Writing Light And Dark Tantra was always a balancing act. It felt very good to write about my experiences with people like Chandranath (at the far right of the photo) and other early disciples of Anandamurti. One can even feel a sense of pride about being associated with a spiritual society directed by such people. Although it was interesting and also meaningful to write about the myriad problems with Anandamurt´s movement as it became larger and attracted a lot of adventurous monastics who got involved in all too many shady activities, there was always the possibility of falling into a shame complex by mentioning these dark situations, of being associated with these people even by criticizing them. I often had to conjure up the memory of Chandranath and the early disciples to again enlighten the effort of saying, “yes, there was once truth and vitality in A.M. and the light of Anadamurti shone through these people.” I ultimately justify even the dark side of the story by saying it was a great lesson on understanding the human shadow and that any society that was given such a supercharged dose of spiritual energy would have passed through the same human dramas. Anandamurti put a lens of focus over the consciousness of humanity. The darkest corners of the human mind are enlightened. Some people received the light and were illuminated yet some resisted and their shadows only strengthened and rebelled.
This is Chapter 2 of a work that I wrote over the past 8 years. I finished it over a year ago and just recently did some editing as it was a compilation of loose essays. Here one can download the entire work, Light And Dark Tantra.
Light And Dark Tantra Ch. 2
Tantra is a Sanskrit word derived from “tan” which means “darkness” or “inertia” and “tra” which signifies “expansion.” Hence, “tantra” means expansion from a state of spiritual darkness, inertia, or ignorance that binds us to the limited material world with its relative joys and sufferings. Tantra is an ancient science of meditation and concentration to awaken the mind from an instinctual animal slumber. It is a practice to further physical, mental, and spiritual evolution so that the human being may more fully understand his/her place in the universe. This systematic and practical discipline follows the natural course of evolution and guides the mind from instinct to intellect to intuition. As Anandamurti explained, it is a method to convert physical energy into psychic energy and then convert that accumulated psychic or mental energy into pure, spiritual cognition.
Tantra, in its proper and essential form, is “mystical empiricism” in that the practitioner can follow certain systematic disciplines and verify in one’s own mental laboratory whether the system is true or not. If one expands from the inertia of blind instinct and intellectual ignorance and attains a degree of insight, peace, and clarity in the existential and spiritual domains, then the scientific practice of tantra is effective and therefore true in that the practice leads one to the objective of spiritual illumination.
Evolution is always a newer, more sophisticated adaptation of an organism to a challenging and ever changing environment. This is true whether we are speaking of evolution in the physical, mental, or spiritual stratas of existence. A successful change and adaptation of a species always gives that species more dominion over the objective, material world. In the case of hominids, and most especially in human beings, it is easy to see how the development of intellect has given us more power to manipulate and maneuver not just the external physical world but also our social world, for better or for worse. Although far less understood, we can also see this same pattern in the evolution of the deeper mental and spiritual strata. More mental power and concentration gives one greater control over the physical body and the physical world. Although very rare, there have been some amazing studies of yogis and tantrics and their amazing abilities to control what are thought of as unconscious, physiological activities such as slowing the heart rate and suspending the breath while in a state of trance. It is also becoming more apparent that many disciplined and focused minds may have special cognitive abilities that allow them to see deep into the past or even into the future. Studies such as those of the Stanford physicist, Russel Targ, and his experiments with the CIA on remote viewing clearly show that there really is an intuitive faculty in the human mind.
Although modern science is in its mere infancy in regard to understanding these phenomenon, these faculties are commonly known to exist all over the planet. Not just yogis and tantrics, but also shamans and healers from just about every culture have developed psychic abilities that have served the progress and evolution of human consciousness.
I have had the good fortune to witness several “miraculous” phenomenon that my old psychology professors would have scoffed at from their limited academic environments. Although I was educated and scientifically trained to think in mechanistic and materialistic causality, many first-hand experiences have shattered those limited dogmas. Through personal experience, I have come to see abilities such as telekinesis, levitation, mind-reading, intuitive prognostication of the future, and psychic healing not as “supernatural”, but as very natural, albeit rare, phenomena. I was initiated into tantra yoga in 1993. It was a very pure and spiritual path whose purpose is truly for spiritual enlightenment. The desire for occult powers were heavily discouraged. So much of ancient yogic stories warn of the danger of these abilities and how they not just impede spiritual development but actually degenerate the mind. I lived with yogis in India and witnessed and even experienced many strange phenomena. Fortunately, my teachers were very loving, wise, and humane teachers that guided me towards a judicious understanding of these powers that naturally come through the advanced practice of yoga. I had the good fortune to study under a few very advanced yogis who had a deep understanding of tantra as well as the occult powers that may accompany such practices.
I will speak of 3 such teachers and their relationship to the occult powers, Samanvayananda, Chidghananda, and Chandranath. All 3 of these men were very spiritual beings who also happened to have a deep understanding of the occult powers. I would consider all 3 of them as yogis of the “light,” however with varying degrees of lightness. Samanvayananda was the most explicit in his understanding of the occult. He had even written a book about such phenomenon that his spiritual organization would never publish. The first time I met him he showed me some secrets of telekinetic ability. He would motion his hands toward the trees and the trees would begin to sway as if they were influenced by the wind when the air was actually quite still. He spoke of how certain trees were more “evolved” than others and therefore more receptive to the energy that he was sending them through his hand motions that made them dance in vibrant ecstasy. He explained that he channeled “cosmic love” and then sent this love into the trees. It was a very poetic form of nature mysticism. To this day I can’t say it was a form of gross vanity or exhibitionism on his part, but rather a certain child-like playfulness. When meditating near him he could enter one’s mind and begin to repeat one’s mantra. Instead of a silent repetition of one’s mantra, one would begin to hear the mantra very loud and he would say, “that is the correct way to repeat your mantra.” Although undoubtedly controversial, he never harmed anybody and always expressed love. Maybe he was distracted by the occult powers in a subtle way but I don’t think of him as a fallen yogi. His master, Anandamurti, would punish him severely when he made such exhibitions, although he never completely gave them up. Hundreds of people had experiences near him as I did and can account for his various variegated mystical, wizardly powers.
His best friend was Chidghananda, who was my closest mentor and great friend. He took me into his care and even voluntarily went to prison with me when I unknowingly got trapped in the middle of an absurd revolution in West Bengal. He was different than his friend Samanvayananda in that he never exhibited any abilities but knew all kinds of things. Near him I began to think that Samanvayananda had a very subtle form of spiritual pride while my dear Chidghananda was the most humble and gentle being. It was all too common that he would respond to my inmost thoughts. I never felt he was prying into my private life but was rather guiding me along the path of greater self understanding. I used to spend hours just sitting with him without even speaking. Just being in his presence helped my meditation greatly. One always felt a gentle, warm glow in the spiritual heart while being in the presence of Chidghananda.
The possibility of past lives and reincarnation is still a great mystery to me. I have no definite opinion on the matter. However, at the beginning of my spiritual practice I had many dreams that I was myself but in another body and in another time. I was curious as to whether this really was an indication of a prior existence or whether it was just a projection of my own mind. I decided to ask Chidghananda about this. He told me just to move forward and there is no benefit in knowing these things. He said that the law of action and reaction and birth and rebirth is really true and that we pass through many incarnations on our path to self-realization as we learn lessons and purify our physical and mental limitations. He concluded with Edgar Cayce in that perhaps you may be Hamlet in this life but perhaps were MacBeth in a past life. Because all beings are evolving from imperfections it is better not to know these details but to move forward so as not to be dismayed by previous negative actions that can dishearten one and make one give up the struggle for enlightenment.
I was relentless, however. I knew that he knew many things about me so I decided to “trick” him. I asked him if he would verify what I already thought I knew and simply tell me if I my dreams were truthful or not. He said, “alright, tell me what you know.” I told him about my dreams. He said that he also saw the very same things. I began to extrapolate a little and say things about this existence that I merely thought were true and filled in the gaps of this vague story presented to me in a number of sequential dreams. He told me that these parts weren’t exactly true and began to give me another story. I listened for just a minute. He saw my eyes wide open with bewilderment, laughed joyfully, and said “you don’t know this part yet do you? Okay, that is enough for now!” I felt like a child who was being told an exciting story from my grandfather and that I didn’t want it to end but that it was bed time and the story must finish. He never mentioned the subject again and I finally realized that he was right and felt like a little rascal for tricking him into telling me more than I knew. However, it was very useful information and helped me understand the circumstances of my present birth with greater clarity. He only spoke of my future on one occasion and told me that he was telling me this one detail for a very important reason and that in the future I would understand why he was telling me this now. 20 years later I see he was very precise and his vision and recommendations were very also precise and were for my spiritual welfare. He was an excellent example of a yogi with great discernment regarding the occult powers. He never claimed to be self-realized or have any special status. He was a true non-dualist that only affirmed the existence of the One, absolute Supreme Consciousness of which we all are part of. Regarding the occult powers, he sent me to Chandranath with a question about these powers. This made me recognize that Chidghananda looked up and respected Chandranath. Chidghananda was the greatest man I had ever met, so of course I was eager to visit this Chandranath that my dear Chidghananda recommended.
Meeting Acharya Chandranath was the greatest blessing of my life. It was as if I had met my guru, although Chandranath was a mere disciple of our guru, Anandamurti. To this day, I can see no other entity that realized Anandamurti to a greater degree than Chandranath. I couldn’t see any ego in Chidghananda, however I could see a difference between these 2 saints in that Chandranath radiated tremendous light that made me almost lose consciousness of my body just by being in his presence.
When I sat next to Chandranath and tried to listen to him speak of the Supreme Consciousness I could not understand a word he said. I felt I would float off into the infinite.He took me into himself and there was only silence and a soft. white glow. I still try to recall that experience and become so still, forget even breathing, and there is still only silence and a soft, white glow.
Soon after meeting him I would lose myself in a breathless state of trance all through the night on several occasions. Just recalling his physical presence right now makes me swoon into spiritual ecstasy. He is the one person I can say without a doubt was an “enlightened” being. He eschewed all forms of occult power but did recognize that there were certain powers that the Supreme Consciousness gives to enlightened saints. He never assumed he was one of them and said humbly that Lord Buddha had powers that he could never express. He seemed to express the idea of even a hierarchy amongst “Self-realized” beings! The Indian saint Ramakrishna exclaimed that god is infinite and just as you don’t need to know the entirety of the ocean to know there is an ocean, it is sufficient to realize just a part of god. For me, Chandranath manifested pure compassion. The energy radiating from him transformed so many people and he is seen as one of the greatest disciples of Anandamurti that ever existed. Oh, if I could have only met in physical form this guru of Chandranath. If I wouldn’t have known of Anandamurti and that Chandranath was his humble disciple, then I would have assumed Chandranath to be my guru.
The occult powers of beings like Chandranath weren’t “powers” in the sense that they are abilities that the mind can access and use by its own volition. These powers are rather functions of the Cosmic Mind that this divine mind uses to guide all beings into union with the Supreme Consciousness. A saint like Chandranath is so simple and pure that he assumed nothing about himself. Because of this great humility and knowledge that only Brahma is, Brahma uses such enlightened beings as vehicles to guide the suffering and spiritually ignorant back into loving union with our source.
Anandamurti had many disciples. The aforementioned were obviously some of his earlier and greatest ones. This isn’t to say that there may not be others equally great that came or will come later. However, these men seem unparalleled to my understanding. Once the ring of disciples grew, it was only natural that there would be others with less understanding who would be more prone to distortions and perhaps misuse of the power originally granted to them by their guru. When an acharya, or meditation teacher, gives spiritual initiation they are using certain subtle techniques that help awaken the kundalini, or latent spiritual force in the mind of the spiritual aspirant. A good acharya follows the strict instruction of the guru in the initiation process. Because of their deep understanding of the minds of the initiates and their knowledge of how to guide others, many of these teachers develop occult powers. A good acharya can inject one with positive energy during the initiation process and perhaps reflect a fraction of the grace of the guru. However, it is quite natural that many of these people fall into the traps of power, of name and fame, and of the privilege of being some sort of special person endowed with the ability to guide others. Instead of instructing others on the path of dharma, some may fall into the manipulation and control of others. Perhaps they need the recognition of others for their own prestige and spiritual vanity. Perhaps they want an initiate to be or act a certain way or even want money from them. These are the temptations to fall into the “dark” side of tantra. Most fallen tantrics in aren’t really all that powerful. They usually just get together with a lot of gossip and mud sling their enemies. Their negative effects on others could be easily explained in a mundane psychological and sociological manner. Defamation and slander hurts other people and may in fact deeply damage them. However, it may be that these tantrics have accumulated some power of concentration and the focus of this concentration on another may be especially detrimental. I witnessed on many occasions how groups of these acharyas would concentrate their negativity on certain individuals and greatly harm them. Just imagine if somebody with a developed intuition who can see hidden parts of one’s personality falls into a negative tendency of mind and later uses their occult knowledge to attack one’s weak points. It sounds like a fantastic nightmare, but it really does happen. Nowadays, with so many nasty political factions among the fallen disciples of Anandamurti, there is a tremendously powerful psychic mud-slinging war going on behind the rivaling factions. Each group does their new-moon kapalika meditation with negative, personal intentions instead of using their spiritual force to counter-act the negativity in humanity. Across time and space, these fallen “avidya tantrics” (avidya means ignorance) send a negative mental plasma toward others with the concentration of their minds. Only the most strong can resist these destructive influences.
The studies of Targ and Stanford with the CIA clearly demonstated the ability to transmit thought images to recepients on the other side of the planet. This psychic transmission was even possible when the transmitting subjects were inside a lead capsule which blocks all electromagnetic vibrations. I propose that along with mental images it is also possible to transmit emotional content as well. Both positive as well as negative emotions can be transmitted to others with their respective affects. One can send destructive, damaging energy to others with negative emotions and violent ideas yet also send loving and healing energy with positive emotions and clear ideas.
There are certain devious acharyas who have tremendous influence over others but those that follow them always seem to degenerate in mind. Instead of these acharyas guiding others, they end up destroying them. I once encountered a certain manipulative monk who was a great master at finding people’s psychological weak points. He made them feel special and loved as long as they were under his influence, but anyone who wants to break away from this circle always got shunned and treated in the opposite manner. This infamous “CobraKiller” (Shamitananda) always defamed the more responsible and spiritual leaders. and wanted people to follow him instead of them. He always created false rumors to defame these innocent people and convinced his circles that these lies were true. This person once tried to murder a nun with cobra venom due to his pathological obsession with her. She wanted to escape from his circle but he tried to kill her instead. He also stole tens of thousands of dollars from his very own organization. Although many knew of his crimes (I personally fought with them about it), he still succeeded in dividing the organization in North America and to this day still acts as the big daddy spiritual leader behind the North American movement. Everybody in Didi Anandausa and Dada Krsnananda’s Asheville circle knows about these crimes. Some of them have even interviewed the victim but are too cowardly to speak out. CobraKiller still comes to visit their community.
It is the most amazing example of cognitive dissonance and collective hypnosis I have ever heard of and a great blemish to the reputation of the monastic order. Many intelligent people continue to lie for him and will vehemently condemn anybody that tries to bring up these accusations. Each time somebody tries to oppose them they slander them until they never come around again. I once tried to take a stand against their corruption and some of CobraKiller’s closest conspirators created and propagated filthy, false lies about my mother! On another occasion, I protested the immoral act of a monk, yet another CobraKiller conspirator, who married a young couple and then stole the wife for himself. This monk, Krpasundarananda (Kreepy), had an affair with the wife of his very own student yet told me I was a scandalous person for mentioning it and I would suffer negative karmic consequences for criticizing others! Later, all of the clergy and even some householder teachers got together to blame it all on the young man who was severely traumatized already. I was considered a very negative person for mentioning it and once again they tried to say I was the one with the problem. Having to cover up heinous lies makes the soul sick and anybody who only slightly reveals their hypocrisy is immediately demonized and these accused project their own soul sickness on to the accuser. If the protestor is weak, then this soul virus enters one’s being and begins to eat away from the inside, feeding on one’s inner doubts and insecurities. They will try to convince you that day is night and night is day and that you really are to blame. They may have been people who once showed one the way to god with special mantras and techniques, so their lying words create confusion, contradiction, and neurosis if they are accepted.
Every single one of these teachers, or acharyas, know this monk is an attempted murderer. Before these fiends tore apart the deceived and desperate young man like a pack of wild jackals, I spoke with Kreepy and Peter Fleury about the CobraKiller conspiracy, who are both acharyas, or meditation teachers. At this point I was still trying to see if there was any substance left in the order. I already knew Asheville had sold out. Had Austin? I said I couldn’t accept that the CobraKiller is still the spiritual leader who exercises the most influence and manipulation, and how I saw it all as a shameful conspiracy. They both admitted this monk had a really dark side. Peter admitted it but said he didn’t understand how “Baba”, the guru, has allowed this to happen and that he had much to think about. It was a clear recognition of his knowledge of the incident. Kreepy gravely acknowledged its veracity as well and told me reluctantly that Shamitananda (CobraKiller) is basically a good person, but has a very dark side. I told Peter the guru had nothing to do with it, and all of this was simply the preistcraft of sheepish cowards. Later, after I made my accusations public and to test the conscience of the order, I asked Peter what he thought about it and he responded to me by saying “Who is CobraKiller?” Imagine that! From a Vishesh Yogi, nonetheless. If this is what Vishesh Yoga (the most advanced meditation lessons of tantra yoga) does to the mind, then it is better to have never bought them in the first place.
There are more and more examples like the CobraKiller nowadays, especially amongst his conspirator friends and followers. I use this example repeatedly because I was close to him and his retinue and witnessed his crimes and also because he is an epic cult criminal still at large that needs to be taken down.
People like Nabhaniilananda “Monk Dude” and his friends in North America who promote the CobraKiller as a great acharya are but slaves for Ravana, the serpent who abducted Sita in the Indian epic, The Ramayana. The crimes of these acolytes of Shamitananda are no less destructive than those of Ravana, and that is why Ravana is the classic “mahapapii”, or “great sinner.” He is great in that regard because after abducting Sita in the guise of an acharya dressed in orange so many people doubt the good intentions of all acharyas.
It is as if some kind of dark spell is cast over the minds of his followers. It is the most perfect example of what Anandamurti’s ideology is not and how one can misuse spiritual power to lead an entire society astray. Those who lie for him fall into the most perverse scandals which greatly harm others. Because they see him as a spiritual leader and use him as an example, they are under the same energetic pattern of harm that he originally used against the nun. Each new crime and conspiracy just adds to the mound of cosmic voodoo, a wretched mass of undigested mental sludge that these imposters carry yet readily slather others with when they need to protect themselves from their own dark truths and hypocrisies.
One can resonate with a saint and the spiritual energetic pattern of that saint may replicate itself inside of one and may grant a certain grace. One can also resonate under the pattern of an avidya or “dark” tantric and replicate their patterns of perversion. Sooner or later, this energetic pattern will replicate itself into actuality in the actions of the followers. They become like their guide, for better or for worse. Needless to say, strong spiritual leaders with great discernment are necessary if one is to follow the tantric path, otherwise a fall is inevitable. Tantra is a powerful path and if the practice isn’t used with moral discernment, then that very same power will be used to quicken a spiritual fall.
an excerpt from Light And Dark Tantra