| Review of The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power
by Mr. Ford Greene Esq , One of the most important books for the 21st century,
God. The God of Science, The God of Papal Infallibility, The God of National Security, The God of Family Values, The God of Buddhist Selflessness, The God of Unconditional Love. What are they good for? Absolutely nothing.
The Guru Papers elegantly identifies the masks that power uses to hide its abuse of others.
Authoritarianism is the exercise of authority which, presuming an unquestioning obedience, can tolerate neither question nor challenge, meeting either with disregard or punishment. Assiduously distinguishing the everyday exercise of authority - living life and making choices amongst the propositions it presents - from the bullying domination intrinsic to the type of power unwilling to recognize an equal, the authors carefully dissect the threads which, woven together, comprise the cloth of abuse. Whence abusiveness flows, certain features are invariably present.
When a "leader" sets up an ideological standard of perfection or purity that no human being can attain, and our consequent failure of such attainment becomes the raison d'etre for a double standard of treatment whereby the leader gives orders and we obey them, we have lost our freedom, particularly if we believe it is for our own good.
Whenever one pole of a duality is identified as essential to good living and the other pole leads to evil, behind that mask an authoritarian moralist weaves his tale positing that which he believes is most important, that which he says is God. Gurus and religions, politicians and governments, educators and schools, parents and families, and lovers and spouses frequently equate evil with selfishness and goodness with selflessness and sacrifice. They say if I am sufficiently sincere and pure of heart, I will sacrifice what I want for what they tell me is best. Thus, I will be a better man.
There is little difference between the cult leader who demands allegiance to the unproven presumption of his godliness, and the lover who, crying "let me be myself," claims his imperfections should be accepted without limit in the name of unconditional love. When a moral demand for sacrifice is made in the name of something sacred, be it the Immaculate Conception or an Idealized Lover, one best be brave and ask one's questions. If such courage is met with punishment or disregard, one better run. If one does not, one's conduct will communicate that there is something wrong, and it's not with the other guy.
The essence of authoritarianism attacks the inner certainty of individuals by claiming that it knows a superior, more moral path. It not only condemns an individual's assertion of self as selfish and wrong, but also is unwilling to engage in dialogue which does not adopt an unquestioning regard for that which it deems sacred. If an individual adopts this moral dichotomy, he can only mistrust himself as inferior. This, Alstad/Kramer say, is the purpose of authoritarian control: to generate internal self-mistrust which makes the individual available to imposition of control by an external authority.
They correctly expose the deception that such externally imposed control is benevolent. According to Kramer/Alstad, authoritarian persons are never benevolent because such persons use others for their own selfish purposes while lying about it, saying they are not, if they are saying anything at all. "Do as I say, not as I do; and if you dare question what I do, you are questioning what all good people know is beyond reproach. You, too, would have respect if only you were a good person. Since you are not, you must do as I say. It is for your own good." Such is the circle of authoritarian ideology.
The language of authoritarianism is the language that Orwell named double-speak. There's no Orwellian double-speak in this book, just hard-hitting practical logic that rips the guts out of sacred cows that have fed too long in pastures provided by a naive and idealistic population. Such a populace, wanting to be good, denies that someone who directs their focus on great and beautiful-sounding ideals could be ripping them off, as was one of Hitler's more notable tricks.
Thus, the book shows how both the willingness to psychologically dominate, and to surrender to such, are embedded in one another. The dominating and the dominated persons both believe in an unattainable and essential purity which requires extreme sacrifices, both in its name, as well as for its attainment. One person makes the sacrifice, after the other has convinced him he must, erstwhile he would be morally condemned as selfish and self-centered for having disobeyed the other who claims to know best.
The Guru Papers recognizes that both self-centeredness and selflessness exist - you cannot purge the self of selfishness - and must work together in oneself in balance. It forcefully argues why intelligent negotiation is life-affirming whereas dumb submission invites death. It meticulously dissects the myriad protean tricks authoritarianism employs to maneuver its subjects into place and keep them there. Access to information and accountability for one's conduct are essential for the brave new world that might emerge if the reptant strain of authoritarianism in humankind does not destroy this world first in the name of knowing better.
The book says listen to yourself and if you are degraded or expelled for asking questions, recognize that the inadequacy lies with the authoritarian character, not with you. The Guru Papers makes the authoritarian predicates accountable and exposes them when they are not. It's about time!
Now let's study some of the paragraphs form the above book which will
explains all the tactics used by asaram. click
here to will open a new window.
Let's see how does asaram bapu cult performs his rituals to brainwash devotees
faith.
This article is based on the personal research and personal meeting with his followers. I thank to god that i was able to get out of his ashram before i gave up my life savings to
asaram.
Asaram Bapu cult exploits its members' vulnerability in order to gain complete control over them, often using unethical psychological techniques to bring about thought reform. It can be said that a Asaram Bapu cult attempts to alleviate its members' vulnerability through spiritual guidance in an effort to help them exercise control over their own lives.
You probably know it as the doomsday cult whose Kool-Aid mass suicide/murders took more than 900 lives in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. How can something that began with so much hope go so very wrong? There's a lot of speculation about what happened to the members of The People's Temple, but for the most part, what went wrong is what goes wrong with destructive cults like of asaram bapu
It's really a two-part problem. First, Asaram Bapu cult is founded by a single person who retains a position of exclusive power within the organization, and power tends to corrupt even the most ethical among us. In the case of The Asaram Bapu, there is evidence that its leader, Asaram Bapu, is abusing religious beliefs and is
involved in forgery, scams, land grabbing, land encroachment, seduction, mass
fanatics protestors. Because Asaram Bapu groups operate outside the mainstream, there is usually no one checking up on their operating procedures, so a corrupt or mentally unstable leader like Asaram Bapu is free to exploit his followers to his heart's content. In addition to this authoritarian leadership structure, some primary tactics or characteristics of a destructive cult
(as mentioned by Steve
Hasan) like of asaram bapu uses are ::
Charismatic leadership --- It is asaram himself who poses himself as god to his followers. and followers become fanatic in believing asaram as god and they forget in real god or the supreme power.
Deception in recruiting ---- Asaram manipulates his new followers by showing he is a religious man rather than coming in open and telling this is my past and how many people and families
I have ruined for my own benefit.
Use of thought-reform methods ---- Asaram followers who are manipulated to live in ashram as sadak are never left open to know
what's happening in the world , they are made to listen to his tapes 24 hours /day and think about asaram only.
Isolation (physical and/or psychological) --- asaram bapu has grabbed lands and built number of ashrams all over India with small rooms and instructs his followers to lock themselves in room for hours and think about asaram only, they call it dhayan. Infact in psychology a person is made to think about asaram only and only asaram. Plus most of his followers are dislocated like Delhi follower will be sent to work in his Ahmedabad factory and Ahmedabad follower will be sent to Delhi vice versa. he has number of thikanas to hide his followers if followers family want to take their son/daughter back to their homes.
Demand for absolute, unquestioning devotion and loyalty ==== asaram will ask for total dedication
from his followers who are living in his ashram, or are new recruits, they are not allowed to pray to any god except asaram, they are not allowed to
believe in or listen to any other religious leader.
Sharp, unsurpassable distinction between "us" (good, saved) and "them" (bad, going to Hell) ====== Asaram bapu has made categories like hierarchy in
follower ship -- like a new follower is seen as a skeptic, and then when a person leaves his home and starts living in his ashram then he is given some work, and made to think if he works hard and recruit more people form his family then he is promoted with in his cult . Followers are taught any one who speaks against asaram bapu is an evil, and his followers will go to the person who speaks the truth about asaram and will harass him, like they did to Nana Patekar, to new magazine in Delhi, or to respectable saint in north Delhi.
Inside language" that only members fully understand ==== Ask any of the family members who are hurt by asaram what happened to their child, in fact followers attitude towards parents and family changes , and he sees them as an outsider, and his sect in ashram has their own code words like satta bazaar has their own words same way asaram followers who are living in Ahmedabad ashram has their own words which we can't understand. in these words they tell each other we can trust the third person or be aware of the person because he is against asaram, or if we can make fool and con the person of his money or can make him a slave for their ashram.
Strict control over members' daily routines ==== Asaram bapu control the daily routine of his followers who are living in his ashram by not giving them any real knowledge or skill rather than to emotionally blackmail them and make them speak they were unhappy in this world now they are happy by ruining their life and family and are happy while working as slaves in un humane conditions, It's amazing to see some people are working 20-22 hours per days and have been working in the ashram form last 10 years . asaram in his private meeting with his staff will manipulate all court cases against him and say these outsiders people are fool they are suing me, they cant do anything to me. I met a person in
Ahmedabad ashram who has not seen his family members for last 12 years, and asaram manipulated him so well that the guy's family is half dead
now. He was studying in Delhi University college and wanted to
become a share broker but today he has been made to think he is sin and asaram is his
savior who saved him, whereas that guy was only a young kid with aspirations for his future and he got exploited by Asaram of his whole life.
Asaram bapu and his son
narain sai swami and
their inside guru bhai's (who are brainwashed) will play mind games and will do every effort to keep the
brainwashed person there so they can use him for the rest of his life too.
Asaram bapu and his cult followers are driven by political and financial goals as well. In the end, it's all about subjugating members' individuality to achieve the desires of Asaram bapu(s), whether that means reinforcing a self-proclaimed messianic status, participating in destructive activities in the name of spiritual revolution or simply filling the Asaram bapu's pockets with their hard-earned money. Asaram bapu sect employ similar recruiting and indoctrinating techniques as destructive religious cults, targeting people with certain vulnerabilities and then playing on those vulnerabilities to keep them "in the fold." The end result is a "convert" who will blow himself up in the name of destroying capitalism, try to get all of his loved ones to buy into the same business deal that he is losing his life savings on, or keep signing up for an unending series of lectures, seminars and retreats that promise psychological and spiritual healing but really only drain his bank account. We
have personal experience with asaram, luckily we didn't got involved
deeply in this cult, and we have plenty of more insight on asaram, but we
decided not to write here yet. Note :: Hindu religion
is the oldest religion in the world and serving to GOD should be your goal
rather than to work in a cult organization under CULT leader
Asaram Bapu.
As for our site, we only wrote on this site for which we
have documented proofs either from our own experience with followers of
asaram cult , victims families or media clippings itself. This site
is for information purpose only, we are not selling anything here. But
yes, if you have this knowledge you might save your family and their life
as our friends family has lost years of their life serving in asaram
cult.
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