Letter 9:
Is IVS a sect?
Everybody,
Hello. How are you? Let us discuss if IVS is a sect.
A little over a hundred years ago, the devotees of Ramakrishna had founded the Ramakrishna Mission. Other people criticised them, saying they were making one more sect in a country that already had too many, as they were already innumerable, and the country was no longer spiritual. It seemed to people that these sects only fought with each other and had ego, thinking that they were more special than others, so why was yet another one necessary? The question seems relevant today, too, in the case of IVS.
Qualifications and testing of the aspirant
If we read any of the holy scriptures of India, we read that an aspirant needs certain qualifications to begin the spiritual path. If we read what Shankaracharya expected from aspirants who wanted to be his disciples, it seems that the aspirants had to be gods already just to become his disciples. Once I went to Allahabad with Bhakti Chaitanya to sort something out. We had to spend the night in an ashram. We went to ask the head of the sannyasis if we could stay there. Bhakti Chaitanya was asking questions and talked a lot, but the head sannyasi only replied with monosyllabic answers. In India, if you want a guru, he tests you. If you live in the world, it is normal if a sannyasi does not speak to you except in monosyllabic answers. A normal sage has a limited quantity of power, therefore it is unwise to put all the power one can into just anyone, because the majority of people are not serious enough to continue along the spiritual path long enough to realise something, and the power disperses. In India it is normal if a swami capable of being a guru only speaks to you if you say you want to realise yourself and are prepared to become a monk in order to do so. However, you cannot become a swami whenever you want. He makes you live with him, and you work as his servant for some three years so that he may see you are serious. Then you become a brahmachari, a person with white clothes, for more or less ten years. If you are successful, you can become a swami after this. Only now does the guru begin to talk to you about Vedanta.
Bhagavan requires no qualifications and testing of the aspirant
What we have found in IVS is something very unusual. Bhagavan accepts anyone, without asking for qualifications. When you were in Varanasi, Bhagavan continued putting spiritual power into you until it was necessary to put him in hospital, because the great quantity of spiritual power he was channelling was damaging his health. If he had remained in the ashram, putting spiritual power into you, he would have died. He has done and continues to do so much for us and other people. He gave you love, initiation, spiritual power, organised and paid for the convention and went to hospital for you. You will have samadhis, self-realisations, bliss and a love much more profound than the love we know in the world, even the secret of the great mystery of the universe you will know, and what had you done for him? Every time that a guru puts someone in samadhi, he transfers karmas from the aspirant to himself. Everything comes with its price, and self-realisation is no exception. The karmas must be suffered. Normally, we ourselves suffer our karmas, but we have so many to clean up that it is not possible to realise ourselves without help. The guru transfers the karmic debt to himself, and absorbs it.
The guru suffers our karma
Through compassion for the world, Ramakrishna transferred a huge amount of karma from many potential masters so that these could realise themselves and expand the message of wisdom and love. Without that, India would now be a disaster area without spirituality, which is that country's foundation. Moreover, without the works of the disciples of Ramakrishna, there would be much more poverty today, and the people would be significantly weaker mentally. For this reason Swami Vivekananda woke up the nation with his message of strength and energy. The price of this was a death from cancer of the throat for Ramakrishna.
When Gyalwang Karmapa, a great Tibetan master, was dying in a hospital in the United States in the nineteen-eighties, during an extended period of time, he would come close to death with very strange diseases, then he would he would recover, then another very strange malady would come, and the same thing would happen. He was transferring karmas from other people and absorbing them.
“The pain in a prophet's heart is his crucifixion”
It is said that Jesus died for us, so he, too, was doing the same thing. In truth, Jesus had two crucifixions. Jesus knew that if he continued to preach, he would be crucified. The people, incapable of comprehending love, thought that he had been preaching because he had ego. If we observe properly, we see that that is impossible. Jesus was on the cross, and the people who had put him there were gambling in front of him for his clothes. Jesus prayed, "O Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!" (Luke 23:34). People on the cross normally die of asphyxiation, so they generally do not have the motivation to pray aloud in order to save people who are treating them in this way. If someone has been preaching through ego, he forgets about his teachings and "compassion" when he is dying on the cross. If he has been preaching just from the intellect or devotion without realisation, he does not have the strength to put his wisdom into practice in such a situation, and the difficulty of the situation takes away from him the vision of Eternity. However, if one continues as before, it means that one really does have an eternal love based on the realisation of the unity of all beings. The realisation of unity and universal love are not just an intellectual theory that it is simply logical to practise; they are things that great saints really experience. If you reach that level, you will not just experience universal love, but also pain in the heart when you see that others are suffering, or even when it does not appear to them that they are suffering, but they are simply living in ignorance. The mind does not always know it is not fulfilling its potential, but the soul knows and weeps, and the ignorant one does not even realise. A great saint, however, can indeed sense the pain of other souls. Jesus continued to preach until he had annoyed the ignorant so much that they crucified him, because he was experiencing another crucifixion at least as painful in his own heart.
I was with Bhagavan for time in Calcutta. In those days, few people visited, and the house always seemed empty. Bhagavan was always sad to an amazing degree. The pain in a prophet's heart is his crucifixion. If someone has that kind of perception of the hearts of others, it means that they have sufficient power to make a huge number of people realised, and can throw spiritual power about everywhere. That is what an incarnation of God is. For that reason he accepts absolutely anyone without qualifications and says to everyone to bring more people.
IVS and (my) definition of ‘sect’
What is a sect? As I understand it, it is a group with selective criteria that it is necessary to fulfill if you wish to join, with unusual practices that only that sect practise, and strange beliefs whose truth it is impossible to evaluate, and it is only for certain types of people. There are no rules to do with entering IVS; you just come and receive, that is all. We always work with the philosophy that, when God incarnates, he is for everyone. We have never said that Bhagavan is only for us and our friends. We only want everyone to have the opportunity to enter this Divine Romance, which is what we have realised this is. IVS, in which is taught non-dualism, which accepts and includes all paths, is for everyone. Non-dualism is not something new, rather it is explained in, among others, the Rig Veda, the oldest book in the world. There is nothing new in the twelve sadhanas that Bhagavan received in revelation. The essence is simply be sincere and full of love. Now it only seems strange because so few people in this world are sincere or have love. If you have real love, you love everyone, not just your friends, and you are not limited by the confines of some sect. The life of Ramakrishna, the guru of the guru of the guru of the guru of Bhagavan, was an experiment in the unity of all spiritual paths. He achieved samadhi through some ten Indian paths, Islam and Christianity, therefore he saw that they all lead you to the same place. IVS is not only for Indians or Hindus. In Guwahati, Bhagavan has a Muslim devotee. He has accepted even foreign Christians. He accepts monks and householders, devotional minds and ones that incline towards knowledge. There are no barriers.
Bhagavan is an avatar
What is different about IVS is that we say that Bhagavan is an avatar. If we say this, just believing without knowing, you could say we are a sect. When I arrived at IVS, they told me that Bhagavan was God. It struck me as being something impossible to know, and as I only saw a man, it seemed like a sect to me. They told me that if I remained there, I would realise he is God, and, with time, that happened. If you have knowledge, belief does not even enter the equation. I say Bhagavan is God because I know it. If I say that he is not God, when I know he is, I am a liar. If I know that he is God, but do not say anything about it, I am keeping the information for myself, which is egoistic. It is that attitude which makes a sect. So where is the sect? In reality, IVS seems much more open than any other spiritual group I have ever heard of.
IVS is an organisation
IVS, like the Ramakrishna Mission, is not a sect, but it is an organisation. An organisation is necessary, because spiritual people become stronger if surrounded by people with the same ideal. It is also necessary to do works like letting the world know about Bhagavan so that everyone may have the opportunity to participate in the Divine Romance. The majority of you heard about Bhagavan from Paula, who is a part of the organisation, made by the organisation. Without Paula, no-one from Spain would have gone to the convention. Without Swami Probuddhananda, Paula would not have been able to work in this way. Without other people in the organisation in India, earning money and doing various works, there would not have been a convention to go to, and it would have been more difficult to meet Bhagavan. Therefore, it is necessary to work together.
The vehicle of today
If there is already a Ramakrishna Mission, as Ramakrishna was also Bhagavan, why do we need IVS? The Ramakrishna Mission one hundred years ago was extremely important, but its day has already past. A hundred years ago, young people with great energy came to the Ramakrishna Mission to lay down their lives to do great spiritual works, and they did that. However, if you go to the Ramakrishna Mission today, you will see that all the people that go there are old people that probably go simply because they have nothing else to do. A hundred years ago, there was a very strong river of spirituality there, but now it has dispersed. The Supreme incarnated in Ramakrishna with a certain message to put straight a certain situation, and that situation was put straight, but now conditions have deteriorated in another way, therefore the message of the Supreme this time is different, and a new energy, direction and organisation are needed. Now there is a great river of spiritual power in IVS, but after a time it will disperse, the conditions of the world will be different, and a different saint will arrive with a different way of working. Such is the wheel of history.
From the sect that includes everyone in the world.
Lots of love,
Hare Krishna,
Koji