namasteph yoga blog

I guess it’s not surprising these days, but I am still continually amazed that spiritual leaders actually do stupid things like getting sexually involved with students. In the yoga community, some very well-respected gurus have fallen to the lure of sex, among them, Amrit Desai, who was kicked out of Kripalu for his misconduct. Siddha Yoga’s Swami Mutkananda was also a bit of a cad apparently, and there were also allegations against Kundalini Yoga’s Yogi Bhajan.

There’s a ton of bizarre information about Kundalini Yoga and 3HO in the Rick Ross anti-cult database. I happen to enjoy some of the current teachers who have studied under Bhajan, and Bhajan is now dead so I’m not even sure what to believe. But I have mixed feelings - I have felt so much positive energy at every Kundalini Yoga center I have been to in Los Angeles, including Yoga West (founded by Bhajan) and Golden Bridge (founded by his disciples). Regardless of Bhajan’s true nature, he did something right because his followers have developed a thriving community without him.

So where should the line be between forgiving the guru and skewering him on a stick? Should we give them the benefit of the doubt, especially after they have died? Yet Amrit Desai is still alive and has a following and his own school now; he’s even had the help of Deepak Chopra. Shouldn’t we be a bit more cautious with him?

Andrew Cohen did a softball interview with Desai soon after Desai’s disgrace and they danced around the issue of his sexual misconduct without fully confronting it. If it had been me, I would have just asked:

What the hell were you thinking when you had sex with your female students?

But it seems people are too afraid to just ask directly. They’d rather sweep it under the rug.

Now, should these men be forgiven?

I think about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. I was a huge fan of Bill. I was disappointed at his affair. Yet, his behavior seemed sadly “normal” for an adult male…it was only scandalous due to his presidency. So while it made me respect Bill less in regards to his personal life, I really didn’t find it to be an issue with his performance as president.

So here’s the real issue for me. These guys are supposed to be great gurus. Yet, obviously, doing yoga regularly and teaching it doesn’t stop you from being an idiot. So what does that tell us about yoga? Is it all a lie? Is it a waste of time?

I believe that yoga has value. But I don’t think it is the end-all and the be-all. Yoga is great for the body. It can also calm and soothe the mind. But, if you go into yoga a broken, messed up person, yoga is not necessarily going to fix you. If you go into yoga an asshole with no character, yoga will not make you a good person.

I think you get back from yoga what you put into it. You can take a guy who is a complete amoral asshole, run him through a yoga program, and by the end he will be refreshed and physically fit. But he will still be an asshole.

Now, my theory is that it takes two types to be a guru in America: One, someone who doesn’t really want to be a guru but does because spirit calls them. Two, the person who becomes a guru because they are an egotistical ass.

A high percentage of American gurus are probably egotistical asses. BUT - here’s the thing - it takes an egotistical ass to put together a big organization that is going to thrive and be competitive sometimes. That’s why so many CEOs of major corporations are assholes.

Assholes get things done.

So we have these egotistical asses, who are passing along teachings that are thousands of years old. Maybe these asshole gurus aren’t really getting the point themselves, but because the teachings are sound, they are inadvertently establishing a wonderful tradition. And once they’re gone, the people who are truly sincere can carry on.

It’s just a thought.