--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter <drpetersutphen@> > wrote: > > > > > > --- boo_lives <boo_lives@> wrote: > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister > > > <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > IMO, he looks a bit sad or worried in most > > > > of these pics: > > > > > > > > http://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/photogallery.htm > > > > > > > > I guess he knew what the world would have to go > > > through > > > > during the 20th century. > > > > > > > Or how MMY would start selling supernormal powers > > > and Enlightenment at > > > $1 million a pop to spiritual gullible americans, > > > all proceeds going > > > into an offshore account in the jersey islands named > > > Brahmananda > > > Saraswati Trust, which finances real estate > > > development and lavish > > > lifestyles of the varma/srivasta clans. > > > > Slam dunk!! > > > I guess I never figured that Guru Dev is that weak, blind and stupid- > - > > That a saint who could make himself dynamically known to many after > his bodily death, who apparently organized a massive yagya to end > world war two, who manifested money out of the ether, who lived > unaided in the forest from the age of nine, would be incapable of > using his highly developed intuition to pick a worthy successor to > spread his message, one who he even provided with the mantras useful > for the world, on his deathbed? > > Of all those who he could of chosen, at his pinnacle of wisdom and > popularity as Shankaracharya of the North, of all of those attracted > to him, he choses someone who is greatly flawed, to destroy and cast > doubt on all of his work? > > Sorry, but I ain't buyin' it.:-) > There is no evidence that GD choose MMY to be his successor - tmers believe that based on what MMY has said not anything objective. There's a huge decades long controversy over who GD's official jyotir math successor was, where there is some record, and there's no record at all regarding MMY. GD did not give MMY tm mantras - as has been documented MMY started teaching TM in india with the mantra raam given to everyone, later changed to bij mantras, and changed the criteria for selecting bij mantras at least a couple times. The deathbed story is believed by tmers and makes a great dramatic story. You can believe whatever you want, as long as you understand you're using your own spiritual movement's beliefs/stories/myths to support your argument, which doesn't have much weight on those who aren't a part of it. Every guru with a marketing orientation has a story about how he is the official successor/reincarnation of/avatar of/ etc. of some prior esteemed guru. Anti-tm people from GD's ashram have their own stories about how GD warned the ashram about MMY's ambition and to keep him on the business side and out of the teaching side of the ashram, and how MMY fooled with the will, etc. That's their stories - they have the same objective weight as TM TB stories.
MMY certainly has been successful in drawing in people to meditation and in raising money. Still a pretty large group in ffld doing his thing. I don't know if that says anything about GD or what he would think about it. I don't know much about GD from non TM sources. He appears to have practiced a tradition called shri vidya. My personal opinion is that GD's true lineage is being upheld by someone trained and selected while GD was in the forest, not while in his public formal role as a religious ashram leader.
