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When Yoga Master Fail
Time, and again we hear about misconduct, including the worst
criminal behavior of well-known spiritual leaders. These leaders
include yogis, priests, monks and popes. If you find the inclusion
of the popes shocking, you will be in for a much greater shock if
you read the historic records of Pope Gregory IX, Pope Innocent IV,
Pope Sixtus IV and Pope Paul IV, for example.
What do these occurrences mean to us?
When these things happen, I have always observed people being
shocked to a degree that they simply disbelieve the stories.
However, these occurrences present us with great opportunities. We
can learn from these things, mature, gain deeper understanding and
ultimately replace belief with knowledge.
We can compare this situation with a woman who was oppressed by men
until she cut herself loose, learned to stand on her own and gained
more self-confidence in the process. After all, who told us that we
have to follow blindly any kind of leader. Sometimes people are
blinded by their costumes and other kinds of hocus pocus, but in the
end there is only one God and that God according to all Scriptures
can only be found within "our-Selves" and not in the heart of the
famous leader.
Indeed, everything you are looking for may be found within your
Self. Most of the confusion results from the insistence that God has
to be a person and that one needs an external Guru as a mediator.
God is pure Awareness, but God also externalizes as the Guru.
However, it is up to us to recognize how clearly God is expressed.
One should also try to understand the principals involved that lead
to a more meaningful spiritual life and to the experience of
Samadhi, the Holy Trance.
Until we realize the Self, we continuously fail, which makes not
realizing the Self our biggest and most consequential failure.
Ultimately, only Self-realization counts: There is only one Reality
and that is God.
Anyone can fall from Grace
Many advanced seekers admitted that they too were troubled by sexual
urges which seemed hard to control. Swami Muktananda talks freely
about his own sexual excitement in "Play of Consciousness". During
meditation he was plagued with sexual fantasies. He was wondering:
"What could I do? Whom could I tell about my embarrassing
situation?" "I was in deep Samadhi, and then suddenly full of sexual
desire." And, "...the agitation of my sexual organ increased." About
renunciation, he later advised: "What you have to renounce is the
root of all suffering." Like every religious scripture and advanced
spiritual teacher, he identified the root of all suffering as the
ego.
Overwhelming sexual urges may also befall a woman. In her biography,
the great Sufi-master Irina Tweedie tells about her experiences.
And, they are not unknown to Catholic priests who broke their vow of
chastity.
Why do these sexual problems occur in
people we trust and who we thought to have a higher standing?
Kundalini, the energy potential located close to the lower chakra at
the bottom of the spine, is also responsible for our sexual drive.
If our mind is not kept clean, Kundalini, when awakened, might push
into the wrong direction. This is an explanation not an excuse!
Another explanation lies in the fact that while we might be able to
enter a Holy Trance during Meditation, all our previous problems are
still waiting for us to be resolved when we return from Samadhi
until we are firmly established in this condition of Eternal Bliss.
Truly, anyone can fall from Grace.
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