There is an amusing brujaja going on right now on a Maharishi forum in relation to the revelations of a newly published book. This post was so nicely written that I just can't help but share it with ya'all, and you might find a lot of the flavors to be familiar. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fairfield ... age/252073 
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Re: My take on Judith's book
--- In
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <no_reply@...> wrote:
Nice piece, bro -- made me all turmoilish.
>
> Edg
>
High compliment indeed brother. Thanks, creating turmoil is my business!
>
> Geeze, confession: Just sat down before the screen still drowsy after a nap
and started reading the below and kept saying to myself that I couldn't believe
Barry was writing such a piece that showed such insight into the predatory
possibilities of any meeting between minds separated by decades in age apart and
with such disparity in personal power. I was so torn between wanting to praise
Barry and yet rub his nose into the very words "he'd" written as proof that he,
indeed, knew "how to seduce a young one" such that he saw clearly the "art" of
Maharishi's methodology.
>
> And then only at the very end did I see "Curtis."
>
> What a lesson for me, eh?
>
> Barry ya cudda been a contender.
>
> Curtis, I bow. But, heh, I gotta rub your nose in the same "ken." Does ya
gots a lots of baby babes swooning on the curb to your pluckin' ways? Hee hee.
Talk about a gig for gigging the gals; hmmm, are you pre-filling your open
guitar case with twenty dollar bills like cheese in a trap for them like it was
a taste of your Scrooge McDuck pile-back-home? Just askin' -- ;-)
>
> I remember being tempted right and left running the Napa center during the
Merv era and processing the crowds, but I was married, and it was that vow that
kept me "clean" a lot more than any imprecations by Maharishi. If I had been
single while doing my thang with the candles and fruit and incense, I would have
probably had to wrestle with the same temptations of misusing one's "office"
regarding initiates. As it was, there were several women who made it very clear
that I was, indeed, special to them by virtue of my "holy occupation." Thank
GAWD my wife was HAWT." But doing a "harem," even if I'd been single, was
waaaaaaaay not right to me then and now. Serial rape just isn't loving no
matter how agog are the babes-lined-up.
>
> Nice piece, bro -- made me all turmoilish.
>
> Edg
>
> --- In
FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" <curtisdeltablues@>
wrote:
> >
> > Thought I would weigh in on Judith's book because I believe it is a profound
contribution to understanding Maharishi.
> >
> > My first impression is that he was lucky to have it be Judith as the first
to document one of his affairs. She is a sensitive writer and presents her
experience with a lot of kindness to Maharishi. Judith comes off as too
thoughtful and sincere for people to continue to challenge her veracity. She is
for real. I can easily understand why it took her so long to process her
feelings about this relationship. She did an excellent job with an extremely
sensitive and personal topic. This book is a gift to all of us who knew him
and I thank her for it.
> >
> > As with Maharishi's death, the book represents another milestone in my
evolving perspective on the guy. Initially I was a little pissed that someone,
out of all the people in cahoots to make these affairs possible (Jerry for one),
hadn't blown the whistle explicitly a long time ago. It sure would have helped
me when I was under his brahmachari instructions to know that even the great
Maharishi was tormented and couldn't control the mighty dhoti dolphin. That this
conflict wasn't due to MY lack of focus on my energy going up. (The Catholic
Church just called and wants its sex-guilt-teaching back.)
> >
> > His inner conflicts, revealed in his discussing with Judith how his energy
was "going down" because of his banging her, shows him as a religious zealot who
was tormented Jerry Falwell style by his own antiquated beliefs. Then he pats
the bed beside him inviting her once again to play Gopi to his Krishna. Woman
maligned as Eve the temptress is one of the shittiest implied messages religion
peddles!
> >
> > The book made me see Maharishi paradoxically in both a more sympathetic
light, as well as revealing that he was a world-class selfish lout. I get his
own internal struggles with his beliefs and I also get the
kid-in-the-candy-store temptation he was under. I believe that people who live
in this kind of atmosphere of reverence lose their brain's checks and balances
between parts of the brain that usually controls our impulses. Whether he
started off as the emperor's spoiled child or his surrounding himself with
adoring people made him that way, means little in the end. The guy became like
the rock stars whose fame he courted. Not quite Mao with hundreds of the
hottest country girls from rural China at his parties every night, but a sizable
heap of hypocrisy for a self- proclaimed celibate who preached its virtues to
us, while having his own holy pipes regularly cleaned.
> >
> > In one section another girl tells Judith about him copping a feel and then
telling her not to wear that top again! WTF, "Don't they have bases in Cricket
like baseball?" Anytime your hands are rounding second base without any kissing
beforehand you are a "masher" on the level of the weaselly guy on a crowded bus.
Then blaming her clothes for this caddish behavior is lame. Very 1950's rape
trial BS. "If it please the court I would like to offer that the defendant's
tat-tas were seriously akimbo and muh client was merely trying to readjust them
to their natural symmetry. He couldn't help himself yuh honor."
> >
> > Maharishi comes off in the book as somewhat kinder to Judith than some
rockstars might have been. But in the end,the roady still throws her bags off
the bus. And given that he was presenting himself as uniquely giving the
highest teaching of life, this sort of transgression against these women rises
to cosmic asshole status. He can't have it both ways. If what he said about
his teaching was true (and I'm solidly in the camp of "no it wasn't") then he
set these chicks up for a strong force taking them off the holy cosmic path.
Serving them a big helping of romantic rejection from their guru and then seeing
him move on to the next piece of adoring groupie tail that struck his fancy was
a dirty trick within his own teaching.
> >
> > Even I made the right choices with women many times as Center Chairman
because I believed in my responsibility so much. I put the teaching above my
personal desires. It doesn't take that much sensitivity or decency to NOT
exploit vulnerability. Especially as I approach his age at the time, I realize
how F'ed up it is to exploit a girl that young. You don't have to be a guru to
know that these are VERY young adults who need people in their 50's to be
encouraging them rather than using them at their expense. People in their 20's
are little babies to me. The woman I date has kids this age. They need our
support, not a stiffy. And his being the Maha super fantastic king of the world
Godman gives an added dose of power-differential responsibility. He betrayed
that trust like a casting couch riding movie mogul. Thanks for more bad press
for guys as reprehensible, untrustworthy horn-dogs your "Holiness."
> >
> > There might have been a little ethnocentric "land of the Vedas" "Western
women are all whores" at play here. He has a bit of Steve Martin and Dan
Aykroyd's "Wild and Crazy Guys" at the disco enthusing about American women with
their big American breasts about him. I wonder if he treated Indian women as
disposable fun-bags also? I sense a bit of Madonna-whore complex at play as he
dresses Judith in the finest silk and most delicate gold jewelry. But he never
offers her any real relationship. He didn't have a wife to lie about planning
to leave, but the result is similar to an affair with a married man. The message
was clear, I am important, you are not,staying true to Shankara's misogynistic
teaching about a woman's place in a man's world. Not exactly building up a young
woman's self-esteem with that message, and that is a pretty low bar for
enriching someone's life Mr.Highest Teaching.
> >
> > The book reinforces my perspective on Maharishi that he was a Donald Trump
kind of guy ("Should I become the Prime Minster of India?" he asks in grandiose
pillow-talk), mixed in with some Jim Baker and a dash of Mick Jagger. His
little list of personal goals (photographically reproduced in the book) is
endearing in a "you are kind of a megalomaniac but you are so sincere about it"
way. He believed he was on a holy mission, but his narcissism kept him from
being able to really hang with other flawed humans and admit that he didn't have
all the answers. He was another example of spiritual "Front'n" and for that I
give him my most enthusiastic raspberry. But I give him a little break because
he created a personal kingdom that is almost guaranteed to make most people act
like an alpha chimp.
> >
> > It's 1975 and I am a high school senior with one year of meditation under my
belt at the Felt Forum in NYC to hear Maharishi announce the "Dawn of the Age of
Enlightenment." I was among a small group of people who waited at side of the
stage with a flower in my hand to give to him as he walked past us to the stage.
Walking swiftly, he passed everyone and went straight to the hottest chick in
the line, a real stunning beauty, taking her flower and exchanging big smiles
and a few words with her. (Maybe he knew her?) Then ignoring the rest of us, he
took the stage. At the time (especially having read Lennon's take on him) I
wondered how much of a monk he really was. This book has resolved that
cognitive dissonance nicely.
> >
> > I feel fortunate to have witnessed such an interesting guy and to be able to
discuss a more complete perspective on him now thanks to Judith's bravery and
care with her subject. I have a bunch of memories of peak experiences being
around him in my limited capacity. The conflicting feelings I have about him
were artfully represented in Judith's book. A huge piece has been added to my
puzzle of how I understand Maharishi.
> >
> > Most of all I feel lucky to have all my memory's mental images of him with
his dhoti ON!
> >
> > Curtis
