Killing the Guru and Finding God: the Andrew Harvey Story.

Last updated on: September 29, 2017 at 8:19 am by Tom Rapsas

Killing the Guru and Finding God: the Andrew Harvey Story. 2017-09-29T08:19:10-06:00 Tom Rapsas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Andrew Harvey

I was recently introduced to a fellow by the name of Andrew Harvey while listening to the always enlightening Sounds True: Insights at the Edge with Tami Simon. Intrigued by what Harvey had to say, I ordered one of his books, *The Direct Path—*and came across his fascinating story of spiritual transformation and redemption.

Harvey was born and raised in India and after a childhood rich in spiritual encounters he became a disciple of a Hindu guru named Mother Meera. He followed her for 10 years, eventually helping Mother Meera gain a worldwide audience with a book he wrote about her titled “Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening”.

During this period, Harvey also met and studied with a Tibetan mystic named Sogyal Rinpoche. He was invited to help Rinpoche write a book that detailed the essence of his Buddhist teachings on compassion, the spiritual path and dealing with death and the dying. It was called The Tibetian Book of Living and Dying and it quickly became a worldwide bestseller.

At this particular point in time, 1994, all was right with Andrew Harvey and the world. He had co-authored a spiritual classic. He had discovered his guru. When suddenly, during a two month period, his whole spiritual world came crashing down. It’s a time that Harvey refers to as “the anhililation” and it shook down like this:

In a committed relationship with another man for several years, Mother Meera tells him to break with his partner and get married—to a woman—and “write a book claiming that her divine force had transformed me into a heterosexual”.
It’s revealed in the press that eleven of Sogyal Rinpoche’s female students are suing him for sexual abuse—and there are many others with similar claims.

As you might expect, Harvey is devastated, realizing that his guru “was not the divine master I had believed her to be” and then finding out that the Tibetan mystic he helped put on the spiritual map was not true to his own teachings on love and compassion.

So what do you do when you’ve reached a spiritual dead end, when all that you’ve believed in is now without meaning or relevance?

Well if you’re Harvey, you pick yourself up and look for another path. You begin by looking inward and through many hours of meditation and prayer discover “the force, passion, and transforming power of the path of direct communication with God.”

This transformation was helped along by a supernatural event that Harvey calls “the most important inner experience of my life”. A couple of years after his spiritual crisis, he decides to attend mass at a local Catholic church. After the priest had finished delivering an especially powerful sermon on the passion of Jesus’s love, he looks up at a crucifix at the back of the church to find it has literally come to life.

“For fifteen astounding minutes, with my eyes open, my entire being racked by the glory of what I was witnessing, I saw the Christ on the cross extending his arms in a gesture of all-embracing, absolute love to the whole of reality. Wave after wave of divine love invaded me…I gripped the pew in front of me as involuntary sobs of gratitude shook me from head to foot.”

Harvey points out that this encounter did not turn him into a Christian but had an immensely powerful impact on his life. It got him looking into the real message of Jesus, something I’ve explored in past blog posts including The Forbidden Sayings of Jesus and Three Bible Passages that May Blow Your Mind. From Harvey’s point-of-view:

“Christ’s real teaching was not, as the churches have claimed, about worshipping him as son of God; it was an attempt to transmit to everyone else the intimate, direct, totally transforming relationship he had himself realized with God…after all, if everyone is able to be in unmediated contact with the Divine, to be taught in the terms of their own lives directly by the Divine, then what need is there for a priest class, monasteries and temples, or gurus?”

Harvey reached the same conclusion that can be found throughout the Gnostic Gospels and one that I happen to share—that what we seek is already within and around us. It’s a point that’s referenced in what if often called “the fifth gospel”, The Gospel of Thomas: “The Kingdom of God is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father.”

To access this divine essence, Harvey recommends developing a regular practice of looking within and he spends much of the book expounding on different meditation and prayer techniques. He believes that with time and a little effort, divine consciousness and direct access to God can be achieved at all times, by all of us. Again, in the words of Harvey:

“Search, even half consciously, for a higher meaning to life, and you will find that the Divine will start to initiate you in direct and sometimes shocking ways…start to search sincerely for a higher vision, and the Divine will open for you a door into its, and your, essential truth.”

Uncategorized

Previous Post

September 8, 2012

Welcome to Wake Up Call. An eye-opening take on spirituality.

Next Post

October 14, 2012 Is my God better than your God? Mirabai Starr and the case for one God.

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 50+ Spirituality 60 Second Inspiration Activism Adversity Afterlife agape aging Aliens Angels Angels and aliens anger animism Astrology Atheists Attention Attitude Authenticity Awareness Awe Ayahuasca Balance Beginnings Being Present Belief Bhagavad Gita Bible birth of Jesus Blessings Bliss Bono Breathing Buddha Buddhism Calling cats Centered Centering Prayer Chakras Change Character Character and Aging Christ consciousness Christianity Christmas Church Civility commencement speeches commitments compassion Connecting with God Consciousness Contemplation Contemplative Prayer Contentment Conversations with God Coping Coping mechanisms Corinthians Coronavirus Covid creativity Daily practice Dalai Lama David Brooks David Frenette Death Deathbed visions Decisions determinism Discernment disconnecting Donald Shimoda Dreaming of the Dead dreams Drinking Easter Eastern religion Eckhart Tolle ego Elders Emerson Engagement Enlightenment everyday magic Everyday Spirituality Evil Spirits Expectations experience Faith fate Fatima Fear Feel Finding God Fitness Fulfillment Gandhi Gary Zukav Generosity Giving Gnostic gospels Gnostics God God's will Golden Rule Good & Evil Gospel of Thomas Gospels Grace Gratitude Grief Growing Older Guardian Angels gumption Gurus Halloween Happiness health health and happiness Heaven Helping others High Strangeness Hinduism Holiday Season honesty Honor Hope Humility impostor syndrome inner music Inner Work Insights insomnia Inspiration Inspirational intuition Investing Jeff Bridges Jesus Jesus Christ John Templeton joy joy of life Justin Bieber Kaballah Kabbalah Karma Kindness koans Law of Attraction Life Life after Death Life and death Life Balance Life Hacks Life Lessons Life Path Life Philosophy Life Plan life purpose Life Rules Life Tips Life's Big Questions Lindsay Lohan Listening Living Intentionally Loneliness Love Magic Mark Twain Marriage Meaning of Life Meditation mentor Mentors Mid-Life Crisis Mindful Mindfulness Money Monks Multiverse Mysterious World mystical experience Mysticism Mystics Mythology Napoleon Hill Near Death Experience (NDE) New Thought New Year New Year's resolutions Noise Oprah out-of-body experience Parables Peace of mind philosophy Plant Intelligence Pope Francis Positive Thinking Prayer prayers for the spiritual Preachers Premonitions presence Prophecies Prophecy Prophets Psalms Purpose Purpose of Life quietude Quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Trine Reconnect Recovery reincarnation Relaxation Religion resolutions Resurrection Ritual Rituals Rules to Live By sadness Sam Harris Sandy Second Act Seeking self Self Mastery self-help self-improvement Seneca sermon sex shamans Sickness Silence Silence of God sleep small voice Smiling Social Activism solitude Soul Soul and Spirit Soul Awakening Spiritual Awakening spiritual beliefs spiritual guidance spiritual journey spiritual living spiritual path Spiritual philosophy Spiritual Practice Spirituality Spirituality and work Spooky Spirituality Stillness stoicism stoics Storytelling Stress Relief Success Suffering Suicide Surrender tao Thanks Thanksgiving the afterlife the bardo the Bible the Blues The Election the Kingdom the secret the self The Soul Thomas Keating Thomas Merton Thomas Moore Time Tony Robbins tradition UFOs Uncategorized Universe Values visualization Voice of God Wake Up Call Wake Up Call book Walls Walt Whitman Well-being Winter Blues Wisdom words to live by Work work/life balance worry Yogananda Zen

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 July 2012 April 2012 March 2012 January 2012 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 December 2009 November 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In which Psalm do we find "Your word is a lamp to my feet..."?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Psalm 90 Psalm 23 Psalm 119 Psalm 27

Books by This Author Books by Wake Up Call

See All Titles »