I have been reading the exchange between you and some others here and wanted to put in my two cents.

First, of course you are right that the Indian authorities are different than the US. If Rawat had indeed admitted to being the driver, in what seems like a pure accident, he may have faced time in an Indian jail or even huger bribes than what were paid to the cyclist's family. He isn't beloved by non premies in India, many there also think he is a fraud and a con man. They also feel he is a poor example of what Indian believe in and Indian morality to the Western world. An embarrassment. So he may have faced something other than a fair trial. In a split second all involved had to decide what to do, it sounds like. They decided the safest course was to switch him. This allowed the premie who was probably thrilled to be able to take the heat for his master to do a great service. It allowed Rawat to continue his "work" and saved him the humiliation and suffering that would have surely come his way if he had been honest about who was driving in this mere accident. Everybody wins, and the cyclist was dead anyway, and it was because he himself had made a mistake and the accident was unavoidable. I agree with you, it would have been totally uncharacteristic of Rawat to say he was driving and subject himself to the indignities that would follow. In my book, what he did was wrong. I think it is wrong to let someone else take the blame for you, even in an accident. But you dont, fine. Also, I do doubt he would have been treated objectively in India. It would have been courageous and very honorable to take the heat himself. If he had, premies would I am sure been amazed and talked about it for years, about what an honorable and just person Rawat was for standing up and saying "I was driving" it would have been a story told and retold about how amazing M is. But he did not choose that for obvious reasons.

Jagdeo, I am glad you acknowledge it happened, thank you. As far as M knowing, you probably think I am lying about telling Randy and Judy...or maybe you think that despite what Judy said " he said he was glad it was not a new incident" , that somehow maybe Randy and Judy evolved and conspiracy to keep it from Rawat? I dont know what you think, maybe you think I am deluded. I have plenty of reason to think Rawat did indeed know about Jagdeo.  I do however, agree that it was mystifying that Jagdeo was treated differently than the other sexaully abusive Mahatmas who were sent back to India. Now I do wonder this, why is it that none of the others were reported to the police? We now have reports of on serial rapist and one who abused little boys. I guess another part of Rawat's morality is that jail is not appropriate for his these guys? I know what I thought about reporting Jagdeo to someone other than Rawat at 15....I thought it would hurt Guru Maharaj Ji if he was known by non premies to have a pedophile Mahatma. I never considered the police. I didn't tell my mom as she would not have let me go to satsang any more. Also, it would have fit perfectly into her ideas that M was a charlatan. So I tried to tell Guru Maharaj Ji, who I knew was more just than any law inforcement agency. I don't know if you believe me about telling Randy, he doesn't remember my telling him.  But I did. And a few years later, when I saw Jagdeo was still around, I told again to Judy, I thought Randy had not told Rawat. And Judy believed me and told me she would tell Rawat, then she called me back to say that she had and he was glad this was not a new incident. She doesn't remember either. So I am left looking like a fool or a liar. Would Rawat let that happen to protect his reputation?

Back to you God Only knows- I want to make it really clear what happened-

I told Randy right after it happened when I was fifteen, I told him in the parking lot beside the Coral Gables Satsang Hall across from Coral Gables High School in Miami Florida. I told him after satsang. I have a very clear memory of this because I had agonized over what to do. Randy had been spending a great deal of time at the residence and did have personal access to Rawat. He told me it was good that I told him I had done the right thing. He later told me he had told M about it. I think I saw Jagdeo about a year later in a darshan line. I left crying. I remember Jagdeo's eyes crying to catch mine and I did not want to look at him. I joined the ashram at 16. I left the ashram and became an ex at 17. Though it wasn't a smooth proccess at all. It was very scary for me to leave my life as a premie. M had meant everything to me. But I came to believe I was in a cult, and Jagdeo was only a part of why I believed that.  A couple years later, I saw a show about child sexual abuse and it was emphasized that pedophiles never get better. The issue was coming out of the closet in the US in general. I felt that I needed to try again. I thought that maybe Randy didn't really tell M, or maybe he didn't really communicate how bad it was. What happened to me was small compared to what had happened to a friend who was badly abused. I don't say much about her, but she did say it was ok to communicate this thing Jagdeo said " your clothes are your mind, take of your clothes". I know for certain he molested a 12 year old badly, and I told Randy this. I told him other girls, between 8-12 at least three, were all afraid to go near Jagdeo because he was "nasty". So I think it was 1982 when I called Judy Osborne, who I did not know, but was able to get hold of because I was still friends with some premies who did residence service. I told Judy the whole story. She took it very seriously I felt. She said she would tell M. She called back about a week later, and she told me she had told him and he said that m said he had already heard about this and was glad, as in relieved, it was not a NEW incident. I had NOT told Judy I had ever told anyone. She could not have come up, from thin air, I believe, with this information unless he had in fact been told. It is not reasonable to think otherwise. No one ever told me if anything was done about Jagdeo. I was made to feel it was disrespectful to demand to know what Maharaj Ji ( he still had the extra J ) had done about it.

But now I would like to know. So would the other victims.

You can look at a thread below to see more I wrote in response to another premie who posts as POV. He seems to feel M does lie and that it is ok. He seems to think we ex's have a puritanical world view because we feel the fact that Rawat does drugs, is an alchoholic, drives with his kids in the car drunk, cheats on his wife repeatedly, had on of his followers set up rendevous with premies women for one night stands and left the women in shambles when he broke their hearts- is immoral. M is also cruel to his followers, threatens them with ousting them from the residence when they don't tow the line. When they are allowed to see his real life, his drunkeness, his tirades etc - they are x-rated. This means that the residence staff and m have decided this premie can handle the obvious hypocrisy and not tell.  If he was just anyone fine, but this is the man who asked so much of so many, who friends of mine gaves homes and inheritances to and left their own lives in shambles.

This is the same guy who demanded poverty.chastity and obedience from the ashram premies. The same guy you feel never lies and you love so much. He has another side, another life. It is ugly. He isn't what he pretends to be at all. He is what most people know he is at first glance, a cult leader. God only Knows, well you are in a cult, and I hope, I hope so much, you will start to see that. Because he has promised you freedom, and made you a captive. Just as I was. Please read all you can here. Read what Michael Dettmers wrote. Also, please read AJW's journey, it is an excellent post, in the Journeys section, that I think could speak to you. Please have an open heart and an open mind.

I wish you the best

Susan