The Sahaj Marg Trap

The whole thing looks very subtle to the newcomer, a young chap, explained the benefits of sahaj marg by some of their close relatives or someone who has won over their trust over a period of time. I believe today that anyone with a minimum of critical sense would find-out in this apparently innocent meditation classes the beginning of a long manipulation process.

People follow Sahaj Marg as it is supposed to be followed, they consider it as Masters gift.. they are carried by the collective enthusiasm and are very sensitive to the other abhyasis hearty support, not suspecting even once, that their apparent sincerity was in reality a well-trained, careful selection of words and attractive arguments.

This is all fine during the initial months of Sahaj Marg practice, but one gets more involved when they logically recognize their Master (P. Rajagopalachari) as a divine incarnation, representing the divine: His ever-present photograph is the unavoidable tool to persuade new-comers that the benefits and experience of meditation come from him and that his divine nature resides inside the abhyasi in the form of the spiritual energy who is the source of their newly acquired wisdom. By claiming that ownership, Chari becomes abhyasis inner personal guru.

Thus the importance given to Chari, while transmitting a newly brainwashed member, You just need to see the tense reactions of preceptors when a new-comer mentions he prefers to meditate without considering Chari, in essence in Sahaj Marg Chari IS the meditation. The imagined transmission is the initial drop of a slow but regular poisoning & intoxicating process, the solid milestone on which the sand castle of Sahaj Marg beliefs are built.

Preceptors would even more warmly reassure the new comer at this stage by insisting that "you are your own master", that you are the one who makes the choices. In reality however abhyasis start very gradually to be controlled. What initially was a method to observe their personal inner functioning becomes a method of manipulation.
How does that happen? In their daily life, abhyasis start analyzing their actions, thoughts and emotions thinking "is what I am doing, thinking, feeling in accordance with Sahaj Marg?" or "does what I'm doing, thinking, feeling please Master?" They are even asked to maintain a diary and submit the same to their preceptor, in addition to remaining in constant remembrance of their leader. The regular practice of this personal control becomes so automatic, that after few years they find themselves only doing things that please Chari. They are so adapted to this ideal behavioral pattern that they even enjoy it and become happy about it, which in reality makes things worse: Master becomes the source of their happiness. Abhyasis keep repeating "May master bless you" or "Thanks to Master". All this is outcome of constant remembrance, absolute control applied on them and their minds, when a person makes a statement like “Thanks to Master” or “May Master bless you” or “by the grace of Master” understand immediately that this person has crossed the threshold of inner self control and is totally under control of Chari and is on his mercy.

Through their daily worship of Chari as God on earth, they are at the mercy of all his desires, preferences and increasingly fanatic ideas. There is nothing a abhyasi wouldn't do for him: People get married, divorce, send their kids away and gobble their sufferings (these are only petty human attachments) simply because he tells them to.

Of course they claim very seriously that they do these things from their own will. It's perfectly true: Masters will IS their will. They are his instruments. Master can do anything, lie, rob, cheat. He doesn't even need to explain his behaviour, each abhyasi will individually do the job on his behalf. The supreme trick is that when they don't find any cosmic interpretation to his behaviour they will claim he is the Master, and his actions cannot be understood by the human brain since the brain is his creation, and that he behaves in that way to test their devotion/belief in him.

Succeeding such "tests" becomes a source of recognition and respect. This is how sahaj marg traps a human and converts him/her into an obedient drone.