Cancellation is the result of emotional dysfunction, says Prem Baba, seven years after accusations of abuse

About to complete his sixth decade of life, Sri Prem Baba says he has spent the last years in collection, revisiting his own trajectory. As a result of this period of introversion, he published the book “The Autobiography of a Brazilian Yogo”.

In an interview with Breeza magazine, he spoke about the phenomenon of cancellation, the relationship between sex and spirituality, the use of psychoactive substances and told how he dealt with the moment of crisis. In 2018, the spiritual leader, considered the guru of the famous and followed by thousands of devotees, had his reputation placed in check after seeing accusations of sexual abuse against three disciples.

The complaints were filed the following year. In 2021, Prem Baba requested compensation for moral damages against newspapers that published the complaints, but had the request denied by the court.

Crisis was ‘doctorate’

According to him, the moment of falling was seen as an opportunity to deepen his spiritual evolution. “I needed to learn to deal with this world at levels that I had not yet lived. I had not known this wickedness, this side of human evil. There was a doctorate,” said Prem Baba.

“I was, at that moment, very well accepted and had an apparent unanimity, and suddenly it all turned. All the admiration turned into hatred,” he says. “They were bounds of haters everywhere. I needed this recollection.”

Probation cycle

To the magazine, Prem Baba said that he considers the moment of post-truth as a cycle of trial of humanity. “Cancellation is one of the pathologies of our time, a dysfunction created by social networks, which give voice to many who do not know each other,” he says.

“A narrative is created and end up fantasizing something about the life of a person who has no ballast with reality. It is a situation that I consider very dangerous to us as a human society,” he says.

He says he has dismissed the question of post-truth in one of the chapters of the autobiography. “I consider it to be a cycle of trial for us as a human society. It has a number of other bizarre phenomena happening in the world that concern this distance from itself, this emotional dysfunction.”

‘I doubt me’

The guru says that during the fall, he had a phase of questioning about his own, but was saved by the awareness of his purpose.

“There was a moment I started to doubt me. Where did I go wrong? Is I really the teacher who I think I am? The conscience of purpose was what held me at that moment,” he says. “I went to seek help from my biggest spiritual brothers and I also had this proof of my convictions.”

He reveals that he has overcome the crisis deepening in meditation and self -knowledge. Today, Prem Baba still has retreats in India, the United States and Bali, but now makes a more rigorous selection of those who can participate. “I’m doing a bigger filter. It’s important that the person is more prepared,” he says.

Still in the interview, he talks about the relationship between sexuality and spirituality. According to him, sex can be used for spiritual evolution, but only if the person has self -knowledge. “Sex is eminently sacred. But for lack of self -knowledge, it can be a channel of shadow, distorted ego, lust, where sex is used to master the other, to exert power, possessiveness, jealousy,” he says. If used with the correct intention, sex “enhances the union, the expansion of consciousness, the deep encounter with itself and even meditation,” he says.