The Initiation

Now you know how I ended up with a guru. By free will, I stayed. I can’t site anyone holding me hostage because my church didn't work like that--and few really do hold you an actual physical hostage. We become mental hostages through motivational psychology. You can come and go as you will in most churches, and mine wasn't different.

They didn't make threats to keep me, nor did they go to any great lengths to find out what happened to me when I left. No one called, as they were told to let "us go," that we were ignorant and its best not to associate with ignorance. Besides, there was always the possibility we'd come back. They don't worry about devotees speaking out about the teachings because you take an oath to keep their teachings secret. We were instructed to never to read anything but their material, never look left or right but straight on their path. We were told we could not understand the Bible because only a Master Guru could interpret it; that Western religions had it all wrong. Jesus sanctioned their teachings. Jesus was a guru.

Jesus learned this Kriya technique in India. Jesus was teaching Kriya to his close disciples. They claimed many churches used their meditation techniques and that they were a church of all religions and that their teachings were not in conflict with anything Christians believed. Our relationship with Jesus would improve with their teachings.

We were told never to take notes at services and never, never post anything on that "horrible Internet," (but I did anyways--notes for later review). We were told we would "water down the teachings" if we wrote them down, they would no longer be pure but polluted. They guarded their teachings.

To take the oath and to receive the secret teachings of Kriya Yoga, we were required to finish the lessons I spoke about before, and then take a test to see if you're ready. Once you're affirmed you're sent the techniques by mail, but you must wait for a Kriya ceremony, and these are done once or twice a year in special locations and by special monks who are allowed to give the special dispensation. Every summer at a Los Angeles hotel, they give Kriya Initiation. It is the end of a week long convocation where members serve other members like slaves. I kid you not...the servers have to watch the speakers in the basement of the hotel because the other members were more worthy of better seats! I have hundreds of examples of these control issues, but the point is, they are having these convocations to initiate new members they recruited through the mail-order teachings and using the older members to serve them unconditionally. We were forced to have meetings after meetings after meetings after meetings about what our job was at these convocations and what it wasn't. I was severely upbraided for wearing sunglasses in the summer in 90 degree sunshine because the "devotees could not see my eyes."

So, people read the guru's autobiography, or find an ad in a yoga magazine, and next thing, they are in L.A. for their initiation.

Now, back at the initiation. You must bring a flower, a fruit offering and a money offering. The fruit and flowers are left at the feet of the guru's picture. The nature of the ceremony is as follows. You dress up. Most members are very conservative. Some wear Indian garb but mostly dressy clothes, men usually suits or dress slacks, women, dresses. Some women wear Indian wool shawls. These teachings attract Indians an they are elevated in status because the guru was Indian.

You're ushered into a quiet room first (if this is done at a temple). After everyone is settled and in silence, they ask if anyone needs a flower or fruit or an envelope for money. Remember no one ever talks in their temples. It's silence, always, but this preliminary initiation is set up to appear mystical, and to prepare us to be in a special (hypnotic) frame of mind.

Once these particulars are out of the way, you are then led into the temple or special room in a hotel. It's now decorated with flowers and lays on the pictures of the gurus. Candles are burning and they light incense during the ceremony to symbolize burning Karma.

Next they meditate for about a half an hour, sitting straight, with feet on the floor, hands up turned, your spine can not slouch. This sitting posture can become very uncomfortable, but it is mandatory that you do not lean on the back of the chair.

Then the sadhu or monk comes out, and he looks especially serious for this, wearing his orange ochre robes, and explains the significance of the oath we're to take, and if you ever leave the guru you will not find him for lifetimes as punishment for your ignorance. He explains that the Kriya Yoga has been passed down through many guru's (Jesus is one of them and this is what he taught his disciples). In reality Kriya Yoga is available by others. The church has tried to keep a copyright on something that is about a bazillion years old.

Next they lead you in the technique of Kriya Yoga. Which is a visualization exercise that involves breathing in through the mouth while making a sound of EEEE and exhaling with the sound of AHHHH, all the while imagining the energy circling the spine. It's done very quietly and controlled. You should not be heard by your fellow mediators. You count with beads. One revolution around the spine is one Kriya and takes about one minute. Once you take Kriya you are required to do them twice a day and increase the amount from 12 to 120 or more within a certain amount of time--but not without approval. This is the bases of their entire teachings and without doing this as you are instructed you will not realize your God status, and nothing in your life will improve. But there's more. You have to do Kriya on top of two other techniques twice a day (oh, and yoga energizing exercises). Good luck if you have a family, which we all did--it means you abandon them for these techniques. If you don't do them in this order, you fail, and it's your fault if you don't have a good relationship with God.

Next, the ushers bring you up by rows, single file and you approach the monk with a gaining devotion while chanting something like, Om guru. What we are about to do is a Hindu practice, an offering of worship to a god or goddess. Most of the Hindu practices they say are "scientific" but they are really old Vedic teachings. Then again, sometimes they speak in depth about the teachings being revealed to Guru through God Realization. I think he just read the Vedas.

Once you reach the front of the row you stand before the monk (who projects his authority), and are given a blessing--a pressing of the monks finger against your third-eye (between the eyebrows) and he whispers, "Master be with you," or something like that. the monk gives you a palm full of rose petals that you will dry out and keep in a special box on your altar at home. Next you drop the money(whatever you want to give) in a basket, stand or kneel before the guru, and lay your flower there before him along with your fruit offering and pray. You pray to the Guru. Most people prostrate before the picture. I'd seen people laying flat for EVER before some monk moved them along. Then you go back to your seat and wait for everyone else while you continue to chant. At some point you are giving an Indian drink. Everyone must drink it at the same time, similar to a Christian communion. It is called "lassi" and made of yogurt and almonds. At the end of the ceremony they shower you with rose petals and sing, "Roses to the left, roses to the right roses front and behind."

This ceremony can be repeated anytime a Kriya is offered as long as you can prove you are a Kriyaban (someone who has taken Kriya and can produce a card issued by the Mother Center). It takes about 2 hours to get through this service, sometimes longer.

We took Kriya Initiation about once a year. They make you believe that if you tell anyone about these secret ceremonies or how to do Kriya Yoga, you're doomed, though they don't clarify the way in which you're doomed leaving your imagination to go wild. The pageantry of the ceremony leaves lasting impressions.

They keep secret files on you and keep a picture of you in those files. This creates fear. Once when I asked a senior monk what they did with the pictures, he derisively said (to the entire congregation)," "What do you THINK we do? What a stupid question!" Provoking nervous laughter.

This, I can tell you, is *not* what goes on in your normal neighborhood church.

They redefine common terms or introduce special vocabulary making it difficult for members to make sense of the world outside of even their own inner aspirations.

Special: The guru picked me. It was cool to be special, to know secret teachings, and be part of something exclusive. Like a private country club only with special dispensation. It is my conclusion that people how follow gurus do not have much self-esteem. There are members who never take Kriya Yoga because they do not want to make the commitment or take an oath. I didn't stop to think about the ramifications. Hey, I was 19!

Fear: I was told that as long as I was breathing the free air of earth, I was under obligation to render grateful service. Nothing mattered except the steady daily spiritual advancement. Yoga, through divinity is found within, and is the highest road. If I left the guru, I would leave God. I couldn't go backwards after having been on the high-road of yoga. This is the hardest thing to stop believing.

Failure: If the teachings are not working, it's your fault. You were absolutely forbidden to question the teachings. They did not fail. Only you failed.

Do not blame the ocean (teachings), only the diver searching for the pearl. Your greatest enemy is yourself. All the answers about God can be found in your daily meditation and Kriya Yoga. If you want to know your divinity, you have to work to find it within yourself. There is no failure in the teachings or the guru, only you. It's your fault.

What other devotees say if you deny these teachings perpetuating fear. This is something I received in my inbox and also they posted this on another website that questioned the SRF teachings: "You are very ignorant of who he is and was. Second: You are only digging deeper karmic holes for yourselves. Third:Your evil actions are known by God and you will someday be truly sorry for them. Fourth: If you had any wisdom at all you would refrain now and pray for forgiveness. P.Y. " God will not be mocked ! "

The New Testament indicates the presence of cosmic opposition to God through reference primarily to forces, people, or a person who seek to deceive those who already know God's Messiah. The cosmic struggle with evil is now chiefly localized in the church. So the spirit of antichrist ( 1 Jo 4:3 ), the false Christs (Mark 13:22 ) and antichrists ( 1 Jo 2:18 ), the antichrist ( 1 John 2:18 1 John 2:22 ; 4:3 ; 2 John 1:7 ), the man of lawlessness ( 2 Th 2:3 ), and the "desolating sacrilege" ( the 1:1 Mark 13:14 the ; masculine participle suggesting a person such as the antichrist ) all concentrate their activity on the elect or the community of faith. These figure(s) lie and deny Christ ( 1 John 2:22 ; 2 John 7 cf. 1 John 4:3 ), lead astray ( Mark 13:22 ), oppose and even declare himself as God in the temple ( 2 Thess 2:4, ; cf. Mark 13:14 ). ***

***Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Antichrist