From time to time news comes in the Indian press about a respected godman, as sadhus are called sometimes in India, who has been exposed for serious misbehavior such as sexual impropriety. For a renunciant sadhu, any sexual activity is an impropriety. In some cases there are accusations of murder, and sometimes fighting within the organizations centered around such sadhus. It comes in the press, it becomes a big issue and the sadhu becomes discredited. People are very angry at him. Many of his followers may leave him.
Followers also become targets of public abuse; sometimes the ashrams of so called sadhus are attacked. And the so called rationalists or atheists take the opportunity to inform everyone that actually all sadhus are bogus: they are all cheating and such exposures prove this, and the
insinuation is that some sadhus are found out but probably most if not all sadhus are doing something that they should not be doing. It is natural that people become very upset when sadhus are found out to be not very saintly or in some cases less moral than the average man " aam aadami" who is not even known as a sadhu; who is just an ordinary person. It becomes especially shocking when people are involved who have been looked up to for their piety and their spiritual purity who are supposed to be godly people. In some cases they are advertised as God themselves. When such people disappoint their followers by turning out to be more base in their behavior than even an ordinary man could conceive of being, when such exposures occur, often the ISKCON devotees who are generally well respected in Indian society, are often shunned by the public for some time. The public due to the media propaganda start to think that all sadhus are bad. Which is not very logical. Because one or two supposed to be sadhus turned out to be bad, that does not mean all are bad. Actually to be a member of ISKCON, it is required
to follow certain principles. No eating meat, fish or egg. No gambling. No intoxication and no illicit sexual connections. ISKCON member has to follow a rigid sadhana of rising early and following many spiritual practices. So it is illogical for people to lump in ISKCON devotees with these charlatans.
But they do because the public in general are stupid. They are stupid to have accepted such people as sadhus in the first place. The ISKCON devotees are preaching that all these people are bogus. If the public were not stupid, they would have realized that these so called sadhus were bogus, even before they were exposed as bogus. They are not bogus particularly because of their sexual misdemeanor or any other misdemeanor. But their whole preaching and whole outlook makes them bogus from the very beginning.
All these so called babas, bapas, amma, shri-shris they are simply cheating the public by presenting themselves as spiritual leaders while they do not give the actual teachings of sastra, the actual spiritual knowledge of Bhagvad Gita. Instead of promoting Krishna as the supreme
personality of Godhead which is the only and ultimate spiritual truth and the only knowledge which can help people, they instead enjoy being lauded by their followers as great saintly persons while talking all nonsense, taking the money of their followers and even if they don't indulge in impropriety what is considered gross immoral acts, the very fact that they are posing as spiritual leaders when they have nothing of spiritual benefit to offer is the worst immorality. But people are stupid. Actually people want to be cheated by these sadhus. They want to have a nice feeling of being some what spiritual and religious. But they are totally materialistic and therefore they like cheating sadhus who give blessings to their followers but never tell them to alter their consciousness and come out from the materialistic way of thinking and understand that everything in this world is temporary. This world is not a place for our enjoyment. But rather people go to sadhu or in other religion they may go to the churches etc where they expect that by the blessing of the God or by the blessing of their guru, they are going to get relief from their distress and relief from their problems and then they could enjoy their life very well in this material world. Which is nonsense because as stated in the Bhagvad Gita and any actually spiritually awakened person can understand that this material world is simply a place of suffering. Sadhu's duty is to instruct this to his followers and everyone else. But people do not like to hear this as they like to be cheated. So they should not be angry at sadhus when sadhus are found out to be cheaters because sadhus are cheaters from the very beginning and people who are now angry at sadhus have been cooperating from the very beginning with so called
sadhus in cheating business. People who are blaming the sadhus they are also cheaters otherwise they would not have supported these cheaters.
Ironically when ISKCON devotees preach against all these cheaters, people do not want to listen and they blame us for pointing out the defects of all these cheaters. When these cheaters are exposed instead of saying that to the ISKCON devotees that actually you were right but with
double foolishness they blame the ISKCON devotees for being in the same category as bogus sadhus who are now exposed. So people's whole outlook on sadhus is completely warped. They do not know actually what are sadhus like.
They manufacture a concept of what a sadhu should be, that a sadhu is some one who is nice, he smiles, he gives blessings, he tells you to be good, he makes you feel good and there are many cheating sadhus who like to fit in this category. People think this is spiritual. But a real sadhu is one who tells you that material life is not good and simply being so called good and nice, smiling at people and even if they tell you to give up tobacco and alcohol that is not in and of itself the actual spiritual life. Spiritual life is to give up all material desires and completely surrender to Krishna. But people do not like to hear this and they do not have the habit of hearing what should be heard from sadhus. They only like what gives them pleasure. But actually the function that the disciple is suppose to execute in relationship with guru of hearing the knowledge of Bhagvad Gita as it is, unadulterated. The people have never executed such a function and therefore they are caught in the foolishness of considering manifest cheaters as sadhus. All these ammas, bapas, babas, sri-sri are clearly rascals, cheaters, nonsense, fools. You do not have to be brilliantly intelligent to understand this. In this respect the so called rationalist are correct that these people are cheaters. People do not like to understand this, they will not hear this. And because they have not executed the function of hearing from actual sadhus, therefore they think ISKCON sadhus are also some kind of just "asshirvaad" or blessings dispensers and they can not hear any such message. So the ISKCON devotees themselves should not fall into that category of becoming pious blessing dispensers. But they should go on speaking the truth even if people do not like to hear it.
In some sense the so called rationalist are better because at least they propose to exercise their intelligence in understanding all these matters. But the fact that they are not that intelligent that doesn't help very much. So called rationalist who reject these sadhus should be intelligent enough to understand that even if there are millions of cheating sadhus and unfortunately there are, that does not mean that all persons who appear as sadhus are cheaters. Persons who propose to be rationalistic they should consider that the teachings of Bhagvad Gita are actually very relevant and true that this material world is a miserable place and everything here is temporary that is a fact. Why not consider that?
And try to understand what the teachings of Bhagvad Gita are. But unfortunately we live in an age of cheaters and the cheated and even to speak the truth like this no one is willing to hear it and they will become angry. " Sach bole to mare lathi , juth Jagate mohay" there is one saying
that if one speaks the truth, people will beat him with sticks and if you speak all lies everyone will be bewildered and they will think it's all very nice. So do not be bewildered by outward appearances. You see the monkey may appear to be a very good sadhu. The monkey and the sage or rishi in the forest they may appear to be the same. The monkey and the sadhu they both
live in the forest. They both live on fruit, they both go naked; they both do not have any possessions or any home. But the monkey is a monkey and his business is to make trouble and to enjoy many female monkeys. Whereas the sadhu the actual rishi is concerned with spiritual advancement. So, one should have the power of discrimination to understand the difference between a monkey and an actual saintly person. Most of the saintly persons of the world are simply monkeys jumping around and they are followed by monkey-like followers who become disturbed later on when they find out that their so called guru is more of a monkey than they had actually expected them to be. But then the followers are also monkeys because they are simply interested in sense gratification. So if you are a monkey then do not be surprised if your so called guru is also a monkey. If you want to be human being or better still if you want to actually be elevated in spiritual life then you better be serious about approaching a bona fide spiritual master. "tad vijnanarthama sa gurum eva abhigacchet" If one is actually serious to
understand the spiritual science, then they should approach a guru. But people are not serious and they want to be cheated and therefore Krishna sends them a cheater. So you got what you deserve. And now if you really want to be serious about spiritual life come to someone who can actually teach you. Who doesn't make compromise with all these rascals, fools, shri-shri
Who is real sadhu?
there is one so called baba in south India who allows himself to be called "Bhagavan". He has been exposed for pedophilia, for his tricks and staged miracles. His staged miracles are just some cheap tricks. But still even apparently intelligent people, well educated many of them despite the clear exposure of him being very low class person, they go on believing in him as God. And there are so many like this. In fact even the bad publicity may even increase the foolish followers' faith in him more. Einstein said both universe and peoples' stupidity are unlimited. People are just stupid. This upholds what Krishna says in Bhagvad Gita about people having "chalam shraddhai" immovable faith in that which they should not have faith in. It is all the action of maya. Maya means that which is not. Asatyere satya kari mani" they accept that which is untruth to be truth. So our call is to people is " tamasi ma jyotir gamayaii.." Come out of the darkness and come in to the light. " Krishna surya sama, maya haya andhakar , jaha Krishna taha nahi mayar adhikar" . " uthistha Jagrat prapyai."Get up wake up and attain the boon of human life. How many people are ready for that? Either you accept the truth or you are cheated. You want the truth or you want to be cheated the choice is yours.
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It is sometimes seen that members of the Krsna Consciousness movement, including some of its prominent leaders are also exposed for acts unbecoming of sadhus. However, a devotee of Krsna, particularly one who is seriously striving to fully surrender to Krsna, is always in a better
position than anyone else including those sadhus who are not exclusively focused on Krsna yet rigidly adhere to moral principles. This may seem like a hypocritical statement, but it is not because it is the statement of Sri Krsna himself in Bhagavad-Gita: Api cet su-duracaro bhajate mam ananya-bhak sadhur eva sa mantavyah sam yag vyavasito hi sah. "Even if engaged in most abominable activities, one who is desirous of fully surrendering to Me, who has no other object in life, is certainly to be considered a sadhu." How is it possible that one who is fully focused on Krsna as the goal of his life could possibly indulge in most abominable activities? It is possible because of previous bad habits, that a devotee, even a serious devotee may circumstantially slip into. This does not exonerate habitually bad activities in the name of bhakti nor give a license for using the banner of bhakti to cheat others, even within the realm of devotion to Krsna. Cheaters should be distinguished from genuine saints. Unfortunately, even in the field of supposed Krsna bhakti, there is much profiteering, personal indulgence and so on. As Karl Marx rightly pointed out, "Religion is the opiate of the people." It should not be, and it need not be, but unfortunately it is, very easy to exploit people's pious inclinations.
Therefore the Krsna Consciousness movement advocates, as Sri Krsna Himself does in Bhagavad-Gita, a scientific rather than a sentimental, fanatical, blind, or in others ways foolish approach to religion. Everything should be approached philosophically. These comments on bogus sadhus are not meant as a sectarian diatribe, but should be understood in light of the teachings of Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, which unfortunately for people of the world and particularly so for Hindus, who should know it, is very little studied and even less followed. The Krsna Consciousness movement recognizes that there are many sincere and pious sadhus who are not deliberately cheating people or making a personality cult around themselves. The derogatory comments in this article are not specifically directed against them. However even such sadhus would become real sadhus, or sadhus in the full sense of the term, if they could simply accept the verdict of sastra that Krsna is the param satya, and the only really auspicious path, sanmarg, for the jiva is to recognize this and fully surrender in loving devotion to Him.
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