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THE GREAT MYSTICS AS THEY REALLY ARE RUSLAN ZHUKOVETS CONTENTS Foreword vii OSHO: THE MISTAKEN MASTER 1 PORFYRY IVANOV: THE MADNESS OF A MYSTIC 27 IDRIES SHAH: A NEW TRADITION 53 KRISHNAMURTI: CONDUIT IN A PATHLESS LAND 79 RAMANA MAHARSHI - A REAL HOLY MAN 103 THE MYSTERY OF GEORGY GURDJIEFF 125 THE LINE OF TRANSMISSION 155 GURDJIEFF AND I 183 DISAPPEARANCE INTO GOD 209 THE LOVE OF MYSTICS 227 CHOSEN BY GOD 239 THE PHENOMENON OF THE ADVAITI 259 FOREWORD The life and being of mystics always remains a mystery even for those who know them personally, and those who know them only by books and recollections manage to understand them even less. The life of mystics is overgrown with fictions, and in fact some of them are created by ill-wishers and others by followers for whom it is hard to keep from falling into the temptation of exaggerating their Teacher’s virtues and abilities. Slander is accompanied by starry-eyed fantasies and projections; vilification goes hand-in- hand with deification. Great mystics are never perceived by people unambiguously, and therefore all kinds of things are written and said about them. People judge mystics according to their experi- ence and notions and here, of course, we cannot expect profound understanding. The deeds and behavior of mystics provide some with a basis for judgement of them and others for imitation, but the essence of their message and activity usually remains undis- closed. Without one’s own mystical practice and experience of the Truth, it is generally impossible to properly understand the Work of mystics. Nevertheless, their message and methods of work with students require thought and understanding; after all, numerous viii Foreword people take them as the basis for their own search. Time will put everything in its place, and now it is already possible to see what has become of followers of this or that Teacher and what the Work begun by them has turned into. The sketches presented in this book contain practically no full biographical information of any kind about the lives of its subjects. They are devoted to research about their mission, message and what the Sufis call the Work. I wrote about those whom I consider to be really great mystics although not all of them are recognized as such. I didn’t begin to limit myself to only an analysis of the activity of specific Teachers, but included in the book several essays on the later stages of the Sufi Way and methods of transmitting knowledge. In my view, they enable the reader to understand more fully and deeply the situation in which any real mystic finds himself. In this book, I propose answers to many questions that I know for sure torment many seekers. I hope that it will be useful to them as for all those in general who are interested in the Way – in the widest most sense of that word. After all, the experience of the Work of every mystic is the most valuable knowledge, available to us in an ordinary state of perception. OSHO: THE MISTAKEN MASTER 1 eople can be awakened in different ways. You can tell them P about the suffering of their ordinary life, trying to intensify in them the sense of hopelessness and the inevitability of constantly recurring torments provoked by unrealized desires. You can indicate the mechanicality of their actions and life in general in which they are only puppets, obeying the impulses of psycho- logical reactions formulated in early childhood. Every awakened person choses his own means which he uses to achieve an estab- lished goal. And although the means may be different, all of them must create disturbance in people, depriving them of their customary “waking sleep.” Even so, of course it should be remembered that there is a certain general “call” made to all those who can hear it, and there is individual work with a specific person – a student or a person who intends to become one. Words designed to attract the atten- tion of many incorporate a common idea, a new view on life and a description of the methods to change the situation in which people find themselves. Work with a student is individual, and in it, the methods of awakening are somewhat different. Osho’s general call was such – become free, rid yourself of dogmas and 4 RUSLAN ZHUKOVETS conditionality! In itself, the message was positive, but getting rid of dogmas required criticizing them, and therefore Osho overturned religious notions, scolded politicians and ridiculed humankind’s way of life. All of this turned out beautifully for him, and as usual, it was his criticism of all and everything that earned him quite a few enemies. Everyone came in for it – priests, believers, and the founders of religions as well. Characteristically, Osho himself demonstrated total freedom regarding his own judgements – in one place, he would speak of Jesus with great respect and under- standing, and in another casually call him “a poor Jew, who got into his little head the big idea that he was the messiah.” And that was how it was with everything – non-attachment to his own judgements engendered a mass of contradictions in his books, especially if you read them one after another, believing every word of the Master to be pure Truth. 2 he eternal question tormenting all students is whether or T not the Master should be consistent. In the case of Osho, the situation was very bad regarding the consistency of statements. Today, he could say one thing, and tomorrow something entirely different, not worried at all how the minds of his listeners would “digest” this. The second problem with which students and the curious usually run around like chickens with an egg is whether the Master can be mistaken. For those who want to believe in the infallibility of the guru or believe their teacher is superhuman, such a situation is unacceptable. Here’s an evocative situation for you, compelling the mind to choose whether to accept what is happening or not – a Master who says now one thing, then another. Here you must either leave your attachment to details, to literalism and look at the essence of the message, or call it all nonsense and go to where you will be told one and the same thing. Then you will learn everything that needs to be learned, and your mind will settle down, having fallen into a new conditionality and having filled itself with beautiful ideas. Osho deliberately chose inconsistency, but such a feature is common to practically all the rest of the Masters, although it is 6 RUSLAN ZHUKOVETS manifested by them according to the situation in which they work. Acting in contact with the Supreme, the Master relies on seeing the situation that he has, on a sense of the tendencies for the possible turn of events or as the Sufis says, on seeing the Pattern. But a person is never given to see the picture as a whole, and furthermore, the situation can change in a single day. Thus, for example, Gurdjieff made big plans regarding the development of the Work at Fontainebleau, but the automobile accident he was in cancelled them completely. A similar story happened with Osho as well, when upon moving to America and founding Rajneeshpu- ram, he spoke about new prospects and possibilities in his Work, but the results of this initiative turned out to be quite deplorable. The examples of a change of plans cited by me can be attributed to external circumstances; however, the Will of God as well will be exactly that same insurmountable circumstance that will be revealed only to the Master and no one else. And if every- thing is God’s Will, then there is no difference at all between failed plans disrupted for external reasons or a rejection of them by virtue of following that same Will. The Master may see different possibilities, but far from always are they realized – by virtue of the most diverse circumstances. For example, a student may have a high spiritual potential, and the Master tells him about this, speak of the possibilities that exist. But the student achieves almost nothing because he cannot overcome his own fear or conditionality. Can it be said in such a case that the Master was mistaken? As for Osho, he was mistaken constantly – seeming to do this entirely deliberately. Citing examples from the lives of other Masters or prominent people, Osho would make numerous mistakes, seriously distorting facts or even making up new stories on the fly. This didn’t bother him at all, and when one of the students wanted to correct them in the texts of books released on the basis of his talks, he forbid this to be done. “What is important OSHO: THE MISTAKEN MASTER 7 is the essence of what I want to convey, but the facts aren’t signifi- cant,” so (or approximately so) Osho declared in reply to reproaches of inaccuracy in the stories he cited. Readers of Osho’s books are divided into two categories. The first read one or two books and lose interest in them. The second read them constantly; thanks to the fact that Osho spoke a lot, he is published abundantly and while you read all his books, several years will pass. I myself once read them “in a binge” and found a mass of information on the most diverse issues – both religious and general. And it seemed to me that I know about all the enlightened and nearly all about all the religions as well.

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