“So the category of people today are of a different level, we must be aware of that. We must understand that the category is very different which perhaps media people don’t understand so much. I don’t think they have any idea as to what is the level of awareness of human beings today in the West. They are still of that old school which was busy fighting elections or strikes and this and that – all nonsensical things. But the people who are aware are many, many more than yet what we know of, that they are seeking something very different that their fathers and forefathers did not seek, because the times are such. Today, it’s a special time – special time where many people have to get their Spirit. But then again we are misled because people who are trying to exploit this have found a good market, and they come down to find out how they can market their goods in this new awareness of people.
And that’s how they come and befool us. We have cults and we have sects…
We get enamored because we are still not fully conscious or knowledgeable about what to expect in your spiritual pursuit. And that’s how they come and befool us. We have cults and we have sects, but one must understand that as you have grown through amoeba in your evolutionary process, gradually, from that to this level, the awareness has to also grow the same way, in a traditional way. It cannot be somebody like Freud coming up and saying something new, that we accept. Suddenly, how can we deviate from all those who talked of something very different from what Freud has been talking? Because it’s a mind which is of course very aware, but also it is what we call very right-sided mind, as is described in the Gita they are called as the people who are rajasikas, the people who are in action. They live with the power of action.
So the people who live with the power of their action live with their egos, and ego likes something new, some sort of a new stuff comes in they think, “Oh, why not do that? Try this, try that.” It’s like a horse which wants to go into every new direction and fails. It’s a very venturesome horse, I think, and that’s how something new somebody says, everybody jumps to it. We are not new ourselves, we are ancient. And when we take to some new idea suddenly we find after some time that we have to recoil back, because these are all mental projections and that’s how in every religion there have been sects formed. Because, say Catholicism – Martin Luther who was himself a realized soul saw that Pope was doing all kinds of wrong things, so he started a new sect. But it’s a mental projection still, I would say, though he was a realized soul. Then out of that came out I don’t know how many churches. So now we have one Unification Church which turned out to be another horrible stuff, then we have Unity Church where they unite all these sects – is all projections, all branches of that mental movement. But the essence is lost. In the first case it was lost, and it was completely forgotten in the last case.
So that’s how the sects were born. Now we find Pentecostals. The other day I was reading the harm it has done to people. We have all kinds of faiths – Seventh Day Adventists. What does it matter what was the seventh day, the Sabbath? Supposing you have your Sabbath day, say, on the seventh day, will you become righteous? Will you become virtuous? Will you become your Spirit? By changing a particular type of ideology or thought, will you be transformed, will you become great, will you become a super human being? No. Then what? You think that by going from one sect to another sect you’ll achieve something great, you will just form different social orders, that’s all.
Then you have anti-culture, another sect formed as a reaction. That also is another problem. All these venturesome ideas of this horse takes you from places to places, and you think, “Why whenever we try to do something why we are committing the mistake?” Because we have forgotten the fundamental, and the fundamental is very simple, that you have to seek your Spirit, and when you seek your Spirit it is a spontaneous happening, it’s a living process in your evolutionary process by which you become the Spirit. By mental projection you cannot.
…they started all kinds of cults
Then the people who took advantage of the situation that there are so many seekers on this Earth, they started all kinds of cults, also. I’ve been talking against them since 1970 that “Don’t go to these cults. These are another ego-pampering stuffs.” Suddenly they start a new idea – it appeals to you. Suddenly someone says that “No, by leading this kind of a life you’ll achieve God.” You accept it. Why not find out? Since ages people have been writing about the spiritual life. What does that mean? How to achieve it? Why do you take to anyone who just says that “This is so, this is so”? Because perhaps they have a nice circus or a publicity. There must be something that is so attractive that people take to it. Or maybe it is some sort of a ego-pampering that you want to join these cults and get destroyed.
What cults did you follow to become human beings?
There cannot be a cult for your assent. What cults did you follow to become human beings? The nature itself works it out. It is a spontaneous happening. But for a person who lives only with mental projections, morning till evening you see television or listen to radio, it’s nothing but mental projection all the time, you see, hovering on your head. You cannot think that there is something beyond that mental projection which is the reality.”