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Hostility of Spiritual Leaders

“The spiritual leaders [in Karnataka state] believed that because Swamiji had come to their state [from Andhra Pradesh], so he should follow their rules and start charging people for programs.  They asked him to have some tickets for the programs.”

“They told Swamiji the prices he should charge:  ten rupees for a piece of vibhuti;  one hundred sixteen for meditation;  one thousand one hundred sixteen rupees for pada puja;  and for private darshan like this, fifty rupees each.  Swamiji refused.  Swamiji said get out.”

“Since then they started troubling him.  Now Swamiji is requiring all devotees to go and hit them.”

“Spiritual leaders sent ruffians to beat him up and drive Swamiji out from Bangalore, but he didn’t care about that.  Swamiji was conducting his meditation and bhajan programs.  There were about ten thousand people in these programs.  This spiritual leader did not like Swamiji getting so popular, so what he did was hire some two hundred people. He gave them about twenty thousand rupees and he asked them to go and disturb the program.  They came over and tried to disrupt Swamiji's program.  The police also came and asked Swamiji’s devotees to stop the program.”

“What Swamiji did was to put the police into trance.  Then he got all those two hundred people beaten up. One had the trance of Narasimha Swami.  Another got the trance of Ravana.  Another fellow got the trance of Vittala.  One was in the trance of Tarakasura.  Another in the trance of Kumarswami.  These five people beat up all those two hundred guys.  All two hundred fell down and they were all taken to the hospital.”

“That night, the police had conducted an inquiry and discovered that these people were paid by the spiritual leader to come and disturb the program.  So the next morning, the commissioner of the area, the superintendent of police and other police authorities came to see Swamiji at the ashram.  They apologized to Swamiji for having sent their police.  Swamiji told them, ‘No, it’s all right.  The police were of a lot of help to us.’ ”

“The spiritual leader who tried to beat Swamiji up had a disciple who later became that guru’s successor.  This disciple became a devotee of Swamiji.  The disciple asked Swamiji to come to his guru’s ashram.  Swamiji told him, ‘Well, your guru was angry with Swamiji, so the people there wouldn’t allow him to come there.’ ”

“Even Swamiji’s devotees stopped him saying, ‘You should not go there.  You’ll get beaten up.’ ”

“But the guru’s disciple assured them that nothing would happen to Swamiji.  ‘I’ll make arrangements for that. Please come.’ ”

“When Swamiji went to that ashram, the guru invited Swamiji inside and told Swamiji that he was doing a lot of service to the people of that state [Karnataka].  Swamiji replied, ‘See, when Swamiji came here in 1963, one spiritual leader tried to get me killed.  He paid people money and he tried to get Swamiji killed.  Had they killed Swamiji, Ihe wouldn’t be able to do all this service to all these people.’ ”

“The spiritual leader got tears in his eyes and fell at Swamiji’s feet.  Then he told Swamiji that, ‘It was I who tried.’  He asked Swamiji to forgive him.  Swamiji should not forgive such people.  If he forgives people like that, then if anybody else comes, they start troubling them also.”

“Now that guy is having a lot of trouble.  Now that his successor has control, he is giving a lot of trouble to his guru.  The successor does not agree with all that the guru had been doing, so he changed everything.  The successor does everything right.”

“When Swamiji was in Bangalore, automatically the selling of tickets came down.  People go to the spiritual leaders and if they are asked to pay any money, they say, ‘Shivabalayogi does not charge for any of his service.  Why do you charge?’  They are a little jealous of Swamiji now, but they won’t be able to do anything.  Swamiji makes fun of them.”

“A person of the Maha Bodhi Society goes in a van from house to house asking for money.  People tell him, ‘Shivabalayogi sits in his room and he gets all the money he wants.  So why do you have to go from house to house begging for money?’  That guy is very angry about it.”

“That’s the way all the spiritual leaders are getting hit now.  They all wish that he goes out from Bangalore again.”

 

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Divine Play:   Shivabalayogi’s life and blessings, 290 pages and over a hundred photos.  Generally available in bookstores and online.

Swamiji’s Treasure:  The most comprehensive collection of biography, experiences, conversations & photographs of Shivabalayogi.

Tapas Shakti:  Published at Swamiji’s request in India, January of 1992.  Contains his biography, conversations & experiences.