The Poonja Crowd
“Surrendering to a teacher is surrendering your self-reliance.
Not one of them has anything to give.”
-- UG Krishnamurty (paraphrased from memory)
As a young boy Ramana Maharshi had an abrupt and sudden awakening - from that day onward he ceased the desire to distinguish one thing from another. But it took another forty years as he later said, for the fulfilment of that initial realization.
Poonja was not so lucky. He had visions of imaginary deities, and thought himself superior to others because of this. After meeting Ramana Maharshi he settled down however, realizing that only that which was permanent (for the visions came and went) was of any importance. Sadly however, to the end of his life he was still trying to go more deeply.
For various reasons Poonja had many followers. One of the main ones was that legions of disabused and disillusioned Rajneesh followers flocked to him as a substitute. Films taken by some of these folk helped spread the word of Poonja as their version of an enlightened sage. The films purport to show some of his followers supposedly attaining “realization”, crying and laughing in their supposed enlightenment. Just as happens in Christian fundamentalist revival meetings where some poor sod is “washed in the blood of the Lamb”.
Some of these laughing and crying folk came to believe that they had attained some magical thing they called enlightenment. “Burnt in the fire of truth” to quote one of these. For the most part these folk were lost and troubled western middle class people who if I may be allowed to say so, seem to have been pretty lazy. They liked the quick fix pseudo-Advaita manta which says “
you are already enlightened” and “there is nothing more you need do”. I feel these beliefs to have been rather unfortunate for it takes the wisdom of Adi Shankara (whom both Ramana and Nisagardatta often quoted), completely and utterly out of context. Sadly however, these laughing and crying folk thought they had attained something. So when Poonja told them to go out and teach, they did so. Rather than perhaps seeing that
truth did not need their help.
Well, be that as it may, these epiphany loving folk were for the most part very nice, genuinely well meaning people. Some have subsequently made it big on the newage-guru circuit and travel the world staying in five star hotels or luxury homes. Some are sponsored by multimillionaire heiresses. Most however are small time, having only a few followers. These teachers work at day jobs to keep themselves going.
Interestingly unlike say, Wei Wu Wei, Spencer-Brown, etc., there are no scholars that I know of in the Poonja crowd. Why does this matter? Because unlike Ramana or Nisagardatta or other truly awake folk, the Poonja crowd seem for some reason to hold forth on Advaita, philosophy, science, history, etc. in a manner which to my ear at least, seems on a par with their Christian fundamentalist counterparts who claim human children and dinosaurs frolicked together in the daisies. Yet I would go further than this - in quite a few cases this
ignorance of the world and of scholarship seems to be quite wilful. As if deep learning and deep scholarship are somehow unclean and unholy. But ignorance is not a synonymous with enlightenment. To eschew deep learning or scholarship is it seems to me, to be part of the infantalization common to the guru set. This seems particularly so within the Poonja crowd of teachers.
Yet more importantly by far I feel, is that this shunning of knowledge and learning can sometimes result in a reluctance to
truly question either their
understanding or their supposed
insights.
I might mention too that some of the Poonja crowd of teachers appear to me to be using the same induction techniques so common to cult leaders, successful politicians, PR people, and fundamentalist preachers. Their use of leading and pacing, hypnotic speech patterns, unblinking eye contact, deep pattern embedding, gestures, anchoring, induction via slow speech rhythm and tonality, cathartic induction, and so on all seemed to me reminiscent of Dr. Erickson’s and Bandler’s brilliant work (albeit since debased by widespread misuse). Some of the well known Poonja teachers have received training in these techniques, as have some of the better known Christian fundamentalist preachers.
What the Poonja crowd teachers say can sound quite nice in its way. Yet to my ear most of it is newage pschobabble. And short-term therapy. But the therapy seems to be as much for the would be teacher, as for members of the blissed out satsang audience. To me most of these teachers look to their devoted audiences for stimulation, entertaining stories, and a balm for their own life problems. Talk to a few of these teachers as equals and you might be surprised at the extent of their own difficulties, and the amount that being with adoring fans helps them face their troubled throughts. There are in the Poonja-crowd of teachers many who appear desperate to be loved, and it shows. It does not seem to me that many of these folk speak from the spontaneous outpouring which can arise from deep resting in stillness. But rather from the belief system of a preacher who has imbued the flavour without the understanding. Just my opinion of course
“It is natural for the mind to believe, and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false” — Blasise Pascal, 17th CE mathematician
Finally, it is might be useful to remember that the guru business is a business. I do not mean it is necessarily a money making business of course, but a business where a product (the teacher and the so-called “teachings”) is proffered in return for adulation - love, reinforcement of the belief “I understand” or “I am awake”, and of course, a little ego stroking. For the big names amongst the Poonja crowd, it is also money making business. Free travel all over the world, staying in very nice homes, luxury retreat resorts, tax free havens through their “foundations”, and oh, quite a bit more. For some in the Poonja crowd, the
neo-Advaita franchise also means they can avoid working at a real job. Not to say that it is easy running a satsang or a retreat, but certainly much easier than the majority of real-world jobs.
“Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool” — Mark Twain
Of course there is absolutely nothing wrong with expressing one’s inner heart in love as best one can. It is laudable in fact. And if that results in chatting with others in a so-called ’satsang’ setting, well why not? It can be very enjoyable to meet with like minded people, whether arguing the strong Goldbach conjecture over dinner, or singing a song of praise at a prayer meeting. Great fun. But what has it to do with awakening? Nothing.
Poonja said that in his long life he had met only two awakened people - Ramana Maharshi and a hermit he met by accident. I agree - true, deep, complete awakening is very rare. Certainly the growing legions of satsang givers who say they are following in his “lineage” are not, I would suggest, awake in any sense of that term. As the Buddha warned, it is difficult to keep to Truth when the devils come, but much more so when there are angelic temptations such as the illusion of being “enlightened”. Lots of these folks its seems to me, have mistaken these angelic temptations for something else entirely.
These people may look like gold and they may glitter like gold,
but they have no real value.
There are many people who can put on a show
and fool other people into believing they are enlightened.
– Poonja (interviewed by David Godman)
