My above video is different from this article because I was recording what was on my mind, but in content both are very similar.  The video below is a perfect illustration of what happens in major spiritual cults of today, be it in India or the West. I have no experience with this particular religious following, but I use this video as an example only (I also like the video insights of the author which shows his spiritual growth). (I understand that it’s not the major guru that is doing the trick in the video (obviously); but just the fact that the organization allows such false materialization shows to take place, and even films them and posts them to recruit new followers, shows something.)

The strange need to project one’s power onto others

People blindly want to believe in someone else’s power, and they end up giving their money and personal energy away to someone who is only a show-man, a sales-person who sees a demand and thus provides a supply. No self-styled guru worshiped by millions and living a luxury lifestyle is real. Masses have only their eyes and ears to judge about any phenomena, as their spiritual senses aren’t awakened. So they go for those people who have the “look” of a guru, whose speech is flowery and pleasing, and who has a large following. Such gurus are either intelligent sales-people, highly ambitious leaders, or sometimes pure magicians. If they are magicians, they know that if they strongly hold an idea in their minds and promote it to others, weaker souls will be attracted to that power. This will strengthen the initial force of an idea making it increasingly more magnetic, until a very large following of weak souls is be built, making the organization look powerful and of substance. 

True liberated people are unrecognized

People who are truly spiritual remain unrecognized because they don’t fit into the preconceived notions of the masses about spirituality. They may not look a guru archetype at all, though be truly liberated. It’s not that if you become liberated you automatically start wearing flowing white or orange robes, amass a large following and teach others daily.  Yet that’s the idea the masses seem to hold in their heads, judging from the kind of gurus that they follow. I know some totally ungrounded and lost people absolutely believing in their enlightenment. They follow a preconceived notion of what a guru should do, because they are not awakened. Their surface minds tell them to dress in a way that gurus do as now they are “enlightened”. This is very funny yet at the same time sad to see.  So they start dressing copying the style of other gurus and convincingly spread their teachings, and lo and behold, some people believe in them and join in; then others, seeing that he has some followers, join in too, and the movement grows. 

Dangerous gurus

Yet mostly this field is run not be self-deluded individuals but clever sales-persons, especially those with psychopathic traits. Like chameleons, they adjust to what’s expected of a guru archetype and thus accumulate large followings and wealth. Eventually their greed for power, wealth and other worldly pleasures such as sex comes out in the open, because a wolf in sheep’s clothing must sooner or later show his true nature. So eventually some devotee comes out in the open to tell that a guru has raped him or her, then others encouraged by the bravery of the previous one come out. Media messages of gun or drug smuggling or offshore accounts with millions start reaching the ears of devotees. News of murders of people speaking against powerful gurus also start being circulated. 

Investment more important than truth

However, because devotees have invested so much of themselves into the cult, they refuse to look at the court cases and witness reports of the wrong-doing of their beloved god-man.  Some have been the followers of fake gurus for years, and they are afraid to acknowledge that they made a huge mistake and that they have been fooled for such a long time. They are afraid to start their search from the very beginning. For some individuals it’s just more comfortable to just keep believing a lie, because waking up to the facts is too painful. But what kind of life then is lived? It’s as though one is already dead. If one denies listening to his conscience because of the investment into the lie, one’s life then is truly miserable. For me, dying is better than living a daily lie.

Where there is demand, there will always be supply

As long as people want to divorce themselves from their spiritual power and look for spiritual guides, clever people seeing the demand will become the sought-after gurus. Or if not people, then some disembodied entity seeking power for one reason or another will come in the name of Jesus, Buddha, or the archangel Michael, to control one’s life. So in a way the masses who follow such con-men or spirits claiming to be this or that personage are rightly punished. They will be robbed by such self-styled gurus or disembodied entities until they stop viewing others as all-powerful and spiritual and look for spirituality within. This unpleasant lesson can be gold in worth, because if a person values truth more than personal investment, he may, after leaving the cult or any other following, stop looking for the outside divine source and focus on finding it within.

How to know if advice is for your own good

I’m not saying there aren’t people today with true spiritual powers or the ones who are awakened, though those are very unlikely to be on our TV screens with large followings! The only exception to this I know of is Eckhart Tolle, but I haven’t listened to him for years. But even if you listen to truly enlightened individuals, you will gain nothing if you don’t act on what they say. Truly awakened ones do not want to make you dependent. They give you the tools to work with for the rest of your life in one lesson. Some understand it, take the tools,, use them and liberate themselves. Others keep listening to the enlightened being all their lives without any positive result. You need to do spiritual practices to liberate yourself rather than expecting some self-proclaimed guru, however pleasant and convincing, to do the job for you.

You are your own refuge

There are gurus today who say that they are the refuge and that you can give them all your worries and so forth; but these people know that it’s a message unhappy and burdened people pleasantly hear, and that’s why they say such things. Again, they are simply clever sales-people. They do this for money and for the increase of their fans, and not for your personal good. People with such messages care nothing about your spiritual destiny. They know fully well they are human, like you and I are, but they prey on the ignorance and blindness of the masses who would rather hear a sweet lie than a hard truth. You are your own refuge. You really cannot get rid of your burdens. You need to solve all the problems yourself. This is good for you. Every problem that you solve makes you wiser, stronger more perfected. We indeed only get the burdens that we are able to carry and the problems that we are able to solve. Problems are there for our self-improvement and development. It’s best to avoid listening to gurus who just say what is pleasant, because often truth is bitter and even insulting. It cares nothing of our culture or religious beliefs, and therefore remains unwelcome into the minds of many.

Finally…

Don’t give your power away. You need all of it for your personal progress. Don’t invest your power into the adoration of any self-proclaimed god-man because this only separates you from your divine essence and energetically feeds a human being who is just like me and you. All of us are divine, so our limited time should be spent in uncovering this true nature of ours rather than on externalizing our divine nature and projecting it onto some other human being.