India 2: the rug is pulled out

February 9, 2008

It is only by grace that one meets people like professor
Dr. Lokesh Chandra. How lucky for me that Roxanne cultivated such a deep friendship with Dr. Chandra, who is the uncle of her first husband. This was my second visit there; my photo of him in Wikipedia was taken three years ago.

Since the purpose of this visit to India was to gather information that would help me write the commentary for Ganesh Baba's manuscript, I showed the professor what I had finished so far and asked for his comments.

His response totally threw me. After remarking that the layout looked very nice, he told that he disagreed with the basic premise. Let me share the synopsis I sent to the publisher:

"Ganesh Baba (Shri Mahant Swami Ganeshanand Saraswati or Giri, c.1885 – 1987), the ever-edgy embodiment of Lord Ganesh and original outrageous Psychedelic Swami, left behind three book-length manuscripts, all serious works: carbon copies of carbon copies covered with his handwritten corrections and commentary. Crea Sadhana, a manual for spiritual practice, is the first of these to be published. Written at the height of the sixties, Ganesh Baba’s message of systematic synthesis of the spiritual and the secular through ancient and modern science is more relevant today than ever before.

Crea (for “crea”-tive) Yoga is a unique set of exercises and understandings evolved from the tantric practices of traditional Kriya yoga carefully culled for contemporary students, particularly those whose path includes the use of marijuana and other entheogens. A balanced, accelerated, self-perpetuating process of physical, biological, psychological and spiritual integration, Crea is based on a deceptively simple numerology and the open-hearted belief that all religious paths have the same end.

Crea Sadhana contains the core of Ganesh Baba's teachings, beginning with conscious control of one's posture, breath and attention, and extending to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. Like the god whose name he bears, Baba's words and diagrams break through the barriers of current cultural and personal thought patterns, and continue to reveal their secrets long after one finishes reading."

The part with which Dr. Chandra disagrees is that, at an essential level, all religions share their genesis and goals. That idea, he explained, rose out of the linking of East and West in Calcutta during the decades before and when Ganesh Baba lived there, a convenient new concept arising from the need to get along, and not one with a longer history or any real credence. He gave me the names of the Brahmo and Arya Samaj to look up, and talked about the Bengali Renaissance, and suggested I read the history of the Theosophical Society.

I responded politely but the rug was gone. I stood uneasily on the rough floor wondering how I would ever regain solid footing.