Ganesh P Paudel
The arrest of Ram Bahadur Bomjan on 9th Jan this year and his subsequent fall from grace got me into a ruminating mood. His followers may be asked a question: should they continue to follow him after all this or should they switch to some other spiritual guru? Imagine some astounding turn of events popped up, and most convincingly, he was proven innocent by our justice system. Should his erstwhile followers then start to follow him once again? It’s a real conundrum for them, isn’t it? So, it amounts to a question: how to find a genuine guru? Well, you become the true disciple/seeker first, the fake gurus won’t be able to take the heat caused by your mere presence. How to find a genuine one is irrelevant so long as we are not genuine seekers. Equally true is the fact that your authenticity as a seeker solves problems in a holistic way. It is the state’s justice machinery’s duty to decide whether Mr. Bomjon is guilty or not. There should be no second thought about punishing the guilty anyway.
My whole argument; will bashing spiritual gurus, or conversely, putting them on pedestals, bring a life-changing epiphany in our life? Will it bring spiritual bliss to our life? That’s something to chew over, isn’t it?
I remember the times back in 2005 when Ram Bahadur Bomjon was able to draw public attention because of his seemingly preternatural claims that he had been meditating endlessly under a tree without moving, without eating, without sleeping for months. When this news was making rounds I kept debating with myself from different perspectives and never wanted to take one side of the argument. I kept becoming the mere witness of the whole thing and maintained my stance by silently saying that a 15-year-old boy had been reckoned as a reincarnation of Buddha and people had thus termed him as a “Buddha Boy”. No judgment passed from my side back then. I just became the mindful witness of the events that unfolded. That’s why I was neither flabbergasted nor gladdened by the news of his arrest. I know that neither the likes of Bomjan nor any revered guru with an untainted public image is going to bring the quintessence of change in my life so long as I do not make myself available to the opportunities of change. Condemning or criticizing someone will only feed to our egoistic self.
Life itself is replete with opportunities to learn from. But we either squander those opportunities or let them rein control over us. Both ways, our spiritual growth is stunted and as a result of which our happiness remains as transient as ever.
It has become a cult to join meditation packages offered by various spiritual centers to bring spiritual revolution in our life. It’s very absurd to find that people ignore the fact that, before the start of their ritualistic pursuit of spirituality, they badly need correction in their behavior and lifestyle to begin with. We can be meditative all the time without joining any ritualistic mediation process by just practicing mindfulness in whatever we do. Joining a meditation center is not a bad thing per se. Before going for such a visible act of pursuit of spirituality, we should begin by living life spiritually.
To prove this point, I recall the first-hand experience of my septuagenarian father a few years ago at Vipassyana meditation center, Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu while he was there for a 10-day meditation camp. A man and my father were destined to share a room even though my father had informed the authorities beforehand that he had a snoring issue and did not want to disturb anyone in the room. Instead of rectifying this issue by providing my father a separate room they somehow winked at it. They after all had rooms to spare. My father was disconcerted and dismayed by what happened on his first night at the camp. Having been perturbed by the snoring of my father, the man displayed his otherwise suppressed wrath by fiercely banging on the bed of my father and subsequently spotting a light beam from his flashlight into my father’s eyes. The thudding noise and the glaring light upon opening his eyes made him jump out of his skin in the stillness of the night. Isn’t it hypocritical of the man to display rage at the camp which aims to help humans to be the witness to everything, not the judge to decide what is right, what is wrong, what is fair and what is unfair? Had there been no egoistic feeling in his mind about his own importance over other people, about his own comfort before other people, he wouldn’t have been pissed off.
Some people profess saintly disposition and go for spiritual quest. In essence, their pursuit remains as elusive as ever. This mindset will be manifested in their day-to-day life. It later may culminate in something full-fledged criminal. The entire existence is at our disposal to learn from if we want some epoch-making change in our lives. Then, nothing can fray our patience. By being critical to spiritual gurus, or anyone for that matter, or raving about them is not going to bring much sought-for transformation in our life. The entire existence is our guru. Then, we no longer seem to be fascinated by some “levitating” guru.
(Ganesh P Paudel can be reached at gpbabaje@gmail.com )
