But all these leads me to the main thing I want to share with you.  It sounds like many of you think GMJ is not the Lord of the Universe, the Perfect Master, the Living Incarnation of God.

Well, all I have to say is how do you know that?  Oh, I can see (and personally joined in with) people who say that all you have to do is to look at his actions, his meanness, his self-centeredness, his obsession with material wealth, his seeming lack of care, compassion and love for his followers, and his obsessive need to be placed on a pedestal.

But – this is what I most hope to share – you don’t know whether he is the Perfect Master or not.  You don’t know whether his grace moves and loves billions.  You don’t.  You just don’t.

You can say that by every judgment you make and by everything you believe in, you can say with certainty that he is a fraud, based on all that.  You can point to what seems like clear harm that has been wrought on people by their relationship with him.

But you truly do not know if he is the real thing.  You truly don’t.  You are judging him through your eyes and experiences – as 21^st Century Americans.  Really, how else could you judge him?

Now, here is where we can get into some juicy discussions.  Do I truly know that ISIS is not the force of the one, true god?  Well, how can I justify standing up to them, but question your impulse to stand similarly up to GMJ.

It is in this realm that the deepest parts of our humanity are called forth.  I can only say for myself that I have discovered my proverbial line that I refuse to cross.  ISIS is a pretty simple choice.  How about Trump?  How about the purveyors of our culture making trillions of dollars by holding down millions and millions of people, by hypnotizing masses of people with well, you can fill in the blanks – money, sex, power – whatever.

I wouldn’t be shocked if most of your hands were raising.  “Your damn right Trump is also a con man.”  But whatever your political persuasion, such judgments seem rather easy.

But they become subtler.  Do you know that 10,000 children starve to death every day?  Please re-read that sentence.  It is true.  3 ˝ million a year.  Think of a single mother holding her baby, with a bloated stomach and flies circling her head.  Now think of a room filled with women whose babies died – in their arms – that very day. Now think about a basketball arena, filled with mothers, whose babies starved to death in their arms that very day.  There is more to this exercise, but it is too painful for me to get into.

Now, who’s the villain there?  Who deserves our hatred?  The African tribesmen, the African politicians, the UN personnel, the billionaire financiers, the world leaders, intent only on maintaining their power and their world view, no matter what the cost?  Who do you hate?

I still do all in my power to change the level of utter disdain, inhumanity, self-concern, bigotry, etc., that still lies deeply in the heart of our nation and our culture.  But it has become clearer to me that my finger of blame is most powerfully turned back at me.

I receive the fruits of the culture that allows this.  I turn a blind eye to the pain and suffering of my fellow beings, every day.  The blame starts with me.  I don’t see how I can feed those babies, or even get Trump out of office (at least for 4 years). But that is the ultimate deception – to lead us into believing we are powerless.  You are not responsible for it so you aren’t responsible for fixing it.

For myself, I do my best to see where I am responsible and do my best to help change it.  It’s hard, very hard.  The rewards of the world aren’t showered on people who, even in their small way, raise a cry against inhumanity.

This is not meant to dismiss GMJ’s role, although I do with all my sincerity encourage you, even if you want to stand against the damage you see him do, in the terms you understand and have chosen to live by, to hold the compassion for the human experience that many receive as his gift. The numbers of people whose lives have found meaning in the surrender, even if it is harsh, to their guru is beyond what we can imagine.

So, sure, stand up to what you see that is happening and cannot support.  But don’t ridicule it just because you don’t know what it is.  I find that to be the worst kind of violence; for it separates us and places judgments on each other. It is bigotry, plain and simple, and it is, I believe, the ultimate reason that those babies are starving.

Maybe I can’t feed all those babies, but I can tell you this story and perhaps in some small way encourage you to see through the lies and illusions that are not only as strong in our culture as they ever were in GMJ’s, but even more insidious, hidden, justified, and rewarded.

I lived with GMJ.  I had a true experience of him as my guru.  Say what you will about that, but I am not and was not a fool.  You truly think I was brain-washed?  What do you know of the experience I had?  Now, I chose to walk away from it for, even though for 13 years, it was the path for me, it no longer was.

But what right does that give me to judge the man, his actions and his followers.  From what I see here, many of us experienced hurt, perhaps felt abused.  That’s not to be dismissed.  Did he act in ways that seemed to cause that, very likely.

But it was and it is not the same for many, many other people, even the small numbers of GMJ’s followers in America, much less the millions and millions of Hindus who receive their guru’s actions in a completely different way than we do.

I personally know quite a few people who’ve been with GMJ for over 40 years and are grateful beyond their ability to express.  You going to tell them they’re being conned, duped?  You going to tell them they are not having the experience they are?  You going to tell them that GMJ is a phony?  You going to show them lists of people who were hurt, whether by GMJ’s actions or what it did to them (and again, in no way trivializing what happened in so many lives from his actions.?

The truth as I see it is that we know what we know.  I can only hope that it is compassion that empowers this site; it is kindness and understanding that holds our healing.  I’m not meaning to dismiss a real need perhaps to express rage or to recount experiences of horror you knew.  

Another comment that moved me is: BTW, one thing I do is read a lot.  I read two to three books per week.  I read your friend's post three times before I responded. So, my comprehension level is quite high, so please don't presume that I don't have the ability to read posts here without understanding them.

If I did that, I not only did not have the intention to do so, but don’t know what I said that led to your conclusion.  Would you be willing to share more with me so I can better understand and hopefully avoid behaving like that?

I don’t doubt that we will have more to share, but right now, my Yankees need me.