Religious Cults: Mirrors of Collective Desires

Although I have written on the majority of spiritual topics over the past decade, I feel that there is one topic which still remained

untouched from my side; i.e. on Religious Cults. So, let’s cover it as follows –

Demand and Supply – I always feel that Universe functions on the natural principle of Demand and Supply. Whatever we demand/desire from Universe, Universe supplies it. But majority of time, we are not even aware of what we are demanding or we are making contradictory demands. This is where miscarriage of desires take place.

Same principle applies in this world of Religious Cults.

People – Firstly, people are looking for a Messiah or Savior figure. They want some God-like figure to come-up and resolve all their problems at once. This desire of Utopia or Messiah lays down the basic foundation of Religious Cults.

We can make a broader division of these people too. These will be materialistically suffering people and materialistically well-off people. The desire of Messiah or Utopia for these two different types of people will be on different grounds.

Materialistically well-off people will look for Messiah because of their Spiritual Thirst, whereas Materialistically suffering people will look for Messiah to get rid of their poverty or day to day problems.

Here, materialistically well-off people don’t necessarily mean rich people. It would mean the one who is satisfied, happy and fulfilled with their materialistic possession, no matter what they have. Similarly, materialistically suffering people don’t necessarily mean poor people. It would mean the one who is feeling unfulfilled with their materialistic possession, no matter what they have.

So, this desire or demand of a Savior or Messiah gets the ball rolling.

Cult Leader – Now, when people desired or demanded for Messiah or Savior or Utopia then existence would manifest the same through a person. Also, this Cult Leader would have a reciprocal desire or demand of being a Savior or Messiah for others. This person might even have a desire to create a Utopia.

This is where both sides happen to meet each other. Their meeting is nothing but mutual manifestation of their respective desires. One person wanted someone to guide them and the other person is suffering from Gurudom and is eager to guide others.

From last a few decades, Religious Cults have impacted the religious/spiritual environment of world negatively and we have seen many cases of crimes (including killings and mass suicides) happening in these cults. Stories of manipulation, fraud and financial/physical/sexual abuse have become a common read in newspapers now. So much so that people instinctively make a negative judgment when they hear the news of any new cult establishment. It naturally raises a few eye-brows.

In this article, I would try to point out some of the pointers people should take care while joining a cult, if at all someone is thinking about joining. To begin with, this in itself is a huge red-flag that people are looking for a Messiah, Savior or Utopia. Just like, another person who is willing to play this role of Messiah is also a red-flag.

1. Oratory Power – One common trait you will find with majority of cult leaders is that they are very good orators. They are rich with knowledge of different philosophies, religions and cultures etc. and they present it with eloquent oratory skill. This makes people feel the first attraction towards them. People relate that oratory skill as sign of knowledge or wisdom or even awakening.

2. Direct Surrender – Then it is commonly seen that people don’t go through the 1st step of Teacher-Student relationship; i.e. doubting or questioning. People directly surrender to the Cult Leader as their Guru. Many people feel that doubting or questioning a Guru is wrong. That is true but it is when the person has already become your Guru. But if you have just met him for first few times then as a curious student, it is your duty to shoot all your questions and doubts at him. This will be the testing of Cult Leader.

Osho says that as a new student, you are supposed to ask all your questions to your teacher before you surrender to him in a Guru-Disciple relation. That questioning or doubting is like testing the ability of your potential Guru.

Also, there are many teachers who assert that questioning or doubting a Guru in itself is a Sin. They consider themselves as Holier Than Thou and almost sitting at altar of God. If ever you find such a person then try to run-away ASAP. This is a huge red-flag. I agree that questioning or doubting shouldn’t be there if you have already surrendered to a Guru after following the 1st step of asking whatever you wanted to ask but if someone is seeking Direct Surrender without being questioned then that person is not worthy enough of your time.

3. Perfection – At the same time, people shouldn’t look for any perfection. Accept that he is also a human, maybe a little more evolved than you. So, it shouldn’t be your condition that this teacher must respond of all of my questions with 100% accuracy. Even if he can give you 75% to 80% answers correctly and quench your thirst for knowledge up to a limit then it is well and good. You can consider moving ahead with him.

Also, it is necessary that some of the things told by your teacher are not understood by you. It is necessary that some of the things told by your teacher are going over your head. It is because through those things only, he will help you in growing or evolving.

Understand it like this, if everything told by your teacher is perfectly understood by you then it only means that there is not much difference between you and him. You and your teacher both are at same level. This is why; you are able to understand everything so conveniently. It is must that his transmitter must be at a higher frequency than your receiver. That will help you in raising your vibrations or as I said in evolving.

4. Evolving vs Devolving – One benchmark we can always rely-on to get an idea if the Teacher we are following is genuine or not is whether our life is improving or not? If I am with a Teacher or Guru for 6 months, I should reflect back and see if happiness increased in life or not, during these 6 months. This itself will give you an idea if the Teacher is genuine or not. If misery and suffering increased after finding a Teacher, that is reflection of not a good association.

5. Ex-Communicating Others – One big mistake people do after joining a Cult is that they ex-communicate family, friends and relatives from their lives. This gives extreme power to the Cult Leader as he can easily brainwash them now as their will be none to counter his opinions and teaching.

6. Seeking Loyalty & Surrender – If the Cult Leader is seeking 100% loyalty & surrender and, as discussed, a position or status of God from day 1 then it is time for people to retrospect and reflect on him.

As I said, we should have such loyalty or surrender only after we surrender to the person after due process of questioning or doubting, but it cannot be from the day 1 of your association with any such Cult Leader.

7. When it comes to manipulation or abuse, following concepts are commonly utilized –

a. Apocalypse – “Apocalypse is a word that means "the end of the world" — or something so destructive it seems like the world has ended, like the event of a major earthquake. The apocalypse is the total destruction of the world, as prophesied in the Biblical book of Revelation.“

This is mis-utilized by cult leaders a lot to keep people under fear and control.

My understanding – For every individual, there is a separate world. As world’s population is 8 Billion right now, it means that there are at least 8 Billion ways of looking at this world or we can even say that there are 8 Billion Worlds within this one world. For every individual, there is a separate individual world.

Apocalypse is commonly seen as the end of the world, but in truth, it symbolizes the end of an individual’s old world—the destruction of the egoic mind and birth of new vision. It is an inner transformation, like a kundalini awakening or out-of-body experience that changes one’s perception entirely.

I won’t interpret Apocalypse as the end of the whole world but as the end of an individual’s world and shift in outlook of that individual; from very mundane to very mystical or paradoxical. 

b. Doomsday Prophecy – “In many religions, doomsday is the end of the world and the moment of final judgment. Doomsday means utter catastrophe, in both religious and secular contexts.”

This too is mis-utilized by cult leaders a lot to keep people under fear and control

My understanding – Again as I understand, world here means the individual world – one for every individual. Doomsday represents not global destruction but the death of the individual world at the time of one’s death.

Final judgment can be understood as the analysis of karma from this life and all accumulated karma from many lives on which basis individual gets next life to learn his further lessons and live his karma. So, I would understand doomsday philosophy as the time of death and re-birth based on all accumulated karma.

c. Heaven & Hell – Concept of Heaven & Hell is actually mis-utilized by majority of religions to keep people fearful, so that they keep on acting due to fear of hell. So, this one can be the oldest tool of manipulation.

As Osho says, they are not geographical places but states of mind. Whenever you are happy, you are in Heaven; when you are miserable, you are in Hell.

d. Salvation or Liberation – Concept of Liberation or getting rid of vicious cycle of death and re-birth is also mis-utilized by cult leaders in order to gain control over their people.

I always felt that this desire of liberation is like condemning God created life and hence, it is another way of condemning God. If I love Divine then how can I not love life created by same Divine? And if I really love this life then how can I desire that I want to get rid of this vicious circle of life and death.  I can’t say that I love Picasso but I don’t love his paintings.

I feel real liberation is when you get liberated from this desire of attaining liberation too.

Osho narrates a story of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore where Gurudev prayed to God and said that your world is beautiful and your life is beautiful. If at all, I suffered in life then it is because of my mistake. So, if you feel right, send me again and again to live another life.

As I see, this is real liberation. Someone who is liberated from the concept of attaining liberation also.

e. Then there are those cult leaders too who tell outrightly that if you don’t obey me then I will destroy your life. I don’t think that there is any problem in recognizing and staying away from them.

8. So, just to re-cap, following care should be taken –

a. Don’t seek Messiah, Savior or Utopia.

b. Always question and doubt the person in beginning till you can trust the person and then only surrender.

c. Observe if your life is improving or not after getting into contact with this cult leader.

d. Keep your communications on with outer world (family, friends and relatives etc.), so that if you need any help or if you want to come back to social life then there is always a door open for you. Keep your options open.

e. Understand the difference between surrender or devotion from your side and control and manipulation from the side of cult leader. Osho says that respect and devotion flow naturally towards Guru. So, if a Guru has to ask-for or demand surrender, devotion and respect from people then understand that he is not worthy of it. Draw boundaries in the beginning itself.

Now, there is another side of every coin.

Whenever someone feels that he is manipulated or misguided or abused by a Fake Guru then it is necessary for him to reflect back upon himself rather than projecting on the other person; i.e. the fake Guru.

If person reflects back honestly then in majority of cases, he may realize that he was actually looking for exactly that type of person or experience only.

Let’s understand this from a story from Osho’s life.

Once a rich person visited Osho and offered some money to him in bargain of sitting on stage beside him so that his pictures can be taken along with Osho. Osho took money and let the person sit near him for 15 days.

After 15 days, when the person was stopped from sitting on stage, he started complaining that Osho is a fraud and he took money from him.

Well, who asked for it?

Anyways, you didn’t come for any spiritual evolution. You came to get some pictures. You got them. The deal is over. The money you gave will be utilized in Ashram’s functioning.

Moreover, by doing this, Osho also served a lesson to him that next time if you go to any Guru then go for some higher spiritual reasons rather than only for getting a few clicks.

I guess I have conveyed my point here. People normally complain about manipulation from fake Guru but I am sure that majority of these people won’t even be able to understand or recognize a genuine Guru. So, a fake Guru is very much necessary for them at this stage, so that they can be disillusioned through a fake Guru and become little bit wiser or aware to recognize a genuine Guru. So, a fake Guru has his own role in your life in order to divert you towards a genuine Guru.

We can close this article through not exact but a similar experience from my own life.

Most people might be aware that I do weekly Q&A Sessions on Saturday evening IST time in which I try to respond to people’s conceptual questions around astrology, planetary positions in general or in specific chart. In these sessions, almost every time I have to repeat that I am not looking at individual charts, as it takes considerable time to give individual predictions, and questions must remain limited to concepts of astrology.

Then most people are also aware of my views on marriage as a social institution and remedies but still during these sessions many a times “a few people” asked about their marriage timings and various remedies I can recommend them.

I thought that people who are asking these questions are new to channel or site and they might not have read my views on Astrology and Marriage or on Remedies. Hence, I started using the video title – “Live Astrology Q&A Session - No questions on Marriage and Remedies please”. I also gave all the links of my articles on astrology and marriage & remedies to get idea on my views on this topic.

Somehow, I was thinking that questions on marriage and remedies will stop now and I won’t have to waste my time during session on these useless questions and if people are interested in knowing the reasons behind my reluctance in taking such questions then they can easily check any of those articles given in description to understand my point of view.

But I guess it was too much to expect because questions on marriage and remedies continued during session. I mean, how can anyone miss the title of video and all the article links in description, if they have any bit of awareness.

This made me reflect back on the situation and I realized following things –

So, here is a person who is honestly telling people that he cannot help with questions on marriage and remedies. He is also giving the reasons why he is saying so? And even then, the questions on marriage and remedies continue?

Well, people who ask these questions still need to ask themselves now, are they really looking for an honest astrologer? Because they are not appreciating someone’s honesty. Have they ever reflected back on this fact that this astrologer is sitting in India, which remains the biggest marriage market, and he is saying astrology and marriage have no connection with each other!!! So, how much of a business he is losing out of his own hands. We should at least pay some attention to why he is saying this and destroying his own business?

And then what is the big deal if they get into hands of an astrologer or occultist who is dishonest? He sells them some dreams in name of marriage and he sells them some remedies which only benefit himself; and then they cry loud that they are cheated and exploited by this or that person. Well, they were asking for that only, weren’t they?

Again, Demand and Supply rule is working. You ask for something and it will be supplied for you through Universe. You ask for remedies and you will find someone selling you remedies. You ask for marriage dream and you will find someone selling you that dream too. May be the reality looks so harsh that we prefer to stay in one or the other dreams.

This is one reason why I am never bothered when I am told that this or that person is fraud or con man or charlatan!!! Well, there is a demand for him, that’s why; Universe had to create him.

Always remember this that if people feel they met with some fraud or charlatan then just be aware that it was their own mistake. They were looking for a fraud only; hence they got one. You chose him. Because language of honest person, no matter how clear it was, was not understandable for you. Blame self, rather than anyone else.

This is also why I feel that an act of fraud, cheating, betrayal, exploitation or manipulation is not altogether and always wrong. May be, the person needed it. If he wakes up even after that exploitation then exploitation served a great purpose for him. May be, that charlatan or con-man did a great service to person by waking him up.

When we consciously or unconsciously give message to existence that we don’t care for someone’s honesty then indirectly we are also asking existence to send us a dishonest person. This honest person will go away and get replaced by a dishonest person because maybe we only understand the language of dishonesty.

“It is true, I exploit people. I exploit them because that is the only way to wake them up. Exploitation is not necessarily evil. I exploit their stupidity, their idiotness”. – Osho

Gratitude!!!