Idiocracy

This is a reply to a comment from Don Randall on the Have Another Hit post:

I have noticed that when even a novice bhakta speaks or even simply reads Krishna-katha in an organized and thoughtful way, there are sure to be some in the audience who will accept the speaker as advanced or even a pure devotee. This is especially true if one speaks just after sankirtan.

In your opinion, do “manipulator” gurus take advantage of this situation? If so, to what extent? Aren’t there at least some limitations to how much manipulation people can get away with? I would assume that most people would change their opinion of a guru quite quickly if he were to begin exploiting someone the minute he realized the person had mistaken him for a mahabhagavat.

Manipulator gurus are trying to convince others that they are worthy of people’s devotion. They do so because they want fame, fortune, etc. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism we see this all of the time, especially since the Internet has given anyone with a few shekels a platform to promote themselves. The good ones, i.e. those who have done a lot of reading and study and are capable of repeating what they have learned, can come across to credulous people as enlightened self-realized spiritual masters.

You asked to “what extent” can bogus gurus manipulate people? To the extent of people’s ignorance and credulousness, and to the extent of their karma. Are there “limitations to how much manipulation people can get away with?” Well, look around. How many people devote themselves to gurus to varying degrees? A lot. Some may not give the guru anything, but do accept his manipulative and ignorant teachings nevertheless, and thereby may suffer from that.

An example is someone like Tripurari Swami. He can come across to credulous or ignorant people as a very spiritually advanced enlightened person. He has done a lot of study and spent years learning how to repeat what he has learned. He tries to use that learning to make it appear that he is a qualified spiritual master. He promotes an exploitative form of the Gaudiya tradition, one which demands submission and service to a spiritual master as the most important thing a human can ever do. One that demands submission and service to a guru as the only way to escape suffering and attain God’s mercy. He just so happens to be ready, willing and able to take care of that for you. He is always going on in one way or another about how important devotion, humility and dedication are, and of course within the context of applying that to a guru. Sometimes he is very straightforward, other times he tries to be more subtle, hoping people will make the connection, i.e. surrender to him. Even if you don’t give him anything, you are receiving a teaching which can harm your spiritual progress. If you believe that you cannot advance on the spiritual path without devotion to a guru, yet have no real world ability to physically do that, you can become despondent and give up on the path of bhakti-yoga believing that you cannot advance — so why bother?

Bogus gurus are not always easy to spot, especially if you have been deceived into thinking that what the guru is promoting is a bona fide doctrine. A guy like Tripurari Swami or other gurus working in the same tradition, have a large pool of people who have been conned into believing that they cannot gain God’s mercy and love unless they devote themselves to a guru. They have been deceived by bad translations, misinterpretations, hyperbole and anachronistic teachings — presented to them by official looking “holy men.” Being credulous and naïve they don’t realize that those people were hoping to gain a following by that presentation, e.g. Prabhupada, Narayana Maharaja, etc.

Once you accept a bogus guru as a bona fide spiritual master, you will be led into a land of his ignorance and darkness — posing as a land of ultimate enlightenment and light. Because they are not actually self-realized nor enlightened, they cannot truly understand what they pose as experts on. They pass their misunderstandings on to those who they have conned, who in turn pass those misunderstandings on to others, and on and on. It’s a vicious cycle of ignorance, creating communities of deluded ignorant people who believe themselves to be the best and the brightest, when in reality they can’t see the forest for the trees.