In the late 1960s and 1970s, new streams of religious beliefs came to the United States. The term guru, or spiritual teacher, became a household word. Many gurus came from India to America in these years. They challenged the conservative views on religion and society and promoted new age religions to the rebellious youth. Bell-bottoms, long hair, flowers, free love and psychedelic rock—became the symbol of cultural revolution of the 1960s.
Becoming a swami or a guru is not a matter of academic degrees or book learning, but deep spiritual insight that must be confirmed by the authority of one’s own teacher. In India, it is taken for granted that some gurus are more genuine representatives of their traditions of learning than others. In America, all had a chance to attract a following. Some came and went quickly, sometimes amidst controversy. Others came and settled into the American landscape, where their influence is still felt today.
Maharishi toured cities in Europe, Asia, North America and India, and addressed 5,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He appeared on American magazine covers such as Life, Newsweek, Time and many others. His fame increased and his movement gained greater prominence when he became the "spiritual adviser to the Beatles". According to The Times, the Maharishi attracted skepticism because of his involvement with wealthy celebrities, his business acumen, and his love of luxury, including touring in a Rolls-Royce.
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| Hippie symbols on 1960s |
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Among the first to arrive was the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a student of the Shankaracharya of Jyoshimath in the Himalayas, who became the guru of the Beatles and started the Students International Meditation Society (SIMS) in 1965. He was the first to popularize a discipline of meditation he called TM, Transcendental Meditation, insisting that it was not “Hindu,” but scientific and universal. |
| Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with Beatles |
Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada
A very different guru of the 1960s was Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada who carried the message of Krishna to the West. He arrived nearly penniless in New York in 1965 and began chanting “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama” in Tompkins Square Park. Within a few months, he opened a storefront temple on Second Avenue, which was America’s first Krishna temple of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
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| Hare Rama Hare Krishna Movement |
Musician Boy George was openly involved with the Hare Krishna movement. ISKCON has experienced a number of significant internal problems, the majority of which occurred following Prabhupada's death. A series of brainwashing and child abuse cases were registered against the organization. In 1998, ISKCON published an unusually candid expose detailing widespread physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children. Parents were often unaware of the abuse because they were traveling around soliciting donations for their guru's books, in airports and on the streets, leaving their children in the care of Hare Krishna monks. ISKCON had to later file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. protection.
Bhagwan Rajneesh
Bhagwan Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain, 11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990), also known as Osho was an Indian Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement. During his lifetime he was viewed as a controversial mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher. In the 1960s he traveled throughout the world as a public speaker and was a vocal critic of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi, and Hindu religious orthodoxy. He advocated a more open attitude towards human sexuality, earning him the sobriquet "sex guru" in the Indian and later international press, although this attitude became more acceptable with time.
Rajneesh's ashram hosted thousands of visitors per day. Daily discourse audiences were by then predominantly European and American. In 1981, the increased tensions around the Poona ashram, along with criticism of its activities and threatened punitive action by the Indian authorities, provided an impetus for the ashram to consider the establishment of a new commune in Oregon, USA. The 64,229-acre property was named "Rajneeshpuram". Local residents formed a group called
"1000 Friends of Oregon" and filed numerous court and administrative actions to void the City of Rajneeshpuram. He also gained public notoriety for 93 Rolls-Royces bought for his use, making him the largest single owner of the cars in the world. His followers aimed to eventually expand that collection to include 365 Rolls-Royces—for every day of the year.
He was charged of immigration fraud and bio-terrorism on the citizens of The Dalles, Oregon, using salmonella to impact the county elections. . On 28 October 1985, Rajneesh and a small number of sannyasins accompanying him were arrested aboard a rented Learjet at a North Carolina airstrip; according to federal authorities the group was en route to Bermuda to avoid prosecution.
Swami Satchidananda
Swami Satchidananda was another leader who helped to shape this spiritual trend in the United States. He spoke at Woodstock in 1969 and later taught yoga at his Yogaville ashram in rural Virginia, the headquarters of Integral Yoga International.
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| Swami Satchidananda at Yogaville Ashram |
Swami Muktananda
Swami Muktananda came to the U.S. and launched the Siddha Yoga Dham Movement in 1970. By 1976, Siddha Yoga had eighty meditation centers and five ashrams, and claimed thousands of followers. His second visit lasted from 1974 to 1976 and saw the institutionalization of Siddha Yoga Meditation in America with the establishment of the SYDA (Siddha Yoga Dham Associates) Foundation. It continues today under the leadership of Muktananda’s spiritual successor, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, an Indian-born woman who leads the SYDA central ashram.
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| Swami Muktananda wit a disciple |
Sathya Sai Baba
Sri Sathya Sai Baba was a very respected figure in South India and had a massive following in India and abroad. In January 2002, a documentary produced by Denmark's national radio, named Seduced By Sai Baba, analyzed videos of public manifestations of Sai Baba, and suggested that they could be explained as sleight of hand.The Tarkasheel Society of Indian scientists have systematically exposed magic tricks demonstrated by Sai Baba. Watch it for yourself ....
Accusations against Sai Baba by his critics over the years have included sleight of hand, sexual abuse, money laundering, fraud in the performance of service projects, and murder.
Rumors about Sai Baba sexually abusing young male devotees have been circulating for years. In 1976 a former American follower,Tal Brooke, wrote a book called Avatar of the Night: The Hidden Side of Sai Baba. In it, he referred to the guru's sexual exploits. Former devotees such as Alaya Rahm and Mark Roche, featured in the the BBC film Secret Swami, are coming forward with increasingly graphic stories of the guru's serious sexual exploitation.
Yogi Bhajan
Yogi Bhajan, a former customs inspector at the Delhi airport who became both the spiritual leader to Americans following his version of the ancient Sikh religion. Yogi Bhajan, whose full name was Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji, introduced Sikhism and an ancient and arduous form of Indian yoga, Kundalini yoga, to Americans.
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| Yogi Bhajan |
Yogi Bhajan challenged the methods other Indian "Guru" and "Swamis" who had promoted hippie culture, drug abuse, and promiscuity to gain popularity among spiritually starved youth of America. Yogi Bhajan defied the tradition of secretive mystery because he saw that simple true spiritualism offered an alternative to the then prevalent drug culture. He knew that Kundalini Yoga had the innate power to give seekers a real experience of God within, and at the same time help them to heal their mental and emotional problems -- as well as the physical bodies that had been damaged by the use of drugs.
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| Meditation by 3HO Foundation |
In 1969, Yogi Harbhajan Singh established the 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization) Foundation to further his missionary work. The Yogi's brand of Sikhism appealed to young Americans who formed the bulk of his early converts. Yogi Bhajan offered them all these things with vigorous yoga, an embracing holistic vision, and an optimistic spirit of sublime destiny.
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| American Sikh s of 3HO |
When U.S. President Nixon called drugs America's "Number one domestic problem", Harbhajan Singh Khalsa launched a pilot program with two longtime heroin addicts in Washington, D.C. in 1972. The next year, a full-blown drug treatment center known as "3HO SuperHealth" was launched in Tucson, Arizona.
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| Yogi Bhajan with Pope |
Siri Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma, Harbhajan Singh actively engaged in and chaired numerous inter-faith councils and forums, including the World Conference for the Unity of Man, and the World Parliament of Religions.
Its interesting to note that a majority of Swamis from the 1960s and 1970s era are now dead and their organizations embroiled on all kind of controversial issues. However, the Sikh Dharma and 3HO Foundation is continuing the work of Yogi Bhajan and demystifying the spiritualism for the betterment of the society.
References
- http://pluralism.org/religions/hinduism/hinduism-in-america/the-rush-of-gurus/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharishi_Mahesh_Yogi
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTeLretIlTE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Bhaktivedanta_Swami_Prabhupada
- https://harekrishnacultexposed.blogspot.com/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneesh
- http://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/index.ssf/2011/04/part_one_it_was_worse_than_we.html
- https://roadtrippers.com/stories/the-nitrous-huffing-cult-leader-and-his-93-rolls-royces
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705694/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchidananda_Saraswati
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muktananda
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sathya_Sai_Baba
- http://www.staff.uni-giessen.de/~gk1415/sai-baba.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbhajan_Singh_Khalsa
- http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/09/us/yogi-bhajan-75-boss-of-worlds-spiritual-and-capitalistic-dies.html
- https://www.libraryofteachings.com/
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