Quote
Toni
Many who left other cultish groups turn to Gangaji, saying "she's the anti-teacher teacher" "She tells people to listen inside themselves and not follow her alone."
Meanwhile, those same followers return repeatedly to sit at her feet, travel with her for spiritual retreats, and place her pictures on home altars.
This is exactly what I've said in previous threads. I don't think there's anything inherently dangerous or bad about the Advaita philosophy or the teachers themselves. The problem is that many people come to Advaita from a Guru path (mostly ex-Gurumayi/Syda Yoga people), where they are used to treating the guru with abject devotion. Consciously or unconsciously, they start to treat the Advaita teachers the way they treated their guru, and that's when the problems start.
These teachers have supposedly had a spiritual awakening where their personality/egos dissolved, yet when people start to treat them like they're better, wiser and more spiritually advanced than the rest of us, they start to develop attitudes. They also play favorites, even though they're supposed to love everyone unconditionally.