In 1978 a United States Federal Court came to the decision that “TM” is indeed religious in nature and may not be taught in public schools.4 This decision will undoubtedly further limit the influence of “TM,” which, however, will probably continue to exist as one of the many forms of meditation which many see as compatible with Christianity — another sad sign of the times.
V
The “New Religious Consciousness”
THE SPIRIT OF THE EASTERN CULTS IN THE 1970s
THE THREE KINDS of “Christian meditation” described above are only the beginning; in general, it may be said that the influence of Eastern religious ideas and practices upon the once-Christian West has reached astonishing proportions in the decade of the 1970s. In particular America, which barely two decades ago was still religiously “provincial” (save in a few large cities), its spiritual horizon largely limited to Protestantism and Roman Catholicism — has seen a dazzling proliferation of Eastern (and pseudo-Eastern) religious cults and movements.
The history of this proliferation can be traced from the restless disillusionment of the post-World War II generation, which first manifested itself in the 1950s in the empty protest and moral libertinism of the “beat generation,” whose interest in Eastern religions was at first rather academic and mainly a sign of dissatisfaction with “Christianity.” There followed a second generation, that of the “hippies” of the 1960s with its “rock” music and psychedelic drugs and search for “increased awareness” at any cost; now young Americans plunged wholeheartedly into political protest movements (notably against the war in Vietnam) on the one hand, and the fervent practice of Eastern religions on the other. Indian gurus, Tibetan lamas, Japanese Zen masters, and other Eastern “sages” came to the West and found a host of ready disciples who made them successful beyond the dreams of the westernized swamis of preceding generations; and young people travelled to the ends of the world, even to the heights of the Himalayas, to find the wisdom or the teacher or the drug that would bring them the “peace” and “freedom” they sought.
In the 1970s a third generation has succeeded the “hippies.” Outwardly quieter, with fewer “demonstrations” and generally less flamboyant behavior, this generation has gone more deeply into Eastern religions, whose influence now has become much more pervasive than ever before. For many of this newer generation the religious “search” has ended: they have found an Eastern religion to their liking and are now seriously occupied in practicing it. A number of Eastern religious movements have already become “native” to the West, especially in America: there are now Buddhist monasteries composed entirely of Western converts, and for the first time there have appeared American and other Western gurus and Zen masters.
Let us look at just a few pictures — descriptions of actual events in the early and mid-1970s — which illustrate the dominance of Eastern ideas and practices among many young Americans (who are only the “avant-garde” of the youth of the whole world). The first two pictures show a more superficial involvement with Eastern religions, and are perhaps only a leftover from the generation of the 1960s; the last two reveal the deeper involvement characteristic of the 1970s.
1. Hare Krishnas in San Francisco
“On a street bordering Golden Gate Park in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco stood the Krishna Consciousness temple.... Above the entrance to the temple were the two-foot-high wooden letters ‘Hare Krishna.’ The large storefront windows were covered with red and orange-patterned blankets.
“The sounds of chanting and music filled the street. Inside there were dozens of brightly colored paintings on the wall, thick red rugs on the floor, and a smoky haze in the air. This smoke was incense, an element of the ceremony in progress. The people in the room were softly chanting barely audible Sanskrit words. The room was nearly full, with about fifty people who all appeared to be young sitting on the floor. Assembled in front were about twenty persons wearing long, loose-fitting orange and saffron robes, with white paint on their noses.Many of the men had shaved their heads except for a ponytail. The women with them also had white paint on their noses and small red marks on their foreheads. The other young persons in the room appeared no different from other denizens of the Haight-Ashbury, costumed in headbands, long hair, beards, and an assortment of rings, bells, and beads, and they were also enthusiastically participating in the ceremony. The ten or so persons sitting in the rear appeared to be first-time visitors.
“The chanting ceremony (mantra) increased in tempo and in volume. Two girls in long saffron robes were now dancing to the chant. The leader of the chant began to cry the words (of the chant in Sanskrit).... The entire group repeated the words, and attempted to maintain the leader’s intonation and rhythm. Many of the participants played musical instruments. The leader was beating a hand drum in time with his chanting. The two swaying, dancing girls were playing finger cymbals. One young man was blowing a sea shell; another was beating on a tambourine.... On the walls of the temple were over a dozen paintings of scenes from the Bhagavad-Gita.
“The music and the chanting grew very loud and fast. The drum was ceaselessly pounding. Many of the devotees started personal shouts, hands up-stretched, amidst the general chant. The leader knelt in front of a picture of the group’s ‘spiritual master’ on a small shrine near the front of the room. The chanting culminated in a loud crescendo and the room became silent. The celebrants knelt with their heads to the floor as the leader said a short prayer in Sanskrit. Then he shouted five times, ‘All glories to the assembled devotees,’ which the others repeated before they sat up.”1
This is one of the typical worship services of the “Krishna Consciousness” movement, which was founded in America in 1966 by an Indian ex-businessman, A.C. Bhaktivedanta, in order to bring the Hindu discipline of bhakti yoga to the disoriented and searching young people of the West. The earlier phase of interest in Eastern religions (in the 1950s and early 1960s) had emphasized intellectual investigation without much personal involvement; this newer phase demands wholehearted participation. Bhakti yoga means uniting oneself to one’s chosen “god” by love and worshipping him, and changing one’s whole life in order to make this one’s central occupation. Through the non-rational means of worship (chanting, music, dance, devotion) the mind is “expanded” and “Krishna consciousness” is attained, which — if enough people will do it — is supposed to end the troubles of our disordered age and usher in a new age of peace, love, and unity.
The bright robes of the “Krishnas” became a familiar sight in San Francisco, especially on the day every year when the immense idol of their “god” was wheeled through Golden Gate Park to the ocean, attended by all the signs of Hindu devotion — a typical scene of pagan India, but something new for “Christian” America. From San Francisco the movement has spread to the rest of America and to Western Europe; by 1974 there were fifty-four Krishna temples throughout the world, many of them near colleges and universities (members of the movement are almost all very young.)
The recent death of the founder of the movement has raised questions about its future; and indeed its membership, although very visible, has been rather small in number. As a “sign of the times,” however, the meaning of the movement is clear, and should be very disturbing to Christians: many young people today are looking for a “god” to worship, and the most blatant form of paganism is not too much for them to accept.
2. Guru Maharaj-ji at the Houston Astrodome
By the fall of 1973 a number of Eastern gurus of the newer school, led by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with his “TM,” had come to the West and gathered a following, only to fade from the public eye after a brief reign in the glare of publicity. Guru Maharaj-ji was the most spectacular and, one might say, outrageous of these gurus. Fifteen years old, he had already been proclaimed to be “God,” his family (mother and three brothers) was the “Holy Family,” and his organization (the “Divine Light Mission”) had communities (ashrams) all over America. His 80,000 follo
wers (“premies”), like the followers of Krishna, were expected to give up worldly pleasures and meditate in order to attain an “expanded” consciousness which made them perfectly peaceful, happy, and “blissed out” — a state of mind in which everything seems beautiful and perfect just the way it is. In a special initiation at which they “receive the knowledge,” disciples are shown an intense light and three other signs within themselves, which later they were able to meditate on by themselves (The New Religious Consciousness, p. 54). In addition to this “knowledge,” disciples are united in believing that Maharaj-ji is the “Lord of the Universe” who has come to inaugurate a new age of peace for mankind.
For three days in November 1973, the “Divine Light Mission” rented the Houston Astrodome (an immense sports arena entirely covered by a dome) in order to stage “the most holy and significant event in the history of mankind.” “Premies” from all over the world were to gather to worship their “god” and begin the conversion of America (through the mass media, whose representatives were carefully invited) to the same worship, thus beginning the new age of mankind. Appropriately, the event was called “Millennium ’73.”
Typical of Maharaj-ji’s convinced disciples was Rennie Davis, leftist demonstrator of the 1960s and one of the “Chicago Seven” accused of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He spent the summer of 1973 giving press conferences and speeches to whomever would listen, telling America: “He is the greatest event in history and we sleep through it.... I feel like shouting in the streets. If we knew who he was, we would crawl across America on our hands and knees to rest our heads at his feet.”2
Indeed, the worship of Maharaj-ji is expressed in a full prostration before him with one’s head to the ground, together with a Sanskrit phrase of adoration. A tremendous ovation greeted his appearance at “Millennium ’73,” he sat atop a tall throne, crowned by an immense golden “crown of Krishna,” as the Astrodome scoreboard flashed the word “G-O-D.” Young American “premies” wept for joy, others danced on the stage, the band played “The Lord of the Universe” — adapted from an old Protestant hymn (The Spiritual Supermarket, pp. 80, 94).
All this, let us say again — in “Christian” America. This is already something beyond mere worship of pagan “gods.” Until a very few years ago such worship of a living man would have been inconceivable in any “Christian” country; now it has become an ordinary thing for many thousands of religious “seekers” in the West. Here we have already had a preview of the worship of antichrist at the end of the age — the one who will sit in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God (II Thess. 2:4).
“Millennium ’73” seems to have been the peak of Maharaj-ji’s influence. As it was, only 15,000 followers attended it (much less than expected), and there were no “miracles” or special signs to indicate the “new age” had actually begun. A movement so dependent on media publicity and so much bound up with the popular taste of a particular generation (the music at “Millennium ’73” was composed mostly of the popular songs of the “counterculture” of the 1960s) can expect to go out of fashion rather quickly; and the recent marriage of Maharaj-ji to his secretary has further weakened his popularity as a “god.”
Other of the “spiritual” movements of our times seem to be less subject to the whims of popular fashion and more indicative of the depth of the influence which Eastern religions are now attaining in the West.
3. Tantric Yoga in the Mountains of New Mexico
In a grassy meadow at the 7,500-foot elevation in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico, a thousand young Americans (most of them between the ages of 20 and 25) gathered for ten days of spiritual exercises at the time of the summer solstice in June 1973. They arise at four a.m. every day and assemble before sunrise (wrapped in blankets against the morning frost) to sit on the ground in rows in front of an outdoor stage. Together, they begin the day with a mantra in Punjabi (a Sanskritic language) in order to “tune in” to the spiritual practices that are to follow.
First there are several hours of kundalini yoga — a series of strenuous physical exercises, chanting, and meditation aimed at acquiring conscious control of body and mind processes and preparing one for “God realization.” Then there is the ceremony of the raising of two flags: the American flag and the “flag of the Aquarian nation” — this “nation” being the peaceful people of the “Aquarian Age” or millennium for which this cult is preparing — accompanied by the singing of “God Bless America” and a prayer for the American nation. After a vegetarian meal (typical of almost all the new cults) and lectures on spiritual and practical subjects, all prepare for a long session of tantric yoga.
Tantric yoga has been little heard of and almost never practiced in the West up to now. All authorities agree that it is an extremely dangerous exercise, practiced always by male and female together, that evokes a very powerful psychic energy, requiring close supervision and control. Supposedly, there is only one master of tantric yoga living on the earth at any one time; the exercises at “Solstice” in New Mexico were led by the “Great Tantric” of our days, Yogi Bhajan.
All, dressed identically in white, sit down in long, straight lines, men opposite women, packed shoulder-to-shoulder down the lines and back-to-back with the next line. About ten double lines stretch out from the stage, each seventy-five feet long; assistants make sure the lines are perfectly straight to assure the proper “flow” of the yogic “magnetic field.”
The chanting of mantras begins, with special chants invoking a departed guru who is Yogi Bhajan’s “special protector.” The Yogi himself, an impressive man — six feet four inches tall with a great black beard, dressed in white robe and turban — appears and begins to speak of his dream for “a new beautiful creative nation” of America which can be built by the spiritual preparation of people today; the tantric exercises, which are a key in this preparation, transform people from their usual “individual consciousness” to “group consciousness” and finally to “universal consciousness.”
The exercises begin. They are extremely difficult, involving strong physical effort and pain and evoking strong emotions of fear, anger, love, etc. Everyone must do exactly the same thing at the same time; difficult positions are held motionlessly for long periods; complicated mantras and exercises must be executed in precise coordination with one’s partner and with everyone in one’s own row; each separate exercise may take from thirty-one to sixty-one minutes. Individual awareness disappears in the intense group activity, and strong after-effects are felt — physical exhaustion and sometimes temporary paralysis, emotional exhaustion or elation. Further, since no one at “Solstice” is allowed to converse with anyone else, there is no opportunity to make rational sense of the experience by sharing it with others; the aim is to effect a radical change in oneself.
Following afternoon classes in such subjects as Oriental arts of self-defense, practical medicine and nutrition, and the running of an ashram, there is an evening session (after another meal) of “spiritual singing”: Sanskrit mantras are sung to current folk and “rock” music, “rock festival” and “joyful worship” in a foreign tongue are joined together — part of Yogi Bhajan’s effort to make his religion “native American” (The New Religious Consciousness, pp. 8–18).
The religion described above is a modern adaption of the Sikh religion of northern India, joined to several practices of yoga. Called the “3HO” (Healthy-Happy-Holy Organization), it was founded in 1969 in Los Angeles by Yogi Bhajan, who originally came to America to take up a teaching position and only incidentally became a religious leader when he discovered that his courses in yoga appealed to the “hippies” of southern California. Combining the “spiritual” search of the “hippies” with his own knowledge of Indian religions, he formed an “American” religion that differs from most Eastern religions by its emphasis on a this-worldly practical life (like the Sikhs in India, who are mostly a merchant class); marriage and a stable home life, responsible empl
oyment, and social service are required of all members.
Since its foundation in 1969, “3HO” has expanded to over 100 ashrams (communities which serve as gathering-places for non-resident participants) in American cities, as well as a few in Europe and Japan. Although externally it is quite distinct from the other new Eastern cults (full members of the cult formally become Sikhs and thereafter wear the characteristic Sikh turban and white clothing), “3HO” is one with them in appealing to ex-“hippies,” making an “expanded” (or “universal” or “transcendental”) consciousness its central aim, and in seeing itself as a spiritual “avant-garde” that will bring about a new millennial age (which most groups see in astrological terms as the “Aquarian Age”).
As a cult that advocates a relatively normal life in society, “3HO” is still just as much a “sign of the times” as the Hindu cults that promote an obvious “escapism”; it is preparing for a “healthy, happy and holy” America totally without reference to Christ. When convinced and “happy” Americans speak calmly about God and their religious duties without mention of Christ, one can no longer doubt that the “post-Christian” age has come in earnest.
4. Zen Training in Northern California
In the forested mountains of northern California, in the shadow of immense Mount Shasta — a “holy” mountain to the original Indian inhabitants, and long a center of occult activities and settlements, which are now once again on the increase — there has been since 1970 a Zen Buddhist monastery. Long before 1970 there had been Zen temples in the larger cities of the West Coast where Japanese had settled, and there had been attempts to start Zen monasteries in California; but “Shasta Abbey,” as it is called, is the first successful American Zen monastery. (In Zen Buddhism a “monastery” is primarily a training school for Zen “priests,” both male and female.)
Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future Page 8
