Jag är den ni kallar Fadern

 

En kulturartikel i Aftonbladet som hävdar att Venezuelas kontroversielle president Nicolas Maduro har kontakter med evangelikala kristna. Tidigare var han anhängare av Sai Baba?! Han har även gått på kubansk kaderskola och varit maoist.

Gud stavas förresten med stor begynnelsebokstav. Fixed it for you.  

Maduro hoppas på Gud när folket tröttnat

It is what it is

 

Peter Mount Shasta (actually spelled Peter Mt. Shasta, but my word-processor can´t always process it) is a spiritual teacher living in – wait for it – the small town of Mount Shasta close to the actual mountain, a dormant volcano in northern California. “It Is What It Is: Further Adventures of a Western Mystic” is a small book published by Peter in 2019. It´s apparently an Amazon Kindle best-seller, but I admit it wasn´t *that* interesting. Perhaps it´s intended as a kind of teaser trailer to the wider oeuvre of this particular writer?

The book is a collection of short anecdotes with a spiritual undertone, not in chronological order. The underlying theme is that the Ascended Masters and/or the I AM Presence can guide you and help you both in spiritual matters and in more mundane situations. At least sometimes, the short stories also have a certain sense of humor. The Masters appear dressed as hoodlums, Walmart employees with the face of Eckhart Tolle, or police officers in the forests at 10pm. They can fix Peter´s Word program, tell him to board a bus…or interrupt his advanced meditation by a literal lightning strike! Peter Mount Shasta himself has apparently gained some supernatural powers too over the years, such as the ability to fly a UFO or levitate while meditating. He also has a certain sense of humor – the photo on the book cover shows him on Boulevard Saint Germain, presumably in Paris. Yes, Saint Germain is the name of Peter´s higher plane guru…

The author´s spirituality is an eclectic blend of Guy Ballard´s I AM teachings (said to hail from the Ascended Master Saint Germain) as interpreted by Ballard´s former secretary Pearl Dorris, and Vajrayana Buddhism. But then, the I AM teachings themselves tend to be pretty eclectic. In one anecdote, Peter reveals that he was one first name basis with Wendelle Stevens, the controversial UFO-logist and former US military officer who vouched for Swiss contactee Billy Meier. The chapter is illustrated with a picture of Mary and her immaculate heart, perhaps a hint that Mary and Semjase are supposed to be the same person? Mary also appears during an Ayahuasca experience, to set matters straight! More problematic is the author´s great respect for Sathya Sai Baba. The book even contains a bizarre miracle story about how Sai Baba appears in Mount Shasta after his physical death, driving the same kind of black BMW Peter wanted for Christmas?!

The most intriguing chapters claim that a Chinese Master of Esoteric Buddhism, a certain Yu, wanted Peter Mount Shasta to become his successor, at least in the United States, and would be able to keep half of the proceeds. Peter (dis)respectfully declined. It seems Yu was somewhat angry at this unexpected development. There is also an interesting story of how another Hanmi master attained Rainbow Body. Another interesting chapter deals with the author´s friend Jonathan, who tried to live like a sadhu both on the slopes of Mount Shasta and in a jungle in Hawaii. His Parkinson´s disease was supposedly a way to bear the karma of people suffering in the Buddhist Hell-realms…

All the sensational stories co-exist rather uneasily with more down-to-earth scenarios featuring the author helping his family with cooking and washing, trying to learn unruly New Age people to meditate properly, removing trees from the vicinity of his cabin, driving through fly-over country, and so on. Perhaps spiritual seekers of a broadly New Age type do find this material interesting, but personally, I´m probably moving boldly towards other pursuits.

It is what it is.

Men vad i hel...

 

Kan ingen jävel täppa till käften på den här pedofilen? Hoppas Krishna straffar honom på något lämpligt sätt för att han hädiskt tagit Guds namn i sin smutsiga mun! 

OK, jag vet att Sai Baba är död, but you do get my point. Är fortfarande all over YouTube... 

The Knee of Luxury

“The Dawn Horse Magazine” is an old publication of Franklin Jones' community in California. Franklin Jones, better known as Bubba Free John or Adi Da, was a controversial Tantric guru who attempted to “enlighten” his devotees with a combination of meditation, insults and orgies. People who left his community describe it as a cult and Jones himself as addicted to sex, drugs and pornography. Why are we not surprised?

This issue of “The Dawn Horse” was published in 1974 and contains a long article by one Jerry Sheinfeld about Franklin Jones' famous trip to India, where he was transformed from an ordinary mortal to a divine incarnation. While written in an annoyingly devotional style, Sheinfeld's reminiscences are actually quite revealing. Jones laughs at poor cripples, has no problem with India buying high technology at the expense of starving peasants, and both he and Sheinfeld enjoy living in luxury at a five-star hotel attended by the staff. Jones tricks a boy-servant out of the money he owes him. Above all, he tricks Sheinfeld, who is forced to endure Jones' constant complaints and petty harassment, and even massage him for hours every day! Of course, it's all for a higher spiritual purpose.

Sometimes, the author's interpretation of events almost made *me* laugh (well, thank you). Thus, he writes: “Bubba was constantly forcing me to deal with people throughout the trip. I would make plane and room reservations, and occasionally someone would tell me that the reservations were not available or that it would be impossible to make them. Bubba would never allow me to accept that. I had to insist and make the person move through his limitations and the limitations of miles and regulations.” Of course, a more mundane take is that Mr Bubba was a typically arrogant American tourist, who expects trains to go on time in a Third World country, at least when *he* is around! Since he had no intention of fixing things himself, he let his butler do the dirty work for him…

A large portion of the article is devoted to Franklin Jones dissing various Indian spiritual teachers. He tells Sheinfeld to ask Sathya Sai Baba to materialize a hot dog rather than sacred ash (it's not clear whether Sheinfeld did so). During a visit to Auroville, Jones argues with the true believer assigned to show them around, rejecting both Aurobindo and The Mother, which apparently profoundly shocked the guide. The few gurus Jones seems to recognize are all dead, including Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna.

The article ends with the couple finally returning to Los Angeles: “When we arrived in Los Angeles, the entire Ashram was there to greet Bubba. It was definitely the most moving experience of my life. When he is around his devotees, Bubba is able to manifest more of his true nature freely. As he walked down the ramp to greet everyone, he shone like a million suns. The love of all those people for him made me cry with joy. Throughout this entire trip, Bubba showed me only two things: to turn to understanding, and to turn my attention to him in Love. All he ever did was live as the Heart and the Light which he is.”

Glad you find The Way, Jerry. The rest of us just shake our heads. But sure, trick-or-treating Sai Baba (who was probably even worse than Franklin Jones) would have been great fun…

When avatars collide

“Sathya Sai Baba: The Counterfeit Avatar” is an attack on the controversial god-man of Puttaparthi in India. The pamphlet is written by a supporter of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

The author says surprisingly little about the serious accusations against Sai Baba concerning sexual molestation of children, although he does seem to accept that the victims were telling the truth. Nor does the author say much about Sai Baba's “magical” ability to materialize objects. He does imply that the materializations were fraudulent. In the West, the accusations of pedophilia and false miracles are the usual ones against the Indian god-man.

Instead, most of the pamphlet is a very “esoteric” attack on Sai Baba's claims to be an avatar (divine incarnation) of the Hindu god Vishnu. Apparently, Sai Baba proclaimed himself to be Kalki, the tenth and final avatar. The author argues that Sri Aurobindo was the genuine Tenth Avatar of Vishnu. His arguments are hard to follow, and seem to rest heavily on astrological speculations. Sai Baba is said to represent the Age of Pisces, with its negative nirvana-centered spirituality. Aurobindo, by contrast, is the avatar of the Aquarian age. He brings a new revelation to mankind, finally revealing the true meaning of the Vedas, preaching the unity of spirit and matter, rather than a nihilistic “liberation” from matter. The notion that an avatar must bring a new message is central to the author's case, since Aurobindo's teachings (and that of his spiritual companion, Mirra Alfassa alias The Mother) differ considerably from orthodox Hinduism, while that of Sai Baba is more in keeping with it.

I get the impression that Aurobindo's followers had some kind of longstanding feud with Sai Baba, since the baba claimed to have been born the day before Aurobindo proclaimed himself to be an avatar. In Sai Baba's rendering, Aurobindo was really making a prophecy about *him*. Rather than being a divine incarnation, the author implies that Sai Baba was the product of the so-called Intermediate Zone, presumably what others call “the astral”, and hence a victim of “astral glamour”. He was used as an instrument of dark, demonic forces out to distort the truth. The rogue guru's sexual appetites are said to be connected to his Intermediate Zone status.

Some arguments against Sathya Sai Baba's divine pretentions are no-brainers, such as his erroneous prophecy about his own death, or the fact that he fell in the bath twice and severely hurt himself. Some avatar. However, the latter accusation is somewhat disingenuous coming from a devotee of Aurobindo, who once also fell so badly that he broke some bones…

This article, which is apparently also available on-line, is probably of interest only to those who closely follow the Integral Yoga teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa. I don't think it will sway the fanatical followers of Sathya Sai Baba – if the serious allegations against him didn't do the trick, nothing will. Unfortunately, I might add!

Revelation on the road to Puttaparthi

This review is from: Swamis Revelations and Teachings: Quotes from Sri Sathya Sai Babas Speeches about the Golden Age and His Teachings (Kindle Edition)

This is a rather bland e-book of statements by Sathya Sai Baba, compiled by a Western devotee. Sai Baba was a Hindu guru who claimed to be a genuine divine incarnation. He was popular in North America and Europe during the 1970's (I remember reading about his supposed miracles as a kid growing up in Sweden), but he lost most of his Western devotees after allegations of systematic sexual misconduct with children. Now, he is mostly mentioned in books about dangerous cults! In India, by contrast, Sai Baba still has millions of followers (he died in 2011).

This book mostly contains Hindu and Christian-sounding commonplaces about the need to love and forgive everyone, meditate, worship God, and so on. The world is maya (illusion) and the goal is therefore to merge with Brahman after the physical death.

However, some statements sound positively chilling once you remember that “God” is really Sai Baba himself. Below a portrait of the cult leader, we read: “I am the Universal Absolute. I am all that is, was and will be. I am this light, and I am everywhere”. This heavenly clown also declares: “I am in you, you are in me, we cannot be separated”. On a more comic note, there are photos of the guru's luxurious accommodations (is *everything* in his ashram gilded?), while the accompanying quotations from his speeches teach that everything material is really an illusion…

It seems the god-man's loving tolerance does have its limits. Around 2033, Sathya Sai Baba will return as Prema Sai Baba (the portrait of which is suspiciously similar to how Christians envisage Jesus) Then the apocalypse will commence, and after a thoroughgoing cleansing of the Earth, only a small and devoted minority will remain. This will be the Golden Age or the New Age. It's not clear where the date 2033 comes from, but I've heard it before. It's probably one of several proposed dates for the Age of Aquarius!

Well, it's good to know that the sage of Puttaparthi finally came clean about his true identity. He was, of course, the Aquarian Anti-Christ…

Avatar of shadows

A review of "The Shadow of a God-Man: Exposing Sathya Sai Baba, India´s Most Famous Guru"

David C Lane is a cult-watcher, cult-buster, skeptic and former supporter of the Radhasoami tradition within Hinduism. His most interesting book is “The Unknowing Sage” and deals with the life and teachings of Baba Faqir Chand, a somewhat unusual Indian guru. Otherwise, I think Lane is mostly known for his polemics against Radhasoami and its American off-shots Eckankar and MSIA, and his interactions with Ken Wilber.

This little e-book deals with another Indian spiritual teacher whom Lane has been heavily involved in exposing: Sathya Sai Baba. The material is badly edited, but could be useful if you never heard of Sai Baba before, or if the only thing you ever read about him was uncritically positive. Sai Baba, based in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, claimed to be a genuine divine incarnation and had millions of devotees. For some reason, Sai Baba was also popular in the Western world, with the media often mentioning his “miracles”, which included materializations of sacred ash, wristwatches and rings for the benefit of his disciples. Naturally, he was accused of cheating by the skeptics. An Icelandic parapsychologist wrote an entire book discussing the pros and cons of the god-man's miracles.

Later, more serious allegations were made. Many ex-devotees accused Sai Baba of being a pedophile and pederast. In India, Sai Baba was supported by rich families and had political contacts with both presidents and prime ministers. This web of corruption shielded him from all prosecution. When Lane began exposing the rogue guru on the web, a prominent Indian politician managed to get one of his websites removed. Lane was eventually forced to drop out of the baba-bashing business due to serious death threats. However, both India Today and the BBC have run exposés on Sai Baba since then, so today nobody with access to the web can plead ignorance concerning the grave allegations against the man. Besides, he died at the age of 84, rather than 96 as he had constantly prophesized. Some believe that Sai Baba was 81 at the time of his passing, having lied about the year of his birth to align it with a prophecy about the return of Krishna.

In the end, it doesn't really matter whether or not Sathya Sai Baba could materialize diamond rings for his devotees or foresee his own death. Even if this was true, we must reject him anyway due to his moral failings and the corruption of his organization. A bad man doesn't become better just because he has some supernatural powers…

The Anti-Christ of latter days

A review of "Sathya Sai Baba, The Christ of Our Days" 

This is a pamphlet promoting the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba and his teachings. It's written by a Russian devotee, Vladimir Antonov, and is said to have been blessed by the guru himself. The text is short and relatively uninteresting.

Sai Baba's philosophy is broadly similar to Advaita Vedanta with admixtures of Vaishnava devotionalism. The avatar of the present age is said to be Sai Baba himself, in effect making him a direct manifestation of God or the Divine. While this makes him sound almost megalomaniacal to secular Westerners, Jesus made similar claims (at least according to the Gospel of John). Overall, Sai Baba's message sounds like a long string of Hindu commonplaces. Buddhists and even Christians might also find things to agree with in this material.

For some reason, Antonov doesn't mention the more distinct Sai teachings. Thus, Sathya Sai Baba claimed to be the second of three Sai Baba incarnations, the third (known as Prema Sai Baba) arriving in 2033 to usher in a New Age or Golden Age after first purging the Earth from all its sinful inhabitants in a virtual apocalypse! The sinners are presumably the majority of the population which refuses to accept God's triple incarnation…

Sathya Sai Baba is mostly known for his supposed ability to materialize physical objects in the blink of an eye, including holy ash, rings, flowers and wristwatches! In the West, he got the reputation (at least among skeptics) for being something of a conman or stage magician. Even the Amazing Randi cracked a few negative comments about the god-man from Andhra Pradesh. Antonov mentions the miracles, but chooses to concentrate on the actual message of Sai Baba instead.

Later, more serious allegations against the Indian guru were made. Ex-devotees claimed that “God” was really a pedophile and pederast, sexually exploiting his devotees or their children for decades. Sai Baba was never charged with anything in India, but in the Western world his reputation was pretty much destroyed by the accusations. It's possible that Sai Baba's contacts with high-ranking Indian politicians shielded him from further investigation.

Of course, the true believer Antonov doesn't say anything about this. In the end, I will only give this pamphlet two stars.