Books: Ground Zero

(2 of 2)

V.: You are the incarnation of the divine.

R. (nodding enthusiastically): You have truly understood me.

Bharati also jostles some halos in his discussion of mystical procedures. The swamis like to pretend they can snap into samadhi whenever they want, but Bharati says it just is not so. "No determined set of actions, no planning for mysticism, guarantees its occurrence." But surely yoga and meditation help? Brusquely, the author crumples yet another cherished Occidental illusion. In the finest Indian monasteries, postulants are taught that there is "no causal relationship" between spiritual exercises and the mystical culmination. At least half of all mystical experiences come un-summoned. Then why bother to do the exercises? Bharati's guru had one of those exasperating Oriental answers that answer nothing and everything: "Some plow the fields, some go to war, some to exercises."

The Christian mystic, in Bharati's opinion, has major problems. Christ made statements ("I and the Father are one"; "Ye are Gods") that seem to imply a mystical identity of God and man, but official dualistic Christianity posits an infinite gulf between the two. That gulf may be bridged by God's grace, but even then the mystic cannot be God. Fusion is heresy. Lacking God's grace, the Christian mystic must wait for it in an anguish known as accidia or "the dark night of the soul." But even when grace is given, as Bharati reads the situation, the Christian mystic must dissemble his experience through a series of tricky theological mirrors. He is a sacred maverick who goes straight to the boss over the heads of middle management, and clerical bureaucrats are usually looking to clip his wings.

Well aware that the people who run the world are seldom unworldly, Bharati predicts a "criminal period for mysticism." By promoting "supreme autonomy" in its devotees, it can "alienate . . . mind and body" from the service of the social order. Bharati estimates that if mysticism continues to enlarge its following at the current rate, meditating hermits will crowd the caves and holy men with begging bowls will clutter the nation's streets.

At that point, Bharati suspects, "some pattern of legal action will ensue." Police will round up saints as well as bums; the lotus may become an illegal position. Radical as he is, the author feels some sympathy for the law-and-order position. Mysticism is a good thing, in his opinion, for those who can handle it, but he fears that mass inflation of the transcendental could bring on an epidemic of "cosmic insanity." He wisely advises the unwary neophyte to look carefully before he leaps into the abyss of being.

Brad Darrach