stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

SEX, BLISS, AND ROCK ‘N’ ROLL 47
more than 1/3. An organization called the Healing Through
the Truth Network was formed and at least eight other
women came forward with claims of sexual abuse (S. Cohen,
2002a).
[Susan Cohen claims that] Satchidananda took advantage of
her when she was a student from 1969 [when she was eighteen]
to 1977 (Associated Press, 1991).
Another follower, nineteen-year-old Sylvia Shapiro, accompanied
the swami on a worldwide trip.
“In Manila, he turned [his twice-daily massages from
me] into oral sex,” Ms. Shapiro said (Associated Press, 1991).
Until December [of 1990], Joy Zuckerman was living at
Yogaville, where she was known as Swami Krupaananda.
She left after a friend confided in her that Satchidananda
had made sexual advances toward her last summer, Ms. Zuckerman
said (McGehee, 1991).
* * *
A Guru is the one who has steady wisdom ... one who has realized
the Self. Having that realization, you become so
steady; you are never nervous. You will always be tranquil,
nothing can shake you (Satchidananda, 1977).
Satchidananda’s own driver, however, recognized characteristics
other than such holy ones, in the swami:
After hours of sitting in traffic jams observing his spiritual
master in the rearview mirror, Harry had decided that Sri
Swami Satchidananda was not only far from serene, he was
a bilious and unforgivingly cranky old man. Not once had
Harry felt his spiritual bond with Satchidananda enhanced
by all the carping, however edifyingly paternal it was meant
to be (Katz, 1992).
As they say, “No man is great in the eyes of his own valet.”
In describing how a “steady” man would see the world, Satchidananda
(1977) further quoted Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita:
Men of Self-knowledge look with equal vision on a brahmana
[i.e., a spiritual person] imbued with learning and humility,
a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste.