Leaving Siddha Yoga

Claims of abuse and harms in Siddha Yoga

THE SIDDHA YOGA “TEACHINGS”

 

I don’t know where to look for the Siddha Yoga teachings – is it anywhere on their own website?                                                                             
The “teachings”, back in Muk days, were reading those books – kashmir shaivism, advaita vedanta, etc. And the “teachings” were also Muk’s books. The “motto” was God dwells within you as you, and See God within each other.                                                                                           
I always felt that when most people talked about “the teachings,” they were basically just talking about those mottos – very nice words, do unto others, all that sort of thing. Some people were talking about those books, the ones who may have read them. But most people didn’t read them, they just heard Muk cite them in public, while we all sat in a trance state, dazzled by sanskrit and Hindu holiness cos-play and charisma, and we thought that this was rare mystical wisdom from ancient superior beings. It was like an acid trip without the acid, and it seemed like it was all super magical and amazing.                                                                                                                                                                                        
The teachings were what we felt, like we were on the greatest acid trip ever in some super special place that only the most cool people on earth even knew about. The teachings kind of ended up being simply that when you were around the guru, you were with god – which meant that you were safe, safe from feeling worthless, powerless, alone. Instead of feeling those bad, painful things, you felt you’d entered the magic kingdom of mystical mystery. It’s what seemed to magically lift me right out of deep depression and deep despair and self-alienation. That’s what it all seemed to mean at first.                                                                                                                                                                                              
There were the public teachings, and then there were the secret, inner circle teachings. The real teachings were for those in the know, not just the tourists: that the guru is God in human form, and the more you can serve, submit, obey, and self-enslave, the more chance you have of the guru paying attention to you and making your life in the ashram more comfortable, and possibly safer from the guru’s various forms of torture.                                                                                                                     
Oh, and also you could get enlightened….. which would mean what exactly? Again, the vague idea that you could have a certain “state” that only the guru had. Which would mean that you were safe – safe from feeling worthless, powerless, alone. But only as long as the guru favored you. Who were you when she turned her contempt on you, or ignored you completely? What was taught was that your only hope of not being a worthless wretch was subjugation, deeper and deeper subjugation.                                                                                                                           
I should speak for myself, but I don’t think I was alone – I had this vague idea about these holy teachings that were super holy and mystical, that justified worshipping the guru, and that would make me pure and good and happy and not impure and bad and miserable.                                                                                                                                                                                   
I think “The teachings” was what Lifton calls a “thought-stopping cliché.” We have these “teachings” backed up by these ancient largely unreadable books full of scriptural pronouncements that mostly no one bothers to actually read or think too much about; and then we have the mottos. Basically, I guess I’m saying that “the teachings” was kind of an advertising strategy.  “The teachings” were there more for clout and gravitas and legitimization, than to actually be studied, integrated and applied. Maybe the folks who didn’t work for the guru and live in the ashram took them more seriously. But I’m not sure where it got them. Having read all those books, because I’m a nerd, what I took away was “worship the guru if you want to have any chance of not being a worthless piece of crap.”                                                                                       
Were we supposed to use these teachings as a way of living in the world, relating to others for the benefit of mankind – or were we supposed to use them to get enlightened because the world is a cesspit of maya and we could rise above it and save ourselves? Once we were enlightened, then what were we going to do? There’s a song, “Lazy Old Sun” (Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, etc.) – “that lazy old sun, has nothing to do but roll around heaven all day.”  That was the dream, just roll around heaven all day, get away from all the shittiness of the “mundane” world and away from one’s “ego.” Get away from having to figure out for yourself how to feel like a decent enough person and live a decent enough life, and get away from doing the hard work of finding meaning in life, in spite of everything that tells us it’s meaningless. The teachings were to worship the guru and then nothing else but worshipping the guru would have to matter.                                                                                                                                                       
The finale of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta based on Voltaire’s “Candide” has some lyrics, taken from Voltaire, that I love. It’s one of Bernstein’s most beautiful songs:                                                                                                                                                                                                           

[CANDIDE, spoken]
No, we won’t think noble because we’re not noble. We won’t live in beautiful harmony because there’s no such thing in this world nor should there be. We promise only to do our best and live out our lives. Dear God, that’s all we can promise in truth. Marry me, Cunegonde. 

(sung)
You’ve been a fool and so have I
But come and be my wife
And let us try before we die
To make some sense of life

We’re neither pure nor wise nor good
We’ll do the best we know
We’ll build our house, and chop our wood
And make our garden grow
And make our garden grow

[CUNEGONDE]
I thought the world was sugarcake
For so our master said
But now I’ll teach my hands to bake
Our loaf of daily bread

[CUNEGONDE & CANDIDE]
We’re neither pure nor wise nor good
We’ll do the best we know
We’ll build house, and chop our wood
And make our garden grow
And make our garden grow                                                                                                                                                               

CUNEGONDE, OLD LADY, PAQUETTE, CANDIDE, GOVERNOR, MAXIMILIAN, & PANGLOSS]
Let dreamers dream what worlds they please
Those Edens can’t be found
The sweetest flowers, the fairest trees
Are grown in solid ground

[ALL]
We’re neither pure nor wise nor good
We’ll do the best we know
We’ll build our house, and chop our wood
And make our garden grow
And make our garden grow

 
I like those teachings.                                                                                                                                                                                                  Dan Shaw, October 2025