Please read my previous posts about Landmark Forum (Part I and Part II) before reading this one.
In the past few weeks, I have been getting multiple comments for my posts about Landmark forum. Here is the summary of those comments:
Case 1: An ISKCON devotee
Recently I met a fresher, who just got into the IT industry after finishing his post graduation. Upon talking with him I learned that he is a devotee of ISKCON. We discussed many things about purpose of life, origin of birth and death, religion, philosophy, spirituality, spiritual practices, yoga and Indian way of living. We exchanged wonderful thoughts for close to two hours before the discussion took a different turn. This 23 year old all of a sudden started saying 'Krishna is the ultimate god and nothing is more superior to him'. He went on criticizing other Yogic methods and spiritual gurus by saying they have not come in a proper generation (in his words -- 'guru parampara') and don't have rights to teach spiritual practices to anyone. Followed by that, he started pitching about ISKCON and compelling me to come for weekly meetings etc.
Case 2: An Art of living devotee
In another occasion, I met colleague of mine in one of the company meetings. Some time back I got introduced to him in one of the art-of-living classes. He immediately started of saying ‘so-and-so’ new course is happening, which can transform my life completely. In spite of me not showing interest, he went on saying the glory of the course, how good the teacher is, how quickly one can bring change in his life etc.
This is exactly what I mean by salesman mentality. First of all I don't see how an individual organization is the superior than others. As mentioned in my previous post, I respect them for the reasons they are created. That doesn't mean that every other thing in the world is shit. Second, I am not sure how the so called 'transformation' can happen in few days or hours of attending a course, satsang or a bhajans. Every other spiritual method, ideology, socio-political movement has taken years to bring in changes.
Gandhi might have got his 'call' when he was thrown out of the train in Pietermaritzburg, but it took 22 years of belief, hard work, commitment, visionary leadership to make the civil rights movement in South Africa as a success. He never told his ideology is the best and started selling/forcing on others. Paramahamsa Yogananda, one of the great spiritual gurus took 17 years to attain transformation in his spiritual journey by meeting his guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri. It took 35 years for Varghese Kurien to envision, think and build 'Amul -- the taste of India'. It took years for these great people to transform themselves and people around them.
According to me transformation is a journey when an individual embarks with a great vision. It is neither one-minute-magic nor selling an ideology. It is about understanding self, becoming a magnet and making others becoming followers. It is always good to take up a self-development course (like Landmark) or getting associated with an organization (Art-of-living, ISKCON etc...) but don't make is as a sales pitch or think only their ideology/organization is the best in the world.
In the past few weeks, I have been getting multiple comments for my posts about Landmark forum. Here is the summary of those comments:
- The landmark forum provides spiritual dimension to an individual. It helps the attendees to lead a peaceful life with full of self-expression. Why are you commenting on it?
- Today's world is filled with misery, where people are selling anything and everything. If we can tolerate a phone-call from a credit card salesperson, why not a spiritual/self development course like Landmark forum, Art-of-living etc?
Case 1: An ISKCON devotee
Recently I met a fresher, who just got into the IT industry after finishing his post graduation. Upon talking with him I learned that he is a devotee of ISKCON. We discussed many things about purpose of life, origin of birth and death, religion, philosophy, spirituality, spiritual practices, yoga and Indian way of living. We exchanged wonderful thoughts for close to two hours before the discussion took a different turn. This 23 year old all of a sudden started saying 'Krishna is the ultimate god and nothing is more superior to him'. He went on criticizing other Yogic methods and spiritual gurus by saying they have not come in a proper generation (in his words -- 'guru parampara') and don't have rights to teach spiritual practices to anyone. Followed by that, he started pitching about ISKCON and compelling me to come for weekly meetings etc.
Case 2: An Art of living devotee
In another occasion, I met colleague of mine in one of the company meetings. Some time back I got introduced to him in one of the art-of-living classes. He immediately started of saying ‘so-and-so’ new course is happening, which can transform my life completely. In spite of me not showing interest, he went on saying the glory of the course, how good the teacher is, how quickly one can bring change in his life etc.
This is exactly what I mean by salesman mentality. First of all I don't see how an individual organization is the superior than others. As mentioned in my previous post, I respect them for the reasons they are created. That doesn't mean that every other thing in the world is shit. Second, I am not sure how the so called 'transformation' can happen in few days or hours of attending a course, satsang or a bhajans. Every other spiritual method, ideology, socio-political movement has taken years to bring in changes.
Gandhi might have got his 'call' when he was thrown out of the train in Pietermaritzburg, but it took 22 years of belief, hard work, commitment, visionary leadership to make the civil rights movement in South Africa as a success. He never told his ideology is the best and started selling/forcing on others. Paramahamsa Yogananda, one of the great spiritual gurus took 17 years to attain transformation in his spiritual journey by meeting his guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri. It took 35 years for Varghese Kurien to envision, think and build 'Amul -- the taste of India'. It took years for these great people to transform themselves and people around them.
According to me transformation is a journey when an individual embarks with a great vision. It is neither one-minute-magic nor selling an ideology. It is about understanding self, becoming a magnet and making others becoming followers. It is always good to take up a self-development course (like Landmark) or getting associated with an organization (Art-of-living, ISKCON etc...) but don't make is as a sales pitch or think only their ideology/organization is the best in the world.
8 comments:
I have a contra-view point on your series.
case 1:- If I am dejected & lost and someone introduces landmark, they have changed my life
case 2:- If I feel cynical about phony or instant spiritualism and someone talks about landmark, all they get back is a derisive look.
It depends on my mindset. Landmark or AOL is great for people who need it & are mentally ready to receive, adopt and follow that path. It gives them a purpose, clarity. The means could be anything but if for 1 person who has seen benefit, there is another person who was a victim of hard-sell, I don't have problem with that. Today, in an age of materialism & violence where we are pretty much rudderless, these methods are only helping people find a good way of life. We put up with so much marketing and cold calling and everything else. Somehow, if spiritualism is marketed, we can't take it - because we are used to seeing it in the old fashioned way. Today, like your breakfast cereals, it is packaged in many forms. You may call it commercialism but this packaging is required for mass appeal and adoption. Ultimately, those 3 days made you introspect more, you learned something. I think the bitter after-taste is what bothers you - but don't throw away the baby with the bath water. I see that your judgment has crept into the inherent value in the teaching in Part I but you made up in Part II and III
You are absolutely correct Anna.
The very fact these organizations like to target mainly doctors, software managers, politicians, celebrities etc provides indication about their mentality. General public always look to these people and imitate them blindly. These organizations want to sell their philosophies forcefully to others exploiting the so-called high-profile people in the society. Their products might be good. But their motives behind exploiting people to act as their salespersons are flawed and one should be careful enough not to fall in their trap ever. As you said, the best thing to do is to just explore these techniques and use the ones best suited for our proper living. There is no single, simple solution for everyone in this world. In fact, the solution must be customized for an individual depending on his past and present, the best judge being the individual himself. It is ridiculous to get into act as their salesperson as one does not know which is true and which is not true without adequate experience in real life.
I myself have had many interesting encounters with such guys. :)
Bala,
I can see your viewpoint and weaved similar thoughts in my posts as well. I don't have problem in making spirituality useful to common man by making it simpler and easy to understand. But that also causes many other side affects (sales mentality and forcing an individual) which I don't like.
Jambu,
Thanks for your comments. You should write your experience with such people in your blog as well.
Natraj,
I appreciate your viewpoint. I would suggest you to read 'Sex to Super consciousness' by Osho. This book talks about how Sex and Spirituality are inter-connected.I have read that book, will write the review soon. Check out this amazon link for more details about the book: http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Matters-Superconsciousness/dp/B000SBQN6G
Most religions (with the exception of Indic religions) do say that they are the only truth and everything else is false. I guess some of the new age organisations are somehow influenced by those thoughts. This too shall pass.
Post a Comment