Govinda's Testimonial about Sat Yoga and Shunyamurti :

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I had a powerful and wonderful time at Sat Yoga Ashram for 2 months in 2015. It might sound in contradiction with what I am sharing below yet it is not. This experience felt like pure magic to me and was the stage for some profound realisations. I have been seduced by Shunyamurti and his beautiful ashram, his discourses and charisma. I have loved the people living there and their devotion to the spiritual path. This place is where a new life started for me as "Govinda" in a new state of being. I am feeling forever connected to this ashram and grateful for my stay there. 

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I feel grateful to have been witness to this striking display of virtuous posture fully repressing, projecting and hiding the sinful and unrighteous. I have been witness to that attempt of self-control and judgemental repression of the three lower chakras. I have been witness to the dark, gross shadows that attach themselves to the entities who claim to lead from higher centers of consciousness while having bypassed the full activation and reveal of their lower centers.  I have been witness to the subtle mechanisms through which such entities deceive themselves into seeing themselves superior to others and deserving a special treatment and admiration from others, yet posturing as fully humble. I have benefited greatly from being witness to this incredible scene, and I would have had difficulties to believe it if I had not experienced it with my own eyes and heart. 

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I love Robert Shubow and I believe he will reverse course in this life or another. He will realise that the path he is engaged on is a dead-end and he has been duped by his powerful shadows. I am offering him my assistance to bring the pain in his soul to the surface to finally be owned so that he might get a taste of that true state of integration and wholeness. I am looking forward to meet him in full authentic expression and I am looking forward to visit Sat Yoga Ashram again, relieved from the shadows of subtle coercive control and psychological and emotional manipulation and repression. 

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It is a glorious journey and each shadow is teaching me, inviting me into a greater state of wholeness. 

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Below you will find my writings about Robert Shubow, my understanding of his functioning and patterns, and the primary reason why he has adopted the posture of a spiritual teacher.

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Narcissistic Patterns of Robert Shubow aka Shunyamurti

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Robert makes everyone feel like he has a special relationship with them, he makes everyone feel like they are a special one. Every follower of Robert is idealised. You are being put on a special pedestal but every time you don’t give Robert what he needs, he will subtly or overtly make you feel like you are falling from the pedestal and he will then be there rescuing you from the fall. As this brings you back in line with what Robert expects from you, he will slowly bring you back up to your pedestal.

This emotional game disguised as spiritual guidance lasts only as long as one accepts to see Robert as he wants to be seen (faultless, flawless, always right) and only as long as one behaves within Robert’s acceptable framework. As soon as one distantiate oneself too much from providing the appropriate form of recognition and admiration towards Robert, or as soon as one behaves outside the framework that Robert sees fit, the idyllic relationship will end and one will become completely meaningless to him : the idealisation phase is followed by the discarding and devaluation phase.

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If you are a part of the Narcissistic Supply of Robert, or if you are a potential newcomer into his cult (the Narcissitic Supply), you will be idealised and you will be made wonderful promises. It is only when you stop feeding the narcissistic complex of Robert that he reveals his true face to you. If he fails to get you back in his narcissistic supply through covert emotional manipulation (activating your fear, guilt, unworthiness), you will be thrown in the devaluation phase : he will criticise you, covertly or overtly put you down and will fully withdraw from you emotionally.

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This devaluation phase has three goals : First it depicts you as an abusive or unstable person and prevents the true abuser from being exposed. Second, it is provoking and trying to prove your instability to others when you try to reply to his accusations, hopefully with anger. Third, it gives him a chance to get you back into the trauma of the abusive relationship as you fight the rumours about you.

For these reasons, the most appropriate way to respond to the discard and devaluation phase of the relationship with the narcissist is to go full “NO CONTACT”. 

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I have very rapidly gone from being excessively idealised by Robert during which he would say I was the “luminous one”, the “generous one”, I was ready to give sessions to others, I was the “successor”, I was going to “play a big role here” etc... and have shifted instantaneously when my behaviour triggered him and after my departure to a brutal phase of being devalued, put down and criticised. The true reason didn’t lie either in a change of my inner state nor my actions but in that I have been given the responsibility of a brutal loss of Robert’s precious Narcissistic Supply in the form of a long time follower of his that I will call X. Suddenly, Robert felt himself not being the alpha male in the life of X. Through the revelation of the resonance between our souls, even in perfect respect of the ashram's rules and guidelines, Robert felt that someone trespassed his property without his consent and he could not tolerate it, revealing the profound narcissistic pattern hiding in his soul and disguised as a guru.

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Although my shift from idealisation to devaluation has been extreme in both scope and speed, virtually all other past members or past potential members of Sat Yoga have experienced the same pattern and have been discarded and devalued as they walked away. In most of the cases, Robert will do this in a disguised way, pointing to the “dropouts” indirectly, referring to their character traits, and tendencies and painting them negatively and as fallen. Those who leave are fallen and have no chance to ever see the light, only those who stay are in the right. Thus maintaining the fear of leaving in his followers and their need for validation of being there. These attacks of the dropouts also creates a complex and a fear in the “dropout” not to reveal the mental and emotional manipulation that he recognised in Robert as he knows that this attempt to reveal these shadows will only reinforce the attacks directed against him and provide another “proof” that the “dropout” is lost in external projection.

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Narcissists of the type of Robert Shubow struggle to attract and maintain followers due to their need for excessive admiration and to validate their own fantasy of spiritual greatness. They are able to adapt their personality to appear pleasing and to suit the needs of different situations and people. However, when it is about attracting genuine and advanced spiritual seekers and keep them engaged, it becomes a difficult task because mature souls are the ones that most easily recognise the manipulative patterns and repressed energies of the narcissist. This is the reason why most followers of Robert have left him over the years.

 

The Narcissist is possessive and jealous over you. Robert told X : “you have to choose me or him!”. One of my friend, ex participant in sat yoga, told me the story that Robert asked her to receive a letter from her previous spiritual teacher in which he confirmed that he fully released her to Robert. Of course her teacher laughed at the request, but Robert had actually been serious. He will not tolerate that you mess around with another teacher. Robert will not share you. If you go to him, you will have to become his exclusive property and he should be given more power over yourself than even you have. Of course, this is for your good only. Robert will also dislike to share you with your parents, children or other family members and will encourage separation from all family, except the family that could potentially join his narcissistic supply. Even the mothers will be subtly manipulated to fully withdraw themselves from their role and feelings towards their children. Robert even does not like to share you with other community members and will encourage to be as solitary as possible. Of course all of this is disguised under great spiritual truths that we are beyond our biological family, that we don’t need social interactions and that we don’t need relationships. We only need one relationship : the relationship with the Guru (him) and it is a relationship of unconditional admiration and acceptance of his “guidance”.

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Each follower is encouraged to have only one relationship, yet the relationship is a toxic one, because it leads them to mistrust their own instincts and interpretations of events and rely on an external validation that carries an emotional charge.
It is widely believed that the best way to extract oneself and heal from an abusive relationship with a narcissist is to fully and swiftly leave the relationship and completely stop all contacts. All attempts to talk to the abuser and reflect to him his behavior are futile. In the case of Robert Shubow, the depth of the narcissistic manipulative patterns combined with a high level of intelligence makes it very difficult to leave for the most fragile of us and for those of us mainly situated in the mind.

Robert constantly denounces narcissism in everyone, including in his followers. It is reminded again and again to everyone that everyone suffers from narcissism (except Robert).

It is difficult for the narcissist to share space with people who don’t admire him and on which he has no control or influence whatsoever. The narcissist has to be the main center of recognition and attention of everyone. If too many of such “non­followers” enter his space, the narcissist will start to feel uncomfortable and quickly lose his balance. He will have to either reject the foreigners or leave the space to be alone and wait until the departure of the invaders from his “pathological narcissistic space”.

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Sarcasm and criticism

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Narcissists specialize in sarcasm, especially when it puts other people down. Robert Shubow exemplifies this trait of character and regularly puts down other teachers, approaches and methods in a sarcastic tone. Only his “atmanology” is “the real thing”, only his disciples are “serious” and all other spiritual aspirants are only deluding themselves. Robert will excuse his regular judgemental vibrations and words by saying that this is not judgement but “discernment”. However, the label does not matter. What matters is the vibration. Even if what he says seems intelligent and witty, the underlying reality is a stream of vibrations of contempt and superiority.

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Hubris, Snobbism and Arrogance

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Like most of the people who suffer from narcissistic personality disorder, Robert often displays snobbish, disdainful, or patronizing attitudes. The words that he speaks are often spoken with great clarity and intelligence which usually gives a form of legitimacy to the subtle attitudes.

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The greek word Hubris, is a form of arrogance in which a person considers himself to be higher in status than other ordinary mortals. In other words, a god. Arrogance and snobbism are an attitude and energy that emanate most strongly by Robert Shubow as well as other persons closest to him in the leadership and organisation of the ashram. However, this snobbism is intelligently disguised...

Indeed, it would be unacceptable to be obviously arrogant and manipulative in a so­called spiritual setting. For this reason, a more subtle form of arrogance is being adopted. The strategy adopted is to point to or display evidence which, hopefully, leads others to reach the right conclusion by themselves. Robert constantly wears a mask that says : “Look! I’m not being arrogant. I’m not saying I’m better than you.”. Yet he draws other to the conclusion that he is beyond everyone and everything and does not tolerate other opposing perspectives. Robert will carefully avoid saying favorable things about himself, he will only imply them and let his followers do the rest of the job, subtly validating them when they say he is “Self ­Realised”. Robert will usually not praise himself directly, but he will put down everyone else constantly. Arrogance is an attitude that is constantly encouraged in Sat Yoga. “We know better than others”, “Only our work is valid”, “Others are being mislead”, ...

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Externalisation of shame

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The following paragraph by Daniel Shaw explains very well the pattern that Robert uses to avoid facing the feeling of shame :

“​The Narcissist arranges for dependency and its accompanying shame to be kept external, assigned to belong only to others, so as to protect himself from self ­loathing and ultimately from decompensation (psychic death by shame). Contemptible, shameful dependency/weakness/badness must be continually demonstrated to be « out there », not « in here ». The Traumatizing Narcissist virtually colonizes others, using the other as a host, as it were, onto whom to project and control his unwanted and disavowed affects and self states connected to dependency, especially the shameful sense of neediness and inferiority.”

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Suppression of the subjectivity of others

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Daniel Shaw also explains how the traumatising narcissist keeps his followers dependent and unable to go towards independence :
“​The traumatising narcissist sees only his own needs as valid and characterises the follower who tries to express his needs as needy, selfish and dependant. At the same time, the traumatising narcissist cannot bear the possibility of being surpassed and not needed by the follower, and so must undermine the follower’s efforts towards independence. This is of course a perfect double bind. Unable to be anything but dependent, yet still attempting independence, the follower of the traumatising narcissist is condemned either way. He comes to associate dependency with shame and humiliation, and independence with rejection and abandonment.”

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This double bind is an important element of the dynamic at play that maintains followers in the cult. All emotional and spiritual dependencies are shameful and frowned upon (example : with family or other gurus), except the dependency on Shubow which is praised. The opposite is also true with emotional and spiritual independence which is painted as the ultimate goal and even expected from his followers, except independence from him which is denounced as an attempt of the ego. Emotional and spiritual independence from Robert Shubow is not tolerated and quickly leads towards the rejection from the community.  

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This mode of functioning implies that the apparent emotional and spiritual independence gained at the Ashram is only a compensation or balancing of the emotional and spiritual dependance that is being created with Robert Shubow. This harsh reality is revealed to the follower when the relationship with Shubow collapses. 

 

 

The three levels of relation with Robert

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Unhealthy narcissists need other people around them to sustain them and feed them resources and narcissistic supplies (Ransky:1998). Shubow needs the admiration and recognition from his followers as well as their free work to sustain him and invest their energy in his dream. Mostly he needs their validation to sustain a positive feeling about himself and escaping the pain of unworthiness. Authors such as Tucker and Ransky have basically defined 3 levels of affected persons which come into the narcissist's world:

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1. A potential. A potential is someone who the narcissist has attracted into their world, and must be assessed for exploitation and utility value. Narcissists view everyone in terms of what value or use does that person have for them. Curious seekers of healing and spiritual insight often are the primary source of "potentials". Since Robert is also a psychoanalyst, each “patient” is seen as a potential.

2. A follower. A follower is someone who has been groomed, seduced or manipulated into the reality of the narcissist, and will be supportive but not slavish to the narcissist. Narcissists work on these persons as they cannot trust another's independence and free will in areas of concern to them. This level is in an enmeshed or deceived state but as a person is still a separate functioning identity. The person still has a separate operative identity but the narcissist has already started gaining leverage by overturning held beliefs, values, attitudes, and sympathies which are of importance to the narcissist. They have been able to gain a degree of trust and acceptance, and a degree of rapport has been established. The narcissist from their side will have already identified the strengths and weaknesses of this person, and have commenced the seduction of the person deeper into the reality of the narcissist.

3. "Sidekicks" or blindly loyal pawns. This inner most trusted group are co­dependently engaged with the narcissist, and are overly­loyal, compliant, and unaware they are no longer operating from conscious free­will in areas of concern to the narcissist. They put up with whatever treatment is meted out and will collusively abuse with the narcissist out of acts of demonstrated "loyalty". They are under some form of emotional and/or mind control by the narcissist. The person normally has low self esteem, has a history of putting themselves second to others needs, may be a "caretaker" personality, or only feels loved, understood, supported or important when in the company of the narcissist. Most of the long term residents of the ashram have become loyal pawns over the years but the most important of them in Shubow's narcissistic supply are Mahalakshmi, Jagdeesh and Saraswati.  

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Culture of Secrecy

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There is a complete management of the information within the community : what is confidential, who can hear it and who cannot. This strategy is called “compartmentalizing”.

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Robert gathers large amounts of informations from his frequent individual sessions with his followers and personal emails with them. Meeting only one person at a time allow him a greater control of his followers and allows him to prevent others to see how he pulls the triggers of each person.

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In the community, the informations, responsibilities and privileges are shared according to the five hierarchical statuses of the followers (from Diksha to Swami). The status of each follower is dependent on a mixture of seniority and presupposed spiritual maturity. In practice, it is the ones that are the most deeply and blindly surrendered to him and the most useful to his goals that are recognised a higher status in the hierarchy.

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This form of functioning is similar to the functioning of the secret societies where information is shared according to the hierarchy instead of being shared freely. Secret societies are the root cause of the abusive nature of the financial systems and most governments of the world. They control not only government but also mainstream healthcare, medias, military, music, movies... The state of the world that Robert denounces so much is due to the concentration of power at the top of secret societies. A model that he happily replicates if it means having him at the top of the pyramid.

However, even this hierarchy is not disclosed to the newcomers, neither the requisites to reach each status. X told me that I was a Pravartak when I left but I had no idea about it. An ex­satyogi was pushed to take monastic vows in front of the whole community although he didn’t want to and had not been warned about it. Robert being aware of his wish not to take the vows tried to use social pressure to make him “take the jump”. He didn’t accept and Robert reacted with anger and frustration, ending the relationship with him.

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Whenever a piece of information is being shared with someone, it is accompanied with a warning relating to its degree of sensitivity: “I am telling this to you but don’t say this to others”. Some visits of the land were organized for me privately, but I was asked not to talk about it to others. The development plans of the ashram were shared with me because of my offer for financial donations, but I was asked not to share these plans with anyone.

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People are not allowed to ask questions openly about the direction of the ashram or anything else than their own guidance because to ask questions means to question the omnipotence and omniscience of the leader, which is strongly frowned upon.

For Robert, information is power, he therefore manages carefully the dissemination of pieces of information among his followers to have only the desired result. The fact that information is power to Robert is exemplified by the fact that Robert reads and accumulates books about all imaginable subjects. Very symbolically : all sessions with Robert take place in his library filled with books from the floor to the ceiling. The books are made very prominent and are ordered very neatly by subject.

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The greatest secret that Robert keeps is the secret about his personal thoughts and feelings. Since my first meeting with him, I had the feeling that he didn’t want to let me know anything about himself. The exchange was mostly unilateral : I was talking and he was validating. Despite him telling me that he “looked forward to develop a deep friendship with me”, he made me sense that I had to pass his tests before he would grant me further entrance towards an open hearted sharing with him. His heart was mostly closed and he kept his inner thoughts and feelings a secret. When I asked him how he was feeling during a meeting with him, he would turn the question away.

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Following Ramana Maharshi

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I was attracted to Sat Yoga due to the preliminary impression that Robert was finding inspiration in the Heart and Wisdom of Ramana Maharshi. Robert praises Ramana Maharshi and pretends to be his disciple, however it is just part of the scene that he fabricates around him and he does not follow any of Ramana’s teachings and ways.

• ­  Ramana warned against the use of the intellect to approach Truth. Ramana says the Heart is everything. – Robert says you have to “think your way out”. Robert says Perspective is everything.

• ­  Ramana warned against forcing the third eye open and situating oneself there. Robert escaped from the state of his soul and settled in the third eye assuming a position of superiority.

• ­  Ramana was warning against creating any form of organisation with initiation, hierarchy and statuses of disciples as they only reinforce the spiritual ego, everyone could come to him without condition or distinction – Robert relies on the creation of such an organization and hierarchy to organise his sangha and to control his followers, he calls his organization a “spiritual order”.

• ­  Ramana was easily approachable by all and natural in all social contexts and was exposing himself to be seen in all contexts of daily life – Robert is generally difficult to approach apart by a few select disciples.

• ­  Ramana never asked anyone to see him as a guru or guide or to follow his orders, he had no interest in having any power or control in anyone or over his ashram – Robert directly or indirectly asks everyone to see him as a guru and there is no other way to relate to him. Robert demands full and complete power over his ashram and over the life of each and every person living in his ashram.. Any reluctance to submit oneself to Robert is being pointed to (judged) as a lack of faith in the guru and a strategy of the ego. Any disagreement with him over his decisions is pointed to as a lack of surrender or “unreadiness” from a place of judgement, frustration or even anger.

• ­  Ramana didn’t criticise others or other approaches, he often encouraged people who came to him to continue their spiritual practice ­ Robert criticises numerous approaches and teachers especially contemporaries and puts down all approaches, methods and perspectives that are not his, often with a sarcastic energy. He wants his followers to see validity only in the approach that he shares.

• ­  Ramana didn’t make comments that cultivated anxiety about the future. The future had no relevance to him. – Robert cultivates feelings of fear towards the changes that are taking place and coming in the future. He compensates it with idealisation of the future of his followers if they meet his conditions.

• ­  Ramana reveals the fakeness of the feelings of guilt, unworthiness, fear by turning the attention back to That to which these feelings arise. Ramana made everyone felt loved and accepted the way they were. – Robert entertains these feelings by incorporating their vibration in many of his verbal transmissions and influence others through the subliminal activation of these feelings even while talking about the illusory nature of these feelings and the necessity of their transcendence. Robert keeps his followers in guilt, unworthiness, fear and also their opposites like hope, false superiority to others, and the need to be validated, this allows him to keep them under his control and in service of his project.

• ­  Ramana encourages one to use one’s own sense of discrimination. – Robert says that everyone is too psychologically damaged to be able to trust oneself and only HE can be,trusted to discriminate adequately. He will only encourage others to discriminate when he knows he has complete control over their way of thinking.

• Ramana strongly discouraged his devotees to abandon their worldly and familial responsibilities in order to take sanyas. He said doing so would just make one replace their worldly ego by a spiritual ego. He encouraged people to turn towards the Self in the midst of their usual life. ­ Robert encourages to cut all ties with family and relatives that do not follow him. People should live on his land, cut all ties with family and work and should take sanyas.

 

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Guidance into dependency

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Unlike Ramana Maharshi, Robert, suffering from profound traumas in relation with the mother figure and suffering from the associated form of narcissism, would be incapable of genuinely guiding others spiritually. At best he can use his vast knowledge of psychoanalysis and most sciences and his intelligence to provide some help to uncover psychological issues and guide others through their life from his intellectual understanding and knowledge. This is a very different proposition than the one he seems to be making : the guidance from a spiritually liberated soul.

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It is a very different proposition, because it comes with all the dangers of the pathological degree of narcissism. Indeed, Robert will help you uncover your psychological traumas and find some level of mental cohesion, maybe even help you let go of some heavy emotional or mental blocks, he will listen to you, but this process will mainly give him a great knowledge of you and your weaknesses and allow him to manipulate you more easily to give yourself and your resources to his adulation and to his project. It is only because you agree to be a part of his narcissistic supply or because you are paying him one hundred dollars per session or both that he is giving you his attention. Over the long run of a relationship with him, one will gradually be disempowered and more dependent on him than ever.

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The relationship with Robert destroys the links of the followers with their own subjectivity, replacing them with the multiple projections of Robert. T​ he destruction of these links will gradually make all spiritual progress by his followers impossible as they are manipulated to adopt a dissociative state to become good objects for him. Being a good object is being disguised as righteousness and righteousness disguised as spiritual progress. The follower imprisoned in a dissociative state is being praised by Robert because he behaves like a good object (puppet).

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Rewarding the follower’s willingness to serve as the guru’s object, while denouncing the experience of subjectivity of the follower from the ideal of spiritual perfection. Robert blocks the natural development of the psyche that has to go through the complete experience and acknowledgement of individual subjectivity by pointing to the ideal of the fully transmuted

psyche of a few very rare souls that are exceptionally mature and developed. The ultimate truth of the transpersonal flowering of consciousness is being sold by Robert Shubow to those who have yet to fully develop as autonomous, balanced and harmonious persons. This ideal of transpersonal achievement is thus being used to demand from them full submission and the permanent abandonment and negation of their aspirations to complete their development and maturation as personal subjects.

For this reason, the Spiritual Order of Sat Yoga will not be able to function once Robert leaves the body. Everyone has been conditioned never to trust oneself and to rely on him at all levels.

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Shunyamurti's last email to me 

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Below you will find the last email that Shubow has sent me, after I left the ashram. Although Shubow had been inventing a variety of ugly lies about me to cut my connection to X and to scare her away from me, I was remaining at the ashram a bit longer for the sole reason of wanting to express what I saw to him and the way I was perceiving him before leaving. Shubow was refusing to talk to me and instead decided to double my "karma yoga" which basically means washing dishes and cleaning. Every day I was asking to talk to him and every day I was ignored. This circus of Shubow refusing to talk to me and increasing my karma yoga to show me "who is the boss" lasted for 5 days until X contacted me in confusion from San Jose and asked me to meet her. I therefore decided to leave the ashram immediately.