Introduction

Whatever the term 'guru' may have originally meant in Hinduism and Vedanta philosophy, it's meaning has expanded in modern culture. On this site 'guru' means a religious or spiritual teacher, who claims, or is believed by his followers, to have greater knowledge and experience of life and the supernatural. He/She is sometimes regarded as an incarnation of God and is looked upon as a mediator of divine truth. The difference between gurus and prophets is that gurus also teach a way of "liberation" or "enlightenment" to their followers, usually this takes the form of meditation techniques and teachings to be followed that will change the followers' unsatisfactory experience of life to something approximating to the guru's. The number of self-professed gurus in the "West" has increased dramatically in the last fifty years and we are now at a stage where the lives of these gurus and the results of their actions on their followers and popular culture can be examined with a reasonable amount of historical data available. It must be stressed that the "teaching" of a guru is not purely theoretical but is believed to transfer direct power without which no-one can progress spiritually and may require personal contact.

Background

Judgement of a Guru

Historically the relationship between guru and disciple was one of complete humility and obedience on the part of the follower. This relationship is still the basic criterion required of those following a guru in modern society though it's outward forms have changed to a greater or lesser extent. Even a very naive person would recognise the possibility of abuse of this relationship where all power is concentrated in one person. For a more extensive discourse on this topic see the 'The Assault on Reason'.

Ordinarily an 'ad hominem' attack upon the character and actions of a person is not considered a valid rebuttal of their arguments or statements, however in this field I believe it is a very useful approach when allied with an examination of their effects upon their followers and a comparison of those effects with the claims made by the guru as to the life changes he can effect. I believe that the following quotes point in the right direction.

'By their fruits ye shall know them.' - The Gospel According to St. Matthew 7:20

'It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time.' - Abraham Lincoln

Real life gurus in the "West" require organisations, finances and modern technology if they are to spread their message. If their message appeals to enough people they may gather thousands of followers and become successful enough to be acknowledged by mainstream society as a "cult". This word has become a pejorative due to the actions of some cult leaders eg Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. It may not be a coincidence that the most notorious of these involving large scale murder were pseudo Christian cults led by people born in the USA. While these organisations have individual histories they also bear many similarities. For a more extensive background on this topic see the 'Stages of Cults'.

I believe that the great majority of people who involve themselves with gurus do so for a wide variety of reasons and have positive experiences and at a certain stage when they no longer consider the relationship is beneficial they leave. This leaving process can be distressing especially for those who have invested a large amount of time, energy and committment. A small percentage retain their involvement as the major focus of their lives for decades.

There are many gurus and cult leaders who have attracted more than a handful of followers in the West over the past 50 years. Someone may well complain that I have only included famous ones and that there may be many unsung gurus doing powerful and wonderful work amongst their small number of followers. But in that case the chances of anybody looking at this page finding them is very small. Nearly all the people in the West who have come to gurus in search of transcendance have, until recently with the rise of the "New Age", come to the above men and women. They appear to have widely varying standards of behaviour and effects on their followers.

However there are obvious differences in their ethical standards and I do not wish to tar them all with the same pejorative brush.