Growth in Siddha Yoga

In Siddha Yoga, we all expected and hoped to grow, but our idea of growing was getting closer to or attaining Enlightenment – and that was never going to happen. It never happened for any Siddha Yoga guru, and it wasn’t going to happen for any of the rest of us. We weren’t going to mature and grow as people, become more self-aware, more honest, more relational, more open, generous, compassionate. Those were words we might have thought about, but they weren’t words that were happening. Because our growth was about devotion, our only real goal was to figure out how much further can I be devoted? How much more can I submit? Since the guru is the same as God, and is omnipotent, and controls everything, the only thing we really needed to do was keep being more and more and more devoted. Everthing else would naturally follow. So we thought.

Being on staff in Siddha Yoga was a time of trying to gain the guru’s favor and approval, and a time of constantly fearing the guru’s disfavor and disapproval. Being forbidden to, and therefore unwilling to look at and acknowledge the dishonesty, corruption and abuse in Siddha Yoga, as a condition of being a Siddha Yoga devotee and a member of the Siddha Yoga community, means that real growth is absolutely prohibited. Growth was not only not allowed to happen, but it was actually grounds for expulsion and banishment. In Siddha Yoga, telling the truth means immediately becoming the target of a well-organized smear campaign. Growth in Siddha Yoga means growing only in absolute, blind, unquestioning submission to the guru. It is not about being able to become more honest, more compassionate, or more wise.

When we left Siddha Yoga, our attempts to grow, not as perfect devotees but as wiser, more humane human beings, could resume and proceed.

Dan Shaw, April 2026