Secret or Ashamed Followers
Yesterday you could read my description of proud followers, followers who like to tell the whole world about their guru and the fact that they follow him. Today I want to describe a type of followers who do exactly the opposite: they hide that they are actually following a guru.
I call them secret and ashamed followers. These are people in normal jobs and normal lives. Their family has nothing to do with spirituality and if they told their colleagues about their master, their colleagues might declare them insane. So they hide it.
It is however not only their surrounding from whom they try to hide that they are following a guru. They even hide it from themselves. These followers are actually ashamed of their feelings of needing a master.
How did they become followers then? Well, they once or twice had seen an advertisement for an event or a book which they thought to be interesting. Some day they decided to buy that book or go to that event, fascinated by that face on the cover of the book or on the advertisement they saw. They liked it, really, they thought that guru said a lot of true things. And so they start going to more events, buying more books and following this guru.
They would never wear such clothes as the usual followers and they believe that other people are getting too crazy about being followers. Secret followers think that they are above such things. But secretly and inside, they admire their guru and they keep on going there more and more often. They don’t admit it to themselves but they become real followers.
Somehow inside themselves they feel that it is not really right and not really good that one person is so important in their lives. This is why they don’t accept it for themselves and don’t tell it to anybody else. They are ashamed of what they believe in but they are fascinated and cannot stop it.
If you talk about their guru to them and say anything negative, they would agree with words. Their feelings and thoughts however would say tell them you must be lying and nothing of that is true.
These are the secret or ashamed followers. They don’t have self-esteem, they are searching for something but cannot admit that they follow someone. They know themselves it is wrong but cannot help it.
Related posts
The Dilemma of Followers: Knowing about the Crimes of a Guru but unable to accept it – 11 Sep 13
Arranging Girls for a Guru’s Lust, following him blindly even in Crime – 10 Sep 13
The Father of Asaram’s Victim: Bribed, Threatened but still standing strong – 9 Sep 13
You never wasted Time even if you have believed in fake Gurus – 13 Oct 11
Don’t do esoteric Business in spite of lost Faith – be honest – 12 Oct 11
Being a Student is better than being a Follower – 16 Jun 11
Celebrity Followers – Free Advertisement and Popularity for their Guru – 15 Jun 11
Personal Followers – always able to approach their Guru – 14 Jun 11
Mass Followers – Following Celebrity Gurus – 13 Jun 11
Yes, I have seen this kind of followers in our library. They sneak into the section of esoteric books, take out one of the books as quickly as possible, take at least two other books, novels or other ‘normal’ books, place the esoteric book in between them and then come to the counter. It is funny to watch them. As if any of us cared about what they read! But they really are ashamed of taking those books!
In the end the whole topic is only about self-esteem. If someone follows a guru, he is lacking self-esteem. It doesn’t matter whether he follows the guru openly or in hidden, if he needs someone else to give him orders on how to lead his life, he needs more self-esteem, more self-confidence, more awareness.
That sounds like a library is a really good place to watch people and their weird behaviour :)Thank you for your comment Sina!
I see it in the same way, Martha! Of course a follower always needs someone else to decide for him. And if he doesn’t admit that, it is even worse with his confidence 🙂
In my opinion, this is not as bad as someone who is blindly following a guru, spending all their money on him, and leaving behind their family and old life. At least the secret follower has his/her doubts and maintain contacts with his/her real life. There’s nothing wrong with being curious and trying out something new, or learning from the teachings and not getting sucked into the whole movement. The only issue is that this person is lying to his/her family and friends about it. If they could come out and be honest and say, “Hey, you know what, I’m interested in spirituality and have been listening to lectures from his guru. But I don’t want it to take over my life,” then it would be okay! If they knew their family and friends wouldn’t judge them for it, I think they would certainly accept it in themselves.