Comment below: --- In [email protected], "lupidus108" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > this was a big issue, in the Robin Carlson days! > > > he claimed to represent the pure Guru Dev, and > > > that Maharishi had strayed from it. He attracted > > > alot of followers in Fairfield around 1982. > > Nutcases abound. > > There will always be those souls who take refuge in their > escapist "understanding" of Guru Dev rather than follow the advice of > his closest disciple Maharishi. > > Why ? Because it is much easier to follow a Guru that is no longer in > the body and that no longer challenge your beliefs. The latterday Guru > Dev-fanatics amongst the "new-born-independents" are fooling > themselves, dvelving into a dreamy soothingness of easy harmony that > does not excist.
**END** You bring up a very good point and one that concerns me, too. Maharishi has set up several hurdles to establishing a "full" guru-disciple relationship (at least for me). The first one is that I was "priced out" of discipleship a long time ago. I attended every course for years, each one offering the latest techniques and the next (and best) unfolding of new petals of knowledge. As a full-time initiator it required scrimping and borrowing and soliciting sponsors, etc., as each new course became more and more important to attend yet more and more difficult to finance. Nevertheless, as access to Maharishi receded farther and farther behind the massed phalanx of those whose wealth or status was more useful to the movement than a simple initiator/governor -- the scientists and the industrialists (and the celebrities), whose attendance on Maharishi served to validate (and promote) his teachings and techniques -- I continued to be devoted to him. After a time, however, the message(s) coming out of the movement made less and less sense to me personally. I found it harder and harder to relate to what was being promulgated as the "new" foundations of the movement. It's not that I don't understand the potential value of Ayurveda or Jyotish or StpathyaVeda, but their ascendency in importance within the movement and the continued devaluation of meditation and transcending always puzzled me. With the rise of the rajas and the trappings attendant upon them and the cumulative effect of many stories of behavior within the topmost tier of the movement I found my faith in Maharishi severely shaken. And, since I no longer (and for a long time now) have access to him I can neither confront him directly for intellectual clarification, nor find confirmation of his authenticity in my heart by his darshan. And I neither trust nor believe the sincerity or motivations of his lieutenants. I can connect the dots of all the disparate and puzzling elements of the movement in such a way that it all makes "sense" and explains everything so that it all works out perfectly. Mr. Brigante does a fine job of that and I cannot sincerely deny that his understanding or belief may not be true. But I don't "know" that they are and for myself the picture thus constructed seems tortured and more along the lines of rationalizations than simple truths. So that leaves me to look to the very foundation of the movement and that is Guru Dev, the guy that Maharishi taught me to do puja to. And I do. And I feel, and quite strongly (based on my own experience), that you cannot go wrong if you put your attention on Guru Dev. We all lead ourselves. The Self leads the self back to the Self. It's neither easy nor hard, it just is the way it is. I do consider my devotion to Guru Dev to be an "escape" from the bondage under which I've lived for so long. And I'm not just "fooling myself" either. I wish I had a clearer understanding of Maharishi and a way to make sense out of all the weirdness within the movement. But, be that as it may, I am eternally grateful for his teaching, for his meditation, for his being, and for introducing me to Guru Dev through his own person and through puja. As RAC posted the other day, yaaayy for Maharishi for doing what he's done, it's certainly done me a world of good. Jai Guru Dev Marek (one of the nutcases) To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
