Exorcism (group)

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Exorcism was a serious-sounding group in Pune One. The groups timeline chart in The Sound of Running Water indicates it was "offered" only briefly from May to Jun 1976, but quite possibly it happened on only one occasion, an impromptu exorcism event on May 11 of that year, and was never really "offered" as such. The occasion is described at length in the Darshan Diary Beloved of My Heart:

At darshan on Monday May 10th, Deva Kripa, a danish sannyasin studying acupuncture in London, told Bhagwan that she had energy in her body which she described as devil-like. She said she had been aware of it for the past three years or so, but until recently it had not bothered her very much.
She said that a few nights ago she had been lying down and felt the energy very strongly around her navel. Her boyfriend, Satyarthi, placed his hand on her navel, encouraging Kripa to let the energy move as it wanted. She expressed concern about passing it on to Satyarthi but he reassured her that he wouldn't let that happen, so she began to relax and let out some of the tension by screaming and catharting.
"The next morning he woke up with a lot of tension in the navel, and felt really horrible for the first time. That was why we just couldn't take it any more".
In all but people who are enlightened, energy becomes "blocked"; some people having more blocks than others. A block is brought about by the repression of emotions or traumas experienced in life, particularly in childhood, which causes an interruption in the flow of the body's energy or prana, elan vital, bio-energy.
If as a child, one was forced to repress something -- for example, sexual play -- then a corresponding part of the body becomes blocked; in this case, the genitals and pelvis. If one was not allowed to express anger, a block can form in the shoulders, the neck and the jaw. While initially the repression is conscious, by and by holding in that area happens unconsciously, thus many people are never aware that their energy is not flowing as it should be.
Bhagwan often points out that very few people, and not even geniuses, use their potential to the maximum. This withholding of energy is in part, one of the reasons. Much energy that could have been used is locked up in maintaining a block.
The principle of most of Bhagwan's meditations is to allow catharsis -- a cleansing out, and a releasing of all repressions. This helps relax blocked energy, or may simply make one aware that a block does exist. Often through intense body work coupled with verbal confrontation in groups, sannyasins discover that because of blocked energy they have pain in certain areas of their body, which they had not even recognised as pain. This is what is known in Zen as "double not-knowing" -- not knowing that you don't know.
Because many many different layers of energy are involved -- physical, chemical, electrical and psychic -- when a block is broken through, there is a tremendous sense of release, a streaming. People experience an overwhelming sense of well-being, of oneness with others, of lightness, of joy. If anger was never allowed expression, love could not have been able to flow freely and spontaneously either. When one has pent up and repressed anger, its grosser vibration is more easily registered and camouflages the finer vibration that is love. Once hate, anger, flows unhindered, uncensored, the flood gates of love are also released.
When energy is not flowing freely it becomes uncomfortable and toxic, but energy itself is neutral, pure; neither devilish nor divine. Our attitude to the nature of energy is affected by our fixed conditioning and our condemnation and censoring. For example, many women are now discovering that childbirth need not be the painfully traumatic experience we have been conditioned, from biblical times onwards, to believe it to be. Women are discovering that it is, or can be, an ecstatic, orgasmic, potentially mystical experience.
Kripa was aware that her interpretation of the energy may have simply been a device, a rationalisation to avoid making close friends of people, for she said she always feared that she might transmit evil to others. Her fears were strengthened when a medium told her she did possess evil energy, and even the subsequent denial of this by other mediums failed to reassure her.
What the explanation for the energy was can only be guessed at. Bhagwan maintained a noble silence on the subject, grinning enigmatically throughout the whole proceedings!
If Bhagwan has a dictum, it is that of total acceptance of all that one is, of all that God has given one. If He has seen fit to bestow anger, jealousy, greed, on one, it is for a purpose and can be used creatively, can be a tool for one’s growth. In the tradition of Zen, Sufism and Gurdjieff, Bhagwan uses every situation as a potential learning ground. He could have himself relieved Kripa of her troublesome energy, but instead he chose not only to involve other sannyasins in its removal, but enabled what was experienced as negative energy in one person to be used creatively and positively in another.
At darshan, half-laughing, half-crying, Kripa asked Bhagwan if she was crazy. He reassured her that she was not, and chuckling a little, asked Kripa if she really wanted to be free of the energy. Kripa says she then experienced a moment’s hesitation. Bhagwan had said he knew someone who could use the energy, so she immediately began to wonder if she wasn't giving away something valuable. Nevertheless she decided to go ahead and transfer the energy to someone else if this could be done without causing any harm.
Bhagwan turned to Pujari and said that he would be able to make use of the energy. Pujari enthusiastically agreed to gather together the music group after darshan and meet with Kripa in a room in the ashram, to undergo what became known as "the exorcism".
Bhagwan suggested that Pujari and Kripa sit opposite each other, and as the music got underway, allow themselves to be lost in it, to be in a letgo. As the music came to a climax, perhaps after half an hour or so, Kripa should rise up and allow the energy to come to a peak and be released. Pujari should remain seated but with arms extended towards Kripa in a gesture of receptivity, and should keep his eyes open and on her all the time.
As the ashram's music group had already disbanded on Monday evening, Pujari arranged that the transference of energy happen tonight [Tues May 11]. Word spread rapidly around the ashram, so that by eight o'clock in the evening there was a room of sannyasins -- between thirty and forty -- awaiting the arrival of Pujari and Kripa.
Pujari was very excited as he made his way to the ashram at the appointed hour. He said that he understood that the energy which he was to receive was in fact only experienced as negative by Kripa because she had been trying to repress it. He was keen to experience the evening as fully, as totally as possible.
Walking into the room, I experienced right away how sincere everybody was. I felt there to be so much love around that I thought that whatever happens, I’ve got these people around me. If I'd been on my own in another situation, I would have felt a lot of apprehension and fear, but because it was Bhagwan who said to do it, it didn't matter what happened to me.
Many of the sannyasins present expressed feelings of a oneness, a sense of family, and several said how it felt beautiful to be helping one person through the combined love and support of many sannyasins.
Bhagwan has talked frequently about the community that is growing up around him now. As the ashram is expanding physically, so more people are able to be accommodated; at the moment there are approximately ninety resident sannyasins. Because so large a group is living, working and meditating together, a sense of kinship is steadily growing. It is hoped that one day the ashram will be self-sufficient so that no energy is dissipated. Certainly, even now, at what is just the beginning of the growth of this community, love, friendship, a tolerance of each other and a deep commitment to one's individual growth and the growth of the group, is running deep in the heart of the ashram.
Kripa described her feelings during the energy exchange:
When we met I felt as if the energy was really knocking around inside of me and wanting to come out. I felt I could really trust everybody and felt good that I could just let it all out. When the music started, I felt at some point that Pujari and I were moving together, that we were connecting. Then I got to my feet and I felt completely possessed.
My whole body was filled with the energy and I was surprised how much I could feel it in my arms and hands. It was really rushing out of me. I would just watch my hands doing all these movements, and it was as if I couldn't do anything ... it was just happening.
Sometimes there was a pain which came in waves from my hands and from my vagina and womb. A lot seemed to be coming out ... And then I became silent and quite blank. At the end the energy started melting as if there was no block now ... as if the energy were departing. I felt a sort of dying.
Pujari too, commented on the force and the intensity of the energy rushing from Kripa's body, and particularly her hands:
I remember it felt like rain coming down. My hands felt really hot at certain times, and when I looked up, Kripa’s hands were right above mine. As she put them closer it felt as if the energy was being pushed down.
I felt it deeply ... I lost track of time.
Pujari added that after a time he began to tire and to ache in many parts of his body, but no sooner would he register a new area of pain when hands would be there, touching, soothing; hands that seemed full of love and care.
Kabir, the leader of the music group, described the overwhelming rushes of energy that seemed to affect everybody in the room simultaneously, while another musician, Gopal, laughingly complained that for the first hour or so he couldn't hear any music -- the chanting and singing from the enthusiastic sannyasins was too intense.
Bodhisattva, the drummer:
There was this gigantic feeling of energy moving. I felt the entire room become possessed. I felt and saw in many people a vibe as if they were bringing up their own demons and shaking them out.
It had all the trappings of a movie exorcism (Bodhi should know -- he was formerly a film director) -- eerie noises, and a lot of people naked and sweating and seeming devil-like, and maddened, maddening music rising to a peak. At the same time there wasn't any ominousness at all.
It felt that something very deep was happening and involving everybody there. Everybody was there in a very deep and sincere way, all being moved down to their centres. Yet there was also a feeling of play, of lightness and enjoyment.
Satyarthi, Kripa's boyfriend, said he had a vested interest in the exorcism, as he had also been aware of the energy in Kripa -- which he described as very powerful rather than evil -- for the past three years.
In the middle of the exorcism, I felt things just building up and up. Suddenly a new quality arose in them (Pujari and Kripa). I felt Pujari really open, and felt him trying to receive and receive for what seemed to be two or three hours.
In fact, the whole thing took about one and a half hours. Gopal described the way the energy seemed to change midway:
There was a point where the energy changed. About an hour after we started, there was such a lightness in the group. The energy was really booming and it felt as if a weight was released from the room, and then the music became a celebration.
Instead of an exorcism, for the last hour it was celebration.

WEDNESDAY MAY 12th

Pujari was at darshan again, having been granted his request to attend a series of darshans consecutively prior to his leaving for the West.
Bhagwan asked him what had happened on Tuesday evening.
PUJARI: "I was a little disappointed when I woke up in the morning and I didn’t have a tail!"
Pujari went on to describe the events of the evening, saying it all seemed like a tremendous gift.
As soon as it was over I felt really weak. I had to lie down.
After that it was just all love ... people touching me. I just floated out!
Very good, Pujari.
And this devil is a very sophisticated and modern devil so he has no tail! (much laughter)


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