Church of the Churchless

Praise for me and the Church of the Churchless feels good

Recently I got a message from a Church of the Churchless visitor that moved me a lot. Even brought some tears to my eyes.

I spent some time wondering about whether I should share parts of the message, since it could strike some as egotistical if I did this. But here's why you can read most of the message below. (I left out a few overly personal parts.)

We all like to feel like we've made a difference to the world, that we've impacted other people in a positive way. I was talking about this a few days ago, when my wife and visited some friends who are retired teachers.

I told them that likely they only hear from a few students who say, quite a while after graduation, "Thank you for teaching me _____. That turned out to be an important lesson." Indeed, our friends did relate some stories along this line. As did my wife, a retired psychotherapist, who has heard from several clients about how their lives were impacted by her.

So I read aloud to them the message I got from the Church of the Churchless visitor both because the message meant so much to me, but also to remind our friends and my wife how we all touch so many people in positive ways, yet need some reminding of this -- given that often, if not usually, we aren't fully aware of how we've helped others.


I also want to use this as an opportunity to thank everybody who visits this blog and leaves comments on the posts. It takes a village, as the saying goes, to produce good things.

Here's the message:

I'd like you to to know that you are loved and respected by so many people in India, and in the UK. Your consistency of thought and logical assumption surpasses the expectations of a tribe who has come to know and love that you are, indeed, practicing the gospel of spiritual freedom and independence. 

...You are a pillar of strength to me and to so many who may not reach out to you, or don't know how to ... but just the fact that you can so articulately outline the reasoning that so many of us truly need, that's enough for all of us to go to bed safe in the know that the conflicts that abound in our hearts are normal.

And that's so much in itself, so much that you have so selflessly given all of us. Here was a man I had never met, but whose book ( Life Is Fair ) was a bedtime favourite, and when he started openly discussing about why the 35 years in RSSB weren't enough to blindly believe, the liberal in me was tickled.

I was a long time observer, but it took me an age and some serious gumption to write my first comment on the Church of the Churchless. There was never going to be a looking back. I vowed to drop the pseudo spirituality and to start bettering myself as a person, a practice I've stuck to ever since the day I realised that I'm actually clueless, and alone, and a speck of cute smugness that has absolutely no idea of how the universe functions.

I can proudly say that you have been my hero, the one person who has given me so much strength -- strength, not just to deal with the debunking of a belief system, but a strength that has permeated every aspect of my life and has radically changed my worldview and the way I respond to life.  

I thank the Almighty ( ... if he / she exists ) for giving me a glimpse into your beautiful mind. There is so much unconditional love that you have evoked within the hearts of the ones who have found a friend in your writings. Even the RSSB'ers feel that you are a force to reckon with. I'm proud of you my friend.

Atheism isn't a belief. It is the absence of a belief.

I don't know why it is so difficult for religious believers to understand that atheism isn't a belief. But during the 14 years I've been blogging here on the Church of the Churchless, I keep hearing, "Atheism is just another belief system."

No, it isn't. Atheism is the absence of a belief in theism, which means believing in a god or gods. (See here and here.)

Below is a recent comment on this subject by Osho Robbins. I liked the way he described the atheist position, and how he related this to a not guilty verdict by a court.

If I say I have a disbelief you are a king, it generally means that I believe you are not a king. If I have no belief one way or another whether you are a king, I would not say I have a disbelief you are a king.

Example: when a person is accused of a crime and is before the court, the verdicts are either GUILTY or NOT GUILTY. There is no verdict called INNOCENT.

Here's why: GUILTY verdict means: There is enough evidence to determine the accused is guilty. NOT GUILTY means: There is NOT enough evidence to determine the accused is guilty.

He may still have committed the crime. But there is not enough evidence to determine this. It does not mean he is INNOCENT, he may or may not be.

The atheist position is this: I don't think there is enough evidence to warrant a belief in god. Hence he says, I have a disbelief in a god. Lack of belief.

He does not say, "Therefore there is no god." Rather he says "there might be" but there is no reason or evidence to support the belief that there is a god.

Hence the atheist has no burden of proof. A negative cannot be proven anyway.

The burden of proof falls on the person who makes a claim. The atheist makes no claim. The atheist simply states he does not believe in a god. He is not saying there is no god. That would be making a claim. This is the 'soft' atheist position.

Gurinder Singh Dhillon's lawyer excuses him in a weird "mud platform" way

I've grown accustomed to lawyers saying strange things, especially in this age of Trump, but this message from Gurinder Singh Dhillon's lawyer is especially weird.

Dhillon is the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), a spiritual organization headquartered in India.

Recently several Indian business publications have published detailed stories about how the guru and his family, plus RSSB followers, are deeply implicated in shady financial dealings involving the Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder, who are the guru's nephews cousins. [Someone emailed me with a genealogy analysis that seems to show they're the guru's first-cousins once removed.]

(See here and here.)

The journalists who wrote the stories noted that neither Gurinder Singh Dhillon nor RSSB officials have been willing to answer questions about those financial dealings. 

But today someone sent me a message that Michael Cooke, who says he is Gurinder Singh's lawyer, has been distributing in response to the uproar created by the revelations about how a supposed God-man is implicated in the gain, and then loss, of billions of dollars in some exceedingly unseemly ways. BBJ (BabaJi) is a reference to the guru.

" The Bloomberg article caused so much angst with endless troubled souls contacting me that I started sending my standard response. My view on the Bloomberg article: the extremely short version based on all that I know, which is a lot more than most given my lawyer position, is as follows: I see all this Religare stuff as the modern version of mud platforms.

 

Centuries ago the guru could puncture his disciples' false confidence in him by mud platforms because he only had a handful of disciples. Now a modern day guru with 4 million followers worldwide uses Bloomberg to get his message across that they don't know shit about him or who he really is and it is time that they should meditate earnestly to find the answer inside themselves.

 

I have been around long enough and witnessed so much that I have no difficulty in believing that BBJ ( Baba Ji ) can do this effortlessly. He is the hunter of souls and he couldn't care less what the minds of men think about him. Feel free to pass on to anyone you like ... And you can attribute it to me since it may help people to know his lawyer is standing by the Man. " 

~ Message by Michael Cooke

Wow. Below I've copied in the story of the mud platforms, which is a Sikh tale relating to two of the gurus in the Sikh heritage. Radha Soami Satsang Beas has retold it in some of their books. 

As you can read, the story is about how a guru made his followers build, then destroy, mud platforms over and and over in a seemingly capricious fashion. Only one follower obeyed his guru to the bitter end, and he was rewarded by becoming the next Sikh guru.

Let's unpack the strange stuff in Michael Cooke's message. 

First, Cooke says that Gurinder Singh Dhillon is "using Bloomberg to get his message across." So we're supposed to believe that the guru, who is considered to be God in Human Form by the RSSB teachings, is somehow mystically controlling the journalists who wrote the Bloomberg story, "The Billionaires and the Guru: How a Family Burned Through $2 Billion."

Now this goes against the updated version of the RSSB teachings Gurinder Singh Dhillon has been talking about, where the guru says that he is just a human being like everybody else who can't forgive sins or erase karmas. 

But apparently this message hasn't gotten through to the guru's lawyer, who still believes Gurinder Singh has special powers. Like being able to get Bloomberg to write a story that casts the guru in a critical light.

Why?

Well, Michael Cooke has the answer to that: Gurinder Singh is testing the devotion of his disciples by doing stuff that looks to be ethically wrong, and maybe even illegal, because he wants those disciples to meditate assiduously so they can learn who the guru really is, not who he appears to be.

This is an argument that would be laughed out of court, obviously.

"Your honor, and members of the jury, my client isn't guilty as charged because his apparent misdeeds actually were part of his mission from God. He acted wrongly so that most people would make the mistake of thinking, He acted wrongly, whereas those with a certain mystical vision would be able to see that he really was acting rightly. The fact that your honor and the jury don't have that sort of vision doesn't matter. Just believe me, and come to a not-guilty conclusion."

So Michael Cooke and other true believers in RSSB dogma are trying to have it both ways.

The guru is acting like God, "hunting souls," when things are going smoothly, and the guru is also doing God's will when things go badly -- because now his disciples won't be able to rely on what they know about the outer form of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, who is enmeshed in many questionable business dealings, but rather seek an inner form of the guru who doesn't have those weaknesses.

This whole "mud platform" thing strikes me as an authoritarian's dream story.

Yes, I realize that this story means a lot to Sikhs and others who view unquestioning obedience as a manifestation of love for God and the guru. However, the story also can be used, as Cooke is using it, to justify looking away from apparent wrongdoing by a spiritual leader.

Here's the story. Read it. Then decide whether you want to be a person who does whatever someone else says, or a person who thinks and feels for themselves, choosing to avoid behavior that seems to be wrong or misguided. I want to be that second type of person.

Guru Amar Das Tests His Disciples

When Guru Amar Das wanted to select the capable disciples from among His followers, He devised a test. Remember, Masters always test their followers, each in His own methods. These tests are for the advanced disciples - those who have advanced by the Master's grace - and usually they are not aware of what is happening.

Guru Amar Das told each of His disciples to make a raised platform out of mud, and they were all willing and anxious to begin. We are usually quick to jump and obey, but how long can we keep it up? When they had each made one platform, He inspected them and decided that they were not satisfactory, and should be made again. They all remade them; but when the Master inspected the work, He told them that they were still not satisfactory, that the clay was not the right type and should be brought from another place. This was done, and the platforms were remade.

Again the Guru declared that they were not right, and the disciples remade them once, twice, thrice more. When Guru Amar Das inspected the platforms again, He was still not satisfied and told the disciples that they should change the site, shift all the clay to a different place, and there remake the platforms again. When they got to the new site and the clay was moved there, the remaking started again. Again and again the Guru rejected the work once, twice, ten, twelve times. Again the site was changed and the clay carried over.

You may wonder how many disciples were left doing the work. Very few; for one by one they had left, until only Jetha Ji remained. Jetha Ji later became Guru Ramdas when He succeeded Guru Amar Das. But at the time of this story, Guru Amar Das was over 120 years of age, and the people who saw Jetha Ji faithfully doing this work told him, "Why waste your time like this? Your Guru has become old and senile, He is not in His full senses; He tells you to make and remake these platforms again and again - is this the action of a sensible man?"

When he heard these words, Jetha Ji cried. He was a soul of no small enlightenment, and could see the Light of God working in his Guru. He could not bear to hear people speaking of Him thusly. Through his tears he said, "Brothers, you do not understand: the whole world's thinking may be wrong, but never my Guru's, for He is the only Awakened One, the God-realized Guru. If He tells me to make and remake these platforms my whole life through, it will be a joy to do so, for I want only to obey His orders."

Business Today reports about Gurinder Singh Dhillon's suspicious financial dealings

Following in the journalistic footsteps of a Bloomberg story about the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) guru's connections with the financial problems of Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, now Business Today India has released "The Baba, Singh Brothers, and the Squandered Rs $225,00,00,00,000."

Download The Baba Singh Brothers and the Squandered Rs 225 00 00 00 000

"Baba" is a term of respect that's often used with spiritual leaders. According to a couple of currency converters I found online, Rs (rupees) $225,00,00,00,000 equals about $3.2 billion in U.S. dollars. So we're talking some real money that was squandered.  

Gurinder Singh Dhillon is on the right in the photo above, and the Singh brothers are on the left.

Below I've shared some excerpts from the lengthy Business Today story, boldfacing the mentions of Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family. The whole story is well worth reading, of course.

Here's a few observations about how the guru of a spiritual organization ended up getting entangled in so many suspicious financial dealings.

First, it's more than a little strange that Gurinder Singh Dhillon heads up Radha Soami Satsang Beas, which has published a book called "Honest Living."

If you read the Bloomberg and Business Today stories, you'll learn that whatever we might call the financial schemes the guru is deeply involved with, it's very difficult to call them honest living.  
Download Honest Living

Here's an excerpt from that RSSB book.

Second, when someone in business hasn't done anything wrong, they're usually pleased to talk about their dealings. But neither Gurinder Singh Dhillon nor any of his family members or business associates has been willing to talk with reporters. This is a pretty good sign that they're hiding something.

And obviously those refusals to comment on stories involving the Dhillons and the Singh brothers isn't causing business journalists in India to back away from their reporting. I suspect that, if anything, this makes reporters confident that there's more "dirt" to divulge, so they dig deeper.

Lastly, I've heard that many Radha Soami Satsang Beas true believers are discounting the recent stories about Gurinder Singh Dhillon's financial problems, rationalizing these as being a part of some grand spiritual plan, or the guru's inscrutable mystical ways.

Which reminds me of a cartoon I came across in the Washington Post today.

The cartoon refers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who, along with most of his Republican colleagues, is ignoring the ever-increasing evidence of scandals involving President Trump. I like the reference to "Little Red Hiding Hood."

This is exactly what true believers of any sort -- religious, political, etc. -- do when confronted with information that challenges their belief system: they do their best to look away and pretend that disturbing information doesn't exist.

But that doesn't make the scandal go away. It just makes the true believers further divorced from reality, which is never a good thing.

Here's the aforementioned excerpts from the Business Today story. Last month I wrote a post about how Shivinder Singh was rumored to be in line to succeed Gurinder Singh Dhillon as the RSSB guru.

You'll read at the end of the excerpts that there's a question about whether loans by the Singh brothers to the Dhillons pertained to whether given "Shivinder's apparent desire to emerge as the sect's next spiritual head, the brothers gave loans to further his chances of being backed by Dhillon to head the sect and its sprawling operations."

An influential 'Baba' and his family with a weakness for materialism; two young businessmen loaded with nearly Rs10,000 crore from an asset sale; and a family confidante have together cooked a cauldron that Bollywood potboilers are made of. Their machinations wrecked a flourishing empire and vapourised nearly $3.2 billion (Rs22,500 crore then) into thin air.

...Such decimation of a flourishing and diversified empire within a decade is unprecedented in India's corporate history. So, how did this happen?

The answer lies hidden in a maze of a dozen companies. But before we get to that, let's understand the family dynamics between the Baba, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the brothers and family confidante Sunil Naraindas Godhwani.

Dhillon-better known as 'Babaji' or the 'Saint of Beas' is the spiritual guru of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). The head of RSSB works pro bono, draws no salary nor any benefits from the sect. Dhillon battled cancer and recovered from it in 2013. RSSB has over two million followers and a vast land bank across the country. It has over 5,000 centres that can accommodate between 50 and 5 lakh people during congregations. The sect is a 1918 breakaway faction of the Radha Soami sect founded at Agra in 1861 by Shiv Dayal Singh. Dhillon has headed the sect since inheriting it in 1990 from maternal uncle Charan Singh who was the spiritual guru between 1951 and 1990. Charan Singhs daughter Nimmi Singh is Malvinder & Shivinders mother and wife of Late Parvinder Singh. Thus, Dhillon is the brothers' maternal uncle.

In comes confidante Godhwani, who was recommended and backed by Dhillon to run non-banking finance company Religare Enterprises. The Singhs often referred to him as their third brother but he once said he owed his allegiance to nobody except Dhillon. He is now called the "self-proclaimed third brother". The bond was to strengthen further as Godhwani's daughter Simran was engaged to Dhillon's younger son Gurkirat. The proposed marriage, however, never went through as the two parted ways. It was fine as long as it was all within the family. But that was not to be.

Too much money spoiled the brotherhood.

There are three dimensions to the Singh potboiler-Singh brothers' relationship with Dhillon; their ties with each other and the relationship with Godhwani. In the first, being the head of the sect and a father figure to Singh brothers, Dhillon had an upper hand; in the second, equal partners Malvinder and Shivinder were led by Malvinder; in the third, Godhwani, being backed by the Dhillons, pretty much ran Religare independently.

But it all begins and ends with money. Once the proceeds of the Ranbaxy sale were received, the Singh brothers paid nearly Rs2,000 crore in taxes and previous loan repayments. Of the remaining Rs7,500 crore, Rs1,750 crore were invested in Religare to fund its growth; about Rs2,230 crore was invested in Fortis' growth.

But most importantly, Rs2,700 crore were transferred to companies owned by the Dhillon family, Gurinder Dhillons wife Shabnam Dhillon and companies associated with RSSB's senior functionaries. While Religare and Fortis are examples of reckless expansion and its consequences, the money transferred to Dhillon and associates-which (with interest) is now estimated to be between Rs4000-5,000 crore-remains unpaid to the Singhs.

It isnt clear why this money was never returned. Dhillon and the Singh brothers did not respond to detailed questions on whether this money was owed to Dhillon and associates for any previous transactions or was only loaned to them.

Loaded with massive cash, Religare and Fortis went on a rapid-fire expansion and acquisition spree. On the other hand, the Dhillon family and RSSB associates got lured by the real estate sector, which was delivering phenomenal returns between 2008 and 2011. Recipient companies raised further loans at 12-14 per cent interest to buy more real estate.

All turned out to be fatal errors.

Once the slowdown hit, Religare and Fortis were unable to service the massive debt raised during the expansion spree (see graphic). The Singh brothers' only fallback option may have been funds given to Dhillon and associates. But that was not to be. In the slowdown-ravaged economy, the real estate sector had gone into a spiral by then and prices crashed. The Dhillons were trapped and so were the brothers. A detailed mail sent to Dhillons and Singhs did not elicit any response on this.

...'Prius Platinum, Ground Floor, D3, District Centre, Saket, New Delhi-110017' could pass off as a nondescript address. Until you notice a striking similarity: Company after company registering it as their official address in the RoC records. At least 16 at last count. Many of them have even declared the same email ID in the RoC records: [email protected]; and are also being audited by the same firm.

Prius Real Estate, Prius Commercial Projects, Best Healthcare, Modland Wears, Fern Healthcare, Addon Realty, Hillgrow Infrastructure, Bestest Developers, Platinum Infrastructure. Even the Singh family's holding companies, RHC Holding and Oscar Investments, have declared it as their address.

Nearly Rs2,700 crore was routed to these Dhillon-RSSB functionaries companies between 2009 and 2012 through a layered and complex web of subsidiaries. Of that, Rs2,000 crore was invested in two firms--Prius Real Estate and Prius Commercial Projects.

RoC records say Prius Commercial is 84 per cent owned by Dhillons wife Shabnam and 16 per cent by RSSB Delhi head Yuvraj Narain Gorwaney. Prius Real Estate is 50:50 owned by Dhillons elder son Gurpreet and RSSBs Rajveer Singh. Addon Realty, which got Rs100 crore from Fortis, is also run by RSSB's Yuvraj Narain Gorwaney, his wife Sangeeta Narain and another Satsangi and Singh brothers cousin Sharanbir Singh Sandhu. SGGD Projects is run by brothers Vaibhav and Rahul Wadhwa, both employees of RSSB at Beas. Rahul Wadhwa was also a former Fortis employee. Lowe Infra and Wellness is another realty firm run by Sharanbir Singh Sandhu and Rahul Wadhwa. Singhs now own a majority of this firm. Hillgrow is run by another senior RSSB functionary & Singhs cousin, Jagatbir Singh Sandhu, as its director and signatory.

While many of these firms are alleged to be directly or indirectly controlled by the Dhillon family, the Dhillons themselves have had direct dealings with Singh family firms. During Religares public issue in 2007, 62.50 lakh shares representing 9.17 per cent equity each were allotted to Dhillons sons Gurpreet and Gurkirat.

Prius Platinum's swank six-floor building in Saket district centre is one of the biggest real estate ventures where the Dhillon/RSSB associates money was sunk. Besides the Saket property, Prius Commercial owns three properties in Noida, one in Ahmedabad and another in Mumbais Vile Parle. Dhillons attempt to sell these properties to Blackstone have not materialised so far. Prius Commercials website claims: "We own over two million square feet of commercial office space with another 1.5 million square feet in development and land capacity to develop a further 4.5 million square feet". Prius Platinum, though, is still sparsely occupied.

The reception and adminstration get edgy as soon as Dhillons and Singhs are enquired about. The names of Dhillon/RSSB associates companies are displayed in a glass plaque behind the reception but guards warn against photography. At least some of these firms have gained notoriety ever since law firm Luthra & Luthra, which was hired to investigate a case of Rs473 crore being siphoned off from Fortis Healthcare, mentioned Fern, Modland and Best as the companies to whom the money was transferred, allegedly against management advice and without proper sanctions. A claim that is denied by Singhs.

...With both the Dhillons and the Singh brothers refusing to respond to detailed questionnaires, it's hard to decipher what transpired in their business dealings. But l'affaire Dhillon-Singh leaves several unanswered questions: Were the brothers consumed by naivete in not just handing over a substantial chunk of their wealth to the Dhillon family and RSSB associates but also in giving Godhwani a free hand? Naivete is surely not one of their virtues. So why did the Singhs let it go this bad, this fast? Or, was the money actually owed to Dhillon family and associates? As a result, it was never returned!

Or, in Shivinder's apparent desire to emerge as the sect's next spiritual head, the brothers gave loans to further his chances of being backed by Dhillon to head the sect and its sprawling operations.

Open Thread 16 (free speech for comments)

Leave a comment on this post about anything you want to talk about. Though I haven't been doing too well on this, I'll try to remember to always have an Open Thread showing in the Recent Posts section in the right sidebar. If one isn't showing, I've added an Open Threads category in, naturally, the Categories section. You can always find an Open Thread that way.

So if you're a believer in some form of religion, mysticism, or spirituality, this is where you can put your "praise God," "praise Guru," or "praise _______" comments.

And if you want to use this blog's comments as a form of message board, where you have back-and-forth comment conversations on a topic unrelated to a blog post, please do this in an Open Thread. Visitors to this blog expect comments to be related to a post. If you want to talk about weight training (a recent example), or whatever, do it in an Open Thread. 

Sheena's "Memoirs of a Seeker" throws light on Gurinder Singh Dhillon

After someone told me about a book, "Memoirs of a Seeker," that described a woman's relationship with a guru, I purchased the Kindle version.

Because I'd been told that the guru was Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the leader of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), an India-based religious organization that I was a member of for 35 years, I was perplexed that Sheena, the author, apparently never mentioned the guru's name, from what I could tell from a quick browsing of the book.

But the person who recommended the book knows Sheena (not her real name), and separately another person emailed me with some mentions of the book, further confirming that the guru is indeed Gurinder Singh, and the ashram is Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, the RSSB headquarters in the Punjab.

I haven't read the entire book.

I've just looked through the parts describing Sheena's initial infatuation with Gurinder Singh and the RSSB teachings, which led to a massive disillusionment when, after a lot of personal contact with the guru, she realized that he was just a flawed human being, not a "perfect master."

I invite you to buy the book. I was impressed with how clearly and honestly written it is. I found no reason to doubt Sheena's sincerity, nor her accuracy. Here's how her book ends. (I'm sharing screenshots, because it isn't possible to copy text from a Kindle book.)

What follows are some additional screenshots of portions of the book relating to her time as a Gurinder Singh devotee, and a sewadar (volunteer) at the Dera. I'm sharing these excerpts because I want to stimulate people to buy Sheena's book, and I'm pretty confident that she wants her story as widely known as possible.

I've added some comments of my own after each excerpt.

This is a really weird story. It reminds me of the "Me Too" movement in the United States, a groundswell of women speaking out about sexual harassment in the workplace (and any place, really).

It sounds like India hasn't gotten on board with the Me Too and Times Up movements, or at least the Dera hasn't -- because Gurinder Singh's concern was with how he would be viewed, not with how Sheena would be seen, or whether the accusation that the guru "chased" a young female disciple had some truth behind it.

In this excerpt Sheena mentions an incident of a woman being molested by a male sewadar that Gurinder Singh knew about, but ignored. She also talks about the hypocrisy of the RSSB teachings saying one thing, while the reality of how things operated at the Dera was quite different. 

Sheena got to know Gurinder Singh and his family much more intimately than most members of RSSB. Given the guru's shady financial dealings, as detailed in a recent Bloomberg story, these observations about how Gurinder Singh changed after gaining his new-found wealth fit in with what I've heard from others. 

"Sweeto" refers to the guru's wife.

This is a beautiful, and brave, critique of how the atmosphere of spirituality that used to permeate Dera Baba Jaimal Singh (I visited for two weeks in 1977, when Charan Singh was the guru) has been shunted aside by a steadily creeping materialism.

Another brave and truthful observation by Sheena. What went through my mind after reading this passage was, "The guru is a jerk!" Also, sexist and, as Sheena says, a very ordinary human. 

Sheena is correct: power and wealth do corrupt. Gurus such as Gurinder Singh Dhillon aren't immune from their allure. Thankfully, Sheena saw through the guru illusion.


Sheena says that she found God, but not through the guru -- who was an impediment, not a means, to divinity. She is grateful, though, for her experience with RSSB and Gurinder Singh. Often it takes following a wrong road to get on the track of one that leads where we want to go.

For Sheena's full story of her seeking, and finding, get "Memoirs of a Seeker." I've just scratched the surface of what is in Sheena's book. 

Bloomberg story has led to many more Church of the Churchless visitors

Thank you, universe! You work in mysterious (and also non-mysterious) ways. 

After I was quoted in a Bloomberg story that described the shadowy connections between Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru, and the Singh brothers, Shivinder and Malvinder, the number of people visiting this blog has gone up a lot the past three days.

This blog has gotten about 13,000 page views in that time, whereas usually it would get about 3,000. Good karma! (if I believed in karma)

Here's a link to the post I wrote about the story, "Bloomberg story shows Gurinder Singh Dhillon's shady business dealings."

Bloomberg story shows Gurinder Singh Dhillon's shady business dealings

Today Bloomberg, a business publication, published a tell-all story about Gurinder Singh Dhillon's hugely complicated, and ethically dubious, financial dealings with Shivinder and Malvinder Singh, nephews of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru.

Download The Billionaires and The Guru: How a Family Burned Through $2 Billion - Bloomberg

Ari Altstedter wrote the story, "The Billionaires and the Guru: How a Family Burned Through $2 billion." I spoke with Altstedter by phone about the 35 years I spent as a RSSB devotee, and was quoted in the piece.

Still, Dhillon hails from a family of major landowners in Punjab, and was himself a businessman in Spain prior to his ascension at the spiritual group. So he took an active interest in the Singhs’ holdings, the people said.

“I think he’s a businessman in his mind first, and a guru second,” said Brian Hines, an American who was a member of the sect’s U.S. community for 35 years and has visited Beas. He now blogs critically about it, having since left.

Anyone who reads the story would find it difficult to argue with what I said.

Altstedter lays out in convincing detail how the Dhillon family has enriched itself while Gurinder Singh Dhillon has been the RSSB guru, an organization that has published a book, "Honest Living," whose ethical tenets go against the sort of shady business dealings described in the story.

Here's some excerpts concerning the Dhillon family's real estate investments. 

By 2010, another business opportunity emerged. Towns outside India’s capital, New Delhi, were experiencing a property boom that was turning farmers into millionaires. The Singhs’ resources were marshaled to help the Dhillon family build a real-estate empire.

Two companies, Prius Real Estate Private Ltd. and Lowe Infra and Wellness Private Ltd., were set up by people close to the guru, and although partly hidden by layers of shell companies, the Dhillon family had ownership interests in both, people familiar with the matter said and filings show.

Over the next two years, these firms together received about 20 billion rupees in zero-interest loans from the Singhs’ private holding company or its subsidiaries, according to the people and the documents. Funds were then disbursed to other companies controlled by the Dhillons. The Singhs owned a 51 percent stake in Lowe.

These loans proved costly to the Singhs, coming on top of other major financial commitments that were underway. From 2011 onwards, the brothers’ holding company went on to sink at least 12 billion rupees to cover losses at their investment banking venture Religare Capital Markets Ltd. Other loans went to Ligare Voyages Ltd., a money-losing charter airline. 

The Singhs’ holding company also loaned at least 7 billion rupees to cover losses at a firm that had been spun out of Religare to manage the financial firm’s administrative costs. The loss-making firm’s biggest expense was rent, much of which was paid to buildings owned by the guru’s family, according to documents and people familiar with the matter.

In some cases, Religare had no use for all the space it was leasing from the guru’s buildings and large parts sat empty, the people said and internal documents show.

RHC, the holding company, also made personal loans of 5 billion rupees to Dhillon family members, via a network of shell companies, people familiar with the matter said.

The Singhs funded all these outlays to the guru’s businesses and to their own ventures with borrowing. And a substantial portion came from Fortis and Religare, often through the same network of shell companies used to lend to the guru’s family, people familiar with the matter said.

Taken together, the zero-interest loans to Dhillon firms and Singh investments gone bad created a crushing debt load that required even more borrowing to service. Their total borrowings hit about $1.6 billion by March 2016, filings show.

The Bloomberg story has an illustration of how large amounts of money were shuffled back and forth via various actual and shell companies in efforts to keep the financial empire of the Singh brothers and Dhillon family afloat.

Note that the four arrows on the right side of the illustration show investments and loans flowing to entities affiliated with the guru's family. The three cross-hatched arrows on the rightmost side are loans associated with the guru, which total 25 billion. I assume this is 25 billion rupees, which equal $357 million dollars.

So, yes, the guru is indeed acting much more like a businessman than a guru. And a rather shady businessman at that, given the revelations in the Bloomberg story. 

A few days ago I published a post, "Gurinder Singh completely upends Sant Mat dogma,"  that described how Gurinder Singh Dhillon is acting like an earthy Zen master these days, not a guru with mystical powers who guides disciples to a heavenly region known in RSSB teachings as Sach Khand.

This fits with Gurinder Singh's upending of how a RSSB guru is supposed to act: humbly, earning his own living in an honest manner, not being concerned with amassing worldly wealth but rather with spreading spiritual wisdom.

I have no problem with Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family making huge amounts of money.

I just have said, and will keep on saying, that this has been done while the guru supposedly was giving most of his attention to the spiritual elevation of RSSB disciples, and clearly this hasn't been the case.

UPDATE: Here's a link to a "mirrored" Business Standard story, "How Malvinder and Shivinder Singh burned through $2bn for their guru," plus a Mint story in both JPG and PDF form.

Download THE SINGH BROTHERS pdf

Gurinder Singh completely upends Sant Mat dogma

It's decidedly weird that...

(1) Many commenters on this blog are devotees of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), an India-based religious organization headed by a guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon; and (2) these same commenters refuse to believe that Gurinder Singh has completely changed the traditional RSSB teachings that they defend so strongly.

Hopefully the following will change some minds.

Today this message was emailed to me by Osho Robbins, who has previously shared his take on what can be called Sant Mat v. 2.0 and v. 3.0, to distinguish the new RSSB teachings being promulgated by Gurinder Singh from the old v. 1.0 teachings.

So what you'll read below isn't new news. It is very much in line with my 2011 blog post, "Has Gurinder Singh revised Sant Mat to v. 3.0?" (Note: "Baba of RSSB" refers to Gurinder Singh, the guru.)

When you arrive at a train station and the announcement is made "all change" everyone gets off the train and catches a new train.

Its like that now again at RSSB.

This time it's so obvious it simply cannot be denied. 

I was at Haynes park on the Sunday before the UK national satsang. 

I went on the mic and had what can only be described as a most intriguing conversation with the Baba of RSSB.

The exchange between us went on for approximately 20 minutes.

This is what he stated clearly in that conversation:

(1) You are right, there is no journey because you are already there and you just have to realise it. 

(2) You are correct in saying there are no regions.

(3) I have never read the Sar Bachan and what it states there is just a story, not literal. None of those regions or the lords of the regions exist.

(4) There is only the ONE. There is no individual soul. So you don't actually merge back. You are already there. 

(5) Don't focus on the physical master. I am only here to clarify. I am just a human being like you. I cannot forgive sins. I cannot erase karmas. 

(6) Meditation just means to quieten the mind and turn inwards and let go and realise who you are.

I also had another briefer conversation with him yesterday at Haynes.

This time the whole session, not just the exchange with me was clearly conveying the new sant mat. 

"I will not give you false consolation" he says. 

"The master is only here to give you the teachings and guide you. I cannot do it for you. "

He also makes no claims for himself. 
He laughs and jokes about just about everything.

On the Sunday of the national satsang he said "there is nothing. What will you get by coming here? Nothing"

Then he smiles while the penny drops.

I am impressed. 

I also am impressed. Gurinder Singh is sounding a lot like a Zen master, or Alan Watts, rather than a guru who is considered to be God in Human Form who guides disciples through higher regions of reality back to a "heaven" called Sach Khand. 

All that has disappeared from the RSSB teachings. However, as noted above, old-time initiates refuse to accept that the old teachings are gone.

And here's an amazing but true fact.

A few minutes ago I read Osho Robbins' message to my wife, who is an extremely ardent atheist. She said, "I like it." So this shows that Gurinder Singh's new message basically is indistinguishable from atheism.

Which makes me feel good, since I've embraced atheism since about 2005, following 35 years of being a RSSB devotee. 

Ah, life is pleasingly strange. I've gotten lots of criticisms from RSSB initiates because I no longer believe in Sant Mat dogma. Well, guess what? 

Neither does the RSSB guru.

So I accept the apologies of everyone who has called me a RSSB heretic.

It turns out that actually I'm the one who has been faithful to the freshened-up RSSB teachings of Gurinder Singh, while all of those commenters on this blog who blab on about inner regions, divine sound/light, inner guidance of the guru, and such actually are the heretics.

Blog commenters have different styles of making their point

People are different. This is a truism that bears repeating, because we all tend to think that other people think like us. After all, the only mind we're directly acquainted with is our own.

And even that mind we know only imperfectly, since most of what goes on in our cranium happens subconsciously, with only the tip of the iceberg of our psyche rising into conscious awareness.

After fifteen years of blogging, which has entailed reading many thousands of comments on my posts, I continue to be intrigued by the various ways people use to make a point about something.

Following is an off-the-top-of-my-head of some of the commenting styles I've observed. 

Now, obviously one person might use various styles from time to time, or even in the same comment. And I'm not claiming that any style is more right or wrong than the others, or should be preferred. These are just various ways of communicating. 

I'm going to use subjects addressed by this blog as examples of the commenting styles, because, duh..., I'm posting on this blog.

The Logician. This style aims at producing an iron-clad set of reasons for believing this or that. A commenter who favors The Logician tends to write lengthy comments, because it takes quite a few words to lay out the case for why such and such is true.

A drawback is that apparent in Aristotle or Plato: logic takes us only so far in understanding the world, or other people. So just because something makes sense, doesn't mean it is true. All the logical arguments in the world for the existence of God don't total up to evidence that God exists.

The Relativist. But some people don't accept that objective truth exists. Along with "deconstructionists," they consider that truth is a cultural invention, with even science falling prey to subjective biases. So they elevate subjectivism, especially their own subjective experience. If something is true for them, why, it must be true for everybody. The downside is that this perspective applies to others also, which makes it tough to find common ground.

And if we accept that everyone's experience is equally valid, the door is left wide open to crazy ideas, conspiracy theories, and unfounded theories. Sure, it is possible that Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Lao Tzu, the Vedas, and so on all are talking about the same spiritual reality,  but this requires that the revelations of every religion somehow fit together, even though they clearly don't.

The True Believer. A person using this style doesn't attempt to convince others of what they believe. They simply repeat a dogma over and over, because it is just so damn obvious that it must be believable. With little or no room for doubt in their mind, they can't understand why others don't see the marvelous truth that's lying right out there in the open.

However, what is obvious to one person is obscure to another. And when two or more True Believers try to talk to each other, it's like ships passing in the night if they believe in different things. No connection is possible when, say, the absolute truth of the Bible is contrasted with the absolute truth of the Koran. 

The Poet. This is a more appealing version of The Relativist. Someone using a style of The Poet embraces a creative vision of reality that is hard to pin down, since it relies more on soft imagery than hard concepts. They try to get their point across indirectly, subtly, creatively. 

There's a lot to like about a poetic sensibility, especially when we're dealing with something that can't be pinned down in other ways. A five thousand word essay isn't going to capture how someone feels about entering a Gothic cathedral, but a hundred poetic words could come much closer. But if I want to know something objective, like why my computer isn't working, poetry isn't going to be of use.

The Scientist. Someone taking a scientific perspective believes that objective reality exists, and that it is possible to come to know this reality through careful observation, experimentation, reasoning, and such. They (correctly) consider that most human progress has been attained with the aid of modern science, so like to use it whenever possible. Skepticism is a big part of being scientifically minded.

But as the saying goes, to someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Taken to extremes, a scientific world view can downplay alternative ways of looking upon reality. And it is possible that while science works for knowing many things, at the farthest edges of time and space the scientific method may face insurmountable roadblocks, which also is an argument against applying it to religious and mystical questions.

The Nihilist. A person with this style isn't prone to commenting on blogs, thankfully, so I've rarely encountered one. Basically they're The Relativist on steroids. Not only is there no objective truth, there's barely any subjective truth, because reality is so empty of anything meaningful, there's no reason to give a shit about anything.

On the positive side, though there's little to be positive about concerning pure nihilism, a small dose of existential despair can be an appealing antidote to simplistic feel-good narratives. I am both embarrassed and pleased to admit that I've ordered a copy of "My Beautiful Despair: the Philosophy of Kim Kierkegaardashian."  These sample revelations in the Amazon book description helped make the sale:

– I have majorly fallen off my workout-eating plan! AND it's summer. But to despair over sin is to sink deeper into it.
– Obsessed with protecting your skin, lips, hair & face from the sun? Close the cover of the coffin tight, really tight, and be at peace.
– I like my men like I like my coffee: a momentary comfort in the midst of all my suffering.
– What is the operation by which a self relates itself to its own self, transparently? Selfie.
– What if everything in life were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears? Scared LOL!!
– Glamour, menswear, top hat…I stick my finger into existence, and it smells of nothing.
– I took my cat Mercy to the groomer, to brush out the dreadful tangled confusions of its existence.
– I’ve been going to bed a little bit earlier each night, to get a taste of death.

Embrace beautiful imperfection. Push away judgement.

Today's Daily Calm guided meditation on my iPhone app was called "Beautiful Imperfection." Below is a transcript I made of how it ended. I really liked the call for less judgement and more connection.

This is tough enough to do in real life. It's considerably more difficult on the Internet, where we form judgements about people without having even seen them, much less understood them.

That's why I thought what follows is a good reminder that while informed judgement often makes some sense, uninformed judgement should be engaged in cautiously, if at all.

It's so often that our mind falls into judgements, of ourselves and of others. And if we pay attention, we'll quickly notice this tendency. 

We meet a new co-worker, or there's a new barista at our cafe. Or someone sits beside us on the subway. And instantly, subconsciously, the judging mind appears.

We take notice of a person's appearance, speech, and demeanor. And in a millisecond we draw conclusions about what type of person they must be. Some of these judgements might be sympathetic, some critical, based on a subconscious sliver of information.

How accurate can they be?

The truth is, we know next to nothing about the stranger passing through our day. Let's say we're sitting beside someone on a flight. And we overhear they have an addiction to reality television. They voraciously watch this show and that show, and can't go a week without their fix. 

And with this flux of information, we start to form a picture of who they are. But for all we know that same person has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics, beautiful children, or a cancer diagnosis. Or all of those things. 

Judgements separate us from other people. giving us a sense of division or of superiority. But on the flip side of judgement is an opportunity to feel connection. Because whatever it is we're judging, we probably suffer from some version of the same feature or flaw.

We all have our faults and guilty pleasures. That's a part of what makes each of us so compelling and interesting. Emilio Estevez put it, "We are all wonderful, beautiful wrecks. That's what connects us, that we're all broken, all beautifully imperfect."

So call on the mindfulness skill of awareness. Try to pay closer attention to your judgements. And as you get to know these tendencies, challenge them, soften them. Instead of giving in to the judging mind, deepen your connection to the beautifully imperfect people around you. 

Why God is a psychological illusion

Billions of people believe that God is real, even though there is zero demonstrable evidence of God's existence. So there must be something in the human mind that produces the illusion of God.

In his engrossing book, "Finding Purpose in a Godless World: Why We Care Even if the Universe Doesn't," psychiatrist Ralph Lewis quotes evolutionary psychologist Jesse Bering on why people are so prone to supernatural beliefs. 

Theory of mind is mentioned in the quotes below. Heres's how Lewis succinctly describes what this is.

Part of people's belief in a higher power stems from our ability to form a "theory" about the mental state of another person wherein we can imagine or infer what that person might be thinking or feeling. This is referred to as "theory of mind."

Bering says:

As a direct consequence of the evolution of the human social brain, and owing to the weight of selective importance placed on our theory of mind skills in that process, we sometimes can't help but see intentions, desires, and beliefs in things that haven't even a smidgeon of a neural system there to generate the physiological states we perceive.

...In particular, when inanimate objects do unexpected things, we sometimes reason about them just as we do for oddly behaving -- or misbehaving -- people. More than a few of us have kicked our broken-down "untrustworthy" vehicles in the sides and verbally abused our "incompetent" computers.

Most of us stop short of actually believing these objects possess mental states -- indeed, we would likely be hauled away to an asylum if we genuinely believed that they held malicious intentions toward us -- but our emotions and behaviors toward such objects do seem to betray our primitive, unconscious thinking: we act as though they're morally culpable for their actions.

...So it would appear that having a theory of mind was so useful for our ancestors in explaining and predicting other people's behaviors that it has completely flooded our evolved social brains. As a result, today we overshoot our mental-state attributions to things that are, in reality, completely mindless.

And all of this leads us, rather inevitably, to a very important question: What if I were to tell you that God's mental states, too, were all in your mind?

That God, like a tiny speck floating at the edge of your cornea producing the image of a hazy, out-of-reach orb accompanying your every turn, was in fact a psychological illusion, a sort of evolved blemish etched onto the core cognitive substrate of your brain?

It may feel as if there is something grander out there... watching, knowing, caring. Perhaps even judging. But, in fact, that's just your overactive theory of mind. In reality, there is only the air you breathe.

Open Thread 15 (free speech for comments)

Leave a comment on this post about anything you want to talk about. Though I haven't been doing too well on this, I'll try to remember to always have an Open Thread showing in the Recent Posts section in the right sidebar. If one isn't showing, I've added an Open Threads category in, naturally, the Categories section. You can always find an Open Thread that way.

So if you're a believer in some form of religion, mysticism, or spirituality, this is where you can put your "praise God," "praise Guru," or "praise _______" comments.

(Take note, commenter who goes by "777." Your wildly off-topic, preachy comments aren't acceptable on a blog post, but they're OK in an Open Thread).

The RSSB guru likes to see naked women on the beach

Well, Gurinder Singh Dhillon and I have something in common: we both enjoy looking at naked women.

But the difference between us is that Gurinder Singh is the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru, so supposedly is "God in human form," and I'm just ordinary me.

Here's an email message I received from a woman who found Gurinder Singh's behavior at "satsang" (a spiritual meeting) in India to be appalling. Again, it isn't unusual to hear men talk in this fashion.

However, one expects something different from a guru who is purported to have elevated his consciousness to an enlightened level.

In 2013 I visited Dera for the first time and made four more visits following that. My last visit was December 2017. Not sure if you have heard reports from other Satsangis regarding the 'Christmas' session last year, but it was appalling.

Gurinder’s comments and behavior during evening Satsang with the westerners went from somewhat off color to completely inappropriate. He bragged about flying around in his new helicopter and having his own private jet that allows him to avoid waiting in lines (among other luxuries). He asked us, "who wants to wait in lines?".

The worst part of the session began when his constant teasing and joking started revolving around bathroom jokes, nudity and how he couldn’t stop himself from looking at all the pretty girls.

He said, "Wayne, (Overseas Satsang Sevadar — not sure exact title), is always admonishing me not to make these sort of comments because of the reputation many of the babas in India have, but I just can’t help myself." He said beauty is to be admired. He even joked at one point that he was looking forward to his next trip to Ibiza and that he couldn’t wait to see the naked women on the beach.

He said it as a joke but it was still nauseating.

One evening in particular Wayne became very upset with Baba Ji when he made another bathroom joke about flushing the toilet and actually used the word "sh*t". He covered his mouth after he said it as if it were a slip of the tongue. Half the audience laughed and half looked shocked. Wayne looked furious.

I used to believe Gurinder Singh was a satguru and I felt great affection for him but after having spent several sessions in his company, my faith has been challenged by cold hard facts. There are so many more stories to tell... not enough time in this one email but it truly is a sham.

I hope in time light is shed on the true dealings of the current guru at RSSB. I have tremendous respect and regard for Charan Singh though.

However, there are a few things about Charan Singh’s will of successorship that seem odd to me. Like why does it keep saying he was 74 years old when, even by Indian calculations, he was 73 years old when he died. And the will was signed May 30th... then he died June 1st. Baba Ji said that Charan Singh chose to take a minor illness (I’m paraphrasing) as an opportunity to "go home". That whole sentence raises a lot of questions.

All I can say is I really hope that someday soon Gurinder’s financial and moral decisions are brought to light. 

Best, Sarah 

The Singh brothers are in deep trouble, which involves Gurinder Singh Dhillon

It looks like the financial misdeeds of Shivinder and Malvinder Singh, nephews of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, are catching up to them.

This morning someone emailed me a link to this India Business Today story, "Delhi High Court summons Singh brothers for first time in Daiichi case." 

Here's some excerpts:

According to The Business Standard, the high court asked the Singh brothers to personally appear in the court on August 10 to explain the reasons for discrepancies in their statements over their holdings in FHL. The court wants to understand that whether the Singh brothers and entities related to them have sufficient funds to honour the arbitration order.

In the course of the arguments, Justice Rajiv Shakdher observed that "things are getting out of hand" and sent out a strong message to the siblings asking them to cough up the arbitration award money "by any means" or go behind the bars. "Wherever you have to get it (money) from, you get it. You can't take the court for a ride," the judge said.

...Sources close to the Singh brothers told the daily that the duo is trying to monetise real estate assets of family members to raise funds. "The brothers cannot sell their assets as there is a 'status quo' order on them. Therefore, they are trying to strike deals on properties that belong to the Dhillon family, who are related to the Singh brothers through their maternal side," said a source.

Private equity giants are reportedly interested in buying some of the office real estate portfolio that belong to the Dhillons -- Gurinder Singh Dhillon, maternal uncle to the brothers, currently heads the Radha Soami Satsang Trust - and the deal size can run to Rs 100 crore.

What a mess. I don't claim to fully understand the tangled web of financial problems here, but it's clear that they involve Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the RSSB guru. 

Thanks to Ariana Grande, I now believe God is a woman

Hey, I've become a believer. In God. Who is a woman.

The lyrics explain this profound theology:

You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you
My one, when all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feeling that you can't fight
My one, it lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman

I don't wanna waste no time, yeah
You ain't got a one-track mind, yeah
Have it any way you like, yeah
And I can tell that you know I know how I want it
Ain't nobody else can relate
Boy, I like that you ain't afraid
Baby, lay me down and let's pray
I'm tellin' you the way I like it, how I want it

(Yeah)
And I can be all the things you told me not to be
(Yeah)
When you try to come for me, I keep on flourishing
(Yeah)
And he see the universe when I'm in company
It's all in me

You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you
My one, when all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feeling that you can't fight
My one, it lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman

I'll tell you all the things you should know
So, baby, take my hand, save your soul
We can make it last, take it slow, hmm
And I can tell that you know I know how I want it, yeah
But you different from the rest
And boy, if you confess, you might get blessed
See if you deserve what comes next
I'm tellin' you the way I like it, how I want it

(Yeah)
And I can be all the things you tell me not to be
(Yeah)
When you try to come for me, I keep on flourishing
(Yeah)
And he see the universe when I'm in company
It's all in me

You, you love it how I move you
You love it how I touch you
My one, when all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
And I, I feel it after midnight
A feeling that you can't fight
My one, it lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman, yeah, yeah

(God is a woman)
Yeah, yeah
(God is a woman, yeah)
My one
(One)
When all is said and done
You'll believe God is a woman
You'll believe God
(God is a woman)
Oh, yeah
(God is a woman, yeah)
(One)
It lingers when we're done
You'll believe God is a woman