When you look at old new-age and yoga sorts of magazine from the last 30 years - or read some of the spiritual-odyssey type of books written by Westerners from the same time period - inevitably you come across numerous reports about South-Asian and East-Asian gurus who have been intensely interested in sex. There are the stories of the secret seductions (which often become public stories, eventually). There are the questions of swamis who have broken their vows, while still explaining to their students the importance of self-control, living by high principles, and so on. Questions about ulterior motives on the part of spiritual guides/teachers inevitably rise in people's minds.

Possibly someone reading this has actually been personally involved in one of these dramas. Or has been a friend of someone who has.

The situations can be all the more confusing, since gurus usually "set the parameters" in their ashrams and in their relations with disciples. Westerners, in hindsight, might wish they had been the ones to set out the terms of the guru-disciple "contract", but I do not know of many situations that have worked that way.

The spiritual focus and devotion to the path insisted upon by teachers of meditation, bhakti, etc can often be manipulated into a situation where the disciple feels s/he has to do what the guru wishes, in every way on every level.

So what do you think about all this? How do you feel people should best relate to these situations? Can such situations be avoided?

posted in All Yoga - 32 replies