stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

... TO A NUNNERY 309
Only a single thigh bone survived, which was preserved and
reburied under a new monument in 1642. But even this was
destroyed during the French Revolution (Grout, 2003).
Perhaps not fully aware of the relevant karmic history, SRF in
the late 1990s set plans in motion to have Yogananda’s body
moved. That is, they intended to relocate it from the Forest Lawn
(Glendale, California) cemeteries wherein it had rested since his
passing—down the hall from the tomb of Hopalong Cassidy—to a
planned shrine atop Mount Washington in Los Angeles (Russell,
1999).
Arguably best for everyone concerned, the plan was later
dropped in the face of intense public opposition.
In addition to his life as William the Conqueror, Yogananda
also claimed to be the reincarnation of William Shakespeare. There
is, indeed, a vague facial resemblance between the two of them, as
between Paramahansa and professed likenesses of William the
Conqueror. And Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi is inarguably
the work of a masterful author(s)—whether one regards its stories
as factual or fictional. Further, Yogananda (1982) explicitly
encouraged his followers to study the Bard in particular:
Read Shakespeare and other classics, and suitable portions
from practical books on such subjects as chemistry, physics,
physiology, history of Oriental and Western philosophy, comparative
religion, ethics and psychology.
Of course, having thus himself allegedly written all of William
Shakespeare’s plays in that previous life, none of the following,
well-known bawdy aspects embedded in those same works of art
could have surprised Yogananda:
• In Othello, Cassio’s love-interest (aside from the wife of
Othello himself, Desdemona) is the prostitute Bianca
• Significant parts of Pericles take place in and around a
brothel
• The Taming of the Shrew has Gremio referring to Kate as a
prostitute by offering to “cart” her through the streets—a
punishment for whores—instead of to court her. In the
opening “wooing scene” of Act II of the same play, Petruchio
speaks of having his tongue in Kate’s “tail.”