Talk:Eckankar

Twitchell and Kirpal Singh

According to David Christopher Lane, many ideas in Eckankar originate in the teachings of Kirpal Singh. "It was Kirpal Singh who, arguably, had the greatest impact on Twitchell and the theology behind Eckankar," writes Lane. In 1955 Kirpal Singh visited the US, and during this visit Twitchell was initiated by him as a disciple. Around this time (1956–1957), writes Lane, Twitchell confided in Betty Shifflet and Wave Sanderson (both disciples of Kirpal Singh) that Kirpal Singh would appear before him in his Nuri Sarup (light body) form over the week-end and dictate a book to him. In this regard, according to Lane, Kirpal Singh had commented: “Paul Twitchell used to write to me every week, ‘Master came and sat down on the chair and dictated his teachings to me. He published them in the Tiger’s Fang.’” And Twitchell had written at this time: “I have talked with and taken down the words of Kirpal Singh who appeared in my apartment in Nauri-raup [sic], his light body, although his physical body was six-thousand miles away in India.”

Between 1965 and 1967 Orion magazine published in installments Twitchell's piece The Flute of God in which he acknowledged that he had been a disciple of Kirpal Singh. However, when this book was published in book form later, Twitchell had scrubbed off any references to Kirpal Singh. The reason for Twitchell's desire to severe his ties with his former teacher, according to Lane, is that Twitchell had developed serious differences with Kirpal Singh. Twitchell's book The Tiger's Fang originally made several references to Kirpal Singh. In subsequent additions of the book, writes Lane, these were all changed and made to become references to the fictional Sudar Singh or Rebazar Tarzs depending on the context.^[1]

Lane quotes Kirpal Singh, speaking about Twitchell, and stating:

“I tell you one American was initiated by me—I’ve got the initiation report in his own handwriting.Then he wrote to me, ‘The Master’s Form appears to me inside.’ That form used to speak to him, dictate to him, inside. And all that dictation was put into a book and the manuscript was sent to me in 1963. Later he sent me another letter, “Return my book, The Tiger’s Fang.” I returned his book. That was dictated by me on the inner planes, and that’s all right. He changed that book before printing; where he mentioned my name, he changed it to another guru’s name.”^[2]

According to Lane one of Kirpal Singh's disciples, Stuart Judd, later wrote that Kirpal Singh was extremely unhappy with the books and letters he would keep receiving from Twitchell, where Twitchell was claiming that he had reached Sach Khand, and had compared Paul Twitchell with Judas.

Twitchell, meanwhile, according to Lane, had written to Kirpal Singh threatening to file a lawsuit for defamation and stating that:

I have never recognized you as a master, or that you give initiations, and that your work is not in the best interest of spirituality. Your teachings are orthodox, and as a preacher you are not capable of assisting anyone spiritually.^[3]

Lane comments that:

Twitchell genealogically dissociated himself and his group from key anchors in his past and in so doing assured that Eckankar would be autonomous. If he had not severed his ties to his former teachers, Twitchell might be viewed as merely an offshoot (of which there are many) from more orthodox Sant Mat lineages. As it stands, most Eckists do not know about Twitchell’s former spiritual teachers, and Eckankar literature purged most of their names from the official records as well.^[4]

Darwin Gross

Twitchell was succeeded by Darwin Gross as the Living Eck Master, who served in this position for ten years after which he appointed Harold Klemp as the Living Eck Master in 1981.^[1]Prior to resigning as the Living Eck Master in 1981, Gross had signed a contract with Eckankar which would:

pay him $65,000 for life, plus other perks such as use of a company automobile (and insurance), complete medical and dental coverage, entertainment expenses, and other assorted business expenses.^[2]

However, this contract was terminated in August 1983 by Eckankar after Gross's dispute with Harold Klemp.^[2]

Harold Klemp

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Dispute between Darwin Gross and Harold Klemp

Two years after Darwin Gross appointed Harold Klemp as the new Living Eck Master, Klemp excommunicated Gross, banned Gross's books on Eckankar from sale, and sued Gross for copyright infringement and financial misdemeanors. In January 1984, Klemp officially wrote to Gross stating that he had been excommunicated from Eckankar. In February 1984, Gross wrote a widely circulated letter to followers of Eckankar giving his perspective on his dispute with Klemp. Writing in 2006, David Christopher Lane noted that Gross is not associated with Eckankar in any way now, and has started an Eckankar offshoot called Ancient Teachings of the Masters(ATOM).^[3]