Real Yoga

Cults have always been around, filling the needs of the innocent. You must remember that for every individual in the world, and there are 6 billion of us, there is some Guru, Religion, or Philosophy that will suit us — or rather fill the vacuum that we feel is lacking in us.

No–one is right in any of this and no–one is wrong. What is happening is the base nature of the human species rises to the surface in a lot of cases and capitalizes on the gullibility of the lonely, the innocent and the questing individual. Where hope and mystical promises are made, you then will create a ready audience. Profit making is a cinch.

Strangely enough though, no matter how many cases of this kind of profiteering on the gullible is brought to light and terminated, or brought to light and their evil control shown up for what it is, they themselves, or others will just pop in to the vacuum they left and replace one hope with another, or at least the same hope under another name.

Money making schemes have been going on since the beginning of time. In any community, no matter how many honest people there are, the averages will always push to the forefront some snake oil salesman who is only too willing to remove some of the honest money in that community.

It may take the form of some grand investment opportunity, or even a pyramid type of money making scheme that looks so good that if you are taken in by it, you too will inadvertently be cadging your own friends out of their money by becoming members of this pyramid system, under you.

Religion, Mysticism, Cult Figures, Yoga, Gurus, Numerology including Yantra and Astrology, payment for mystical healings, etc etc are all fertile ground for the gullible to drop plenty of money in to the pockets of the charlatan.

Mind you I have never knocked the Charlatan because I feel that the gullible are getting what they deserve and no more. They will certainly get nothing in the way of education, or spirituality from the charlatan, because you will notice with ALL religions and various WAYS, disenchantment sets in, and soon the novitiate is off looking for the next quick fix — a quick fix that never does any fixing at all, leading again and again to more disenchantment and the proverbial search goes on and on.

Do you realize that nearly all, I don't say all, but nearly all the Great Masters never had a teacher. They never studied under anyone. They had the astute mental discrimination to realize that what they had to find was verily within them. Each one of them did it in a variety of ways, but inevitably all of them were led to The Portal of silence and stillness, and there — right there — in that simple finding, by residing in and uniting with SELF, liberation was at last attained. In that union there was never another question to be asked. There was no seeking to be done. The quest was over.

What seems to have happened with all the religions and cults is that the leader is needed in order to attain that freedom. Without some assistance of this leader, who undoubtedly, you will be assured, has mystical powers which will aid you in your quest, you will never get anywhere. Strangely enough giving up your donations and gifts to this magical person seems not to affect the follower at all, as the promise of the reward here and or in some far of heavenly place far out weighs the monies you are feeding into their greedy profiteering pockets.

Even with the slap in the face of having 7 Rolls Royces sitting in this all mighty Guru's driveway, the gullible still do not catch on. They have been well blinded and well conditioned. For after all, it is their greedy hope that the Guru is fulfilling. Greed for salvation, or Moksha, or Spirituality is no different than greed for power or for money.

The qualities residing in all man at work here are Greed, Power, Profiteering, Hope and Sincerity. I don't say in all cases, but in most, the first three are sitting on the shoulders of the Guru or Teacher or Religion, and the latter two on the Novitiate. It makes a perfect match. Each one deserves the other.

Education is not only lacking in our school systems, because it does not teach one HOW to think, but it is lacking in Spiritual questing also.

Also do you realize that most of the sincere Gurus gave small classes, and charged nothing, not even accepting gifts. The gifts, if accepted, were handled and then passed on to someone else. The Novitiate claimed this to be a blessing. The Guru claimed it to be nothing of the sort. He just did not want to let his student think he could be bought for a future favour, as he really had none to give. He taught freely. The teaching was not his. It was given to him, by going through The Portal on his own. So he must give it back freely to his student.

No–one can buy their way into Heaven or Moksha. I realize there are a lot of Yoga Teachers who are quite honest and who charge what they feel is enough to pay the rent for their building etc. But even this should be stopped if they are sincere. We are given the ability to go out and work at a functional job in society, then if we feel we have something to give, we can take one evening a week — or many evening to have a few sincere students who we can teach without being bogged down by payment.

In most cases it is an easy way out for a Teacher not to have to go to work and rely on the payments of their Students, much like a beggar relies on passers by on the street — hand outs!

So this little write up is mostly to make you aware of your needs and how much you are willing to sell yourself out for, and also how much the Teacher will sell himself out for.

Self Realization is a lonely trek, a lonely journey, and if you are interested in it, then get still and silent. If you like the joining in to groups and hearing nice messages and some Guru doing the thinking for you, then you pays your money and you gets your goods. In English, that last remark means you have been shafted.

Oh I know, some will be upset about the fact that they have a beloved Guru and they love going to see him, and dropping him a donation. If that is the case you would be better to drop him and stand on your own two feet — alone.

How many times do you have to hear that The Guru is within you! Yes you needed a Guru at one time — an outside Teacher, but it doesn't take long to realize and even he will tell you, if he is worth his salt, that you do not need him. You need to dive deep within that is all.

Of course most won't do that as they cling to the source of their gold as much as individuals cling to them.

I am just hoping that the people that I talk to have passed all this and realized they need no–one — they are perfect exactly as they are and just need to be still and silent.

Meditation should be done with a loving attitude. It lets you know where you are on the scale of deep soul diving. If you only like to meditate one hour a day, as some do, then that is all you need, but there will be others who will spend their nights meditating instead of sleeping.

Make a start. Take a stab at it. Learn to meditate with eyes open and then learn how to meditate most of the day also, while still carrying out your function. It is easy when you get the hang of it.

Articles by Swami Harinanda and Yogi Karmananda are © 2026 and are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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