“The dark sea of ignorance”: Carlos Santana’s curious days in a cult
Regardless of who you are, where you come from, your religion, your belief system, and your life experience, there are two questions that persistently follow us: where did we come from? Where are we going? We can search the music of our favourite bands for answers and peruse books and art and theory, but the pages unlock nothing, and The Beatles’ discography doesn’t come close to revealing the secrets of the universe, so where are we left to turn?
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many creative people often become religious or find themselves entangled with spiritual leaders. They are in a profession that constantly asks them to look introspectively and ask themselves common questions to provide loose answers that others might be able to connect with.
Unfortunately, when you spend enough time looking inside yourself for information, and you are willing to read and learn more about the potential big answers to big questions, only one truth fact protrudes: The more you know, the less you know. Messages begin to overlap and contort, and the more you learn about the universe, the planet and the human mind, the more incomprehensible it all seems.
Subsequently, it makes sense that people would relieve themselves of these questions by confiding in someone else who claims to already know the answers. You no longer have to worry about understanding the universe, as there are spiritual leaders who already do, and all you have to do is listen to them. There are more creatives than you think who have wound up in cults because of this desire for answers about the universe.
One that you might be surprised by is Carlos Santana. While he is famous for his exceptional guitar playing and songwriting ability, a select few people for some years knew him by a completely different name: Devadip. This was a title given to him by cult leader Sri Chinmoy, which loosely translated to “The lamp, light, and eye of God”. Since leaving the cult, Chinmoy has been called out for a number of controversial practices, as well as sexual assault. At the time, though, Santana thought that he genuinely held the secrets to the universe, and so spent years with the guru.
Sanatana was in the cult alongside his wife, Deborah. He was impressed with the teachings of Chinmoy and was encapsulated by his words enough that he was happy to work alongside him. There were a few things that he disagreed with; for instance, they butted heads on the purifying nature of long-distance running; however, Sanatana stayed with the organisation for a couple of years.
The disagreement they had, which eventually led to Santana leaving the organisation, was Chinmoy’s mocking of tennis star Billie Jean King’s same-sex relationship. Given Sanatana enjoyed Chinmoy’s acceptance and love for all approaches to the world, the exclusion of gay people didn’t make sense, so he left. Chinmoy didn’t take kindly to the news and told everyone they should avoid speaking to the guitarist.
“[Chinmoy] was pretty vindictive for a while,” admitted Santana. “He told all my friends not to call me ever again because I was to drown in the dark sea of ignorance for leaving him.”
