India has always been the land of knowledge. It has been for thousands of years. Even Jesus studied in India.  That Jesus studied in India is no secret, it is an accepted and documented fact well known to the Indians, which is slowly gathering more support in the west due to the number of books and films written on the subject. Asking the Essene elders where to learn the truth about knowledge, and the knowledge of truth, Jesus was told 'India'.
Wanting to understand the truth of the human being, and our relationship with the creation, one has got to go to India. India is where the knowledge of who we are as human beings has always been kept alive. Kept alive by oral traditions, Alexander the Great immersed himself in India's knowledge, taking back as much as he could with him to Greece. Plato, Pythagorus, and others in Greece all acknowledged India as the home of knowledge, not only of mathematics but of philosophical ideas and religion too.
So this leads one to question: Should we be concerned about the future of India's traditions of knowledge or not?

The knowledge we are talking about is The Sanatan or Sananatana Dharma. These words Sanatan Dharma mean the eternal culture of mankind or the eternal culture that is mankind. The Sanatana Dharma therefore is not an institution. Accordingly, Sanatan Dharma, thought being eternal means no one system of thought can be said to represent truth. All systems of thought therefore are accepted as different systems of knowledge dealing with the same subject: mankind.  Buddhism, Vedanta, Samkhya, Shaivism, Vaisnavism, Tantra, Advaita, Dvaita and all religions Jainism, Christianity, Judaism, Muslim religions, Suffism, all are accepted and are seen as forming part of the Sanatan Dharma.

Another tradition in India is the tradition of debating the truth. Buddhism although originating in India - (Buddha was an Indian) - disappeared from India around 2500 years ago. Do you know why? It was removed as a result of a debate between a buddhist monk, and the renowned Indian philosopher Adi Shankara. In Shankara's time, if you lost a debate on truth, you had to accept the other persons point of view, or take your own life. It is curious that in buddhism, Buddha who never even believed in god, is made out to be a god. Buddhism which flourished in India during the days of Ashoka, a great ruler, resulted in a world famous university of Buddhism being built called Nalanda, near Bhodgaya. Although being driven from India, buddhism had already begun flourishing in the rest of Asia, which accounts for its popularity in other parts of the world.  It is only recently as a result of Tibetans being forced to flee into exile in India by the Chinese occupation of Tibet, that Tibetan Buddhism has found its way back into India.
This traditional acceptance on the one hand of another's religious ideals, or secular beliefs and points of view, at the same time acknowledges the same one source of all mans ideas.

So as a young man of 14 or so, this is the world a young Jesus would have stepped into as he set off to learn and study the truth in India. The period of his life we are talking about is from the age of 14-30, an important time in anyones life, which is mysteriously missing and not mentioned in any of the biblical texts.
His studies first took him to a small monastery town called Hemis in the district of Leh,  Ladak, in northern India, where it is said he studied until he was 21. At 21 he moved on from Leh to Puri - Orissa,  on the east coast of India. Here he studied teachings on Vedanta in the shadow of Jagganath Temple, the largest temple on earth at the time, which is where we get our english word 'juggernaut'. It was in Puri that Jesus first got himself into hot water. In Puri, the priests who were his teachers scolded him for sharing his knowledge of vedanta with the lower caste sudras of the neighborhood. Jesus however apparently argued that there is no difference between human beings, and questioned the priests on the whole caste issue, which resulted in them literally threatening to take his life if he persisted, so he had to leave town in a hurry. You don't want to be on the wrong side of a group of Indians chasing you in anger.
It is not quite clear where he went from there, but opinion has it that he moved south to Tamil Nadu, because it is in Tamil Nadu that he would have learnt the tricks of the trade like feeding the 5000, raising the dead, healing the sick, and walking on water, miracles still known and witnessed today in Tamil Nadu. Jesus then re-appeared in Nepal where an ashram formed around him, and he was expected to stay, however later evidence points to him being in Varanasi where he sojourned briefly. Varanasi was THE PLACE to go in those days if you wanted to make your name as a debater, and teacher. After leaving Varanasi he took his original route home leaving India by way of Ladak, revisiting his old monastery, and then going through Kashmir, where he joined the silk route home again through Persia to Israel.

Jesus mission in the west lasted only 2 1/2 years, starting at the age of 30 on his return to Israel, and ending two and a half years later aged 32 and a half. In the west, on hearing his teachings on Vedanta which he'd received in India, what did we do? We beat the shit out of him, and hung him up on a tree. Why? Because as individuals we abhor the truth, and as a society in the west, we seem unable to abide the truth. Jesus however made one big mistake. In sharing his teachings he failed to acknowledge the true source of his knowledge. In all traditions of knowledge it is customary to acknowledge the source of your understanding and learning, whether it be as a mathematician, a scientist, biologist, or even in one understanding of how to spell ones name. That Jesus decided not to do this is questionable. Whoever lifts our ignorance on a subject, in the case of vedanta the subject being ones own ignorance of oneself as the truth, that person and tradition are generally acknowledged. Especially in the case of ones understanding of oneself. To be able to say 'I and my father are one.' can come only from someone being exposed to a tradition of knowledge, knowing and understanding himself, otherwise no one can know this. This is not rocket science but pretty straight forward stuff if you understand that 'father' and creation are one and the same. Father is none other than, and can only be the 'Creation' which is none other than the 'Creator' Him/Herself- which because we all form part of the creation, we are all inseparably part of, it being impossible for us and the Creation to ever be separate. This means we too are all one with the Father! Try to be separate! Try to absent yourself from the creation or Creator for that matter. It doesn't work! HE or SHE is stuck with us!
Ironically this is the one sentence that not only got Jesus into trouble with the priests, resulting in his subsequent crucifixion, but it is also arguably the sentence that has become the very corner stone of the faith that has since developed around him. Of course it can also be argued that the entire body of Jesus work and teachings is misinterpreted, having been grossly misrepresented, and manipulated for the sake of those whose business it is to benefit and profit from religion.
Asking my teachers what they thought about Jesus one replied, 'Jesus made the mistake of personalizing this knowledge - putting his name on it.' while another said, 'Well none of us has really been that stupid as to get ourselves killed for this knowledge.'

Not much has really changed since then except now, the religion which has since formed around Jesus has become well established in India primarily through Jesus' brother Thomas, whose mission started soon after the crucifixion, and whose remains are still to be found in a church in Chennai. The christian mission is still busy establishing itself and promoting christianity aggressively throughout India.
In Goa the Portuguese tried hard to establish christianity through persecution. The Goan persecution makes the persecution of europe look like child's play with persecution going on in Goa for over 35 years. The british missionaries later tried hard to establish christianity in Calcutta with only 20 converts in over 40 years. Only after the british occupation in India did the british succeed in establishing christianity through education in schools. It is interesting to note that the original department of sanskrit at Oxford University was set up in order to translate the bible into sanskrit, feeling this would be the way to finally convert Indians. Thankfully the sanskrit bible never materialized.

The fact that Sonja Ghandi, arguably the most powerful person in India and apparently the tenth most powerful woman in the world is not only christian, but is not even Indian, does not seem to worry Indians. An Italian by birth Mrs Ghandi married Rajiv Ghandi after meeting him while waitressing in a restaurant in Cambridge England, and the rest is history.
Curiously if one opens a Hindu school in a tribal area of India where education is direly needed,  you have to wade through months of documentation and red tape, but if you're opening a christian school, you can virtually start right away. The current drive in India by the christian organizations of the west to convert christians is a cause for alarm, as it has resulted in conflict in some areas. Recently in a rural tribal area of Orissa, christians murdered an Indian Swami who questioned and cautioned them on the killing and eating of cattle.
I find it curious how India, which is where the christian teachings originated, is happily importing christianity. The knowledge is Indian, why would India ever want to re-import a watered down simplistic version of its own knowledge?

Children in tribal areas are brain washed and unfairly indoctrinated by christians who are using unethical tactics to influence the children at their christian schools. Driving home from school in the school's bus the driver will fake a break down, and ask the children to 'Sing to your God!' and when children innocently sing to Lord Krishna or some other hindu god when nothing happens - (basically he wont start the bus) he says 'Ok. Now sing to Jesus.' and immediately after singing to Jesus he will start the bus. Another tactic used by the schools is when a child is ill, they will give the child a powder supposedly from their traditional temple and say, 'See, this is the medicine of your god. Swallow it and see if it makes you feel better'. And when he or she comes back the next day and doesn't feel better, they say 'Here try this', and give the child an asprin 'This is the medicine of Jesus, now go home and see if you feel better.'

Succumbing to fast food and the modern culture of franchising, Indians have become grossly overweight, and becoming diabetic. Eating western foods and proudly sporting Levis, Nike and Reebok which are available on every street corner all over India, India is foregoing its traditional clothing and rituals preferring the lure of modern fashion, technology and the internet. Even divorce which was virtually unknown until a few years ago, after being widely rejected has become acceptable in the big modern cities like Mumbai, and Delhi. A 5000 year old tradition I happen to know personally is having difficulty persuading the young heir apparent to take up his responsibilities, because he prefers spending his time on his computer and the internet, while texting his mates on his cell phone.

As the currents of west and east merge into what is modern 21st century culture, India's modern industrial revolution finds an India groping for health. Dropping its ancient Ayurvedic and Siddha medical heritage, while eating foods that never existed in Indian culture before (chillies were an import from the Portuguese as were both the brinjal and the tomato) - Indians are hypnotized into believing in modern western allopathic cures, and addicted to drinking copious amounts of tea (chai) daily.
It is interesting to note one of Ghandi's comments on the departure of the British from India:
''They may be leaving, but they have left their tea behind to kill us". 

Monastic dissorder.

Having spent since 2004 traveling and studying in India let me just point out how extraordinary Indians are and how generous and hospitable they have been to me over the years. Not only opening their wonderful homes and hearts to me but in some cases some even offered me a home! In Krishnagiri my host wanting me to remain there offered me a piece of land to build an ashram and stay there. One of my friends in Mumbai took me to Ramghat famous for its temples and on opening a house to show me inside, he offered me the keys as we went up to sit on the balcony overlooking the ghat and said to me. 'This is your home. You must come and live here. Start teaching. The people will come.'
All over India I have made friends who are still in touch and are like intimate family to me. On the ashrams the swamis kept urging me repeatedly year after year to take the cloth and become a swami. 'Have you talked to Swamiji yet? Have you talked to Swamiji?' asked Swami Atmananda excitedly and repeatedly year after year. 'You must. You must take the cloth now! What is this nonsense!'
I replied 'Atmaji. How must I wear the cloth? In my country people will think I've gone nuts wearing this cloth. How can I walk around in the west wearing the cloth? Anyway I have too much respect for the cloth to wear it.'
'No.' he insisted 'When you go to the west, you put on your jeans, but when you are here in India you wear this cloth. Besides its the best clothing to wear in India, Everyone respects those who wear the cloth.''
On another ashram after one of my many visits the Swami in charge asked 'But why are you leaving. We all thought you were ready for poorna sannyas.' (complete renunciation.) Feeling touched and honored I replied 'Well I feel I am sannyas already. Even living in the world.  I am happy in the world ashram. I have no problem living in the world or being in the world ashram.'

The reality is thank goodness for India, and thank goodness India is for Indians. It has little to do with us how they choose to run their affairs. And quite honestly they do a much better job at living than we do. Their sense of family is overwhelming, touching and beautiful. All over India the sense of belonging as family is the same. India no matter how large its population is one small village.

But those people wearing a cloth who want to visit the west should get their house in order first, and should learn how to behave politely and properly.
Let's just point out here its not just the Indians who are in a mess with this stuff. Here in the west the different churches are having their full share of it too. Even in yoga, seeing their yoga teacher as representing some sort of higher calling, students of yoga in the west have also had to shoulder some of this.

Recently in the yoga community in america an american John Friend got himself into all sorts of hot water and has been forced to resign from his Anusara yoga empire amidst allegations of messing with his students, employees, and teachers, as well as messing with the money.
In South Africa a number of years ago a leading figure of South African yoga had a similar skeleton to hide in his closet which unfortunately ended in dire and unhappy circumstances for everyone. A yoga teacher in his late seventies after several affairs with his female students was indirectly the cause of one of his key students, an extremely talented and beautiful young woman and trainee teacher ending her life by jumping off a building. A police case opened against the teacher resulted in him going underground and moving to another country to get away from it all. The result? - His devoted 'flock' went into complete denial about the whole incident and still deny it to this day. This unfortunate incident shows how tragic these situations can get and why the general public should be made more aware of it.
In another encounter closer to home a visiting 'teacher' needed help getting around and sourcing things for his 'ashram'. One of my yoga students eager to help obliged by taking time off from work and driving him around for a few days, and guess what? He couldn't help trying to seduce her at the first opportunity. Dropping the guy off at the airport later I explained to him in no uncertain terms how we really don't need people like him around, and that he should avoid visiting our country in future. He was lucky - he should have been tarred and feathered with shit! Anyone busy searching for solutions finding answers in spirituality and yoga who turns to someone in a monastic order or tradition for help, shouldn't have to worry about being taken advantage of. But the days of these institutions are numbered. Rather than monastic orders they have become monastic disorders.

There is a very fine line that exists between teacher and student. There are so many incidents in the west now of teacher and student becoming lovers and then getting married. Beryl Bender originator of Power yoga ended her one marriage and ended up marrying her student. Rodney Yee a very popular teacher in the US had to bare the brunt of bad publicity when he did the same - ending one marriage so he and his student could be married.

What is the solution? If a person wants to wear the cloth then by all means why not? Try it. My advice then is stay on the ashram. Stay in a suitable environment, like a monastery or ashram where you can remain as far away from the world as possible. There is no way an innocent young boy coming out of a small village in India, can cope with the sophistication of living in modern society, no matter how brilliant his mind is. Living in airports sleeping between international terminals is not their game. Its our game. We're used to it. It means nothing to us. But the kid who has never been let out of the village? How are they equipped to deal with it? A monastery or ashram is where they belong. For what its worth- and I think in the end it stands for a great deal and stands us in good stead- we in the west have been through most things. There's little we havent seen or experienced. At an increasingly early age we in the west are ready to start asking questions. To arrive on an ashram today having successfully built or destroyed your own business, reamed and pillaged by society- having lost every last bit of sentiment and sensitivity - dulled and deadened to the point of unconscious non-existence - seeking knowledge you may just be lucky enough to find the right teacher and upon getting the knowledge may even be able to hang onto it for awhile. But coming at it the other way round hot foot from a small dusty village- forget it!
Going onto an ashram today the guys wearing the cloth are the ones wearing the latest Ray Bans, sporting the latest iPhones, and cameras having procured these on numerous trips abroad either as gifts or through the use of ashram funds given as donations. Sitting next to a guy while he shows you his brand new shiny laptop you cant help wincing at the irony. There you are having survived and succeeded in leaving all this crap behind having to fein interest. This is exactly why you are on an ashram - there TO GET AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS GARBAGE AS POSSIBLE AND GET BACK TO SOME SORT OF REALITY. You are not interested but you go along and enjoy the ride anyway! Join any conversation with Swamis today and what do you hear? Discussions on Sastra- sutras and Upanishadic wisdom? Forget it. All talk about their programs abroad, how many camps (retreats) they did, what countries they visited and will be visiting in future, and how many attendees they had - exaggerated to the max of course!

Traveling India today you find spiritual tourists walking around in all the hot tourist destinations (normally associated with some saint who lived there once who has since died so they cant give you anything) with glazed looks on their faces that say -'This is amazing- but I don't what the fuck is going on here.'
And sure as nuts you don't. Who does? For most watching the swami on an ashram teaching about the truth is like watching Niagara falls. Like anything in nature, you haven't a clue how it got there or what it all means. Its just like - 'Wow so this is what its like on an ashram and this is a swami, and these are all his students. But what on earth is he talking about!''
How anyone walking around in this culture that flourished 5000 years ago can know whats going on is difficult. Imagine visiting a Holiday Inn 5000 thousand years from now. We don't know what life was like 5000 years ago. The Indians themselves don't know and have little means left of knowing, because traditions in India are all dying so fast. Having been indoctrinated with religious ideology for thousands of years they're just as stuck and ritualistic in thier beliefs as we are. The government of India by controlling all the temples controls the whole nation. While the devout flock in their millions to give their hard earned cash daily as offerings to the priests and their gods, the government takes their cut putting it in their pockets. Any possibility of gaining an insight or understanding of the tradition and knowledge of the culture of India as a westerner is drowned by the noise of the loudspeakers around the temples, and the gallons of mineral water you have to drink to avoid the heat. Slouched in internet cafes, 2AC compartments on trains as you join India in drinking hot chai, you are left with no alternative but to photograph and post it all for your friends on Face Book, while texting madly on your mobile phone. To be continued . . . . . . . . .

Trouble in India

Ok - So a few of my friends were wondering recently why I had been referring so disparagingly to the tradition of teachers of knowledge and spirituality in India on my posts on Facebook. SO HERE IT IS ~ Without being specific or naming names -
What I had been alluding to was the ochre clothe and anyone wearing it. - THE BRIGHT OROS YELLOW ORANGE CLOTH THAT THESE  MONKS - read  'MONKEYS'-  WEAR!

The fact is in India and abroad hiding inside this little piece of cloth are people sitting on boards of corporations, committees of this and that, trustees of this and that who are pedophiles, murderers, rapists, sex fiends and masters in the art of lying and deception. I do not exaggerate! - These people with hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases at their disposal - sanctioned by a devout Indian and international public stop at nothing. Nothing is too big an indictment for them to prevent them from appearing in public or on public platforms. Their devout followers know their secrets and are privy to their actions but do their very best to keep the truth hidden and their secrets unknown. Unable and unwilling to face the truth the followers of these DOGMEN are mute. Laundering the money of corporate India through their ashrams they wield huge power and threaten anyone who doesn't adhere to their wishes and abide by their rules. Everyone is complicit in it and in complete denial about it. The denial encourages the perpetrators further, encouraging them to continue their deception EVEN LYING TO THEMSELVES. This is the irony of it - the person himself is incapable of facing the truth and through his denial encourages everyone to think like him in denying everything.

This is so typically India. Its like you're being taken up Mount Everest by your trusted tour guide and the fucker slips and falls off the mountain only to re-appear again later that evening at the next pass having scrambled up the cliff face scarred and tattered his clothing in shreds rocks sticking out of his head looking like he's just exploded saying - 'Oh! No Sir.' Indian accent (Peter Sellers) 'Not really falling really. Little tripping only.'

So after a serious meltdown in our neighborhood I had a meeting with a dear friend of mine (a westerner) who has been living in India for over forty years and has a very large ashram and who is leader to a very large contingent- hundreds of thousands of sadhus- and we both agreed that this is the unfortunate scenario.
Should we trust anyone wearing this stuff? Well would you wear a cloth knowing it represents all these things? Should we trust anyone who still thinks its ok to wear this cloth? Any color cloth for that matter?
My feeling is - Put on jeans and a T-shirt, dump the cloth and come sit down with the rest of us. Get a job. Stop living on handouts and the good graces of other people. Get a life!
So yes we had a situation like this to deal with on our doorstep. Its unplesant to say the least.
To those of you who are still starry eyed about India and its sadhus - WATCH OUT!
One of the biggest statistics in India today are the sadhus (yogis) who are nuts sitting in asylums. From what?
Going crazy from living with dozens of young western girls - who there for a good time come and leave when it suits them. The other statistics are the christmas presents in the form of babies that accompany these relationships - the dozens of babies being shipped off to parents and grandparents in the west for child rearing and support. WATCH OUT!

This happened to be the scenario in January this year (2012). A brilliant teacher went nuts and got himself lynched by a german student who launched the lynching party by flying an international banner website in Germany anouncing to all telling everyone about our naughty teacher and how he had been a very bad boy.

My feeling intially was if his teaching was unaffected WTF! - it was ok. Who gives a shit. But after due consideration and talking to my fellow Indian brother students whom I have been studying with for the last 7 years - I had to change my attitude.

I went to India first in 2004 knowing full well that everyone of these fellows who has come to the west has had scandal after scandal following them in their name mostly to do with sex but also to do with money laundering, allegations of threats to other peoples lives - their followers, and even murder. So in my travels when I went into any ashram environment it was with the utmost skepticism and a keen eye for bullshit.

The reason I chose the first ashram I went to was because the fellow there was totally open about things.
I had seen a photo of him with a most beautiful women - who I was told was his shakti - sitting right there on the podium with him while he was giving his lectures, and he was in no way hiding anything. So I said - 'I want to meet this guy.'  I went there and found a down to earth straight forward normal human being yet one whose wisdom and knowledge was profoundly tangible and present. Powerful without all the bullshit associated with most of these people. In fact he said if anyone started getting carried away and started bothering him he would just walk back into the forest again and leave society. The tone on the ashram was that of normality - he once even said 'If any of you swamis have to fuck then fuck each other- don't fuck the students.'

To be continued.. . . . .