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  No Religion, No Business

The word "mission" conjures up all sorts of notions of winning over adherences to a belief, an organization to propagate the belief, and property to support the organization, all of which Shivabalayogi discouraged.  He once told American devotees that he did not like groups, not even Shivabalayogi groups.

In our enthusiasm for Shivabalayogi and his blessings, we sometimes forget that one of the strongest themes that he often talked about, and arguably one of the fundamental aspects of his "mission", was to put down spiritual leaders who use devotees for their own egos.

He repeatedly said that he was not starting up a religion.  Devotees had started religions out of his prior lives, but this time he was going to work differently.

“The people who do business cannot reach God.  . . . The real guru is one who trains people.  One must practice.  Money is not required."

“Swamiji has come here to beat up the spiritual leaders. If Swamiji openly criticizes spiritual leaders like this they will naturally become his enemies.  Swamiji will have to defeat all of them and then he will go ahead.  Only then can we put them down. If you want to bring people onto the right path then you will have to accept whatever amount of difficulty that comes in the way.  You should not worry about that.”