The Fascination of a Guru's Life - Westerners wanting to become Gurus

In 2005 I had several more organizers in Australia whom I had got to know over the internet. One of them was a man who had a big property, a farm. Today I want to tell you about my stay with him.

He was living on this farm together with his girlfriend and a whole lot of animals. They had cows and goats on the farm, dogs as pets and a whole lot of other animals that just felt well on the big area of their property. The house was wooden and built on sticks so that it was standing a bit higher. He told me that he had built the home by hand!

This man and his girlfriend were no farmers however! In fact, the man was working in a night club as a cleaner. He had strange working hours – of course, because he had to go to work when the night club closed in the early morning. He came back some hours later though, so he could nicely organize my programs without even taking off work.

How come this man had bought the big farm together with the cows and goat? The answer to this question was the beginning of a longer conversation in between us.

When he had been young, he had met an Indian guru in Australia and had become his disciple. He had somehow lost touch with this guru but was still, decades later, so fascinated by this guru’s lifestyle that he started his efforts to become a guru himself. One of the steps to the realization of his plan was the purchase of this farm. Another one was to start giving lectures himself. And of course, inviting me was not beside the point either.

I normally try to tell the people around me about my problem with guruism and of course we talk about my past. I didn’t make an exception in this case and told him how fed up I had been of being a guru and that I wanted to leave all of this behind. His answer however was different than what I had heard until that day: You know, you have left all of the things that I want to be and do!

It is hard however to actually live from being a guru – there are not many who actually get that far. They need another job to make sure they can afford food and living and so he worked at that night club. But that also had advantages, he told me, we could rent the same night club during daytime to give workshops and meditations there!

Yes, that’s how my workshops took place in a nightclub. During daytime, such places look a bit strange: the walls are covered with black cloth, there are disco lights all around and of course there is the bar, clearly visible, as well.

Nevertheless we had nice program and also a good time together. He became a friend who also came to visit us in India at a later point.

But I believe he never reached his goal of becoming a world-famous guru.