Here’s a Facebook thread on this issue posted around 12/21/12.  Here is the question I posed to my online community of students:

Question: Is the age of the traditional guru nearing an end? Is 12/21/12 the beginning of a new era in which we will finally free ourselves of what we thought was our liberation, but was really only our enslavement? Please take a few moments to read the following, written by a western woman who was Ammachi’s personal attendant for 20 years and who is only now beginning to speak out about her experience: http://blogdesinfideles.blogspot.com/2012/02/lombre-damma-fait-surface-gayatri-et.html (It’s in French and English). I post this because Ammachi was one of the biggest reasons for my getting on the yoga path in the first place. I have no set opinions myself about all of this, I am just bringing it up for us all to be aware of…

NOTE: PLEASE READ THE RESPONSE BY “RAM DAS” TO WHAT GAIL WROTE.

After deeply considering all of this, here is what I subsequently wrote on Facebook:

• I have brought this to light after years of looking into this issue, and having read many of the firsthand accounts of those who claim to have been abused by their gurus, or the organizations inspired by them. There are not many gurus who have not had some claims brought against them, and while some of them are minor, many of them are quite serious.

         That said, my own feeling right now, based upon my own experience — and I realize this might not be the popular point of view — is this: It could be that those who are saying now to “be your own Guru” and the “True Guru is within you” are enabling the masses to remain somewhat asleep to their highest potential? It could be that those who buy into this line of thinking are actually wanting to not fully face their own deepest fears/nightmares.

       The Guru is the one who brings light to the darkness — to the darkness generally that we can’t see, because we are hiding from its presence within ourselves. We are just not ready for it yet! My teacher, Karunamayi, spoke to us all as “spiritual babies” doing our baby meditation and other practices, and her point was also that most if not all of us were just not ready to sit still and face ourselves, to see the ego for what it is. I can see that I left my own teachers due to ego, and that I was not ready to go deeper once the initial honeymoon period of blissful spiritual experiences and divine seduction was over and I began to see the darker underside of things. It was too much for me. I bolted.

        Perhaps the greatest fear on the spiritual path is that we are asked to put 108% faith in this person, and we see that they are human, too, like us, and we feel: “Where is this all going? Where are you taking me? Is my mind being controlled, and will I be your eternal slave?” That’s “the horror, the horror” as I see it, and in the case of Ammachi’s attendant, Gail, on top of all of that she saw some of the seemingly ugliest abuses and violations that would make even the most devoted person seriously question their teacher. I can see how this might just have all been a great test for her — the greatest of all tests.

        I say this while still open to the possibility that there truly is a necessary shift happening here to bring us into a more enlightened age where we can all learn to be our own gurus (shamans, healers, etc). Yet I question my own motives for wanting that shift to happen, because I see it might be just because we’re wanting the easy way out. A life of comfort that leads nowhere, rather than a life of discipline that brings true wisdom, joy, peace. The Upanishads speak of the “Razor’s Edge Path” — since way back then, it was understood that the spiritual path to liberation is fraught with Awe-Full life-or-death challenges…

      I realize that you won’t fully understand what I’m saying here unless you have had my experiences, which have included being in the presence of Ammachi on several occasions, and I have also lived with various gurus in India and the States. There’s’ more I’d like to share about all of this, but perhaps some other time, thank you for listening!

   

•  One last thought: Perhaps we have other tools at our disposal now that make it such that we no longer need to devote our entire lives to another person…? What are your thoughts?

  ADDENDUMS:

  The absolutely last bit of starlight/energy from the Draconian star system reaches Earth today. The Draconian system has been a bunch of black holes for a long time, but it has taken ’til now for the last of it’s light to reach here.

  The beings aligned with this now defunct system have the energy/consciousness of power-over, creating of the slave mentality & were only interested in being at the top of the pyramid with all others supporting them underneath. They used the light from their home system to help them remain ascendant here on Earth.

  They ruled by fear & terror (The Mayan culture was a good example, also ancient Egypt, & everything in between, down to today). Their energy is no longer being hosted by Earth & will, from now on, become less & less prevalent (already been happening for awhile!). Their time is over.

  Different stralight/energies will now become ascendant on Earth which are much more aligned with how the Earth now wants to be. Life, love, community, creativity, healing all the wounds of the past centuries, healing the earth, the animals, finding new ways to be here without hurting everything, healing ourselves of the Draconian induced traumas/wounds/pyramid consciousness…..this is how it will be more & more.
  2013 & beyond…bring it on!!

  Meant to add that the Mayan priests calculated exactly when the last of the Draconian starlight would reach earth (today – 21st Dec 2012!!!) & their calendar ending on this date was a warning & sign to their own kind that their world (themselves-the elite-ruling over the masses) as they knew it, would be fast ending after this date. For them, it IS the world coming to an end. For everyone else, it is a new & longed for beginning! (posted by Bill Sammons)

  ALSO:

  The idea being put forth now by some is that this moment in history marks a spiritual power shift from India & Tibet to Chile & Peru… http://www.dailyom.com/library/000/002/000002625.html
  “There are tens of thousands of people, mostly indigenous people, who have been led by a deep inner guidance, from 1949 to the present, to help to bring this unyielding White Snake to its new location high up in the Andes Mountains in Chile, where it now finally resides. Not only is this a shift of spiritual power from the male to the female, but it is also a spiritual power shift from Tibet and India to Chile and Peru. The Light of the World that has been nurtured and expanded with the Tibetan and Indian cultures is now completed. Its new reign has just begun in Chile and Peru, and soon it will affect the hearts of all mankind. These are my personal stories as I have followed my inner guidance helping bring balance to a troubled world.”