Gangaji

Toni (Antoinette) Varner (aka 'Gangaji') is an former southern (USA) Baptist who as a somewhat typical Californian newager went to India for a short visit with the well known Advaita teacher, Poonja. There she claims to have been ‘burnt in the fire of truth’. Soon after this epiphany she adopted the name ‘Gangaji’ for herself when Poonja once joking in the Indian manner, called her by that name. She has since,  with the help of funding from an heiress to the Baskin Robbins fortune, become the best known of the neo-Adviata crowd.

Toni is a very talented speaker. She appears to use many of the techniques from NLP (Neurolingustic Programming) - originally known as Ericksonian hypnosis prior to Bandler's very intelligent expansion of Erickson's research. Her use of leading and pacing, hypnotic speech patterns, unblinking eye contact, deep pattern embedding, gestures, anchoring, induction via slow speech rhythm and tonality, cathartic induction, and so on all seemed to me reminiscent of Dr. Erickson's and Bandler's brilliant work (albeit since debased by widespread misuse). Whilst of course Toni may simply be a natural at this,  it should perhaps be mentioned that her husband Eliot ("Eli" as he prefers to be called) and who also conducts satsangs, studied NLP and clinical hypnosis while the couple lived in California.

And any rate, such techniques are often used in short-session therapy. And this seemed to me to be essentially what Toni does. Her teaching reminded me very much of large scale short-session therapy based revival group, using these and other techniques. As such there seemed to me to be more than a passing semblance between Toni as a modern version of Aimee Semple McPherson.

What she said sounded quite nice in its way, but to my ear was rather repetitious. As though she had said it all before and was bored. She did not seem to me to be speaking from the spontaneous outpouring which can arise from deep resting in stillness. But rather from the belief system of a preacher who has imbued the flavor without the understanding. Now folks I know love Toni deeply, for she certainly has much appeal to those lost or fumbling in their search. Those who love Toni have told me in no uncertain terms that my failure to see more in her is due to a lack of perception or understanding on my part. Well, anything is possible 

Yet to me,  looking from the prominently displayed picture of Ramana Maharshi to Toni as she sits in her satsangs… well, let us just say that the difference was both palpable and substantial.

The entirety of her satsangs, the manifestations of expression from the assembled throng of devotees, the extolling of lineage, the vocal placings and so on, reminded me of a southern baptist religious revival, were people get up and testify to the strength of the holy spirit - or in this case, to their supposed ‘awakening’. Holy books were for sale (authored by Toni for the most part), pictures of the saints were for sale (saint Toni, saint Poonja, etc.), and of course the tithes (peer pressured ‘donation’ boxes at every door and a little speech from someone before the assembled throng about the need for money) … all of this added to the impression of a religious service rather than a pointer toward direct apperception of the imperceptible.

As I mentioned, Toni has the largest neo-Advaita franchise. She travels widely allegedly staying in five-star hotels (remember those little ‘donation’ boxes) and has been heralded by her many admirers as a direct spiritual descendant of Poonja. Silly, but there it is. Toni designates others as ‘teachers’ in her lineage, and there are now dozens of these setting up their own shops and conducting their own satsangs. A few of these have even designated others to teach.

This guru business is a business - lucrative for some, tax free, lots of nice travel, nice accommodation, good food, and other perks... and a lot easier than a real job. For example, the cost of a recent weekend satsang with Toni which consisted of many hours of sitting in silence, some question and response sessions, singing and story telling by audience members, and many long breaks without Toni present cost for each the 300 people in attendance, $250. And this was a tiny fraction of the cost Toni charges for her regular 'retreats' at luxury resorts. There were also requests for "gifts" in order to "carry on this important work" at the start and end of each satsang session. One might be forgiven for asking if any of these would be gurus or Toni herself wonder why Ramana Maharshi, Nisagardatta, Hu Neng, the Buddha, Zhangi, and others with real understanding never charged anyone anything. Ever. Further, they firmly eschewed the very idea of designating others, of teaching, the concept of lineage, and most certainly of the ability to ‘point toward truth’.

Of course there is absolutely nothing wrong with expressing one’s inner heart in love as best one can. It is laudable in fact. And if that results in chatting with others in a ’satsang’ setting, well why not? It can be very enjoyable to meet with like minded people, whether arguing the strong Goldbach's conjecture over dinner, or singing a song of praise at a prayer meeting. Great fun but what has it to do with awakening?  Poonja said that in his long life he had met only two awakened people - Ramana Maharshi and a hermit he met by accident… The growing legions of satsang givers are not it seems to me, awake. Believing oneself to be awake does not make it so. For as the Buddha warned, it is difficult to keep to Truth when the devils come, but much more so when there are angelic temptations. Lots of these folks its seems to me, have mistaken this latter for something else.

Update: You may be interested in these pages here and here and here and here.  There is lots more - use a search engine or talk to those who have left the fold. Find out for yourself.

These people may look like gold and they may glitter like gold,
but they have no real value.
There are many people who can put on a show
and fool other people into believing they are enlightened.
– Poonja (interviewed by David Godman)