I’ve been in maybe 20 different faiths or spiritual groups in my lifetime. I’ve obviously had my share of doubts. Are those doubts validated, or are they my weakness? Before I came to Eckankar, I followed my own path believing that the Higher Self was in communion with me, guiding my steps. What Eckankar offered was a path dedicated to love. Not the hippy dippy love, but a love of the Divine that can be felt. This has helped me curb my anger with practices that uplift the soul. At the same time I have had doubts. Doubts on how to treat a figure such as the Mahanta, yet the Shariyat Ki Sugmad says that the doubt of the Mahanta is the work of the Kal force. In this post I am going to air some of my doubts in order to better understand them.

What the Shariyat Ki Sugmad Says

These are among the many things which the Kal power will try to encourage in any chela. It will even try to bring about a break between the chela and the MAHANTA. It will create all sorts of doubt in the chela’s mind as to what the MAHANTA is doing and why it is being done. It will bring about an estrangement between the ECK Master and the chela.

The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, Books One&Two, 3rd Edition (p. 178). ECKANKAR. Kindle Edition.

The Shariyat Ki Sugmad states above that it is the Kal force (the Negative force that holds a person back on the spiritual path) that creates doubts about the Mahanta. It seems pretty clear, and yet I struggle with this. Obviously I’ve had my share of doubts. I had doubts on Christianity, found a greater truth in Buddhism. I had doubts in Buddhism and so on. Maybe if I stayed a Buddhist it would have been the “right path” etc. But I didn’t, and that lead me to this moment.

It isn’t just me though, is it? Let’s be honest, for Harold Klemp to have held the position of Mahanta there had to have been doubts about Darwin Gross. When I first had interest in Eckankar I studied it like a student studies for a test. I initially thought the lineage was Paul Twitchel > Harold Klemp. It turned out there was a temporary leader, Darwin Gross, who held the position of Living Eck Master for ten years. Yet he isn’t listed anywhere. There isn’t any literature about Darwin Gross. His name is removed from the lineage of Living ECK Masters (Mahantas).

As it turns out, there was controversy with Darwin Gross and he was asked to step down as leader of Eckankar. Harold Klemp was then appointed the Living ECK Master. Looking at this event, there had to have been a violation of the Shariyat Ki Sugmad above. People had to accept doubt about Darwin Gross, in order to move past him and trust me, I am in no way defending Darwn Gross. I am simply stating a fact that my doubts are reflecting by the agency of the religion itself. We have at times doubted.

The Shariyat says that doubt of the Mahanta is the work of the Kal Force…. but is it?

The Role of the Mahanta

Is the Mahanta a “god man”? Or is the Mahanta a human being that is prone to human error? According to Harold Klemp in his lecture “A Larger Room,” he self-identifies as someone who “doesn’t know everything.” I love listening to Harold and I feel a resonance with his words. His humor. I think he is very wise. But yes, he doesn’t know everything because he’s a human manifestation. Compared to the Christian belief of Jesus or the Buddhist view of the enlightened Buddha, they were perfected beings (in the minds of the believers). Maybe they too were fallible.

My take on the Mahanta, was to treat him as an emissary for the Inner Master. When I listen to Harold’s many lectures, I find a common thread: He is teaching the audience to find the answers they need by going inward. To find the inner master. The inner Mahanta.

My confession: In that same lecture he talks about his struggles with electricity, and therein is a doubt of mine. How can the Mahanta be driven to illness by something as simple as electricity? He told his story, and immediately I diagnosed him. My ego. Perhaps you might say “the Kal was influencing me,” but I diagnosed him as a victim of psychosomatic illness. He had a car accident. Years later he isn’t improving. His body is getting weaker and more frail. Doctors tell him that he’s in perfect biological health. He says they referred him to a psychiatrist. He refuses. He claims it has to be a real illness that they can’t diagnose. His solution is to live in a way to minimize EMF. But I thought for a moment, going back to prior belief systems I was in, since this started after the car accident, the car accident is likely the cause. It would seem to me that likely during that accident he felt, or heard electricity. There might have been noisy powerlines around him, or above him. Maybe he heard an electrical signal in the car… the brain associated the trauma of the accident with the sense perceptions, which could have included the electrical signals he picked up on in that moment. When the body experiences a feeling of EMF, it brings back those somatics (the accident, the pain it created and so on.) That is why the doctors suggested a psychiatrist. Now look at me, I’m daring to contradict the Mahanta and diagnose him. I feel awful about that. But I have to admit my doubts. I have to put them on the proverbial table or else they will fester inside me.

None of my doubts lowers Harold in my eyes. I still see him as a guide to the inner. He is wise, yet I see a man who makes mistakes. I don’t see him as “god incarnate,” and if I did, others would have had to see Gross the same way. When I was a Buddhist, one thing I noticed about some Buddhists, is they had “gurus” or Llamas they held in high regard. In Tibetan Buddhism this is more common. Sometimes a leader would do something inappropriate. Sometimes even illegal. Some Buddhists would defend the Buddhist leader saying, “well they are only reflecting the karma of the witness.” There are two perspectives then: a leader is more than human and incapable of wrong, so when we think we see wrong it is simply our karma… or the leader is a human emissary of something greater and therefore capable of making mistakes, and not an idol to worship. But that’s me.

Shariyat Ki Sugmad on Buddhism

The eight steps of Buddhism are concerned with the mental regions, which have always been under the control of the Kal forces. Therefore, the ECK chela cannot afford to put his mind on the lower elements but must at all times receive the guidance of the Living ECK Master, who eventually will separate knowledge from Truth for him and show him the gap between them.

The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, Books One&Two, 3rd Edition (p. 179). ECKANKAR. Kindle Edition.

This is another of my doubts. I love the Shariyat Ki Sugmad. I find it more in alignment with truth than most spiritual doctrines, yet there is a position here on Buddhism being bound to the realm of the Kal (the negative force).

The synthesis of ideology here is that the mental realms are part of the Kal influence. Kal being a negative force (like “Satan” in Christianity), controls the physical kingdoms, the astral kingdoms, the causal (memory realms), the mental and etheric realms. Buddhism, a religion which uses a lot of reason, they attribute to the mental plane. I see that. But I do have a position to make regarding this:

Unlike faith based religions that say, “do this because I say so,” Buddhism uses logic and reason. For example: Buddhism asks, “do you want to suffer?” We say, “no,” and Buddhism continues, “well there’s a thing called karma. Every action you do returns to you. You are the cause of your own suffering. The very rendering of the world you exist in, is related to your own actions. Therefor, out of self-interest, love the enemy so your world will be filled with more love. Care for the needy, so others will care for you… and so on.” The goal of the Buddhist isn’t to do this to have a better world to live in, or a “make the world great again,” movement. Instead the Buddhist is trying to store up enough karma to power them through into a new realm of existence: Nirvana, the heavenly realms or total Enlightenment.

My Doubts are Mine Alone

These doubts I present are not to attack the faith of Eckankar. They are my challenges with things. As I digest the material, the lecture, the lesson, the inner work, I come to these points of contention that I must address.

I want to be honest, with others and myself. Recently, someone in Eckankar was somewhat rude to me. They posted a question online and when I came to help answer their question, they chided me that I wasn’t spiritual enough to dare answer their question. They said, “I’m just someone in the ‘honeymoon phase’ of Eckankar and incapable of seeing their own doubts.” Initially I was upset. But the inner master told me… “don’t answer them. Let them be.” So I obeyed. But it’s humorous to me that I was thought of as being in the ‘honeymoon phase,’ when I have my own doubts and my own struggles. I know what they mean. There are people who will adopt a new faith and everything is perfect and everything is great. But that’s not me. I am unfortunately jaded. I’ve been around the block too many times with too many religions and now I don’t wear those rose-colored glasses.