Cult Knowhow

• Sets of Questions and Topics

Sets of Questions and Topics

- to explore by

Thinking: "Vicarious bragging looks better than lagging behind."

1. Have enough control of your own, from first to last.

   The unhappy clique may take up vicarious bragging. Great claims without a shred of evidence, or contrary to evidence, may be found as well. Heaven as conceived of by many, is such an item - streets paved with gold fit the poor, and on and on. The greatness of unseen but often spoken of angels is better than that of bats, and so on. Maybe the poor braggart is lagging behind too. There is reason to suspect that the better conditions here, the less need for drumming up quite collective fancies too.
         It matters to do better than gold-hankering ones, and might-greedy ones, and business-rigidity lovers.

2. Ascertain how far you have a say in the group of your desire before you're hopelessly bound to it.

3. Does the leader of the group or cell claim infallibility or wisdom?

   There is evidence that Self-Realization Fellowship, SRF, claims flawless wisdom on behalf of their dead guru, who is worshipped as an avatar, a divine descencion, a Christ. There is also the witnessing of Geoffrey Falk about these things.

4. Do you get confused too?

   It hardly makes it easier at first for a cult member to find out how far the founding, holy guru or Führer talked and wrote against himself on significant subjects. Self-contradictions abound in the Bible, and in guru sayings too. [LINK]
         Then there is the Bhagavad Gita authority in SRF. The guru and his gurus counsel daily reading of it. In it, we read that demons teach the same as Yogananda: that the world is illusory. That makes the guru one of the demons [LINK], which Jesus used to cast out of people.
         But demons may be OK in Hinduism if they stick to fine standards. The story of Prahlada from one of the Hindu puranas, the Srimad Bhagavatam, is an example of it. He was the son of a demon king who tried to kill him by various means, but Prahlada did not misbehave. His evil father was then killed by the man-lion, Narasimha, one of the incarnations of Vishnu. And Prahlada became the new demon king - [Clh 312-20]

   He who knows he is confused is not in the worst confusion. The man in the worst confusion will end his life without ever getting straightened out. - Chuang Tzu [Co, section 12]

5. Are you permitted to question teachings, to accept just some parts?

   Buddha allows it. [LINK]

6. Is there a strong emphasis placed on recruiting new members?

   "Go east, west, south and east to spread the message," said Yogananda from his hotel balcony, in SRF's Golden Anniversary Booklet [Mas].
   In actual practice core things of SRF are in the hands of nuns and monks. They have other things to do. Among them is keeping Mata-monastic control over it and Yogananda writings, which they publish.

7. Do group leaders [harass or] make sexual advances?

8. Must you clear what you say about the group? Are you told what to say about the group? Are you free to come and leave as you will? In SRF you may come as you wish. And on the surface level you may be allowed to leave - but with guru words of dire fears and colossal sufferings for life-times for leaving too.

   "There is only one guru uniquely the devotee's own. But if you turn away from the emissary of God, He silently asks: 'What is wrong with you . . .?' . . . He who cannot learn through the wisdom and love of his God-ordained guru will not find God in this life. Several incarnations at least must pass before he will have another such opportunity." - Paramahansa Yogananda, SRF magazine, spring 1974, p 6. From a talk at the Headquarters, 17 Oct. 1939.

   Why add "colossal sufferings" to this picture, and expose a hidden curse? The guru writes in his autobiography that the head of the line of gurus, Babaji, said, "Repeat to each of your disciples this majestic promise from the Bhagavad Gita [2:40]: "Even a little bit of the practice of this religion will save you from dire fears and colossal sufferings." [Autobiography, Ch 34.Thus, when you leave the cheating guru, dire fears and colossal sufferings are your lot, he says.

9. Are indecent threats directed at former members and those who express a desire to leave?

   Apart from "dire fears and colossal sufferings" for untold life-times? Isn't it enough?

10. Are leaders honest about the activities?

    SRF wears a Christian facade; it does not stand inspection. You swear unconditional allegiance to a bunch of avatars from India - and Jesus. That sort of swearing is not fit, and not for a Christian either. And SRF is marked by shallow facade-making and pretences too, not just inconsistencies.

11. Is there a high degree of secrecy?

    Yes. The core methods of SRF are guarded secrets, although they may be learnt from other lines freely nowadays, happily [see Cy; Kta]. But Jesus (one of the SRF gurus, it is claimed in SRF), says one should not do such things. Likewise, Buddha too says he gives his way open-handedly.

Gross Self-Contradictions Suggest Neurotics

• Are you allowed to dress and behave all on your own most often? -- Not as a monk or nun or novice.

• Can any member stay pertinent, handsome and neat as she or he likes? -- Probably.

• Do your leaders deride frank and common guys? --

• Is there any unfit secrecy policy; or unsociable fractional strides? -- Yes, as for the kriya teachings. Fractional strides in SRF are probably repressed, if any. But around 2002 one third of all SRF monastics left. Earlier, after sister Daya got the leadership, many kriya yoga initiators left the organization too, writes the Yogananda biographer Dasgupta. [Psy]

• Do bossy dictates from above cause problems in sexual matters? -- Yogananda's "have sex once a month or less" can ruin a marriage. It has done so too.

Fares are Good if They Bring Lots of Good Opportunities

1. Stay away from silly networks for your own good - the sooner the better.
2. Go for candid, good fares where you're allowed to accomplish things on your own. If you go for candid, good fares fairly often, fairly well, you could thrive better and accomplish some rewarding things on your own, eventually.
3. Hold on to good chances and neat opportunities the day you can. It's better to take to what is normal winner truths that hearsay canon - and not waste opportunities either.

Stick to the Balanced Mate and Good Ideas

1. Stick to carefully faceted and smart thinking that is good for you and note that much that's conform through law can be at variance with religious instructions fairly often. Laws can protect people from unbalanced missionaries.
2. Balance neatly. Some good ideations (ideas) help.
3. Find a cosy mate and don't be overtly short-sighted. He who talks down on woman, forgets Mother. (Norwegian).

To Have Assets to Help You Remain Sincere, Is Well

1. Best sincerity is in congruence with one's footing and good grounding. Often you can allocate much more better. It could pay to go for that. There are many sorts of beginner's problems, and we have all been beginners.
2. Have your strong marks and sides. it could be that at times the best we are allowed to deal in is systematic presentation. Tidy, quite independent living is worth going for. And good things can take time.
3. Preserve good assets and gain new ones. The good life is well composed, well aligned, and hardly marked by flares of anger.

Don't Let Weird Teachings Be Your Lot throughout Life

1. Study basic subjects first-hand. You don't have to become a recruit of anyone to learn excellent yoga at home. To study well, stay awake if the weird mist comes from the hills of dwarfing. Find better things to do than worship Kali, the man-slaying goddess-mother of Yogananda.
2. Good teachings stand the light of day - and clever inspection. One should not get into complementary patterns with fools, but avoid their company, teaches Buddha.
3. Much trusted gurus may get too puffed up and far too whimsical-categorical. Trust no neurotic with highly distorted talks of how illusions are reality.

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