Re: Chris Butler, Jagad Guru, Science of Identity
Posted by:
RUN_FOREST_RUN
()
Date: February 28, 2024 07:50AM
I hear ya. Of course, he turned to drugs. And the sad part is that he may get a kidney and it will solve but one small physical problem for him. What he was raised like has totally trashed his brain well before he did any meth or heroin. Many Prabhupada devotees turned to heroin and drugs or ended up being pot addicts or alcohol/cigarettes etc. Why is that? Why, if the holy name is so powerful and all purifying etc..??? Many of these people sat in the so-called holy presence of their guru and even touched his feet. So in the end, what exactly has the chanting of mantas and bowing to sculptures and reading myths done for them? Seriously. What in gods green fucking earth has it given them? Oh wait, oh wait... I go it! It gave them a sense of belonging to a group, access to food and singing and dancing... sure, yeah, all those are fun activities by any standard. But did it solve any real issues for them? For many it exasperated issues. If they had mental issues before, they were often amplified or simply put on temporary hold as they deluded themselves that rambling on beads 16 rounds or sitting through some arduous and cumbersome lecture did anything meaningful for them other than flattening their brain. 40 years later, they sit at the swami's feet and ask the same question they did 40 years ago, "Gurudev, why am I suffering? Why is my mind so agitated? When will I taste the nectar of bhakti???"...
Instead of getting help at a therapist or clinic, they think that chanting a few rounds will fix it for them. Or worse, they pray to some picture of the guru for guidance. And their thinking has become so docile and juvenile in this regard that they think the swami will wipe up their life's mess. And for many devotees it is a mess. No financial security, no career, zero education, just living one verse to the next. In the meantime, they spend their "free time" chanting on beads repeatedly and further blunting their brain. It's basically just a spiritual movement full of distractions masquerading as "transcendental" and transformative when literally NOTHING is happening. ZERO. Fucking blind leading the blind circumambulating around a dying bush.
But hey don't get me preachin'.
RUN.