The Mother of God [Paperback]

Luna Tarlo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1997

This is a mother's account of her experience as a disciple of her own son - Andrew Cohen, a well-known American guru - and of her struggle to free herself from his control. What had been a close, affectionate relationship slowly becomes a nightmare of domination. The story begins quiely in India and unfolds with growing intensity as Andrew, his mother, and a few people who have gathered around him, travel to England, Holland, Israel, and finally the United States, but which time Andrew has attracted hundreds of devotees to his "meetings." The abuse of power, incessant fear, and the pyschology of obsession are all explored here from an intimate perspective. Since brainwashing cults and their grandiose gurus are proliferating - in this country and all over the world - this book is not only a mother's lament, but also a finger pointing to the growing appeal everywhere of authoritarianism and absolutism.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Plover/Autonomedia; 1 edition (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570270430
• ISBN-13: 978-1570270437
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,136,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, July 29, 2003

By 

rain cloud (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Mother of God (Paperback)

The world of eastern spirituality in the USA is a small world and, if you're a member, you really owe it to yourself to read this book. Whether you buy it new, used, or even interlibrary loan it, I humbly urge you to do so.

First of all it is very, very well written. It is also painfully self-revealing, almost agonizingly so. I'd like to point out that although this book deals with an aspect of eastern civilization, we have a tradition in western civilization, too, a tradition of written history and biography, going back thousands of years (e.g. Plutarch), a tradition that says we tell the truth--no matter where that truth leads--the unvarnished, unexaggerated truth. And the fine lady who wrote this book about her son has, by doing so, placed herself squarely in that tradition. If I ever met her, I would offer her a bouquet of flowers. There is absolutely no self-aggrandizement to be found here anywhere. It is a really fine piece of work.

I read the book in less than two days, I found it so interesting. It recounts the story of how her son, well known guru andrew cohen, was "enlightened" through eastern "holy man" h.w.l. poonja. (I'd heard about this by word of mouth years ago).

However, what I hadn't heard was that upon her son's return to america, like so many westerners who play guru, he became a power-mad tyrant, bully, and monster.

(The book this most reminded me of was "Mildred Pierce" by James M. Cain, another story about a woman whose child grew up to be a selfish monster).

As someone else pointed out, no one in this story looks good. To give you a taste of the goofiness at large here--poonja claimed that several other westerners were enlightened through him, INCLUDING THE WOMAN WHO WROTE THIS BOOK. Yes! He told her she, too, was enlightened and proceeded to try to convince her of it. Having some grain of sanity lodged firmly in her psyche (like the pearl inside the oyster), she rejected this madness but did, however, become her son's "disciple." That is, until his gargantuan ego, disgusting self-centeredness and cruelty finally forced her return to reality. (Actually, and ironically, it was her meeting with U.G. Krishnamurti who triggered a mass defection from the power-mad cohen of which she was a part). This is really a trip down the rabbit hole. Residing in andrew-cohen world is like having tea with the mad hatter. Don't miss it!

Surely, Cohen is the only guru at large with the questionable honor of having had his own mother write an expose' of him!

p.s. We have something important to learn from eastern spirituality, we just haven't figured out how to do it yet. Don't give up, we'll get there somehow.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "If You Meet The Man Who Thinks He's Right, Laugh", May 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mother of God (Paperback)

This is a very interesting book. Even though I was not with Andrew Cohen's community at the time that Luna Tarlo was involved, I can tell you from my experience with the community later, that events, like those written about in this book, still take place and worse. One does not know about them until one gets more deeply into the community life and a bit higher up in the hierarchy. Luna has shown a bit of this but little does she even know the extent of the travesty ... how badly he treats people, especially women. All with the barbaric notion that fear, cruelty, withholding, intimidation, punishment, "crazy wisdom" can uproot your "ego" and lead you towards enlightenment. Like Luna illustrates, what it does do is make you more self-preoccupied, fearful, awash in self-doubt, even suicidal. Andrew Cohen is a man who speaks about the "Unknown" yet who is convinced that "he knows." That he has experienced the mystical, there is no doubt, but beware. I can only liken him to the judgmental, punishing God of the Old Testament. In fact, his method of bringing people to "enlightenment" is an outdated paradigm (rarely worked), really no different than the fundamentalist religious methods. His methodology is as barbaric to many of us as psychotherapy is to him. So little true joy and much fear and intimidation - as Luna states - in this nazi-like community. Under Andrew Cohen's "seemingly true" curiosity and interest in others, he is always only trying to prove that he is right - look at his magazine that the cult publishes called "What is Enlightenment?" from this perspective and you will be amazed at this underlying current. I've been on the inside. Andrew has very little respect and feels far superior to many of the people he interviews; many cult members spend endless time working on these self-aggrandizing pieces of Andrew's. The cult members don't have a clue. I know. I was one of them. Beneath all the preoccupation with Andrew being Luna's son etc., I think the most inportant thing to pay attention to in this book is how Andrew and the community behave. Even though the melodramatic, emotional and self-conscious tenor in this book can be very hard to take at times, this is actually the kind of self-preoccupation that goes on in this cult community -"how did Andrew look at me? What did he say to me? am I OK? Did I say the right things? What did this higher-up student say to me?" As sickening as the content of this book is, it's important to know this before you get involved. There are humble people out here in the world living truly in the light. Find them. You don't need this kind of experience to become enlightened.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Enlightenment" is a four-letter word., February 15, 2001

By 

"hongbarco" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mother of God (Paperback)

This is a truly courageous book! This book is far from a vengeful diatribe, but a sincere portrait of a woman caught up in the whirlwind of her son's sudden guru-dom. Andrew Cohen's teachings are a kind of radical eastern fundamentalism, that rejects(to the point of ridicule) the Personal/ego/suffering for absolute surrender to the Impersonal. As a result, any attempt of Luna to relate to Andrew as a mother to a son is swiftly quashed by Andrew. It becomes apparent that Andrew's own sense of security as a guru is dependent on his mother's willingness to see him as Master and not son. When she falters, he becomes possessed with a rage and impatience. Such outbursts(which were not exclusive to Luna alone) were often glossed-over as "skillful means"(teaching methods) by his disciples. Luna watches her son fall prey to the seductions of absolute power(unconditional adulation, a life free of financial worry, the freedom to not be held accountable for your actions), and wonders how such a "perfect being" could be so imperfect. On more than one occasion does he refer to himself as a "god" to his mother! In addition, his commune of disciples unravels into a sort of nazi camp where conformity and fear run amuck.

"The True Teacher knocks down the Idol that the Student makes of him." - Rumi

Andrew Cohen claims that Enlightenment is a PERMANENT state of consciousness that results in an end to suffering. When I was in college, I held similar premature beliefs of enlightenment as a sort of mystical "finish-line", that once crossed, you are forever free from self-doubt, self-delusion. At the time, I sought out numerous guru-types and Andrew Cohen was the first I met. He impressed me with his fierce unflinching views on Liberation, and how it demands total objectivity, absolute seriousness to go "all the way". During his talk, he even turned a young woman away sobbing, because it disturbed her to think that "she"(in an ego sense) did not matter. Andrew radiated that kind of beatific glow and his eyes were suffused with a knowing luster. I spoke with him and an indian woman(who I later identified as his wife, Alka) after the talk casually, and he complimented me on my genuine curiosity of "high matters" at such a young age. I purchased his book, "Autobiography of an Awakening," and though I found his adventures titillating, his teachings always seemed vague and unoriginal. Nevertheless I chalked him up as a "spiritual master", just one not for me.

Now some seven years later, I know that "enlightenment" is a kind of 4-letter word. In truth, complete ego-death(something Andrew claims) is self-delusion, a fairy-tale. Luna quotes from Joel Kramer's book The Guru Papers, that a guru feels that he/she has "arrived at a place where self-delusion is no longer possible, but this is in fact the most treacherous form of self-delusion of all, and the foundation for all the others." No matter to what spiritual heights your spirit has soared, the ego never really goes away;it all boils down to your humility, vigilance, your degree of attachment.

Andrew's precriptive means are also precocious. He believes that Liberation can be had Now, if you are truly serious in going all the way. He says that you will never really be "ready," so why not now? He preaches that the goal of ego-death demands letting go of your personal history. His method in dealing with the Ego: sever it in one swift chop!

But the only way people are REALLY going to change, is if they experience real catharsis. And the only way that they can get catharsis, is if they work through their own individual problems. You have to work THROUGH the Personal in order to realize the Impersonal/Universal. Rare is the person who is ready to be "beheaded" right now! You need to work through the kinks of your Ego, iron them out, before you can be its Master. It is an on-going process, to which there is no end. You either get better or worse at it, that's just the way it is...And that is just the problem with ACohen, he rejects any sort of existential relationship with life; he thinks you can just throw your personal thoughts and emotions into the gutter and re-start your life, tabula rasa.

I am not saying that Andrew is a complete fraud. It is obvious that his initial meeting with Poonja(his guru) that precipitated his transformation, was a very powerful experience. However the events leading up to his "enlightenment" reveal an unattached young man fragile, somewhat desparate and entangled in a highly unstable romantic relationship. It is evident that Andrew lacked the maturity or emotional health that such a powerful transmission should require. He completely identified with his "enlightenment" experience, and this led to his messianic convictions....There are other incidents that reveal Andrew as highly narcissistic. His brother Joshua relates, much to Luna's surprise, that Joshua once took Andrew to see his therapist, and his therapist later confided that Andrew was the most judgemental person she had ever met.

Towards the close of her book, Luna states, "Impossible as it may appear, unattainable as it may seem, it is my opinion that only acceptance, a deep inmost consent to life in all its contradictions and complexity, can dispel suffering." Andrew could only hope to be so enlightened! I hope that he someday does come clean, and reconciles with his mother, someone who miraculously hasn't given up on him and still loves him!