Death on the Path to Enlightenment: Inside the Rise of India Syndrome
By Scott Carney, – Illustrations by Mat Maitland – October 2012 Issue
Every year thousands of westerners flock to India to meditate, practice yoga, and seek spiritual transcendence. Some find what they’re looking for. Others give up and go home. A few become so consumed by their quest for godliness that it kills them.
Jonathan Spollen, a 28-year-old Irishman with long brown hair and a delicate brogue, was at a crossroads in his life. He’d embarked on a career as an overseas journalist, working first as a reporter at the Daily Star Egypt in Cairo and then as a foreign editor at The National in Abu Dhabi. But now he was a copy editor for the International Herald Tribune in Hong Kong, approaching 30, and wondering if he liked where his life was going.
In October 2011, following a split with his girlfriend, he bought some trekking gear, sent his laptop home to Dublin, and booked a flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. From there, Spollen made his way to India.
He had visited before, spending time with an octogenarian yogi named Prahlad Jani—who claims his mastery of the ancient arts has allowed him to live without food for 70 years—and had come away entranced with the country. This time, Spollen roamed the subcontinent for several months, visiting the holy city of Varanasi, India’s oldest inhabited settlement.
In early February, Spollen called his mother, Lynda, to tell her he planned to spend two or three weeks hiking in the Himalayas near the pilgrimage site of Rishikesh, the yogaphilic city on the Ganges where the Beatles visited Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. She reportedly asked him not to go alone, but he told her that was the whole point. “It’s a spiritual thing,” he explained. He was never heard from again. Read More
Comments
This article is nothing new. Western Church is spending plenty of its resources to malign India, its Yoga and Indian in general. We are aware of the New York Times’ article on Yoga by its Science reporter. It is a hoax based on isolated cases which occur in every field. Mahesh Yogi has done a lot of exemplary work on the transcendental meditation and its positive effects on health both mental and physical. It is unfortunate that Church is trying dubious means by spreading hate and antithesis against Indian spirituality.
The India Syndrome is not only meant to malign Indian Spirituality at the lowest level but it is an attempt by those western Spiritual Seekers who prefer not to realize what the Holy Bible meant by the words”Seek ye first thekingdom of God spirit that is within and all things shall be added unto you. Meaning that all things materially shall be given to those seekers of the Truth that is resident within this Human Body. The Ancient Yogis and Rishis held this secret and sacred knowledge and imparted this secret only to their honest, committed and dedicated student only. This knowkedge has a lot to do with the successful awakening of the dormant serpentine power located at the base of the physical and anatomical spine in the human body. This knowledge may have existed with the Jesus Christ who was called Yesu Dev in his so journ in the Himalayan regions of India while he lived, Who remembers the Missing years of Christ. So all those Westerners who are after any GURU in India is to seek the knowledge of the Kundalini Shakti and nothing else. Those who got the Guru are taught the methodology of slowly awakening this powerful latent force within the Human reaches internally and not anywhere outside. Those unfortunate souls of the West may have attempted the short but dangerous courses and have faltered on the way and so the price was paid for their ignorance. We have no quarrel with any one who is seeking to do so in this day and age.At present the Sai Baba international Mission followed the True Guru in Baba and many were assisted in this spiritual pathway. The other Guru who can assist anyone along this pathway is swami Sri Sri Sri Ganapathy of the Mysore Ashram in India. He is a real Master of the Sidhya Yoga and a true Guru. He is also available in the West by his International centres and devotees. There is no truth in any Westerner wanting to commit suicide after coming n contact with a Spiritual master. The West is materialism and the East is Spirituality and the secrets of the Holy Spirit. God is God. Man cannot become God in this life and dark age of Kali.
Cyril, I agree fully with you. I post a clip of your comment, “Man cannot become God in this life and dark age of Kali.” It is not that man cannot become God in this Kaliyug, in fact it is easier to attain Godhood in Kaliyug.
Let us take the example of an examination paper. If the questions are difficult in the paper, any student who replies even little is likely to score good marks to get through. Examiner wants to pass. Hence it becomes easier for any student get some pass marks and secure.