email, July 14, 2005
Hello,
Your show "Secret Swami" was broadcast on Canadian TV this week.
I enjoyed watching it.
Like any good piece of journalism, it raises at least as many questions as it answers. I wondered at the emphasis given to the "execution" of the burglars (or would be killers) who tried to force there way into Baba's rooms in 1993. The incident seems strange and horrifying and muddled, but I'm not sure, at first blush, how it really plays 'against' Baba. Certainly, in North America someone advancing with towards the police with a knife would be shot without hesitation, particularly if they had already killed two people. I suppose the whole thing points in the direction of the connection between Baba's empire and the Indian state/federal govt ...
Also, I question the use of the word "abuse" in terms of the sexual conduct or misconduct of Baba. This is as much a general objection as anything else. What I mean, I suppose, is that I wonder if we gain any clarity by calling a potentially wide range of sexual activity "abuse"? As I understand the young man who spoke on your program, he consented to Baba's surprising and unwanted sexual advances -- to whatever degree he did -- because of his own desire to please his parents. Baba's sexual advances, therfore, may have been inappropriate and may reveal something about his character (or maybe human nature in general) but I think the word "abuse" is not quite the right one. Surely such a loaded word ought to be used for more flagrant violations?
Baba does seem to support hospitals and univesities, which are surely good works. And men seem to need good works, not gods.I am not trying to defend Baba -- who, of course, is on one level the most riduclious of charlatans with his cheap parlous magic tricks -- but I wonder if there is not a deeper, more interesting story there somewhere. This is not a criticism. Without your engaging program my mind (and others, I presume) would not be turned to this particular issue at all.
Thank you.
Rick
Hello,
Your show "Secret Swami" was broadcast on Canadian TV this week.
I enjoyed watching it.
Like any good piece of journalism, it raises at least as many questions as it answers. I wondered at the emphasis given to the "execution" of the burglars (or would be killers) who tried to force there way into Baba's rooms in 1993. The incident seems strange and horrifying and muddled, but I'm not sure, at first blush, how it really plays 'against' Baba. Certainly, in North America someone advancing with towards the police with a knife would be shot without hesitation, particularly if they had already killed two people. I suppose the whole thing points in the direction of the connection between Baba's empire and the Indian state/federal govt ...
Also, I question the use of the word "abuse" in terms of the sexual conduct or misconduct of Baba. This is as much a general objection as anything else. What I mean, I suppose, is that I wonder if we gain any clarity by calling a potentially wide range of sexual activity "abuse"? As I understand the young man who spoke on your program, he consented to Baba's surprising and unwanted sexual advances -- to whatever degree he did -- because of his own desire to please his parents. Baba's sexual advances, therfore, may have been inappropriate and may reveal something about his character (or maybe human nature in general) but I think the word "abuse" is not quite the right one. Surely such a loaded word ought to be used for more flagrant violations?
Baba does seem to support hospitals and univesities, which are surely good works. And men seem to need good works, not gods.I am not trying to defend Baba -- who, of course, is on one level the most riduclious of charlatans with his cheap parlous magic tricks -- but I wonder if there is not a deeper, more interesting story there somewhere. This is not a criticism. Without your engaging program my mind (and others, I presume) would not be turned to this particular issue at all.
Thank you.
Rick
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