The Icon Show: The Scandal

Gisele's Letter

Message # 39 from the Shyamtruth email group Aug 25, 2000
"Who's going to negotiate?" by Gisele Beaupre

Hi Everyone,

I have heard the stories and have appreciated this discussion very much.

We can all intuitively know the underlying guilt and confirm this with an open acknowledgement of it through this electronic web. We can say these women and children need to be compensated which I agree with but how do you get Swamiji or others to give it to them? I don't think anyone is going to freely give money to anyone. It is too much of an admission of guilt.

Maybe we should storm the castle with emails? (Has Swamiji's children and wife been informed? Or do they already know? Are they also victims of abuse? Has anyone asked them?)

I ask myself how this could have gone on for so long without anyone coming forward. Then I see how everyone gets so much peace and euphoria from listening to Swamiji and from satsang....no one in that space wants to hear about something nasty like child abuse. It is a dynamic circle of silence - all for the sake of the knowledge which states that this is all an illusion. And many people KNOW this is an illusion. But the waking state is still here every day and the drama has to be played out. As Krishna said to Arjun, "Get up and Fight!" What is right must reign...the Swamiji I knew or and had formulated in my head would never put up with this kind of injustice...the line would be drawn...at right action!!!

I know that Shyams would never come forward with something like this unless it were true. Noone would even fathom the idea of making up stories like this, everyone loves Swamiji too much and the teachings. But the teachings will live on - they are immortal - bodies are not. So we can protect him for the sake of the teachings as everyone seems to have been doing for the past 30 some odd years, or we can force the issue with those involved in the coverup....

Attention from the media is inevitable now. Child Abuse is one of the hottest topics these days. Remember the residential school controversies? Many people have suffered at the hands of religious leaders. It is only a matter of weeks before the whole thing blows up. Who is going to negotiate compensation?

I don't really care about myself because I am not in the role of becoming a teacher of this knowledge. But I do look the fool. But I already have transcended that role many times - even just to partake in discovering this knowledge. I know that any Shyam devotee who had the gumption to get to Kullu or stay in India for many years will be fine. They are powerful, beautiful, capable, talented people who can take care of themselves.

I see this as a death of sorts. Swamiji has passed the flame to all of us and now he is exiting. On one hand he has shown us a kind of oneness that is worth cultivating, but what on the other hand he has also shown us the darker side as well. He may also be showing us that everything the experiencer thinks is real is unreal, and whatever we know may not be so, and duality is what makes this world go round. Gee maybe Swamiji will give satsang from jail?

What about the victims pressing charges? Or coming forward with their stores? Or are we all going to just committ a form of group spiritual suicide of more silence, like the coverup that has been happening for yearsssssssssssssssss?

I do feel betrayed on a body level, but I also know what I have realized. I have seen and known it is all fiction, all light, all the 3 gunas, but still sattwa must prevail...the truth must come to light. God has a very strange way of getting people to dig the knowledge.

Questions: Are the injured parties wanting compensation? Who will negotiate this for them in full? Are they prepared to press charges? Are they prepared to tell their stories publicly? Or are they going to let this pass so others can continue to be victimized?

What about the thousand other Shyams who still know nothing about this? What about the thousands who don't want to know? I would like to hear from those who knew and didn't say anything!!! I thank Sat Shakti for coming forward with her comments. I love and respect her for that!

I agree "every body who knows Swami has a right to know who he is and what he did.

I also think Swamiji should face up to what he has done. We are the only ones who can do this.

Love Shaashwata,

Created by Gisele Beaupre©