that is able to consider many
things in a deep and significant fashion. His talks are excellent indications of
the mind of an illumined person, who is able to think of many examples from life
to illustrate spiritual truth as his illumination has allowed him to envision
it. It is not exclusive thinking, but wide-ranging and divergent thinking that
is able to find many examples in life to spice up spiritual discourse.
Again, while performing any task, one should never just think of that task.
One should perform all actions for the sake of the Lord, and for the benefit of
the whole world. While at work, part of one’s mind should dwell on the
ultimate purpose of the work, and not just on its result. It is difficult to
perform one’s work in a spirit of true detachment when one thinks only about
the job at hand. One should think about how the work will please God, or how it
will benefit the other humans on planet earth. This allows selfless work to be
done with great joy, and leads quickly to true detachment. It is the only
practical way to break out of attachment to the results of work. Easwaran
unfortunately here, although in other places he states it correctly, appears to
counsel freedom by increasing bondage. Thinking of God while working is the path
of love, which is given by God as the most rapid means to attain liberation. One
must not forget God as one works.
It is not right to attempt to cut everything else out of one’s mind besides
the job that currently occupies one’s attention, and is not even possible. It
doesn’t help to try to be one-pointed, since you’d need to try to cut out
parts of your mind, which is very abstruse and difficult even to attempt. Put
God into your mind along with your work, and the mind will gradually become more
capable of achieving mighty tasks of intellect and action, it will become
unified, comprehensive in its outlook, and capable of feeling much more joy than
it currently does. It is actually alarming that Easwaran appears to cut even God
out of the tasks performed by his one-pointed mind, thus removing the best hope
of man for self-purification and the attainment of liberation. A mind that is
totally focussed on the task at hand has no room for thinking about God, and
this is not a desirable state. One should pause occasionally and reflect on
whether one is indeed pleasing God. One should offer all one’s work to the
very source of one’s being, who is God indeed.
Imagine a logger working on cutting down trees with a chain saw. What is he
thinking about? He thinks about many things. First and foremost, he doesn’t
want to get hurt so he will do nothing to endanger himself. Cutting down trees
is dangerous business. But why is he there? He is earning money, so he thinks
about how much and how the money will be spent. He is working for a company, so
he thinks about how the company is denuding the forest, or perhaps using good
conservation practices and re-planting. He thinks about what he will do for
dinner at night. He thinks about the quarrel he had last night with his wife,
and the dispute he is having with his rebellious teenage daughter. All while
cutting down trees!
The mind is not a simple thing like a trolley car, that can be forced to go
along a single track without even any passengers. There are many levels of
thought, the mind is a very intricate instrument. We all work with a purpose in
mind. The suggestion of the Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures is that the
purpose should be to please God, nothing less. It is possible to work intensely
and fruitively with this purpose also in mind. The mind is not divided in this
state, it is operating naturally and effectively, since purposeless work is
meaningless work. All work with a purpose in mind. This cannot be divorced from
the job at hand, even in the illumined man. Easwaran certainly had a purpose in
all that he did, which was to bring the full impact of his illumination to bear
on all the problems of modern life, to the best of his abilities.
Training the Senses
Everyone may be thought of as riding in a chariot drawn by six horses. The
first five horses are the five senses. The sixth horse is the desire for life
itself. As Easwaran has pointed out, untrained horses pull people this way and
that in the world, away from the path to enlightenment and onto the street of
spiritual poverty and self-destruction. One must indeed train these horses to
travel far along the path, but how? Easwaran here counsels direct training of
the senses, but I say this is only possible for great sages like Easwaran
himself. This may indeed have been his experience during his brief sadhana, but
for the majority of people in the world this will never work. This is the path
of knowledge outlined in the Bhagavad Gita, and as is stated there it is a most
difficult path. One must continually discriminate between good and evil desires,
and always choose the good. This is extremely difficult, because although there
are only five horses, they pull you along a thousand roads! You may manage to
make one wise choice in restraining your senses, but five more challenging
choices immediately appear. One is left in hopeless confusion. Only the greatest
sages can succeed in training these horses directly.
There is a better way to train the senses. One needs to obtain the assistance
of a horse whisperer, the Lord himself, acting from within with his immense
divine powers. A person devoted to God, who lives only to serve God and is
gradually building up an immense desire for the vision of God, finds his senses
naturally come under control without any specific effort on his part. This is
the royal path of love, and it is far superior to the path of knowledge for the
majority of mankind. God will help his sincere devotee with loving-kindness,
whisper magically to the powerful horses pulling his little chariot recklessly
through life, calm them, and train them appropriately. The result is the same as
the one Easwaran wants to achieve here, but the means are sweeter, faster, and
easier for mankind.
Easwaran was a great sage, but his counsel here is not the best. He spoke out
of his own experience, but as a great sage he traveled along a very difficult
road. It was fast and efficacious for him, but who can follow? There may be some
who understand and can follow his stern path, but they are very few indeed.
Certainly no one at Ramagiri has been successful yet. Training the senses
directly is the cold path of knowledge and discrimination, not the warm and
fruitful path of love. The path of love is by far the best for humanity at
large.
Upon attaining illumination, in the great experience of samadhi, one becomes
completely free from the influence of the first five horses. The senses no
longer pull the illumined man down any road. He travels where he will. The sixth
horse, the desire for life, remains. Easwaran, while free from the blandishment
of sense desire, still desired to live and to enjoy life. For this reason, he
will return again. Do you know where Easwaran is? Do any of you even know? He is
resting. His soul is being re-charged. He will be re-born again, in India, in
approximately 50 years. He will again have an odd propensity for public
speaking. He will again attain illumination, and begin teaching the world, this
time with a better, purer message. This is the way of the those who attain the
end-state of evolution. They have a great desire for life, and return again and
again to teach others the way to freedom.
Putting Others First
Once again, Easwaran is recalling his own experience of the path that he
followed. As a man who has certainly been illumined many times before, his
progress was rapid and his path was steep. This point is not practical for
meeting the spiritual needs of the majority of people. In order to put others
first, one must have some idea of what their needs are. An illumined man like
Easwaran will have some good ideas, and be able to put these into practice. The
common man on the street has no idea what his own real spiritual needs are, let
alone the needs of others. It is only after one attains illumination that one
has any inkling into this subtlest of realms.
If you try to help others before attaining illumination, you generate
problems for yourself if you do not act rightly. The biggest and most obvious is
that you begin to have an air of superiority, which is a great stumbling block.
You start looking at other people in terms of what you can do for them, which is
a grievous error. How do you know who is ahead of you on the path, and can help
you, versus who is behind you and needs your help? After the attainment of
samadhi one may make these choices, not before. As Chaitanya states in another
of his precepts, one should cultivate a humble state of mind, ready to offer all
respects to others. This is the proper attitude.
This does not rule out helping those who are clearly less fortunate than
oneself, such as children, dogs and other animals, the homeless and the hungry.
Here, one should indeed offer services if they are available to you. This is
good selfless work, that will hasten one’s own progress. One should have an
attitude of unfailing compassion towards those clearly less fortunate, or
obviously in need of guidance and assistance. However, this leads into the
second stumbling block of trying to put the needs of others first, and that is
in thinking that to help others I cannot avoid causing myself some harm, that
somehow I must help others even if I hurt myself, and if I do feel pain in
helping others this is perhaps even the best.
The truth is, there is no contradiction between helping others and helping
oneself along on the spiritual path, none whatsoever. This is a common error
made by preachers and ministers all over the world. Suffering in and of itself
is not spiritual. One travelling along the path of love will naturally help
others when it becomes obvious that they are in need of assistance, out of a
simple desire to see joy on the face of another. This lifts both the helper, and
the one being helped. One feels joy, not pain during such compassionate action.
One does not need to think about these things when following the path of love,
since they become natural to the true lover of God. God intended the world to be
wholly happy, and one who thinks only of God and is seriously trying to attain
Him will respond out of the warmth of his heart to any unhappiness he detects
around him.
It is important here to distinguish between the proper attitude, given in all
the world’s scriptures, of feeling love for all beings in the world, and the
advice of Easwaran to put others first. At first glance they appear the same,
but they are not. The main difference is in the scope. A true lover of God
strives to love all others on earth, excluding none, not even the smallest
insect. A person trying to put others first focuses on those close to him, which
as I stated can lead to obstacles.
There is even a third stumbling block, and that is that a person will focus
only on those close to him, and not on the whole world. This is the state of the
world already! Every father or mother seeks to help their children to some
degree. It is not efficacious to propose increasing the degree of this help, for
the problem of the world is indeed that people think only of those close to
them, about their spouse, neighbor, nation, and not about all other people, all
religions, all nations. In truth, these relationships are often little more than
possessive, quarrelsome affairs since the minds of people of avidya, ignorance
in the spiritual sense, can hardly distinguish between the objects that they
possess or own, and the people around them.
The purpose of spiritual practice is to free people from these possessive
relationships and learn to view all men and women on earth as brothers and
sisters. This analogy is closest to what the real state should be, for it
connotes real affection without possessiveness. One loves one’s brother or
sister, but that person is still free to make his or her own choices. In truth,
it is possessiveness that causes most of the misery in life, and these are the
bonds that are broken asunder in the great process of enlightenment. All are on
this road. It is the purpose of the Avatar to get them off the dirt backroad and
onto the superhighway, with destination the Lord within. Feeling love without
distinction is the best way. Trying to help others individually cuts you up
inside, makes your efforts weak, and can result in increase of bondage, not its
reduction. Only if you have previous insight can you really use this difficult
method to your advantage, as Easwaran clearly did.
Spiritual Fellowship
Here Easwaran has borrowed directly from the world’s scriptures, such as
the Bhagavatam, and with this I have no dispute. Spiritual association, in
particular with the guru or enlightened teacher, is one of the greatest aids to
spiritual development. It is difficult indeed to do what Easwaran himself did,
and that is attain enlightenment in the midst of worldly people. It is like
being in a school of sharks. Only one trained and skilled in self-defense from
sharks is likely to make it out alive. Being in the company of the spiritually
minded is like a sheltered inland lake, where the most fearsome fish is a bass
or trout. Here, one’s spiritual nature is free to grow and flower, as does
occur at Ramagiri.
Reading the Mystics
I do not quarrel with this either, except that I would not elevate it to the
status of a part of my path. It can be very helpful to read the experiences of
illumined men and women along with the scriptures of the world. In doing this,
one gets a taste of the joys that one will encounter oneself as one gets further
along on the path. It is very inspiring. Real progress, however, occurs in
meditation and in selfless work. One should read as one feels the need, not
necessarily on a daily basis.
Eknath Easwaran was the best of the modern group of illumined men. The Buddha
described the path to enlightenment, and Da Free John, Sri Aurobindo, Sai Baba,
and all the mystics Easwaran described in his talks and books are examples of
people who have attained this goal. In pointing out the problems with Eknath
Easwaran’s doctrines, it is not my intention to leave the world without a
path. I am also revealing my 7-fold Way of Love to the world, but I do not give
it to you. Your eyes are not ready for this yet. You are enmeshed in a
concretized view of the world that will not be swayed. I understand your
position, and do not wish to move you from it. I must travel through other
channels.
I think you know who I am. I am the one that knows he exists. I’ve given you a picture of myself here to go along with the other pictures that you already have. Keep your head buried deep in the sand, Ramagiri ashram. Ignore the supreme light of the world’s Avatars, and go by instead the second-hand light of an illumined man. Use a compass that now points east, and then west, instead of one that always points due north. The dawn of a new era is upon man, an era of love, hope, and peace on earth. I have seen the future, and BMCM is not in it. Walk on, keep walking on your gradual slope. I’m looking for runners, who are ready for the slopes of the Himalayas. Top