What Happens When Jaggi Vasudev Ghostwrites?

  What matters more- the Opinions or the Speaker? 

  

Over the last couple of weeks, I had been posting some particularly bigoted views on Facebook. Some were extremely misleading and others factually and scientifically incorrect. The idea was to pass someone else's ideas, someone else's views, someone else's statements as my own. Based on the reactions that followed, I believe it was quite successful, especially towards the beginning. 

These were not my statements. Those were Jaggu Vasudev's statements, you might more commonly know him as "Sadhguru". What I did was, remove the personality, the charisma, the allure, the authority of the person, and instead presented the words bare-bones. I wanted to see how people would take these statements, would they see the farce, would they still take the words with equal reverence?  

The posts got varied responses, some were pissed off, offended. Some were irked. Some agreed with it and some found them hilarious. There were some great discussions.  And then there were texts and DMs of confusion, anger, and disappointments. Confused why I would post such a statement. Angry that someone could be so bigoted. Disappointed because my words had let them down.

Someone even reported me along with one of my posts to the organization that I represent and rightfully so. S/he wrote, "Since you guys have worked very hard to reach the position where you are at,  I was not expecting this kind of teaching fellow at Teach for Nepal. I believe you guys are the change-makers, but this is not the kind of change I want to see in rural students from such mentors." 

The question is if we don't want such a mentor for our kids, and most of us agree we need to be more progressive, more objective and scientific, should we then as thinking adults, as teachers, as educational institutions endorse people with such views? Should we give a platform for people and organizations with agencies to such beliefs?  What are we doing when we share their statements, videos, and invite them and the organizations they represent to our events? Are we not validating them? Are we not validating the views they hold? 

      

 

We as adults may be able to discern fact from fiction, we as adults might have the knowledge to counterbalance those ideas and fact check them. But can we say the same about our kids?  The truth is, even adults are duped by the charisma of the modern-day English speaking gurus and godmen. 

This article is not meant to offend anyone, this is to mend the wounds, and try and recover friendships that might have been severed. But if telling the truth, trying to shed some light on how people are routinely deceived, offends then so be it. The gurus might have helped people and might have continued to do so but should we, turn off our brains, and look towards them for expertise on all things—life, science, cosmos, medicine, and everything worldly and out-worldly?

Science Guru Sadhguru?

      

Sadhguru School of Advanced Sciences

For more from my two weeks as Sadhguru, follow the link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1hLjNsjM-Wu3GgZkh2-212fjt_UJOTNxx