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You are traveling all the time.
Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.
– Yogi Bhajan
DIVINE KNOWLEDGE
Memoirs by Kirpal Singh Khalsa
I have always been a sucker for a good sales pitch. I think it is a symptom of being a young soul. An older and wiser soul sees beneath the hype and knows when something is not right. A young soul is naively innocent and believes things at face value. Once a young soul get burned a few times he begins to wise-up. But for the grace of God, I would have been severely burned in the situation recounted here.
We at the 3HO ashram in Denver were friends with another local group called the Tri L Ashram. Tri L stood for Life, Love and Light or some such thing. They were students of Swami Kriyananda and practiced Kriya Yoga. We were both open, Aquarian Age groups and we got along quite well. They even wore white on formal occasions. Turbans had not yet entered our lifestyle.
A dynamic young man named Rob led the Tri L Ashram. We were, of course led by our intrepid leader, Brian. Rob and Brian were good friends. Rob used to come by the restaurant and hang out. On weekends both our groups would get together for volleyball games, picnics or singing songs. I really do not know much of their spiritual practice, but they were bright, friendly and into yoga and we had many good times together.
One day Rob came to the restaurant and told about an enlightened being that was coming to the area. He was a Sat Guru and gave divine knowledge, instant enlightenment. Rob seemed quite excited by his coming. I quietly wondered what Swami Kriyananda would have to say about his local ashram leader promoting this other teacher. But what did I know? Besides this was the Aquarian Age, anything goes.
A few days later Rob came by again, this time with colorful brochures and other literature. Guru Maharaj Ji was only 12 years old. He had been recognized as a Sat Guru at age six. He was the Avatar of the coming age. God consciousness was available to anyone who accepted him as guru. I didn’t know about instant enlightenment but a child guru was within possibility. In the Sikh tradition, Guru Harkrishan became guru at age 5.
We discussed going to the event, but it would mean closing the restaurant. It was not an option.
On the day of the event Rob came by again. “He’s the real thing,” he gushed. “You’ve got to come see him. It would be like missing the Christ.”
We reconsidered closing the restaurant for the evening. I figured it would never happen. But Brian surprised us all and said, “Nobody wants to miss the Christ.” We were going. There were about 14 of us. We dressed in our finest whites. A couple of men even donned turbans. Everybody piled into the small school bus that we used for outings and drove forty miles to Boulder. We had never done anything like this before and we were all excited.
The event was at Macky Auditorium on the University of Colorado campus, the largest facility in the area. We arrived to a packed house. 1500 people were there. I was astonished. Apparently they had a well-oiled PR machine. Rob, who seemed to be a key player, welcomed us and ushered us to a row of seats in the front. We made quite an entrance. Shortly after we were seated a group of musicians gathered on stage and started singing folksy mantras. The leader was a young woman with a sweet voice and an engaging smile. Before long she had the whole auditorium chanting, Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram. She really lifted the energy and opened us up.
A talk by American disciple of the guru who had long hair, beard and Indian clothes followed the chanting. He spoke for an hour of the wonders of enlightenment, the bliss, the wisdom and the truth. He described in glowing detail the Kundalini rising, the thousand petal lotus at the crown of the head and tasting the nectar of the gods. He quoted from different scriptures and emphasized the role of a Sat Guru, a Christ, an Avatar or a Buddha who delivers the enlightenment. He knew his stuff, used language that we as yogis were all familiar and made it all seem so easily attainable.
Next, an Indian “Mahatma” an advanced disciple of the guru, told us that God, in his mercy, had blessed the world with the Avatar of the Age, the Sat Guru, the Enlightened One, Guru Maharaj Ji, whose sole purpose was to bring enlightenment to the suffering people of the world. It did not cost a thing. The mystery of the universe was ours. It was, he quoted Guru Nanak, gurprasad, by the grace of the guru.
Wow! My head was in the clouds. Was this guy really the One?
Finally, after two and a half hours of prepping, we were ready to be introduced to Guru Maharaj Ji. The curtain opened and there he was, a pudgy Indian boy of about 12 sitting on a huge, flower-strewn throne. His message was short and simple. Come to me and I will enlighten you. A location in the hills above Boulder was given and the presentation was over.
A group of us from the ashram wanted to go up to the foothills and meet Guru Maharaj Ji. Brian wanted to get back to Denver so they could open the restaurant in the morning. 5 of us got rides up the hill from Tri L folks, the rest returned to Denver.
Guru Maharaj Ji would not give Knowledge that evening. Instead we had satsang with one of the Mahatmas. He basically said the same thing that we heard in the auditorium. We slept under the stars in a balmy summer night.
Next morning Guru Ji sat with the two hundred of us who spent the night and answered questions. I asked him if he could show me God. He said, “Yes.” Guru Ji was not one for long explanations. He said once you have received Knowledge then all answers come to you. After the talk, one of the Mahamatas said that Guru Ji would give Knowledge to 30 disciples at 10:00 a.m. I was not chosen. I was told I could receive Knowledge at noon. I had to be at the restaurant at noon for the lunch rush. I found a ride back to Denver and walked into the restaurant just as we opened at 11:30. Brian was surprised to see me. He thought I was gone for good.
I determined that I would listen to my heart. If I felt a pull to return to Boulder and Guru Maharaj Ji, I would go. I worked through lunch. Nothing. I meditated during the afternoon break. Nothing. Not only was there no pull in my heart, I felt a deep sense of relief to have left. By the end of the day I knew: it was not for me and I would never consider it again. But, Guru Maharaj Ji was not through with us. Three of our ashram members left to receive Knowledge. They joined Divine Light Mission and became disciples of the boy guru. Two of them came to visit the ashram one Sunday morning. We were all close friends so we let them share with us their experiences. They talked as if they had found an incredible treasure and they wanted us to have some too. They practically glowed, walking around hugging people and looking deeply into our eyes. They described experiences of bliss and light, meeting god and tasting the nectar. It seemed weird to me. They were the same folks as before, only now they had found a new trip to lay on us. Nobody in the ashram was the least bit moved by their presentation. But it did bother me that they talked so convincingly of seeing God.
Yogi Ji visited the area a few months later and I told him the whole story. He seemed to give the episode little concern until I told him, “They look right into your eyes and tell you they have tasted the nectar.”
His expression took a sudden turn to the serious. He looked right at me and said, “What is the nectar?”
Oh, no. I was on the spot again and I didn’t have a clue what to say. “I don’t know,” I mumbled.
“The nectar is the secretion of the pineal gland.”
“Oh.”
He let that sink in for a few seconds. Then, “What happens when the pineal gland secretes?”
“I don’t know.”
His face took a much softer look. “When the pineal gland secretes there comes such a humility to a man that he would never boast of his spiritual experience.”
“Oh!” In that moment it was all crystal clear. Whatever Guru Maharaj Ji and his group were doing, it was not God consciousness. If it was not God consciousness then it was a sham, plain and simple.
Yogi Ji explained that the experience they gave was nothing more than a physical reaction. You know what happens when you press your eyes? You see colors and lights. Add that to the hours of preparation, anticipation and expectation and the mind will see what you want. It is nothing.
For the next couple of years Guru Maharaj Ji continued to haunt me. He established his world center in Boulder and heavily pushed his “knowledge” to the young people in town. Students in my yoga classes were continually asking about him.
Once when Yogi Ji was in Boulder, Guru Maharaj Ji was also in town. I asked him if he would like to visit the young guru. Yogi Ji looked at me as if I had understood nothing. “I will go see anybody,” he said. “I will happily visit even the most humble person who has anything to offer, even the tiniest anything. But this guy has nothing to offer. I would rather go visit what I dump in the toilet each morning than visit him.”
In little time Guru Maharaj Ji faded into the garbage heap of false prophets, swamis and gurus. As Yogi Ji says, “Where there is mystery there is no mastery.” My near miss with Guru Maharaj Ji’s mystery left my young soul a little older, wiser and grateful for a teacher who taught us to rely on ourselves.
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