August 20, 2025
When teachings are taught they are not understood, but misunderstood. When someone like my Gurudev said, "Spiritual institutions are a dire necessity," someone else jumps up and says:" 'I' have understood what the Master means". The shadowy personality, the ego, thenceforward takes over - and censors further teaching to suit itself. The ego has 'understood' the teaching and henceforth becomes the Master's self-appointed messenger or interpreter. If the Master had also said something else like "Beware of institutionalism," the ego assures itself that such admonition is for the other fellow.
Of course, spiritual organizations are necessary: it is easy to see in Nature that all living things are organized, that nothing living is without 'organ'. It is through an organization that a teacher works and teaches: in other words, the instrument used by the teacher is the organization. In olden days there were the 'gurukulas', the hermitages,- and later the Buddhist Sangha and later still the ashramas, etc. There were organizations which naturally grew around a great teacher during and after his lifetime.
But what makes them 'spiritual'? Here we run into difficulties, for the spirit cannot be defined at all. If the spirit is absent the 'organism' dies. Of such an organization whose founder had passed away, the great wise Rajaji said to me, "When the life has gone, the shell remains: but the dead shell is hard to break". The ego converts the shell into a real hell.
In such a hell, one ego dictates rules for the weak to obey and the strong to violate. This inevitably leads to polarization of the ruler and the ruled, to conflict, to power-struggle - it is not a spiritual organization any more, but an organization (yet more dangerous because it wears the 'spiritual' mask and commands - literally! - the adoration of the weak-vested interests).
A spiritual organization is a necessity, but a dangerous necessity. If you are constantly alive to the danger, your spirit is alive too, and you are not trapped. God be with you as Wisdom.