The Aroma of The Mystic Hindu New Age
(1994 Toronto Blessing in the Christian Churches)
July 1995
(2 Timothy 4: 3-5)
Contents:
Hunger for blessing and significance
Signs and Wonders of the New Age
Some aspects of Hindu Mysticism are deeply spiritual and over thousands of years gurus have operated with gifts of healing, miracles, gifts of knowledge, and intense displays of spiritual consciousness as they stretch out and connect with cosmic power.
The power of some mystics and their reported miracles exceeds that which is generally claimed by Christians today. Hundreds of millions of Hindus believe that spiritual entities in the cosmic realm are incarnated in saints or Bhaktas who have attained ultimate spiritual consciousness and are manifest on earth with signs and wonders to bring blessing and redemption from cycles of birth and death. Many Hindu gurus claim that they can undertake spiritual journeys which unite them with the god-head of their cosmic power source and it is commonplace to find gurus worshipped as divine beings by their followers who claim that these gurus are no longer mere humans but have, by a process of transformation, been changed into gods (avatars), having reached and achieved superconsciousness in the cosmic realm.
Over the past 30 years there has been an increasing acceptance in the West of the new consciousness being taught by more well known gurus. The New Age (of Hindu Mysticism) has crept upon the West like a glacier with its progress hardly perceived but increasingly accepted; its therapeutic claims hold great attraction for a world-weary society. Westerners, including many Christian groups, seem irrestibly drawn to adopt its practices and methods.
Brought to attention by the first visits of the Beatles to Rishikesh and Hardwar in the 60’s, a wind of spiritual change is sweeping through our society. People are buying into these new philosophies unaware of their occult origins.
The acceptance of the Natural Law Party ideology by some of the most intelligent and influential people in the UK is only one testimony to the lure of New Age consciousness rooted in Hindu mysticism and Yoga.
Hunger for blessing and significance
Hunger for blessing, significance and spiritual experience now grips many Westerners in one way or another. The desire in people to search for, and find, a place with the divine presence grows every day as the traditional anchors, structures and securities of the past are broken. Individuals and groups spin in search of something which might bring them to a haven of peace, meaning and security.
Many nominal Christians and Sunday church goers are at the forefront of the search for supernatural experience and meaning. Like non-believers, some look for direct spiritual experiences and, having missed the true Jesus, they spin out of control desperate for prayer and grasping at anything with remote spiritual significance offered to them. Some have attempted to reach the same goals with drugs. Theodore Gill, past president of San Francisco’s Presbyterian Theological Seminary is quoted as saying “The drugs make an end run around Christ and go straight to the Holy Spirit” (Politics of Ecstasy - Timothy Leary Pg 69)
The danger today is that seekers of spiritual consciousness may leave themselves wide open to be deceived and exploited by any guru or preacher who finds an easy market in which to peddle his particular brand of gospel.
Signs and Wonders of the New Age
Jesus promised his true disciples that they would be able to see and recognise the signs of the times and his apostles warned the churches against straying from the gospel which they had brought. Jesus instructed followers to undertake specific tasks, with the help of his Spirit, while they remained in the world. True believers operate with power but within God-sanctioned limits until the day when they will be changed completely, given new bodies and be united with God in the heavens. Attempts to break through into superconsciousness before God’s appointed time must carry the risk of a serious spiritual malfunction with the added possibility of a distorted gospel being taught.
In Hinduism there are no such restrictions and the way is open to set out on a pilgrimage towards the Cosmic Spirit. Defined by one’s own karma and undertaking successions of re-incarnations the goal is eventually to reach nirvana and merge with the god-head.
This century there have been a number of Mystics, including Muktananda, Rajneesh (Osho), Sai Baba and Mother Meera, who claim to have short-circuited the many cycles of reincarnation and to have exploded into superconsciousness in their own lifetime. They have passed on powerful spiritual tremors to the lives and minds of their followers, sometimes with serious consequences ending in tragedy. Many cults teach that physical death is not so much a human tragedy but necessary for ultimate enlightenment.
The spiritual power of some gurus is very convincing and can often be felt physically. The recorded miracles of Sai Baba, accepted and verified by intellectuals and the highest ranking classes in South Asia and throughout the world are spectacular; even by Biblical standards.
As we approach the end of the 20th century the race and search is on for the source of the ultimate “spiritual high”. Like many Christians, Sai Baba and other gurus teach that the final revelation is about to happen soon and that the spiritualization of humanity must be speeded up.
The risk is high for those who experiment with cosmic consciousness. There is a real possibility that minds and lives will be ruined resulting in people being condemned to a pathetic, empty and gullible existence craving new power encounters and experiences week after week but thirsting all the more as they are exploited by glory seekers.
Jesus told his disciples to live godly lives in love, submission, reverence and service to their Father and to wait patiently for a coming day when the Son of Man will return to the heavens, illuminating the sky from one end to the other in the biggest spiritual “Power and Light Show” the universe has ever seen since creation, and bring the ultimate enlightenment to his faithful children.
When in my teens I was living in India, having been born and brought up there, a small trickle of youthful Europeans and Americans began arriving to look for meaning, spiritual enlightenment and kicks. I was mesmerised by these foreigners as I had lived most of my life in “small town” India among Indians and knew little of the culture of these newcomers. On visits to Delhi I met many hanging around Connaught Place, others in the hill town where I was at school and still others out on the roads and railways in North and South India. I was heavily influenced by “the trip”, the tangible affinity I had with the travellers and the veneer of love and friendship. I, along with them, had also embarked on my quest for fun, truth, reality and spiritual significance. I experienced, felt and saw the power of Sadhus and the electric-like surges of power coming from their eyes and radiated by their presence. I visited places like Hardwar where my body and mind felt like it was on the edge of a vast spiritual cosmos beckoning with all kinds of exciting promises.
Writers such as Jack Kerouac and, later, Timothy Leary provided vague but totally compelling directions. However many of the seekers got no further than cheap and easily available Bhang (marijuana) and settled down to a succession of sexual encounters, living in ashrams with people they initially felt were brothers and sisters on the same path to experience and enlightenment. Many lost their way in a haze of drug impelled unreality and, without any reference points, they ended up broken in spirit, aged before their time; becoming aggressive and crazed. There were frequent stories of death, suicide and mysterious disappearances. My first excitement began to falter when I saw many of these searchers begging in the streets and others lining up to sell their blood at medical clinics. The Embassies in Delhi were inundated with people who, having run out of money, were trying to get back home.
The electric storms in the lives of many were just beginning. At ashrams in different places, including Pune, spiritual power experiences began to emerge at group encounter and therapy sessions. Intense excitement and anticipation flowed through seekers who began making pilgrimage to the “In” ashrams. The ultimate spiritual trip was being revealed; I can still feel the buzz of that excitement today.
I had given my life to Jesus in 1963 and, although by the mid to late 60’s I was excited by changes in Western youth culture, music and the dawn of a new age of spiritual enlightenment, I could also see a different picture. I felt that there was something wrong in abandoning self control and the spiritual reference points I already accepted. In some ways I had already found my earthly Nirvana and at that time all I wanted to do was to spend my life simply wandering around India. I discovered that I was different from the seekers. My love for India was in my bones, the first sky my eyes ever saw was an Indian sky, I had given my life to Jesus already and was on a different road.
I believe that this experience changed me forever and later when, in the 70’s, I stayed and travelled around in India on business my heart went out to the young empty-eyed seekers I met and spoke to. I discussed with many the road they had taken and tried to show them what love I could and point them to Jesus. Many seekers had risked everything in an attempt to find truth, enlightenment and nirvana only to be dashed to the ground by a series of rejections, deceptions; finally waking up to the fact that they were being exploited by their gurus. I often wonder where they are now. Over the years I have heard that some did find Jesus.
The road to a new spiritual consciousness is open - a wide road that hundreds of thousands have already taken to India but now it is here in Europe and North America and people are streaming on to the road from every segment of society. For thousands of years Hindu mystics have practised and refined “Power Encounters”, reaching out, invoking and touching cosmic power sources. Their message is about power -“power everything”. This is the anthem of the New Age.
Mystic Yoga is widely acknowledged to be a system of practices and methods which can be superimposed on any religious belief including Christianity and Islam.
Many Eastern gurus teach that a sincere belief in Jesus benefits their practices and methods and helps practitioners attain the desired results.
The practices, methods and manifestations of Mystical Hindu Yoga, and more specifically Siddha Yoga, which are with us today go back a long way in time. They are described by their sanskrit names.
I have been there before and witnessed the race for spiritual experience, the desperate attempts to see signs and wonders, to see devotees being raised into spiritual outer space (khundalini), to feel the deep peace from the “divine” power touch (shakti pat), to meet, hear and read of those who have been shaken by strange spiritual forces causing them to hop, jump, jerk, and make animal noises, including a lion’s roar, or ecstatic laughing and weeping (kriya), at other times I have seen Sadhus held rigid in a trance by an external invisible power (samadhi). I have witnessed the ecstatic laughing and noise of group encounter sessions.
We are told that the Hindu Goddess Chiti appears in many guises at anytime in history and wherever she can glide in unnoticed or is welcomed unawares. Her manifestations have already been seen by those who have been along this road before.
The trip has not gone away - it was real enough then and it continues today. The New Age of enlightenment has crept up on us. The Serpent of Shiva, the destroyer, is secretly intertwining itself in the roots of all that we think is secure. The great deceiver is on his way; his prophets are already sowing the seeds of deception everywhere. The seeds of death will take root wherever there is fertile ground. The rest of the ground is already dead. Even Christian groups seem ready and willing to accept things they don’t know and understand.
Today Christian leaders are being offered a new wave of power practices and methods obtained from the latest Christian places of pilgrimage. Many have made, and are making, pilgrimage to centres of enlightenment to bring “It” back (a new consciousness?). The experience is transmitted down authority lines (the guru-chela line) to specially selected and qualified followers. In close encounter sessions open hands search out significant places (chakras) on the bodies of followers. Threatening empty eyes stare into nothingness, disconnected from the people around. Leaders and followers cry out for power; more power. An experience of increasing spiritual consciousness (khundalini) is raised, sometimes through power touches of the opened palms of the hand or dramatic waves, and whole body actions (shakti pat). Followers are encouraged to shut off their minds (samadhi-yoga) and drink deeply from refreshing rivers, sometimes in highly charged spiritual encounter sessions to feel, see and experience the waves of high voltage spiritual power, with the accompanying physical manifestations of all kinds (kriya) sometimes collapsing into a mindless, motionless blissful trance-like state (samadhi).
The promoters of these new teachings have struggled to provide unambiguous Biblical evidence to justify the methods, practices and manifestations of this New Age of spiritual experience. Whether this matters or not may be of little importance since it is stressed that God is not bound by the limitations of human minds or the traditions of the past and that what we are now witnessing is altogether new.
The new teachings have taken centre stage in the preaching and evangelism of many Christian groups. The way to experience spiritual rebirth is by a direct encounter with the Holy Spirit. Where previously a traditional gospel was preached based on the exercise of faith in the substitutionary and atoning sacrifice of Jesus for forgiveness of sins, a new way has now been made available by calling for the direct intervention of the Spirit of God to regenerate the soul of a person. Sometimes this can happen even before a word is uttered in the congregation and at other times it has been brought about by watching videos, listening to tapes, by meditation, or by the ministry of specially qualified devotees.
Sadly those Christians who fail to respond to these teachings, or object, have at times been threatened with the damnation of Korah, with the fate of the Israelites who because of unbelief did not enter the promised land and died in the wilderness, with having the mark of death on their faces or with a warning, delivered with sinister overtones, that they will miss out on God’s blessing.
Shut off your mind - the mind must lie fallow, it must be bypassed! do not question what is going on! Just lie back and let it waft over you! Here it comes! I can see it over here! Now it is over there! No that was last week; this week it is.....!!
Leading New Agers in the UK are reported to have welcomed the arrival of the new spiritual dynamic among some Christian groups. They claim it will help overcome one of the greatest barriers to the acceptance of the coming New Age Messiah.
The aroma of the New Age of Mystic Hinduism is here. Its new formula fragrance is attractive and compelling; it promises to meet the needs in all human hearts and lead to peace, blessing and self assurance. The direct path to spiritual consciousness which seekers in the 60’s set out to find in India seems now to be available in the West.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry ." (2 Timothy 4: 3-5)
July 1995
For further information on this article or comments please email Jameel at Jameelzero@aol.com