I have put people on pedestals for much of my life, starting early with my parents, moving on up to rock stars on my wall, and eventually graduating to worshipping some spiritual superstars.
“OMG, that person is so evolved! If I could ever attain their vibration, I’d be so much happier, and be able to serve so many more people/ . But I’ll probably never get there. They are special, and so dedicated. Me? I’m lazy, and still am more obsessed with having sex with Angelina Jolie than enlightenment.”
Putting people on pedestals can be a subtle way of putting yourself down. It certainly fosters a sense of separation.
While touring around the world for decades with my music, I’ve been blessed to get to know and sometimes befriend some famous spiritual teachers, and as well as some dynamic, super charismatic celebrity speakers and authors.
I have been privy to their luminosity, and also to their not-so-evolved behaviors and unexamined shadow sides.
Sometimes, the greater a person’s light, the darker their shadows and blind spots, especially if they are not doing emotional healing/shadow work along with working on their positive thinking and spiritual evolution.
Their was a famous guru named Sai Baba. I had several friends who spent months with him each year at his ashram in India.
He was what was called an Avatar. He could disappear and appear anywhere on the planet at will.
He would manifest spiritual ash called vibhuti out of thin air and bless people with it. Sometimes even trinkets of jewelry came out of a wave of his incredibly spiritually evolved hands.
There was even a doctor who traveled to India because he heard the rumors and wanted to call out the bullshit.
He ended up becoming a disciple.
Sia Baba was accused of being a spiritual master.
Perhaps even his shit was holy.
But, holy shit, the beloved master may have had quite a shadow side, as he was also accused of sexually abusing the male children of his disciples.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in his next incarnation he comes back as a child who experiences sexual abuse, and then grows up and works to heal his trauma, and goes on to help people who have been abused.
But never mind my fantasies about his karma.
Here is a poem I wrote when first hearing that Sai Baba had been….
Caught With His Robes Down
Satya Sai Baba, the divine incarnation
Has lost quite a lot of his God reputation
His psyche, it seemed, had some unhealed repression
Cause he played with your privates when in private sessions
Behind his closed doors he gave seekers his blessings
And then it turned out that included undressing
Sai Baba, like us, had de-light and denial
Denial that he was a big pedefile
He did produce jewelry out of thin air
He could whip out vibhuti, I wish he stopped there
How could this be? This cannot be the truth
How can God incarnate have a weakness for youth?
Vibhuti to ashes, and yes, lust to dust
Guru’s are human, in God put your trust
My take-away from the Sai Baba controversy?
All have gifts to share
Blind spots that glare
Perfect person? Please re-think
Everyone has shit that stinks
A song of mine that pairs well with this sharing it The Inside Out, at
