Om Namo Bhagavate

Why do a majority of seekers not attain yoga siddhi?

[This question was asked by Swamiji himself.]

“Truth Hurts but It Heals”

My Experience as a Master

When I was not a seeker I was always asking this question to me, to others and even to God. The question was, why do a majority of seekers not attain yoga siddhi?    When I encountered a sadhu wearing an ochre robe or a loincloth, or a mendicant, the first question I was asking if the situation permitted was, “For how many years are you doing yoga?” I used to ask the same question to all. I was surprised, shocked and many a time also feeling a deep sadness in me when I heard these seekers and sadhus telling me something like, “I am doing yoga for the last 20 years, 25 years, 30 years,” etc.

When I then asked, “What have you gained in these 20, 25, 30 years?” almost everyone was looking at me with surprise that I was asking such a question. Only on a few occasions, maybe three or four times during my 20 years of constant inner search, someone asked a counter-question: “Why are you asking this?”

People derive a vicarious satisfaction simply by leading a mendicant life. 90 percent of these seekers really do not know what yoga is. Out of the rest, hardly two to three percent really do yoga. Why? Because the initial euphoria about yoga usually evaporates after the first three years of awakening. What remains is just the tag of social recognition and a yogic identity card. A majority of these seekers do not have a Guru or Guide. Hardly they follow any scripture or path and rarely any rigid self-discipline. Yoga for these spiritual romantics has become a time-pass hobby.

I also saw the real picture of the spiritual masters. A majority of these masters have no grounding on any scripture nor do they have any mastery over senses. Neither their personal lives are clean nor their social lives are admirable. Many masters in many ashrams are more money-minded than a miser and more indulgent than a drug addict. Women, wealth and weapon are the three symbols of their power and authority.

It is really a great mystery for me how after seeing all this hypocrisy and falsehood I still was able to retain my love for sadhus and my aspiration for yoga.

Now as I look back, 35 years down the memory lane, as a master, I see three truths in the relative plane.

Truth No.1:

It is a fact that true seekers are very rare in this Kali Yuga. The majority of seekers are actually sattwa-driven human beings, those who come to the yoga path. In my experience of 22 years as a master, I have so far not even seen 22 seekers whom I can truly consider as striving yogis. Hundreds have come to me for receiving guidance for yoga, but I have not found even 20 true seekers in these 22 years as a master whose only mission in life is to guide an awakened soul to the stage of Realization or Liberation.

I have an Ashram in one of the most famous spiritual places in India and the ashram gates are always open for seekers, but I find mostly spiritual romantics, spiritual tourists and sattwa-driven human beings coming to the Ashram. Most painful is my experience as a master with those seekers who stay with me to do yoga.

A majority of ashramites always find an excuse how not to attend an Ashram program. It is most shocking to me to see how ashramites just go out for their material and social chores even when chanting, invocation or Guru Puja is going on in the campus. Many even do not feel the need to chant a chapter of Gita or a sukta from the Veda, which are considered the basic scriptures in our Ashram. I cannot remember a single ashramite who is able to attend all the Ashram programs, although no one misses a single meal in the Ashram dining hall.

Recently I returned from a tour of USA. My experience and observations were no different there. Nowadays we hear lot about pseudo masters, but has anyone ever asked himself whether he/she is a pseudo seeker?

I am sharing my experiences with the world not to blame or glorify anyone but to make a simple, obvious point more obvious. That is, why do a majority of seekers not attain yoga siddhi?

My answer is,

they do not really want it.

To be continued…

[Swamiji answers sadhana-related questions from seekers and admirers. To submit a question, use the Contact page. Each seeker receives a code number so that the inquirer will remain anonymous.]