Perspectives on cults and the Nithyananda blissful cult-ure

From my experiences travelling around the world for many years, and spending time with the "richest people in the world" and the "poorest people in the world' one thing becomes patently obvious. Many of the poorest people are the happiest and many of the wealtiest are the least happy, stressed, worried and searching for something. In fact, the people who live in the most remote parts of the world are the happiest! Two groups in particular stand out for me, the Sherpas in Nepal, and the Inuit in Greenland and the Canadian North. Both these groups live in some of the toughest places on the planet! To spend time with either group in their natural environment is a huge pleasure, they are constantly laughing and joking and cannot be dissuaded from fun! Amazing eh? T Sherpas live between 8-14,000 feet in the Himalayas in a zone of decreasing trees, close to the tree line, where catastrophes such as landslides, snow storms, avalanches, and wild weather are run of the mill hardly a place that is “safe”. The Inuit live above the tree line, in many months of snow and darkness. Contrast this with our wealthy North American population living the “perfect life” that is leading the world in obesity, stress, heart attacks, worry and poor health.

Unfortunately the cult of materialism that most of us have grown up in has blinded us to the deeper truths of life. It is only when I step out of the society and spend time in other cultures, then step back in do I see the blatant brainwashing that is going on through the media, and that we have bought into. Stepping off a plane into the first world from some remote location my senses are bombarded by the advertising world of colours and textures and lures! There are thousands of ads for new products that I must have to look good, feel good or eat. Millions of dollars are spent on designing language and images to capture millions of us into some new purchase. Not only do we agree, we pay money to advertise those same brands on our T shirts! Most unfortnaately, the sad truth is that North Americans work hard so that they can get obese! That to my mind is a cult.

What the Vedic rishis did, and Nithyananda is doing is creating a culture totally free of the blinders of our regular lives. Nithyananda is taking us constantly into a calm state where our perception of life becomes so clear that we are aware of the many games around us and just like the Sherpas and Inuit, do not get caught in the avalanches. In our case one of the avalanches is media bombardment! Instead, I laugh my way though life, undissaded , relaxing into the beauty of being alive.