Hindu Group: Why 'The Love Guru' Offends Us

After seeing trailers and promotional material for the upcoming Mike Myers film "The Love Guru," some Hindus have expressed concerns about the movie's portrayal of Hinduism and Hindu gurus. In the article below, various Hindu leaders, publications and groups, including Hindu Janajagruti Samiti explain their feelings about the movie.

Religious and spiritual organizations and leaders have gathered around acclaimed Hindu and Indo-American leader Rajan Zed, expressing deep concern about "The Love Guru" movie. If the trailer of the movie is an indicator, this movie is likely to hurt the sentiments of spiritual seekers and Hindus worldwide, who hold the "guru-disciple" relationship as sacred.

Examples of denigration of Hindu concepts in "The Love Guru" trailer include:

• The character of Guru Pitka is shown as a self-proclaimed guru after money and sex. These are actually tell-tale signs of fake gurus! 
• Statements like "His [Guru Pitka's] karma is huge" trivialize concepts like karma, which are fundamental to Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism) that have won respect even in scientific circles.
• Claims such as "Guru Pitka is the second best guru from India" disregard facts like India being home to illustrious gurus, such as Swami Vivekananda and Ramana Maharshi, to name a few.
• The character of Guru Pitka is shown in ochre/saffron robes, which symbolize renunciation, sacred to Hindus.
• Yoga is one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy. "The Love Guru" parodies it in a repugnant way and names some of the yoga poses as "no shoes, no shirt, no nirvana," "ass, gas, and grass," etc., on the movie site. 
• Guru Pitka chants a so-called mantra resembling the name of a woman (Mariska Hargitay), ridiculing the revered concept of mantras or holy chants. Mantras are given to mankind by ancient sages, who were spiritual scientists par excellence, after much research into the spiritual dimension. Each syllable and pronunciation of mantras spiritually empowers the person reciting it with its underlying sankalpa (resolve). 
•  A guru is totally free from selfish motives (unlike as in "The Love Guru") and works for the welfare of humanity.
• While Hindus venerate their gurus, the occupation of Mike Myer’s Guru Pitka was listed as "Guru/life guide/Bikini inspector," on MySpace.com (linked to the official site of the movie).

Significance of True Gurus or Spiritually Evolved Masters

As per the Hindu scripture "Guru Gita" (authored by the Sage Vyasa), in the Sanskrit term "guru," "gu" refers to darkness of ignorance about God and "ru" refers to radiance of spiritual knowledge that dispels the spiritual ignorance. Thus, the guru is one, who with his radiance of spiritual knowledge, dispels the darkness of ignorance in his disciple. The guru is the manifest form of the unmanifest teaching principle of God to guide the spiritual seeker towards self/god realization and to grace the seeker's progress on the spiritual path. The need for the guru, a spiritual preceptor who imparts spiritual knowledge, is dictated by several considerations. Important truths do not come through the study of books or independent intellectual reflection alone, but many times are the result of inherited wisdom handed down from enlightened leaders.

The importance of spiritual progress of the individual and society as a whole is clear to any socially conscious individual, as the present era of materialism has produced enough misery for mankind. With so much suffering that we all are witness to, spirituality is the only ray of hope to get rid of the various problems that plague society today, and achieve bliss or perpetual supreme happiness.

In spirituality, the "guru-disciple" relationship is an important system that imparts spiritual knowledge and is very important for spiritual awakening. As we know, there are many who have benefited through this system, from the East and West alike. The benefits of the guidance and grace of a true guru, who is a spiritually evolved master through whom the unmanifest God principle guides and uplifts the seeker of God on the spiritual path, cannot be described in words alone, but have to be experienced through actual spiritual practice.

Continued on page 2: Hindu protests have support from all faith groups. »