Clayton’s Blog

I just ordered Sir John Woodruffe’s book, The Serpent Power, from amazon. I amaze myself with how much I know about all this without benefit of any books–chanting Hare Krishna automatically raises Kundalini Ma to the highest chakra without direct endeavor in that regard. Furthermore, Kundalini means a little Kundal, or earring, or bangle–has nothing to do with serpents at all. The way the “energy medicine” people talk about chakras, or like the “psychics” do, has nothing to do with how the mystics view them, namely, as the seats of various powerful Dieties–Ganesh, Saraswati, Vishnu, etc. The most powerful Diety of all, the Guru, sits on the two-petalled lotus in the brow center; some groups say that this one is in the center of the head; I find that weird; just behind the eyebrows is where I find it. Woodruffe neglects the most important part of the whole yoga–namely the spiritual master–presumably he didnt have one, which is why despite his knowledge of sanskrit, he couldnt work the thing. If you can work one yoga, you can work them all, especially if the one is bhakti yoga—some mistakenly confuse bhakti-yoga qwith sentimentality–it is not sentimental; and one relies on His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, accepting him as one”s Lord, and turning over one’s affairs to him–he is one’s well-wisher.

You can rely on him also–Prabhupada is a pure bhakta, but he knows everything about occultism–because Krishna is Yogeshwara, the Lord of all Mystic Powers.

Well, I’ve been away from the helm for a long time–Meds and Reds is in production, and I am in the middle of another one, this time concerning the Quabalah. After that, I have a break, and I want to study healing arts–particularly esoteric healing arts, although my real interest is in the chi, or prana, and how to regulate it. I prepared a little mission statement for myself, and put it under a logo I designed–there is a group of people that sometimes call themselves the Great Wild Beast Furtherment Society–I invented that name. It was intended as a joke, to further the aims of the Beast of Revelations, generally considered as one world religion and one world government, which I consider pretty good ideas! Anyhow, it also stands for the Great White Brotherhood, whom some say are an order of Tibetan monks, and some say are an invisible group of high Adepti and Magi who have an interest in world affairs. The French and American revolutions were engineered  by them, the Theosophical Society was founded by them, and both the hippie movement and the New Age are productions of theirs. If you want to be a member, they will come and see you–like Crowley says, “like prompt and punctual businessmen, they’ll send a man round there and then/” Personally, I have gotten involved with the bhakti current and the Masters of that, and rather lost interest in the GWB, but they still have plenty to offer the seeker.

I have put blogging on the back burner to work  on a book various people have encouraged me to write–on l;ooking at it, it is enough of a way-out true story to find a real publisher It is cIt is the story of how the preeminent black magician of the 20th century (Aliester Crowley) and the chief Hare Krishna (Bhaktivedanta Swami) with the help of Mary Baker Eddy, guided me back Home, back to Godhead while I underwent 200 involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations and the science of psychiatry advanced by leaps ands bounds. It is called Meds and Reds, because i was a Red when the story begins, complete title: Meds and Reds: My Life in Mental Hospitals and Beyond. The only trouble has been that all those 200 hoispitalizations just run together–drugs do a number on your memory, and I do not remember much about them. I remember one wetback orderly who tried to pour liquid medication into my mouth when I was laying on my back–trying to kill me, I presume. And my observation that a lot of the patients didnt seem sick–just foolish.  And all the routine of getting arrested and admitted just made my ass tired.

So I’m shooting for 14,000 words and should be finished soon–within the weekend.

I compiled a sort of Magickal Record of my adventures with Truth and submitted it to a very straight Hare Krishna website–they publish stuff like the GBC Minutes. and some guy making an offering to the Pope–the Pope, for the love of Christ! Anyhow, I tried! In it, I introduced “the notorious madman, the preeminent black magician of the 20th century, ladies and gentlemen, Aliester Crowley!”-(it rhymes with Holy!) There was, after all, a higher purpose to all this–to show how I came to Srila Prabhupada, dragging all this other stuff with–well, some drag the Pope along, and I dont see that the Pope is any better that Perderabo (one of Crowley’s magickal names),  and anyhow, if all “this other stuff” is useful for preaching, then I was right to drag it along. Yukta Vairagya. Some knowledge of the Qu’ran, the Bible, and the Bhagavatam is more useful for preaching than nothing–what to speak of that dark, Crowleyan, Thelemic scripture, liber AL vel Legis! Actually, Crowley has appeared to me a number of times, he is sort of a punk guru–but I could tell it was him. Srila Prabhupada, on the other hand, is my eternal, real father. Prabhupada has introduced us all to the Personal Absolute, to the Goloka Pastimes, and not only introduced us theoretically, but shown us how to get there practically. Crowley’s vision did not reach so high–it was basically 2=0. Crowley placed Radha and Krishna much lower on the Tree of Life than they are in fact–actually, Brahma is in Kether and Radha-Krishna are behind the three veils of the Unmanifest, which conceal them from all. I guess I am talking to the Quabalists again–everybody else read thre Mystical Quabalah, by Dion Fortune. Perderabo was,  unfortunately, a scatterbrain—if he had decided simply to chant Hare Krishna his whole life instead of doing this, that, and the other thing, his whole history would have been different. But I think the Gaudiya acaryas are dragging a lot o funnecessary stuff with them, too–.like varnashram dharma, like the order of sannyas–simply burdens. There was some attack on the Dalai Lama today on the boards because he led a caste system–what do you think people will say whwen they find out the acaryas also manage a caste system? That the current version in India is no good, but our version is so much better, who will believe? And the order of sannyas is forbidden in the Age of Kali anyhow! Are we having fun yet?

The most terrible, and perhaps the most boring stretch of my life comes from the last time I spent at Napa State Hospital to the end of my association with a day treatment program in the Fruitvale District. At that time I was living in a boarding house where you could get meals (not very good ones) as part of your rent. I was spending way too much time studying Liber AL vel Legis–the Commentary by the Beast says, “It is best to burn this book after the first reading; those who ignore this are placing themselves in danger–which is most dire.”

I was trying to make too much of the OTO–after all. I was a Hare Krishna and had this thing about preaching–but that didnt exactly apply to the Order. Whenever I would bring it up to somebody at day treatment, I would be attacked–”sounds crazy to me!” and like comments. In my last hospitalization, I had tried to discuss it with the shrink. This was during the Jim Jones period of US History, so the shrink took it as another suicidal cult just straining at the bit to follow in the footsteps of Jim Jones in Guyana. He told me that we were antinomians, and I told him that we werent Christians–how could we be antinomians!

Anyhow, 30 years later, Jonestown is forgotten–the huge mass suicides that so many predicted would follow from every religious grouping–never happened. Jim Jones is dead, and his followers are dead, and for the disservice that they all did to the cause of religion, may they be forgotten forevermore–Amen.

At this point, I was lost–I didnt know anymore why I was placed herre, or what was the purpose of my existence. Liber AL wasnt helping, and neither was day treatment. There was no atmosphere of supporting or helping each other, and the people there were very disrespectful and rude. When I began to get manic, a certain bitch in their employ, told me to “stop it”. I couldnt stop it, I was manic–I told her so in the hall, and she said, “you’re doing it now”, So I told her she wasnt helping anybody but herself, and she didnt like that at all–she was verey proud of “helping others”. Couldnt help me!

My problem was my fanatic obstanacy about not taking my meds–patients came in with various types of delusions and hallucinations–aggressive, depressive, etc. I just wouldnt take my meds–if I had I would not have been in there, because meds worked very well with me. What trhe aforementioned bitch should have said to me is, “you need your meds adjusted”–but like I say, she wasnt helping anybody but herself–to a nice salary! “Helping professionals” my asshole.

on another occasion, for some goddam stupid reason, I was staying in a halfway house–I didnt exactly know why, I was just doing what I thought the System wanted me to.  There also there was a notable lack of help or understanding. Somehow I didnt ask, but I did not see what others were doing there, either. Court order for some, I suppose. I would have been better off in a cheap hotel downtown–less expensive and you meet a lot of hookers there! This was another situation where there are no rules abut being supportive to others, so nobody had to and nobody did. I didnt understand where I fit in with this bunch of people, and in fact I didnt–I should have gotten out–place was in the burbs–and gone where I would fit in better. Eventually they threw me out anyhow–for punching people in a supermarket–only ‘violence” I had ever done in an episode. Hospital let me go real fast, which confirmed my theory–the violent are sent home fast, and the non-violent are kept and studied.

For a while, however, there was a very nice halfway house where they would send patients who were discharged from Highland General. Was a great place–but funding wasnt renewed.

lost I might have been, but I didnt find Jesus, Allah be praised! One of the guys in the boarding house found Jesus, though–guy was a little twit–if I were Jesus I wouldnt have let a guy like that find Me, The fact is, like the other disciples, I didnt choose Jesus–He choose me! and that was a long time ago, and it took me years after all this to understand my position viz a viz Jesus Christ–just like Yahweh choose the Jews and the Jews never wanted it, and they were always out whoring with strange gods, similarly, I tried to get away! But these days I just accept Jesus as my diksha guru and we have a relationship–leaving the Bible out of it!

It is possible to meet the Great Personalities, but the exact process by which they manifest to us is very esoteric.  It is not like Liz Prophet’s idea of hundreds of “ascended masters” all of whom souond like her. Such Personalities are eternal, and beyond time and space, and if we catch their attention by deeds or words, or perhaps our words are our deeds, they will appear, neither in the mind nor outside of it, by magicks we cannot comprehend. Such meetings are all-auspicious and give us certainty about our progress on the Path.

There is an easy guideline St.Ignatius Loyola mentions, for determining whether a vision of this sort is real or delusional—how does it make you feel afterwards? If you feel more disturbed, it was a delusion–if you feel more peaceful, it is factual.

Anyhow, that was my life in mental hospitals–at this time, I cant remember any more.

My story is the history of the development of an Idea–I crossed many “sampradayas” to come to this Idea–there was much hopelessness and many dead-end streets to go down, and many false friends to misguide and hurt me–and I needed to realize that sex pleasure is fifth-rate pleasure, and that woman means trouble.

my Idea led me to Sant Keshavadas–those were happy days spent listening to Sant sing and lecture and camping out among the trees at the nearby Rose Garden. I considered myself a real yogi, and the pond in the middle of the Rose Garden I called Amrtsar Lak.

I had a crush on this chick who lived at Sant’s place, but she wasnt at all interested, by Prabhupada’s arrangement–eventually I gave up on her, and about that time so many people wanted to hook me up with Kelly–Kelly I think, was a little retarded along with her other problems–she was not good-looking–couldnt cook, either, wasnt good in bed–preferred mutual spankings, mouth going all the time, all negative stuff–she was a hypochondriac–and she was an embarassment to go out with–made you look like a fool–yet so many people were determined to hook me up with this chick! I consider that disrespectful to me of all these people–I was living on a higher platform without her, and I could do better than that!

The thing I probably regret the most is getting involved in day treatment and halfway houses. Everybody had some insult to throw at me in day treatment, and the same in halfway houses. I did not need any of that–I simply needed to follow the Path the Supersoul was showing me, and somehow or other, become a resident of the Temple. There my time would not be wasted.

This was about the time of Jim Jones, a very bad time to belong to a fringy religion, or something small and offbeat. All of us were presumed to drink koolaid real soon, and so many people would throw that in your face if you tried to approach them. I wanted to teach some small thing from the Golden Dawn, and this guy sez “You’re just like Jim Jones!” So tbnis motherfucker, Jim Jones did a great deal of damage to the cause of religion generally, and my idea was “Fuck Jim Jones and fuck his followers, too, they’re all out to destroy religion”

As it happened, time and other events, vanquished Jim Jones and no one talks about him anymore, or throws him up in our faces.  One event was Waco and David Korresh–many of us felt that the government had set his compound on fire, and sympathy was with Korresh and his followers, not the Feds. Then there was Heaven’s Gate, with it’s weird theology of  catching a ride with the comet. Acually, Dhumraketu is a comet representing Ganesha.

‘Course, my revolutionary attitude had slammed again too many patients who didnt understand or care–and I was not fit enough to take on the job of persuading them. I was sort of into Network Against Psychiatric Assault, but they were liberals, and all they ever talked about was ECT. I have come to dislike the anti-psychiatry movement (what is lft of it) since I have realized how effective the drugs are. Really, being on the ward was the same as being in solitary for the revolutionist.

It has always been difficult to explain the OTO to anyone who didnt know of it already. Lately, I have been saying, “It’s a Masonic organization”. What do we do? What do the Masons do? I suppose it is a cult–Crowley wouldn’t have it any other way–but the membership are very independent-minded people who do not like being told what to do by anybodyand have a scripture to support that!

So there was the time that Liber AL vel Legis saved my life! it was at Sant’s ashram, I had survived Kelly and made it back to Oakland, but I had lost my sleeping bag and it was winter. I was just idly quoting something from Liber AL, and this Sant devotee woman got real upset–her idea was that I was uttering “black magic spells” and had to be hospitalized. I was very happy to go along with this idea, because if I had to sleep on concrete I would develop pneumonia and die. Well, we all went up to psych emergency and she brought them her story about black magic spells, but they were unimpressed–until they found out it was me. Then this nurse says, “OK Claytin, we can fix you up–come on in.” And that’ is how Liber AL, and my own connexions, saved my life. Actually, uttering black magic spells is protected by the `1st Amendment to the US Constitution, but I wasnt arguing that.

“Just following my Ideal, officer! Some follow a dream–I have always followed an Ideal–and that has grown, particularly with “watering” with the words of the spiritual master, and my Ideal has become more and more Real. Ideal Realism–or Real Idealism? And that is the process I recommend.

There is always a “crime” when getting thrown into the funny farm. They will usually tell you what it was, and that is always interesting, because frequently, you will not even remember doing anything of the kind. “Directing traffic” was  one of mine–dont remember that.

And they have a way of rushing through intake so as to only list a few of your posessions on the reciept you get. You can pressure them to write the rest down, but they have all the power and you tend to consider that it would not be smart to try to get too pushy–bad things can happen. I dont know how many japa malas I have lost to Highland psych–they always tell you they’ll give you a reciept later, but later, of course, never happens, and if you ask for them later, they tell you in that “nurse voice” that it’s not on your list.

The most expensive thing I have ever lost to the nuthouse was a $1200 star sapphire ring–guy pulled it of my finger when I was being restrained (patient did) and they didnt notice. Actually, I am glad it’s gone–only created envy in people.

Once my ‘crime” was “giving away matches in downtown Oakland”. I admit that I was having a metaphysical relationship with a arton of matches I had bought–but so what! I’m a adult, I can play with matches, I’m not a three year old–and would it have been ok if it werent in downtown Oakland? How does that make me a “danger to self or others”? Fact is, the cops around here interpret “danger to self or others” as “crazy” without distinction.

The Berkeley cops hated me–they knew I was new in town and they took me as some kind of hippie revolutionist or yippie or something, which I was, and therefore a potential threat to their lives, like the Black Panthers. So, they would stop me for nothing trying to get me to say something that they could hospitalize me for–one cop said, “You said you were going to destroy the Universe, rioght?” “No” “You sure you didnt say you were going to destroy the universe?” and on, until he decided to let me go. This was the kind of crap I got in Berkeley, where the cops had a reputation for being “very gentle” with the MI. Of course, all those cops are retired now, and the new batch don’t know me.

it seems I was always threatening my roommate in those times, or at least that is what he would tell the cops–actually I had never laid a hand on him, and if I did he was able to take care of himself, but for the benefit of the cops, he was frightened of me.

I had this insane idea that the next time they would leave me alone to handle it myself, but such a time never came–I always had to be gotten “help”, whether I liked it or not. I got a whole lot of “help”, that’s for sure–I cant even imagine how much it has cost the taxpayers to “help” me so much, but it is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The solution was always to become med compliant–not with thorazine, it made me drowsy and impotent, but maybe with haldol–my first attempts to be drug compliant were with haldol–my mind could overpower it–but when lithium was added, it was a really good combination–eventually, haldol stopped working for me, as sometimes happens. amd a Dr.Fischer put me on risperdal–ripserdal was good until I hada a bad reaction to it, and then my own doc, Dr.Harris, put me on Abilify–that is the current drug. Lithium, seroquel, and abilify is the complete combination.

It was a case of instead of trying to accomodate society to me, I had to accomodate myself to society–and all society expects of it;s MI is that we take meds, isnt it a fact? Society has tremendous faith in psych drugs–more faith than the people who take them and know what they do! Most mass murderers are off their meds, right? And if you happen to confide in someone that you are MI, what’s their first question? “Do you get violent?” I guess if you say “no” they don’t trust you.

Violence and mental illness go together in the public’s mind—let me repeat again: I AM A NON-VIOLENT GUY! Yet I have had them asking me to “promise not to hurt anybody” if I wanted to sleep in the lobby, instead of strapped doqwn in the side-room. I found that question insulting, wouldnt answer it, so got strapped down in the sideroom. Emergency psych is a rough and ready place.

Doesnt there come a time when any more “help” is “hurt”? When one has been dragged out of his life enough times, and when this glorious System is just doing deep damage? It may be my own fault, but I think all these hospitralizations have damaged me, and in some ways, irrepairably.

And I admit to some resentment as I describe these things–but resentment doesnt pay the rent, and I have discarded all I can. Actually, Srila Prabhupada took charge of my case–he has been arranging things for me, and making my life worfthwhile–he brought me here, he arranged for a computer, he brought me certain friends to direct my path as a writer–all glories to Srila Prabhupada! He is “as good as God”, so we need not bother Lord Krsna with our problems when He is engaged in Pastimes with the Gopis–simply ask Srila Prabhupada, and anything Krishna could do, Srila Prabhupada can do. That is his service. I find that I have been studying religion, and occultism, and metaphysics, all my life, and I find that all that can be utilized in Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada agrees that I have the Avadhuta nature–not much for rules and regulations, and up to anything! So the spiritual master knows me, and I also know him–we have personally met in a very esoteric manner that I could not describe, but he is more than an abstraction or a picture in a book. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! May we all come to be recognized by him!

The Hare Krishna movement has its own version of Protestantism–the ritviks. Catholics are those who like incense and ceremony–and many gurus. I myself do not trust these gurus–I certainly have no reason to; I believe that being an ISKCON guru is a job for a neophyte devotee–the more advanced devotees would not be involved in such lucrative foolishness.

There are specific qualifications to become guru, the chief of which is to be appointed by your own guru. It is established now that Prabhupada never appointed any gurus–what he left for us was a ritvik system of initiators on his behalf. But this was changed when he passed away–the 11 ritviks, or representatives he appointed, declared themselves regular gurus, and divided the world among themselves. Sridhar Maharaj, of the Gaudiya Math, was the architect of this “zonal acarya” system–it did not work! And when it failed, Narayan Maharaj of the Gaudiya Math, designed the current guru system, in which anyone who can get enough votes from the GBC can be guru.

It is only a step from there to the platform that anyone can be guru–without being voted in, just by taking up the job. That is my idea!  Guess I am still an anarchist! But why should power rest in an ecclesiastical body in this matter? Has such an idea ever been heard of in the whole history of religions in India?

It seems that the GBC cannot think for itself–it has to run to someone from the Gaudiya Math for guidance, and thre Gaudiya Math has never liked ISKCON or Prabhupada very much–Prabhupada ordered us to avoid all his godbrothers. It is very like going to the Devil for advice.

Of course, I very much like the realizations and style of preaching of Srila Sridhar—he is  my real guru because his books brought me back from the mayavadi brink, so I am eternally indebtred to him–but Prabhupada thought he, Sridhar, had very high realizations also–at the same time, he was “very good at wrecking organizations”.

This all is a complicated topic, wioth many arguments on both sides, and I am not familiar enough with the arguments to present it properly. In essence, the ritviks have a book called The Final Order, which presebts their conclusion with all logic and arguments and pertinent facts. And the gurus rely on Lord Chaitanya’s statement, ” On my order, become guru”.

For a while, I was handing out “bonafide Guru” certificates, as an expression of sarcasm, but demand exceeded supply. Robert Anton Wilson, the author of the Illuminatus Trilogy and Cosmic Trigger, used to hand out Pope cards, attesting to the fact that the bearer was a genuine Pope. I had the same general idea with the Guru certificates. Bob considered me the “eternal student” type, and if he were still alive, he would be surprised at how the student has become the Master.

But it is my feeling that at this juncture, the Titanic iis sinking fast, the lifeboats are all gone, and it is every man for himself–therefore whatever I have gained in realization or steadiness I must apply to saving others–I cannot depend on anyone else to save me, except Srila Prahupada, who is “as good as God”. Pray to him for us all!

There are many instances in the scriptures of the phrase “purify the mind”. “Purify the mind” is another way of saying, “wash the brain” There is “soft ” brainwashing and “hard” brainwashing–television brainwashes we, the masses, into certain opinions and desires–we are trying to reverse that kind of brainwashing and replace it with samskaras–a samskara is a strong impression made on the mind, like a brand on the brain, to led one to a better sort of life. An example of a samskara is the sacrwed thread giving ceremony (gayatri  mantra). I recieved this through the Ramananda grouping, which most devotees consider an apasampradaya, or unauthorized group–but Prabhupada does not say, unauthorized–he says “Not very authorized”–different.

In everything thre is it’s own purity–I may be a number of things. a Thelemite, a Christian Scientist, a devotee, but I do not mix them up, like a certain yogi who chants Om Jehovah Om–Jehovah does not go with Om, and that is that!

My idea is when i am a Christian Scientist I do not mix everything else into it–I maintain the purity of the thing, which is actually very good Vaishnav philosophy, differing on some things from the standard version of Srila Prabhupada, but not any more than any of the four Vaishnava sampradayas differ from each other

But I must rpeat myself about Home–if you feel the need for all these things, there must be a Center–one thing that is home, where you feel satisfied and happy, and that is like an umprella, covering evereything else. Otherwise, eclecticism falls down and fails–Home Sweet Home.

I move around a  bit in therapeutic circles, and whenever I hear that a certain therapist is an eclectic, I run the other way–that means he cant decide what he wants to be, and therefore he wont be any help–jack of all trades, master of none.

My psychiatrist only does drugs–he is very expert in that, and I trust him, even if some of my internet friends don’t like his choices.

So–monastic life is brainwashing–Buddhists, Catholics, Hare Krishna’s all the same, except we have delicious prasadam and ecstatic chanting, and others do not.The moral is–brainwashing doesnt hurt you! When your brain is thoroughly washed and all done, you will find the abilityt o be a very independent thinker. Just as soldiers who finish basic training do not lose the capacity to think forever–the only problem is “thinking for myself” is not the process! We cannot know abut spiritual topics by “thinking for ourselves”. A different process is needed for going into the Upper Worlds–trhese things are adhoksaja–beyond the reach of the mind and sensesa–we have to engage in submissive hearing, by which the lord will illminate us in the heart, and we will know by realization, not logic, what is what in the High World.

So why do this? The Christians say, “We cannot know God–but if we follow His Commandments, that is as good as knowing Him” There is a great deal of truth in that, but we are meant for His Pleasure–how can we give Him pleasure without knowing Him? We cannot know God with our present senses, unless–unless He cares to reveal Himself–but if there is a transcendentally beautiful Person Who has made all this and Who will destroy it at the end, shouldnt we try at least to know Him in truth?

They call that “mysticism” and reject it.

anyhow, the Biblical people were so crude and barbaric that God only showed His backside to them–He mooned the Jews, in other words, and we would like to see His smiling Countenance, not his backside.

It is very hard to convince people that “mysticism” will solve a lot of problems for them. Trouble is, people dont even know what their problems are! Birth! big problem! everybody thinks he has gotten past this one,  but it will recur after Death, the next problem, and then, Old Age! and Disease! Science is working on extending life, but we want not only extended life, but extended quality of life–if we are to sit in a diaper in a nursing home for 40 years, being tossed around by  big black ladies, we don’t want that!

I don’t want to make the mistake of underestimating science–they have created many wonders; still, Srila Prabhupada used to say, “the authority for who is your father is your mother–there is no other authority”, Well, consequent to that, DNA testing was developed, so you can know who your father is with 99.99999% acuraccy and frequently, Mom is wrong. Not your Mom or minw, of course, but somebody’s Mom!

Brainwashing, the term, was invented to denote what the Communists tried to do in prisoner of war camps–namely make the enemy into fellow communists. Didnt work terribly well, but it was something to do while waiting for world Revolution.

Then brainwashing came to mean what was applied to willing subjects to indoctrinate them. That was more effective! Everybody does a bit of that, especially the TV networks!

And finally, brainwashing means cleansing the mind, an essentially mystic process by which one becomes better able to grasp what is Transcenndence.

This is a brainwashing document.

You cannot get to Tulsa by buying a ticket to Miamii, and you cant get to Heaven by buying a ticket to Hell. Yesterday I heard from this person who asserted that there is no difference between Personalism and Impersonalism. I think he was a hippie and was smoking a little too much ganja. There are great differences between devotional service and mayavada–they are incompatable. It is, like, everyone starts out on the same path–but there comes a fork in the path–the devotees go one way, and the impersonalists go the other way.Of course the devotees call things mayavada which actually are not–like they call Aurobindo a mayavadi, but Integral Yog is not mayavad. It is, however, “opposed to any conception of a personal God”, as is the Theosophical Society, who happen to be my earliest gurus on the Path. I was not aware at that time that Bishop Leadbeater was so fond of young boys–learned that later. The Theosophical Society was grooming Krishnamurti to become the new World Teacher, but he eventually decided agin it, leaving them in the lurch, and propounding a philosophy that no guru is needed. We of the Hare Krishna persuasion think that the chanting of the Holy Names as propounded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and carried on my Srila Prabhupada, and no other World Teacher is needed or wanted who does not propound this chanting–Buddhistic type philosophy will not help in this Age! There is a verse, “There is no other way, no other way, no other way, then the chanting of the Hly Names of Krishna to cross over the evils of this Kali Age.”

So mayavada is a certain “brand” of the phghilosophies that say ultimately there is the undifferentiated brahm, or the void, and this is the ultimate realization. They consider the Personal God to be simply more maya to be overcome, and thus they are called Maya-vadis. Another ‘brand” is sunyavadi–voidness is form, form is voidness, and so on–like the Heart Sutra.

One of the most powerful Mayavada texts is Shankaracarya’s commentary on the Vedanta Sutras–it is so powerful that Lord Chaitanya forbade any devotee to study it–if one comes to an understanding of Mayavad philosophy his devotional life is finished. If you want to study Vedanta, get Baladev Vidyabhusana’s commentary on Vedanta Sutra–he wrote the Gaudiya commentary in a very short time because the panditrs did not see how Srimad Bhagavatam would work in that capacity.

The mayavadis worship 5 gods, and say that they are all the same Person–Durga, Siva, Ganesh, Vishnu, and the Sun-god–! They also do sankirtan sometimes, when their study of Vedanta has grown too tedious–but that kind of kirtan “acts like thunder on the body of Krishna”–it has no effect. It is said, it is better to associate with an ordinary sinner than with a mayavadi–they are big offenders.

America seems to like phony messiahs and bogus saviors. Rev.Moon has captured the ear of big, conservative politicians who somehow do not mind if he styles himself the messiah, as long as the money comes in, and can anybody say, Guru Maharaji? The Press was captivated with him for a while–completely bogus, was doing well until he got a pie in the face. That pie ruined his “altitude” and he never recovered from it–that’s what he got for daring to imitate Krishna playing the flute! Just like Jimi Hendrix put his own face on the Universal Form and died sometime thereafter.

I thought about that Unification Church, but I didnt see anything “unifying” in it–it is simply a Gnostic twist on the story of Jesus, and Moon puts himself into the story as Christ returned to teach the ideal family life–but that was Sita-Ram, and who needs Moon?

I am very suspicious of right-wing “Christians”–I think Jesus was certainly a commie or something like one of the period–how he gets to espouse Reaganomics is beyond me! Perhaps it is because He now represents the statuas quo and bolsters the forces of ultra-right politics–but the original Jesus was the friend of the poor and pretty much set against the status quo–it may just be the problem of becoming a plaster saint, like Dr.MLKJr.All levels of the US Government were very happy that MLKJr, got killed–now they have made a holiday for him and they are all full of praise, like he was the most wonderful black man anybody had ever seen–bunch of baloney!

This sort of thing affects Srila Prabhupada also–the Poweras That Be in his surviving organization very much want him to stay in his Murti up on the Altar, but he insists on coming down, visiting people,  and so forth. It will not be so easy to make a plaster saint out of Prabhupada!

So I should have a great deal to say on this topic–but maybe not so much. The mayavadis and the devotees have never been in a shooting war with each other–it seems to be a polite difference of opinion–we criticise them, and the Ramakrishna Order criticises us back (in almost every preface to their books, they attack the devotees) Our main gripe with them is that they say, worship of any demigod will lead to the highest destinatrion, and we say, no, you must worship the Highest God to get to the highest destination–you cannot get to Tulsa by buying a ticket to Miami!