Guruji

Another member of this site has asked if I could share a bit about my experience with Guruji. Well, I don't feel I've had a lot of time to sit with it and process it yet. That said, I am happy to share my initial thoughts and perceptions, and am willing to come back later and revisit them if that proves to be necessary.

So. Mahendra Kumar Trivedi. The Grumpy Guru. What are my thoughts? Did I feel anything? Is there really an energy transmission going on?

These are the questions I am going to respond to from as "William James" esque a point of view as possible.

I am going to attempt to report empirically on my individual phenomenological experiences as concerning Guruji.

And it certainly was an experience.

Guruji was rude, self obsessed and sometimes bordering on simply dishonest.

Quote: "God has gifted me with a thousand times more intelligence than the world's top researchers."

Quote (addressed to an apparently teen aged staff member): "Do you not have brain sense??!!" (Guruji would often berate, publicly chastize and make fun of his volunteers and few paid staff).

Most commonly used phrase: "Nonsense". 

On the first evening, after being talked up by staff members for about 45 minutes, Guruji arrives and walks onto the stage wearing a sparkling white suite. He's white from head to toe, and underneath he's wearing a deep azul satin shirt. (Remind you of "Benny" One?) I remember little about the details around the things happened that night, but I believe he blessed us once before he blessed the wine. In fact I am quite sure of that. And during that blessing, I had what I can only describe as a vision. And it was not one of those ephemeral visions that you're not sure if you've really actually had once they're over. This was a full scale vision. Vibrant. Lucid. Immersive.

Wings vibrating with golden light grew suddenly out of my back. They filled the entire room. I was flying high above the world. I was strong. Illuminated.

I wondered whether a dominant monad that was incomprehensible to individual members of society of would possibly ever exist. I thought of Wittgenstein and Ryle and whether democracy was just a simple proto-property. I secretly questioned if the true net carbon reduction in converting to renewables is enough to influence any outcome. And what the number (expressed in terawatts or whatever) is that tells us how much global energy consumption is sustainable, and where we are relative to that on the planet at this moment.

And I must report that I had bodily experiences during each of the blessings that ranged from mild to wild. And woke up after the first night feeling more energized than I remember feeling in a long time.

So I can tell you that, on the subjective side, I was certainly aware of the "Trivedi Effect".

On the other hand, parts of it were difficult for me to swallow.

Guruji did not administer his anger in a particularly amicable way.

He claims to be directly in touch with the Divine and capable of receiving instructions from God, at least that is my understanding. Which is a rather remarkable thing to say about one’s self in this day and age.

On Friday night, after the first blessing, Guruji offered an “experiment” (in which we were served wine twice; once unblessed, once blessed) to prove the power of his Shaktipat. As you can probably imagine from my short description, it was riddled with design flaws, and wholly unscientific. Any transformed taste could as easily be a matter of the power of belief to influence our perceptions as something you’d see on the X-Files. Not to mention the second wine was decanted for a longer time period, and numerous other variables were not controlled for. It would be impossible to draw any meaningful correlations from the results of this test alone.

I also must admit that I bailed on the conference twice. Once for about an hour during which Guruji was delivering one of the most painful powerpoint presentations I’ve experienced in my ten years in business. I escaped the room (which everyone was afraid to leave because Guruji had just had a temper tantrum over people causing noise by leaving to go to the bathroom and such) and went out for a hot tub on the resort where the conference was being held. When I got back, quite a bit later, he was still giving the powerpoint. 

I also bailed on the last couple hours of the conference. And the evening session for the public on Sunday night. I chose not to have a personal blessing. I was like the black sheep of the Guruji followers (which is sometimes how I feel in the integral world), and certainly did not always display an award winning attitude.

Which is, of course, a classic catch-twenty-two explanation that faith healers and gurus often provide when blessings do not take effect: It is your attitude that is causing you not to receive. It’s your fault, obviously, not your beloved guru’s. And Guruji’s organization proved not to be an exception. Deborah, the hostess, made it clear that we needed to have a good attitude in order to receive on the first night.

Having said all that, Guruji leaves me with many questions. He is a charismatic, interesting individual who clearly has the ability to dramatically affect large numbers of people. And I believe I felt something at the retreat that I did not fully understand. Part of me thinks it was real.

I guess what I am trying to say, is that I seem to have received something despite my attitude.

Time will only tell what the outcome of that something will be.