Instant Energy

"In this country they have Father's Day and Mother's Day, and they might as well have a Guru's Day," said the small, closely cropped Indian dressed in a red wool ski hat, red silk robes and red knee socks. He was himself a notable guru, Muktananda Paramahansa. So, last week at a secluded retreat that was once a Catskill Mountains resort hotel in upstate New York, more than 2,000 followers staged a day-long celebration in honor of the man they consider a saint.

There were prayer sessions from which rose chants of Sanskrit verses. Then the blue lights in the meditation hall dimmed, and the faithful swayed rhythmically to and fro. Finally, Muktananda proclaimed (in Mindi, a Hindi dialect), "Now is the auspicious hour of the auspicious day. The sun and moon are strong." That heralded the main event: the marriage of 16 couples, the women in saris, with garlands of flowers. The guru, who is licensed to perform weddings as a minister in an ordination mill called the Universal Life Church, blessed the rings and said, "May you live together in love."

Muktananda, 68, known to his followers as Baba (father), is America's newest fashionable guru. With 62 centers in North America besides the Catskills ashram, he has attracted more than 20,000 devotees since his arrival in 1974. He has also received respectful visits from such celebrities as California Governor Jerry Brown, Singers James Taylor and Carly Simon, Anthropologist Carlos Castaneda and Astronaut Edgar Mitchell. At home in India, too, he has a considerable following. There are centers of his disciples all over the subcontinent. He will return there this fall in a chartered Air India 747, together with 400 American devotees and a pet bull terrier. But this is undoubtedly not his last sojourn in the U.S. Says the guru: "Americans are good, loving and affectionate, law-abiding and disciplined. They have everything material; now they are searching for and deserve to find true happiness." Americans who encounter the guru return the compliment. Says Joy Anderson, a former dancer who now runs the Catskills ashram with her husband: "He is the perfect guru for the West. We expect when we put something in to get something out --like instant coffee--and from Baba you get instant experience."

The principles of Muktananda's teachings are traditionally Hindu: "Meditate on yourself. Honor and worship your own inner being. God dwells within you as you." But whereas most gurus lead their disciples through a slow evolutionary process, Muktananda transmits shakti--energy or elemental force--in one two-day ritual of teaching and meditation called an "intensive" (fee, plus modest room and board: $100). In the climactic moment, the guru places his fingers on the disciple's closed eyes and gently pushes the head back and forth. The disciple is then supposed to feel the power flowing into him as if by an electric charge. Some people say they have experienced flashing lights, visions, ethereal sounds, and even, among women, orgasm.

Molten Gold. Muktananda had much the same experience himself when he was initiated by his teacher Nityan-anda in 1947. Inspired at the age of 15 by his first encounter with the man, he left his home in southern India to seek out various sages and swamis. Twenty-five years later he found Nityananda again: "His eyes, wide open, were gazing straight into mine. I was dazed, I could not close my eyes; I had lost all power of volition. I saw a ray of light entering me from his pupils. It felt hot, like burning fever. Its color kept changing from molten gold to saffron to a shade deeper than the blue of a shining star. I stood utterly transfixed."

The suppliants who look to Baba Muktananda for such experiences are generally older than those who follow some other gurus, and they include a high proportion of professionals: lawyers, actors, educators and a surprising number of psychologists. Attorney Ron Friedland, 35, is recuperating from a heart attack. During his convalescence, he says, he learned that "if you have taken all there is to take out of a career, and there is nothing more to aspire to, then you know you only have one-third of the pie--even if it's the fattest, richest third." Jerry Bender, 38, was making $50,000 a year in Los Angeles as the chairman of two small film corporations when he began to feel unhappy about his high-pressure existence. "Now," he says of his sojourn at the ashram, "I'm in love for the first time in my life. I'm in love with life. Before this I was in business. Today I am more creative. When I go back to my business, I'll probably earn $200,000 a year."

Says Russell Kruckman, who once taught literature at Northwestern: "I don't think people come here looking for a religion. What they come for is an experience that will give meaning and substance to their lives. You don't have to believe or profess anything to be a follower of Baba. We don't become Hindus. People get whatever it is they get from Baba, and their lives are changed."

Sometimes the changes are small indeed. A number of disciples report having donated a pack of cigarettes to the guru and thereby been freed from the desire to smoke (others, even after the guru has touched them with his sheaf of peacock feathers, still sneak out of the ashram for a quick puff). But many testify that the guru has genuinely helped them to cast off "negative emotions" and achieve a certain tranquillity. Says Muktananda of his own mysterious powers: "I am however you see me. If you see me as a saint, I am a saint. If you see me as a fool, I am a fool. If you see me as an ordinary man, I am an ordinary man." Asked how he sees himself, he answers, "I see myself as myself."

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