The GURU of Glenborrodale
I can’t believe it’s not Buddha... Maserati-driving, Versace-loving mystic who promises spiritual enlightenment at his Scots castle (and it’ll cost you just £508 an hour!)
THE new owner of Glenborrodale Castle is far from the traditional image of the tweed-clad laird. Indeed, the religious guru ‘Shanti’ Mark Koppikar could be described as the most flamboyant landowner in Scotland. For the self-styled holy man, who describes himself as a Christian Hindu mystic, drives around in a Maserati sports car and favours designer clothing from luxury brand Versace.
Mr Koppikar, born in Germany with Indian ancestry, recently bought the castle on the Ardnamurchan peninsula for nearly £4 million – and plans to use it as both a home and centre for spiritual reflection.
Offering Satsangs, a form of mystic instruction, and retreats at the castle, Mr Koppikar, 55, teaches his followers how to live happier lives and fulfil their potential.
Next month he is offering a nine-day retreat entitled Freedom and Abundance for £3,600 per person, available either in person or online, with a scholarship option for those short of funds.
Promising to deliver ‘the unity of enlightenment and material prosperity’, he told The Scottish Mail on Sunday: ‘It’s not totally true that spiritual people don’t have wealth.
‘If you look at the church or Hindu teachers or Tibetan teachers, they have loads of money. It is just a concept that spiritual people should be poor.
‘I was poor for a long time, so I had no money for the most part of my life.’
He added: ‘I saw that one can be totally happy without money but I had a question in my head: “Is it also possible to be totally happy with money? Does it stand in the way?”. I have a big experiment. I want to prove that you can be happy with or without money. That is not a contradiction at all to have money and be spiritual and it is not a contradiction either to be poor and spiritual, which is more accepted.’
As well as retreats and Satsangs, he also provides instruction in an education course called The Nine Steps, for £504.
This he describes as a rite of passage, developing the four virtues of ‘honesty, naturalness, directness and simplicity’.
For remote students, he offers phone calls for £127 for half an hour or £254 for an hour.
There are also couple therapy sessions available for £508 an hour or £762 for 90 minutes. Last week at one of his Satsangs, costing £32 per head, Mr Koppikar told those present: ‘Real business is good for everyone, it is good for both sides and in an enlightened way it is even nourishing on a spiritual level for both sides.
‘I will come to that at the Freedom and Abundance retreat.’
He added: ‘We really were surprised, and intrigued and fascinated, deeply fascinated, how life can be in that realm if you are guided by truth only and not by greed or fear or concepts.’
Company records show Mr Koppikar is a director of Shanti Estates Unlimited and bought the castle in January for £3,750,000.
Born to an Indian father and German mother, Mr Koppikar trained as a banker before rejecting the profession to study psychology.
According to a biographical section on his website, he was drawn to his own Indian roots and met various spiritual leaders while undertaking religious instruction.
Describing himself as familiar with the faiths of Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, Mr Koppikar worked as a shaman healer in the 1990s in Europe, before running a centre of holistic psychology close to Munich in 2009.
Glenborrodale – a five-storey red sandstone baronial mansion – was built in 1902 for Edwardian tycoon Charles Rudd, who made a fortune from gold and diamond mining in South Africa.
After Mr Rudd’s death, the castle was bought by Jesse Boot, grandson of Boots the chemist founder John Boot, and was used as a house for lavish entertaining, with visitors including King George V.
Now a Grade A listed property, the mansion is set among 133 acres including an artificial lake and forests which are home to deer, golden and white-tailed eagles, and a shoreline where seals, otters and porpoises can be spotted.
I was poor for a long time, so I had no money for most of my life