I think Paramahamsa Yogananda, and his gurus; Sri Yukteshwar, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Mahavatara Babaji (supposedly), are the only Indian spiritual teachers I believe that were not corrupt, rapists, cheaters, thieves, liars, frauds.

So many of the Yoga gurus have turned out to be rapists. Most of the cult leader gurus around today are swindlers who sexually exploit their followers.

The big gurus of the 60s and 70's turned out to be the same, so many were disgusting perverts. Others were authoritarian controlling monsters who destroyed the lives of their followers.

Even those who you would think would never exploit their followers, if you dig a little you find they were raping and groping disciples.

Even those who criticized gurus were corrupt. I was just reading about Krishnamurti, and he was screwing his managers wife for 35 years.

>>40497513 (OP)
>Paramahamsa Yogananda
I don't know if he was a liar or fraud, but dang... that shit looks goofy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5cBi0UJLno

>>40497513 (OP)

The more I study Hinduism and become familiar with it's faults, the more I realize Buddhism is superior. Buddhism arose as a radical rejection of Hinduism with it's caste system and it's abuse of women.

I think the Upanishads and Vedas are great, and there is a lot of good philosophy. I am also a theist rather than an atheist, but I think Buddhism is a clear and direct piercing of the veil and a pure philosophy. This is likely why it was driven out of India, which polluted the teachings.

Of course there are guru swindlers, rapists and cheaters in Tibetan Buddhism. But I think this is due to their proximity to India. I think the subcontinent has been a place of religious assholes since time immemorial and the Buddha was rejecting it all.

This of course led to the Brahmanas wiping them out, enraging mobs of bigoted Indians to murder them.

>>40497513 (OP)
>Krishnamurti
How rascal he is
You mean living? You can associate with a departed guru through his writings, but you'll need to get initiated by a living guru if you want to advance further.
In kali yuga there will be four legit vaishnava sampradayas. You can look amongst them. The guru i want as my teacher is acarya of the Caitanya Madhva Gaudiya line

And iskcon "gurus" are nothing but frauds. Traitors of their guru

>>40497620

>Prabhupada

He is who I was thinking of when I spoke of authoritarian gurus. Yes he was a well behaved sanyassi, didn't rape his disciples or steal from them, but he began an authoritarian cult which has ruined many lives.

I was a member of ISKCON for 20 years. I don't want to get into shitting on ISKCON and derail the post, but Prabhuapda taught a Hinduism that is fundamentalist, fanatical, authoritarian, ruthless in its exploitation, amoral when it came to collecting money and dealing with the public. He attacked and criticized all beliefs but his own. He was a racist, even against Whites, and a radical Hindu Nationalist. He used coercion and fear in his teachings that would make the Westboro Baptist Church blush. To me, he represents the worst tendencies in Hinduism.

>>40497609
So you know nothing of the abuses brought from lamaism?
Nah, indias fault. Right. Like the murderous bon pos killing those who tried to preach. And then also they was getting killed. Was the brutal theocracy of tibet also india's fault?

>>40497655

As I said, the problems in Tibet come from India's influence. All of those hardline cult gurus are not a feature of Buddhism, but Hinduism.

>>40497513 (OP)
The Shankaracharya tend to be solid. E.g., Swami Shantanand Saraswati.

And of course the greats Nisargadatta Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi.

>>40497620

To Prabhupada's credit, I do think he transferred the closest summary available of traditional Hinduism. It is the caste based Brahminical Hinduism of the middle ages, transmitted as clearly as possible.

But that Hinduism is flawed. It is authoritarian, castist, racist, sexist, brutally exploitative, and the opposite of all traditional western values. Beginning with the Greeks who criticized eastern religion and culture as authoritarian, with people being enslaved.

ISKCON represents the Hinduism of men bowing down to other men, of religion used to enslave psychologically, of religious leaders teaching people they are separate from God, rebellious souls who are unworthy of God's love, and must bow down and serve an institution in order to win that love again.

It is incredibly damaging to the soul. But yes, Prabhupada transmitted that better than the others.

>>40497636
>He was a racist, even against Whites
Nothing wrong with being realist. Actually his fault was that he didnt discriminate enough and filled his organization with any degenerate that could lie and feign loyalty and it backfired spectacularly
But this
>and a radical Hindu Nationalist
Is an outright lie. If anything he was india's harshest critic
About the other stuff, fundamentalist, fanatical, authoritarian. Attacking others beliefs but one's own. No. The Truth doesnt accept rebuttals. Prabhupada didnt believe anything different from tradition. Only thing he did different to any other teacher is try to broadcast it to the world. And the whole world is averse to Truth
But i am sorry for your experience. I dont know if you met Prabhupada or his bogus succesors. But if the latter i can understand, having associated with iskcon for a couple years
No, gurus shouldnt have complete control over their disciples lives. But then again, we are inclined to do things contrary to God. And guru is there to keep us in line

>>40497716

>Nisargadatta Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi.

True these are another line of solid gurus. I know Nisargadatta was a guru of Wayne Dyer.

I think Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was also a real guru.

>>40497731

You are an example of the kind of person attracted to those teachings. You are a fundamentalist yourself.

>Prabhupada had the "Truth", everyone else is wrong, he was just calling it as it is.

This is what is generally understood to be a neophyte.

He was a radical Hindu Nationalist. I never said an Indian Nationalist. He believed Hinduism should rule the world, a recreation of some Puranic fantasy.

He also believed Indian culture and the Indian people were superior to every other culture and people on earth. He did believe India was superior, as the place of religion, where God himself descends.

Prabhupada wasn't the first to "broadcast" Hinduism to the world. Not even Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Not even Gaudiya ideology in America. Look up Sri Krishna Lord of Love and Premananda Bharati.

Prabhupada being the first Gaudiya guru in the west is another feature of his mythology.

Prabhupada taught the system of gurus have total control of their disciples lives.

>>40497718
Complete lies. The west has no values. Or tradition. They destroyed it themselves
All real teachers only want to teach you you are part of God and should go back to Him. Ah, but God cant be saintly, He has to be like the people. All profligate. God must be a whoremonger, a drunkard, a killer and a thief. Cause thats what the west is.
But again, the west has read too much nietzsche and they want a god thats closer to satan. To teach you to be your own god. That there is nothing holy or saintly and that humillity is not a virtue but a sin
So what about the bible? It doesnt endorse those so called western values. Are you gonna say that the bible has no value cause you're an aryan scared of the jews? Arent you a tiny little racist yourself?
What values the west even has today?
Pure slavery. But no God

They all are

>>40497771

See. This is exactly what I am talking about.

>Le west is shit, immoral, nothing of value
>Le west (white people) is nothing but whoremongers, drunkars, killers and thieves.


This is the Indian supremacy and Hindu supremacy in Prabhupada's writings. Are you White or Indian?

It is disgusting that this guru taught western people hate themselves and their culture.

I am guessing you are some fanatical anti-white Indian.

Prabhupada is definitely YOUR guru. He represents the ignorant uneducated village Indian, the tea stall bigot on the streets of Calcutta, with an axe to grind against the entire world.

>>40497766
>He did believe India was superior, as the place of religion, where God himself descends
That comes with the whole system. If taking the scripture as Absolute Truth is for neophytes, then what do you believe in? That theyre metaphors? Anyone inclined to religion can understand surrendering to a preceptor. I also dont want to have my whole life controlled by someone else. But again, what do you want so much that a guru wont let you have? The sex? Eating meat? Drugs? What is it that stops us from *surrendering*?

>>40497771

I mean this is basically a brown Westboro Baptist Church.

>The entire modern world is satanic and evil, everything is of the devil, everyone who believes differently than me is evil and misled by the devil.

>>40497808

I am not going to debate with you on religion, because I could spend hours doing this. My understanding of these topics are very complex and it is not worth it to go into the depth required in this forum with a stranger. Nor am I trying to convert you.

Let it suffice to say, I accept the philosophy of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. I accept the mythology of the Puranas as divinely inspired poetry and meditations, but not actual reality. There were not monkeys flying around the world in spaceships for example.

>Surrender to a preceptor

Nope, did that. Religious realization, for those mature enough, is found by following ones own inspiration and divine guidance.

>What do you want that a guru is denying you.

This is a shit argument and a bad faith attack. The presumption is that I reject guru control because I am driven by lust after something. This is the shame based religion I hate and precisely why I reject the guru control paradigm.

Any individual personal revelation is false. All independent action or desire is maya or driven by insincerity. Sincerity is surrender to the institution.

If you must know, I follow all the regulative principles, as I always have throughout my life. Not that I am trying to or doing it out of obedience.

You see this kind of authoritarian Hinduism is based on shaming the individual into submission and controlling them.

>>40497803
You didnt even try to reply
Im western. Lived in my country my whole life. Never been to india. Are you american? Thank God im not american. That piece of shit country is ruled by literal satan. Yeah, the west is degenerate. Not even Christian. Christ teachings here are minimal. He would be crucified again if He came back
You must be american. You think you know so much and can tell others what to do and only your stupid country with massive shopping malls and parking lots and supersize burguers and massive tvs is worth anything. Fuck you. The whole world hates you

>>40497808

>The only reason you could possibly reject guru control is because of a personal weakness or uncontrolled desire.

>All rebellion is evil and you should be ashamed.

This is the very basis of cult control and the destruction of self esteem. It is a way of taking away peoples faith in themselves and gradually imprisoning them within the organization.

This is also why Prabhupada relentlessly attacks Advaita. It is to shame the individuals divinity and deny their own right to govern their own lives.

>>40497858

So now you degrade to just attacking me for being American. No more spiritual discussion, just raging bitter hatred for my nationality.

Are you Indian living in the West, or born in the West?

I am asking because many Indian Supremacists are attracted to ISKCON as a fundamentalist bigoted cult.

>>40497858

>Yeah, the west is degenerate.
>Never been to india.

And this is why naive westerners are attracted to the cult.

ISKCON teaches people that the west is evil and corrupt and India is a saintly place of levitating gurus and mystical yogis. In reality, India is far more corrupt and backward than the west. Nor are they more religious or spiritually realized. Westerners who have no idea about India believe that garbage.

t. unlike you I actually lived in India.

>>40497858

The use of that image leads me to believe you think the West is bad because of libertarianism and the East is good because of authoritarianism.

Nothing could be further from the truth. My life in ISKCON taught me that, perhaps above everything else.

>>40497843
It was an honest question. I do follow the principles. And i also do so out of my own free will. I feel nothing for the iskcon institution. Maybe contempt
But then, any actual spiritual path means surrendering. If not to a person, then to God. And im not against personal realization. If anything, iskcon taught me the value of presonal realization... by negative example, as ive only seen institutional fanaticism and mechanical repetition of the scriptures, but the realization it gave them is a dead soulless stare when they repeat their memorized verses like robots.
But still i would surrender to my Guru

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/srfblacklist/yogananda-s-sexual-indiscretions-t2014.html

>>40497887

Alright well I agree with this and I am glad you came to that realization.

In my experience ISKCON corrupts the message of the Bhagavad Gita to such a degree it hides the actual path of surrender to God.

It is not by surrender to an institution or even a guru, and following his orders, and letting him control your life. It is the release of all fear and anxiety into total faith and trust that God is in control. It is absolute shraddha, mixed with the jnana that all things, including the self, are part of God. There is nothing but God. There is no reason to resist. There is no need to try and control. Then one can add Bhakti and try to perform such detached action as a kind of devotional offering, while recognizing there is nothing but God.

ISKCON hijacks all of this and redifines these messages as "surrender to the institution".

>>40497887

This redefining turns the path of Bhakti into a path of Egotism, where the self tries to achieve perfection by following a set of rules, tries to earn a sense of worthiness and perfection that is already his birthright. Prabhupada encouraged that egotism more by appealing to competition, and using fear and shame, and relentless criticism of others, all are symptoms of the ego, the desire to control.

ISKCON is an extremely egotistical religion.

>>40497871
Your cute comments about
>ignorant uneducated village Indian, the tea stall bigot on the streets of Calcutta, with an axe to grind against the entire world
Were the first attack, you hypocrite. Of course yours was a virtuous one, coming from a white american against racism, like youre not the greatest racists of the world. It reflects the white mentality too well. Only you white city people are educated and anti racist. Those dirty, brown, country people are bakcward and bigoted(ok, their child marriage customs are abhorrent) and the west is no less degenerate. Thank you for running fentanyl and guns in our countries and blaming us for it and thanks for sending trillions to israel so they can keep on genociding. It must be our fault to allow such evil

>>40497899

Thanks for this. I hadn't heard this before. Apparently Paramahamsa Yogananda also had sexual misadventures, even with disciples.

It seems power corrupts absolutely.

Human beings are not meant to master others. Nor are humans meant to suspend all disbelief and absolutely trust other people.

>>40497925

See, I was right. You are an Indian who hates White people. That is why you are attracted to ISKCON.

My criticism was correct and it revealed who you are.

There are millions of Indians who are religious and racial bigots. They are Indian supremacists. Prabhupada was one of them, more or less, at least in some of his beliefs.

But he is not as popular in India because the Hindutva fanatics can never allow themselves to accept White gurus and religious leaders. They absolutely hate that about ISKCON.

My guess is that is why you reject ISKCON but accept Prabhupada. You love his bigoted anti-white statements, but you hate the White gurus.

>Running Fentanyl and Guns into our country.

KEK, so you are an Indian living in Canada. That figures. You hate Whites and you hate Americans.

Well, I am happy for you that you will avoid being enslaved by ISKCON.

I don't hate any race, but I do hate certain elements of Indian society, which I understand completely. It is an authoritarian abusive society, and it comes from generational trauma thousands of years old. All societies are to varying degrees but India is completely backward and destructive. ISKCON really brings that to life in a dramatic way.

>>40497609
>This is likely why it was driven out of India
>Brahmanas wiping them out, enraging mobs of bigoted Indians to murder them
It was the islamic conquest that erased buddhism from afg-pak-ind. Muslim conquestrs broke so many buddhist idols the name for idols became 'but' short for butarak. Buddhism was present till 1000AD in india.

Actually there's so many wrong claims in your post. Like buddhism being anti-caste and pro-woman. All wrong.

>>40497919
What the fuck. I can half agree as i know deep inside im only following a path cause i consider it the best for me. But to say that Prabhupada encouraged the present state of things. Please reconsider. And its not untrue that the gopis might sometimes argue or compete with one another over their service to Krsna, but Prabhupada or any acarya would tell us thats for the most advanced state and we should keep on humbly cooperating. No, you are not wrong that thats how iskcon operates. But then its because an institution not only requires things like, money, it is also because they are managed by, imperfect people. And the iskcon gurus are some of the most degraded people there are. But i cant agree that Prabhupada wanted the present state of things

>>40497925

And your parents fled that corrupt authoritarian hierarchy of India for opportunity in Canada. They fled to take advantage of the relative calm and the culture of western society, built upon the Enlightenment and Christian values.

Yet so many are jealous. They are jealous of a culture which is superior. They are jealous of a people that managed to rebel against Catholic religious control and against Monarchy, and to establish a superior culture. Therefore they become bitter with hatred. They insist their backward culture is superior, that the west is degraded, bad, evil, polluted. That the Zamindars of medieval India had it right. That society would be healed if only everyone converted to becoming the poverty stricken slaves of land holding Brahmanas, brainwashed into obedience with religion.

It is all cope basically. Indian are a deeply insecure people, with a deep inferiority complex. They are a rigidly hierarchical shame based culture, so that makes the humiliation all the more intense.

Please go to India and see for yourself. Then come back and tell all the White people their culture is inferior. Go on, buy a ticket.

>>40497980

>we should keep on humbly cooperating

That is not the full story. Prabhupada encouraged competition among his leading disciples. In fact they would regularly fight because of it. They would steal converts from each other etc.

He considered it using competition in the service of Krishna.

And yes the elements of shame are included in his teachings. The very basis of the belief system is shame, that one is a rebellious soul fallen from heaven who has to earn Gods love by progressing through the nine stages of devotional service. Your sincerity is tested every moment by Maya. You are envious of God, that is why you are here.

The non stop attacks against Mayavadis, Karmis, Jnanis, Scientists, Democracy, Yogis, all other gurus and religions, despite knowing nothing about them.

>>40497970

>It was the Muslims

Typical Indian Nationalist cope.

Not true, Shankara drove the Buddhists out, according to your guru Prabhupada.

It is more complex but the Buddhists were driven out by Hindus. In some cases the Jains were also massacred.

>>40497967
Im mexican, if you must know. But at least you admit it is your own cia military industry complex who really handles that shit and propagandizes it to invade wherever they please. No one cared about what Prabhupada had to say. To surrender, to love Krsna. I know india doesnt care. And iskcon certainly doesnt. Only if it alligns with their goals
I dont hate races. I despise aspects of the american culture. Just like i despise the chinese for doing abortions en masse and grinding the foetuses into pills and selling them as miracle medicine for all. And i hate my own country for many many reasons, but mainly the lack of a unifying principle. People cant be united. Cant make friends unless its to do bad stuff. Nothing to do with race. Or everything to to with race.

>>40498023

ISKCON doesn't have much of a presence in Mexico. The temples are small and not so intense. Mexicans have a more relaxed culture which takes the edge off some of their teachings.

Latin America in general has a more relaxed mood and tends to ignore things that don't work for them. They also tend to fashion Prabhupada in their image or to see Prabhupada from a more universalist angle.

In the US it is very different. It is the homeland of ISKCON. The fanaticism is still felt in temple life.

Honestly, despite the faults of Mexico, it is a greater country than India. Spiritually and materially, despite the cartels.

Your average Mexican is far more spiritually advanced than the average Indian. Whether it be Catholicism, Santeria, or Spiritism, or whatever.

I actually respect Mexico and have spent time in Mexico City.

>>40498023

As far as your criticisms of the US, they are all correct. I don't care about defending the US. Yes it is conquered by Zionists. Yes it is completely corrupt. Yes the CIA is all over Mexico and dealing with the cartels. Yes we flood your country with guns.

I am not sure about Fentanyl though, that comes from China mainly. As far as I understand it comes to the US from Mexico after being imported.

I honestly wish the best for Mexico and its people. Some of the best devotees I knew were Mexican, they were the least cult like. Except for one, but he was an Evangelical Christian before becoming a devotee. But I still like him as a person, but he could be somewhat fanatical at times.

>>40498023

I would also argue that Mexico is a place of intense light and dark. It is very strange. There is ancient wisdom there for sure. It is hard to grasp. It seems to persist in the people from the days of the Aztec and Maya.

There is also deep rich devotion in Mexican Catholicism, with the Virgin de Guadalupe appearing there. So much so, Pope John Paul bowed and kissed the land as sacred when he first arrived.

But there is also intense darkness and fear. I have known personally Mexicans who have been murdered by the cartels. It is a strange place but there is also beauty.

As said before in this thread
Ramana Maharshi is the ultimate heavyweight of our time, he is up there with Jesus and Buddha.

Nisargadatta surely was about It too.

>>40497513 (OP)
Where can I find a guru who is at least semi-competent? I live in the Europe.

>>40497513 (OP)
>Sri Yukteshwar
This man was based. I happen to have his book, "The Holy Science". It's been a long time since I've read it, but I roughly recall the following from it:

>1. We are not in the Kali Yuga anymore
Yutkeswar claims we've been well into the Dwapara Yuga since approx 1699 AD, and we'll be in Treta Yuga at approx 4099 AD or so. In his calculations, the cycle is
>1200 years Kali Yuga (ascending), people are dumb
>2400 years Dwapara Yuga, people start measuring invisible shit including electricity
>3600 years Treta Yuga, people will start applying divine magnetism
>4800 years Satya Yuga, golden age
>4800 years Satya Yuga (descending)
>3600 years Treta Yuga
>2400 years Dwapara Yuga
>1200 years Kali Yuga
>...and then ascending again for 24,000 years per Yuga cycle.
The common misconception that we're in a mega long Kali Yuga is due to misinterpretations on how to calculate the duration of each Yuga. His calculations are in his book.

>2. Sri Yukteswar values Western intellect
There's an episode where Yutkeswar is at a place called the Kumbha Mela, where there is a congregation of many Indian spiritual devotees and normies. Sri Yukteswar is disillusioned with the average intellectual level of everyone present, and suggests to Mahavatar Babaji that there are people in the West - Europe and America - who are far greater in intellect compared to the people present at the Kumbha Mela, and it's a real shame that in spite of their high intellect they tend to be slaves to materialism and are largely dismissive of spiritual matters. Babaji basically tells Sri Yukteswar to chill, and gives him a mission - to write a book which will outline the harmony between Western and Eastern religion. And that's this book, The Holy Science.

I don't know how much of the book is opinion and how much is objectively true, but it does appeal to Western intellect imo. He has no "proofs" but he's a really cool balance of left-brain logic and yoga theory, if I can call it that.

Please God, krishna, whoever, take phones away from women so they can stop posting on this website. Everything revolves around their anxiety and their pussy and we're all tired of it

>>40497620
lol I read that in Prabhupada’s voice. Btw, did you know he said, “by hook or by crook, sell them a book”. He also founded children’s schools where rape and all kinds of abuse took place. Yes, he knew about it and one rapist was still allowed to come to Sunday feast.

>>40497513 (OP)
No. Buddha and Mahavira were almost certainly the same as the modern shysters.

Wow, I can’t believe I read all this shit. This thread was quite entertaining. Shout outs to the schizo Gaudiya Vaishnavas. I attended The Philadelphia Temple for a while but was never initiated. I talked with the president and little and even heard pic related speak. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out this shit is a cult.

Kriya Yoga is legit

>>40501012

>Jayadvaita Swami

When I was a cult member I heard him speak many times. There is much that could be said but I will not say so as not to be overly critical.

He is controversial for many reasons, he edited Prabhupada's books and this was to be the new standard for the BBT printing company to use. The North America BBT was secretly selling unedited versions under the table to Rtviks, who are a splinter group from ISKCON that rejects his editing. He became extremely angry and threatened to use his power to disband the BBT, threatening many jobs.

He is also against the Food For Life program, which is one of the only altruistic programs the movement runs, giving free food to people. He considers it a materialistic distraction.

>>40501035
Legitly retarded. The origin story has mormon golden plates vibes.

>>40501012

I strongly suspect after he dies the BBT is going to go back to printing the books as they were before he edited them.

>>40501050
>>40501041
Did you notice how much of a sperg he is? Everytime a baby would coo, a door would close or a phone go off he would put on this passive aggressive smile and pause for effect. On the New Jersey ISKCON YT he even started screaming because there was a flood watch and peoples phones kept going off. Of course afterwards he shilled his books. His sanctimonious attitude really is a symptom of modern day ISKCON

>>40501455

LOL yes I remember that behavior.

>>40501043
Who cares about the origin story, what's important is the techniques. I don't even know what the "origin story" is.

>>40501455

Did you know Ravindra Svarupa? Did you like him?

I was a big fan back in the day and studied all of his lecture series:

The Three Modes
The Cure of Souls.
The Mayavada one

The Cure of Souls was actually ahead of its time imo. Christian pastoral psychology applied to ISKCON.

I knew him personally and would serve him whenever he came to my area. Drive him around mostly.

He seemed alright, I never knew what he was like in Philadelphia though.

In retrospect, I consider him one of the few good ones, but I could be wrong.

>>40498021
Go look up where the word butarak comes from. Your argument is based on a statement given by someone you consider a fraud? And he's not my guru or stuff. You are either a dumbass or a really black dumbass.

Ramana Maharshi for sure

>>40497513 (OP)
What about Ramakrishna
Is it true he was gay?

Neem Karoli Baba too
travelling India you find out about loads but they don’t make it to the west, or really outside their village. A lot of them do the utmost to avoid undue attention

Oh, hon mention to Jiddu Krishnamurti and Sri Aurobindo

>>40497741
> Wayne Dyer
> law of attraction scammer
A real guru wouldn’t have followers becoming multimillionaires

>>40501701
I never met him. There was a handful of stringy young white guys and a load of Bengalis. 2 or 3 black people too. Not too many old timers.

>>40497809
> I mean this is basically a brown Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church was actually anti racist. Their founder was a civil rights activist

>>40501043
Who’s Mahavatar Babaji
Is there any biographical information on him?

>>40501806
how/why do you know all these guys?

>>40501806
Aurobindu is peak but he is more of a writer.
Don't have anything nice to say about Krishnamurti though.

>>40501802

NGL I was bit heartbroken when I found out he was a sexual assaulter too. His followers still don't accept it.

>>40501818

Yeah, he retired around 2010 I think. He was TP there for like 30 years. More of a scholar who wanted nothing to do with management.

>>40497513 (OP)
The fact that in every ashram there's always a huge portrait of a guru acts like a filter: it scares away any reasonable human with a healthy dose of skepticism. Anyone who practices yoga in front of a portrait is cattle.

>>40501972
Or life-like statues. They always freaked me out.

>>40497513 (OP)
A lot of the 'gurus' that arrived in the west and became popular there were kicked out of India beforehand for their terrible behavior...so it makes sense many of them continued that behavior while fleecing a new naive audience.
There are plenty of guru's who weren't POS'...Lahiri Mahasaya and his guru Mahavatar Babaji (founders of Kriya) never had any claims against him. In my personal experience, real-deal practitioners (one's who can do actual supernatural things) rarely seek popularity or attention.

>>40502006

Very creepy. Indian religion has a lot of creepy shit, including animal sacrifice in dark haunted temples, but the guru statues are up there.

>>40497858
angry muslim probably living in france

>>40497513 (OP)
You can be a piece of shit and still embody the dharma. By idealizing your practice through others and imposing moral metrics on them you're limiting the whole thing.

>>40501942
>More of a scholar who wanted nothing to do with management.

He sounds like a good man. Is he still associated with ISKCON or is he independent?

>>40502071

You ain’t seen nothing yet kek

https://youtu.be/dW7F43kCfYQ

>>40502397

LOL

He is still in ISKCON as far as I know. I think he is on the GBC, but he has to be in his 80's now.

>>40501043
The bible is all about kriya yoga.
>Oxygen your body,
>Electrefy your body with mindfullness meditation,
>Adjust/rise frequency through good action
>Disolve into light (light / rainbow body).

>>40501752

From a Youtube comment that summarizes this nicely

1) pushyamitra shunga killed many buddhist monks and destroyed many monastaries, stupas & viharas

2) adi shankaracharya( vedic brahmin) who killed again many buddhist monks and converted/ usurped many Buddhist monastaries/shrines

3) Major & final blow was the destruction of major Buddhist mahaviharas such as Nalanda, Takshila, Odantapuri, Vikramshila,etc by both turks/persians & vedic brahmins,


It happened in waves. The Muslims were only the final stage.

Shree Aurobindo, and Swami Vivekananda were pretty gud

>>40498000
>canada
>enlightened christian values
Maybe before trudeau the first in the 60's man, but canada has been so buck broken it's unreal.
The people here wholeheartedly asked for their culture to be diluted to the point where it no longer exists except when convenient for the ruling class to get what they want.
They will do anything against their best interest as long as you tell them that americans want the opposite.
This country is beautiful and has some great people, but the culture is unsalvageable trash.
T. Canadian born and raised in the 90s.
White/west indian mutt if that matters to you, but raised culturally canadian and catholic

>>40500646
based Yukteshwar appreciator

>>40497513 (OP)
Guru scams were just what Jeets did before call centres.

>>40497771
>a whoremonger, a drunkard, a killer and a thief. Cause thats what the west is.
>t. India's most self aware man

>>40497513 (OP)
>Indian Gurus Who Weren't raping and groping?
LMFAO.

>>40503869
>adi shankaracharya( vedic brahmin) who killed again many buddhist monks
Any concrete proof of that? Last I checked, scholars couldn't even pinpoint the century he lived in, let alone specific earthly deeds or misdeeds. All we really have is the gift of his wise words.

>>40497513 (OP)
Fuck all of these Indian sons of bitches.

>>40505710
basterd

Forget poolanders bro. There’s only one 20th century master worth mentioning and he was Japanese.

>>40505760
who dis?

>>40505814
Masanobu Fukuoka; Farmer, philosopher, utter G. IMHO one of the only “masters” who could physically point to the proof of his knowledge in the world and say there it is. Probably the only “spiritual path” if followed will feed you along the way.

https://archive.org/details/TheOne-strawRevolution

That book altered my reality

>>40505987
Now we're cooking, this right here looks like some real bonafide enlightenment folks, much appreciated

>>40500646
Tom Campbell is supposedly the current reincarnation of Yukteshwar. He wrote the book My Big TOE on how we live in a consciousness system and how this reality is a virtual reality. Obviously this is a continuation of bringing spiritualism and rationalism together.

>>40505046
>They will do anything against their best interest as long as you tell them that americans want the opposite.

It is sad this is what Canada has become. To be Canadian is basically just to not be American. Canadians identity is totally defined in opposition to their southern neighbors.

It is sad because Canada was the best country in the world a few decades ago. The nicest people, great natural beauty, peaceful, folksy. As an American, I wanted to be Canadian. I would take trips to BC.

That is all gone now.

>>40505609

>Guru scams were just what Jeets did before call centres

This is unironically true. I have met so many older Indians that came to America as part of the first wave of mass immigration, who wanted to be gurus and failed.

I knew one guy in his 60's that was taking classes at a university. He would tell all the students to call him "Guruji". They thought that it was his name. Really he was taking pleasure in being called that.

So many Indian men wanted to be worshiped and treated like godmen in the US. These are just nameless shlubs working at hotels or scamming unemployment. Many lived by scamming the government.

They have largely been replaced by tech workers etc.

>>40505674

He started many groups of militant renunciates, like the trishula carrying sadhus. These were the ones who killed the Buddhists, not Adi Shankara himself.

>>40506653

Does Tom Campbell say this?

He gets a little whackey, saw him on Rogan.

>>40506887
No. He would never say that. In an interview someone heard he was the reincarnation and asked him about that. He said that's silly or something along those lines.

He has said that his past lives were training him for this life time where he brings together science and spirituality.

>>40506573
“God did not create nature, rather he came upon it and was so moved by its beauty he chose to dwell there.”

That and his haiku about the hearty pilgrim’s perfect shits, good stuff

>It is authoritarian, castist, racist, sexist, brutally exploitative, and the opposite of all traditional western values. Beginning with the Greeks who criticized eastern religion and culture as authoritarian, with people being enslaved.
KEK what? You seem very pressed on the issue of caste, are you some low caste dalit yourself or something?
The traditional western view has always praised aristocracy, and rigidly support a system in which the peasant class did back breaking work allowing for aristocrats to engage in leisurely activity and advance art, literature, philosophy etc etc.
ISKCON furthermore molded itself around abrahamic beliefs to make it all more palatable to the Western mind, so all your criticism of ISKCON applies more to the Abrahamics than Hindus, most of whom recognise that ISKCON is pretty dodgy
Westerners just cant help but seethe at the fact their churches destroyed their own mystical practises and now you're spiritually cut off from any stream.

>>40506972
>his haiku about the hearty pilgrim’s perfect shits
post it

Most of these gurus, i believe, start off legit. What happens is as they gain a following, many many people "pray" to them, and as a result, their energy "sticks" to the guru. This sticky energy eventually corrupts the guru and they become perverted.
The guru-student transmission is a crucial part of eastern traditions. There exists lineages that date back right to the Buddha, preserved entirely by the Brahmin caste as well as in Tibet too.
In reality, the guru-student transmission, where the guru quite literally "transmits" vibrations to the student, is required for intermediate and advanced levels of spiritual attainment. Most people who do attain full nirvana, do so because the guru lifts them to nirvana, they then get a feel for Nirvana, then they spend hours alone cultivating that till the state of Nirvana is permanent.
There are many legit gurus. But they only appear to those who are worthy. Many of these gurus only ever teach 2-3 students in their lifetime.

>>40502071
My life got messed up really badly when I left Hinduism. I was born in ISKCON. I'm pretty sure that the situation was caused by the god they worship. I read someone on a subreddit (it was the Christianity subreddit though) say that they threw out a Ganesha statue their uncle gave them and then got a lot of problems afterwards.

Human life is a nightmare because it's based on luck and we're basically playthings to higher beings who can control our lives. Taoism seems to be the most true religion. It basically teaches magic and alchemy and how nature/the universe/reality functions. But it's not like anyone can join a clan and begin cultivating like in dramas. It's not even accessible to non-Chinese because a lot of texts in the Taoist canon are untranslated, and ancient Chinese apparently is very different from modern Chinese. But they do have priests and teachers. Because of countries like Singapore and Malaysia being native English speakers, information about actually is a bit more accessible to English speakers, but it's still difficult. I think East Asians have it right. Korean shamanism is really interesting because it's their native traditional spirituality but not affected by Buddhism which is from India.

>>40497609
>Buddhism arose as a radical rejection of Hinduism with it's caste system and it's abuse of women.
Lel