When in 1937 Russia started to clump down on religion, accusing not only high clergy, but also simple village priests, highly loved and respected in their community, of ‘espionage’ no one had imagine that they were about to witnessed one of the most furious attacks on people’s spirituality and freedom, typical of the inquisition. Maxim Usov is a man of honour, a man of our times, and a highly educated being. Like many, at some point in his life, he could no longer ignore the impelling existential questions arising from an unknown, but increasingly hard to ignore, part of his being. After many years of search and inner work, he finally became a saddhak (student) of Teacher. He is now a happy man, full of vigour and joy; he helps people to become also healthier, happier and more fulfilled. His father and grand father had been presbyteries in the Evangelical Church of St. Petersburg. They had been both very much loved and respected, not only within the church community, but also by people who had very little to do with it; everyone could appreciate kind words of support and care spoken at the right moment; everyone could enjoy a wise piece of advice, especially in the difficult times that characterise Russia in the thirties. Then 1937 came, and with it the one of the worse witch hunting campaign of modern times: believers started to be chased and accused of ‘espionage’ against the ruling leadership, who encouraged family members, neighbours and children to spy on each other in order to gain their protection. This is when Maxims’ grandfather was sent to prison for 25 years!!!
Now, 2010: no one these days would believe that the Russian 1937 is back in all its vengeance, not only in Russia, but also in the rest of the great contemporary democratic world, violating both constitutional and human rights.
In Russia, the Perestroika had made people feel that a new time of personal freedom, creativity and opening to the new had come. Yet, this ‘golden age’ was short lived. Nowadays, the clump down on free thinkers, on people who listen to the voice of their souls is harder, more subtle, more devious, evil than it had been in the thirties.
Ingo Kucherenko is no longer a young man, but one can see that his eyes are still full of life, his step quick and full of energy, his smile open like that of a child, and his demure peaceful and composed. He inspires a sense of trust and contentment in those who approach him. He talks with a measured , and yet extremely warm voice, the voice of a man used to think before talking, the voice of a man who talks not only with his ‘head’, but also with his heart. During the Perestroika, Ingo used to work as a TV reporter. In this capacity, he had called on the screen hundreds of people, shown to the spectators hundreds of different realities, ways of living, beliefs, and spiritual tendencies. He had travelled gathering information in India, where he had interviewed Rajneesh (Osho), Sai Baba and many other leaders. In Russia, he had run a show called ‘The third eye’, and had invited many healers and Yogis, and even Russian pagans and shamans of the northern part of the country, to present their views, show their rituals and talk about their credo to the public.
Everything was wonderful: Russia was in bloom, the debate was exciting, and people were alive, creative, trustful….In this climate of freedom, people’s lives took on a new momentum: many opened to the call of their soul, flooding the official church, or finding their answers in other spiritual organisation. Many, as well as Ingo, found ‘Teacher’.
Suddenly things changed.
Ingo had been asked to cover a reportage on the Hare Krishna fellowship, thing that he had done with enthusiasm and interest: he had found out how these people believed in and preached for peace to reign on the whole planet, how they lived a pure and simple life of mediation and chanting; he had given them a voice to tell the stories of how unhappy they had been before: some lost in the grips of alcohol other in those of drugs. They told about their newly found life, of their happiness and contentment and then….the TV show was broadcasted!!! Horror: his work had been totally changed during the montage. Terrible words had been put in the mouth of these peaceful people! Fake witnesses, people who claimed of having heard Hare Krishna fellows express the intention of wedging a terrorist attack against the state, has been added to the reportage. Ingo had never heard these words before, never seen these people before. The program he had so lovingly prepared had been totally manipulated, following the order of the new channel director: a dry man with a limited vision of the world, a man without culture and full of prejudice against spirituality and personal conscience, a man against freedom ….. Disgusted, he quit his job!
A new witch hunting campaign, sadly marking the beginning of this new century, not only in Russia but in the entire ‘democratic’ world, has started!!!
Modern and contemporary witches have been now re-baptised, their new name is ‘sectarians’, people who belong to a sect or a cult, a term which has very strange historical connotations as, the sects of the past are now religions in their full rights.
Sect is simply a ‘negative’ word that carries a lot of emotions, but very little real meaning, except in the mouth of those who accuse others of being a ‘sect’.
Derived from the Latin ‘secta’ meaning ‘manner, mode, following a school of thought’, it took on a new meaning and a new etymology (!) in the 1570s to mean: ‘separately organised religious body’. This definition begs the question: separate from what?
Why should anything be classified as being ‘separate’ from something else, and not as ‘something existing alongside’ something else? And, of course, “How is it possible that in our highly democratic world - a world in which, constitutions mention ‘the right of people to happiness’, ‘to religious belief’ and ‘to personal freedom’ - people’s conscience is bent and killed? How is it that people, these days, are not only invited, but forced, to follow main stream beliefs, assumed ‘safer’ and ‘truer’. Again, this situation begs a further question: who defines what is ‘safer’ and ‘truer’? What are the criteria of ‘safe’ and ‘true’?
It may be quite interesting and revealing to refer back to the New Testament, and read again and again the accounts of Jesus’ comments about the Pharisee and the old, stifled religion in vigour at His time, rooted more in form than belief. He warned many times, “Do not be like the Pharisees…” He was persecuted, accused of disrupting people’s true faith, and of heresy. He was captured, imprisoned, tortured and put to die on the cross, in between two criminals. The one, who was allowed to go free, was Barabbas, the killer, the rapist, the madman, and the most feared man in the whole land.
Jesus was ‘safer’ and ‘truer’, and much, much more, but He ended His Earthly life on the cross, with a spear in His flanks and a sponge full of vinegar in His mouth. Since then, posterity has been left to wander, “Why? Why did it go like this?”
In the ‘Sermon of the mountain’, He had said, “Blessed be the pure in heart, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, because theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” (Mathew 5,6,7). Jesus knew that the time of persecution would come, not only for Him, but also for His followers, but He did not stop preaching, challenging the ‘status quo’, the established dead religion and political oppressive system, in which people lived. Not with arms, no!!! He attracted people with true love and compassion, with teachings and wisdom, with encouragement and blessings, sometimes even with scolding and asking for repentance. The “Kingdom of heaven’ will come” he had said, “and you will be there!”
Today, Teacher also says, “The Kingdom of God will soon come!” Drug addicts, alcoholics, destitute women, sick people, scientists, medical doctors, healers, singer, actors, intellectuals, people from all walks of life join in enthusiastically, and change their life, from a miserable, meaningless event into a joyful adventure of discovery of oneself and of the whole world.
Another question that might arise from the persecutions happening these days is, “Why are so many people flooding into the new spiritual movements? Is this a sign of mass schizophrenia, or the thermometer of the ‘malaise’ of our time, from which people, disillusioned by more run of the mill religious denomination, seek something else that can truly be soothing for their hearts, mind and spirits. They seek something that gives true sense to this present existence, that is an alternative to a life spent only working, having a drink to relax in the evening,….a horrible routine of home-work-bed-home-work-bed, with a couple of days in between (holy week-end!!!) to dream of what will never happen: fulfilling days of creativity and joy. Where is the threat? What is threatened?
In these difficult time of degradation, bankruptcy, scandals involving both the clergy and politicians, in these times of total destruction of nature, when the food we eat and the air we breath poison us, our saddhak are feeling better and better, healthier and healthier; they look younger and younger , and become more and more alive.
What is the threat, then?? That, by discovering more and more their talents, by becoming more and more able to discern what is good for them and what is not, by going for what they want in life (rather then settling for a mediocre job, a drunken husband and depression) and by questioning the education of their children, who eventually will turn them into unhappy robots, saddhaks are not easily swung by alluring advertisements and empty promises. The knowledge acquired near the Teacher makes them stronger human beings, able to stand up in all circumstances, with a smile, but firmly. It makes them able to see through cheating and misleading information, aimed at bringing wealth to some and enslaving others. It makes them able to ‘live in this world without being of this world’ and to live their spirituality, not as a ‘once a week duty’, but as something giving meaning to every action, every word, every moment and encounter.
This is what people are looking for. This is the kind of life many want. This are the teachings and the kind of experience they feel they need to live with dignity.
This is why the school lead by Teacher will continue. It will continue, unafraid of persecution and bad gossip. The school will continue, no matter how great the attack from the dark forces is. They can try to discredit the name of Teacher in TV broadcasts or in news papers, but the school will continue.
It will continue, because everywhere in the world, right now, people with many problems that could not find a solution before, are healed not only in their bodies, but also in their emotions, minds and souls. It will continue because with the help of wise tutors or Teacher himself, people finally feel that someone cares, that someone thinks of them and helps them practically. It will continue, because people want it to: the school grows and grows and this cannot be stopped. This shows that it caters for people needs. Saddhaks coming from all over the world,, through international events and at meetings with the two enlightened Masters, have now met each other, and have discovered the beauty and warmth of being part of a spiritual family, where everyone cares for the other and helps on the road of self perfection.
Why persecuting happy, peaceful and spiritual people? “Blessed be the persecuted…., theirs will be the kingdom of heaven!!” Jesus had said. Why? Because, as in Jesus times, this is a sing that these teachings and knowledge are true, that they carry an impulse able to transform consciences, to change people’s inner world for the better and, as a result of this, their perception of the outer world. This is what thousands and thousands of people want! Persecution is not dialogue; persecution aims at the obliteration from the face of the Earth of everything that questions its ways, of everything that may present good alternative arguments as to how to solve human problems in a practical and demonstrable manner, as the transformation in the lives of thousands of saddhaks shows.
To all the saddhaks is addressed the most powerful answer from Teachers who, feeling the pain and distress that they endure in these days, address the Divine with their strong prayer, begging for the salvation of the souls, in the same way as Jesus did in the Gethsemane gardens.
At the same time, Teachers have prepared a sacred place in order to save all those people, who have faith in them, to shelter them from all those who, like the Pharisee, cause trouble and harm to people’s impulse of coming closer to God! The Teachers will never abandon anyone on the side of the road, unlike what many others have done in spite of their claims to the contrary.
So, what is the treat?? Where is it coming from?
