THE FORTHCOMING FILM - LOVE GURU AND MR. CHOPRA

spiritual master in USA or a materialist.

The Love Guru – Repercussions of denigrating comedy
‘The Love Guru’ is a comedy starring Mike Myers, Jessica
Alba & Ben Kingsley and directed by Marco Schnabel.
It is set to release on 20 June 2008. In it Myers plays an
American, raised in an aashram in India, who moves
back to US as Guru Pitka to seek fame and fortune in
the world of self-help and Spirituality.
Utter disrespect to Guru: The trailer released by Paramount
pictures shows utter disrespect for the deep
spiritual significance of the Guru. It shows the Guru in a
very poor light and encourages the audience to laugh
at the Guru. The movie takes the Guru through a whole
range of scenes some of which are quite lurid such as
SSRF Monthly
A guide to living Spirituality
Issue 12 : 15 April 2008
Sections
• The Love Guru - Repercussions
of denigrating comedy
• Newsbites
• Comments from our readers
• Having a goal in spiritual
practice
• Quote
1
the Guru wearing a chastity belt, having an erection, bar
brawls, accepting money to playing cupid, etc.
Criticism about movie: The movie has met with much criticism
from many quarters for its flippant depiction of the Guru,
which only enhances disrespect about the Guru Principle. Furthermore
the movie has Deepak Chopra, a 'spiritual leader'
in the US, taking up a small cameo role in the movie. He has
written a number of best seller books on Spirituality. A true
spiritual leader or a person who has evolved spiritually would
not indulge in mockery of the Guru Principle, which is one of
the very fundamental principles of his path. If having acted
in the movie was not bad enough; Mr. Chopra has been very
vocal about defending the movie. He has made irresponsible
statements such as, expressing gratefulness to religious critics
for creating publicity both for the movie as well as for his
book and saying that “This was a great opportunity to make
our Indian philosophy even more popular”.
So what are the repercussions of making such a movie
and of watching it?
The sanctity of the Guru-disciple tradition is reflected in Lord
Jesus and His disciples, Buddha and His disciples, Lord Krushna
and Arjun, etc.
At a psychological level such a
movie creates or enhances the
impression of disrespect for the
Guru. The grace of the Guru is the
most important factor in realising
the basic spiritual purpose of life. How can we work to attain
the grace of someone we have disrespect for? Thus we suffer
a great loss. This loss is even greater for those in society at an
impressionable age.
At a spiritual level, as per the science of Spirituality when we
do good deeds, we earn merits and when we do bad deeds
we incur demerits. SSRF did spiritual research into the spiritual
repercussions of the various acts involved like making the
movie, watching it, etc.
To understand the result of this spiritual research better, let’s
take an example of the possible demerits on a scale from 1 to
100 that a person would accrue if he were to murder an average
person, a seeker and a Saint. The demerit accrued if an
average person is murdered is equal to 30 units, if a seeker is
murdered equal to 60 units, and if a Saint is murdered is equal
to 100 units. The demerit earned when a person murders a
Saint is the maximum possible. This is because He affects society
at large positively at a spiritual level. The above example
will help us realise the gravity of the demerits (shown in the
table) earned by the people associated with the movie. The
table also shows what it would mean to them in context of
these acts alone. Ultimately what they would actually undergo
in the afterlife would depend on the sum total of all the
merits and demerits in their lives.
Act Demerit Means
Those making the movie, ’The Love
Guru’
30 units 2nd region
of Hell for
1000 years
Those watching it for entertainment
without knowing the science
2 units Bhuvaloka
for 100 yrs
Those watching it for entertainment
even after knowing the science
5 units 1st region
of Hell for
100 yrs
Seekers of God knowing about the
movie but doing nothing to stop it
5 units 1st region
of Hell for
100 yrs
What can we do to voice our protest against the movie?
• Writing letters of protest to Paramount pictures
• Educating family, friends and acquaintances about the illeffects
of the movie
• Encouraging people not to watch it
Comments from readers
With the guidance and explanation
from SSRF, I can now understand
and determine spiritual development
and link the experiences I get
with a spiritual explanation. This
automatically alleviates the doubtfulness
and uncertainty in spiritual
practice.
My best wishes to SSRF.
- Mrs. Sumathi Sivaraja,
Klang, Malaysia
Quote
You save what should
be spent and spend
what should be
saved. Learn to do the
reverse.
Implied meaning: In ‘You save
what should be spent’, reference is
to money. ‘You spend what should
be saved’ means that you waste the
valuable time that can be utilised
for spiritual practice. In ‘Learn to do
the reverse’, His Holiness Bhataraj
Maharaj advises the maximum use
of time for spiritual practice.
- His Holiness Bhaktaraj Maharaj
Copyright Spiritual Science Research Foundation Inc. - April 2008  Login to update details | unsubscribe 2
Just as we have goals in our businesses it is recommended
that we have goals in our spiritual practice. In fact one of the
important factors contributing to our rapid spiritual growth
is having clarity about our spiritual goal. For many new comers
to spiritual practice the notion of having a goal could be
alien and most may not know what goal they can set in the
first place.
How to decide a goal?
Well initially if one has no awareness of spiritual concepts, one can choose something
simple such as 'I want to be happy in all my worldly transactions and activities'.
Later as one matures in his spiritual practice and takes up study of Spirituality,
one can set more pertinent goals such as, 'I want to earn a Guru’s grace' or 'I
want to achieve God-realisation'.
Benefits of having a goal
Keeps one driven, • focused and regular in his spiritual practice so as to achieve
his goal
• Forms an important aspect of the review of one's spiritual practice, i.e. how
am I progressing towards my goal?
• Helps one to develop milestones in his spiritual journey
A word of caution:
However we have to decide our goal judiciously. For this an understanding of the
science of Spirituality in terms of what is possible and also an understanding of
ourselves, i.e. our capabilities and how far we are ready to commit ourselves to
achieve our goal is required.
Short term goals
One can break up his goal into short-term goals. These short-term goals act as
way-points or milestones in one’s spiritual journey. It makes it more manageable
and bring it down to hard deliverables.
For example if one’s ultimate goal is being
happy, then chanting the Name of God is a
great tool to accomplish this. A short-term
goal that one can set for oneself is to be able
to chant for 2 hours a day within a 3 month
time frame. Even this could be further broken
down into 30 minutes of chanting per
day for the first month, 1 hour in the 2nd
month and 2 hours at the complete of the
third month. Like this we can have a number
of such type of goals.
Review of goals
As per one's growth in understanding and
spiritual practice one can revise his goals.
One can add on new goals or even reconsider
and reject earlier decided goals.
Review of spiritual practice with respect to goal
And lastly it is important to review one's spiritual practice regularly and take stock
of how one is progressing with respect to his goal. An important aspect is to be
alert whether our actions are aligned to our goal. For example, in the initial stages
we would need to be alert whether we are using our free time for our goal, e.g.
the time when we are standing in a queue, for chanting.
Not finding time
Newsbites Having a goal in spiritual practice
Believers are happier than
atheists
A report found that religious people
were better able to cope with
disappointments such as unemployment
or divorce. Read News
Cemetery to offer 'green'
send offs
The study found it was better for
people to be cremated, compared
with the long-term impact of burials.
Read News
Compassion Meditation
Changes the Brain
Cultivating compassion and kindness
through meditation affects
brain regions. Read News
Reference to
SSRF Article
Chanting
2 hours
per day
Spiritual journey