{"id":352,"date":"2006-06-06T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-06T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2006\/06\/guru-pitka-international-man-o.html"},"modified":"2006-06-06T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-06T12:00:00","slug":"guru-pitka-international-man-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/06\/guru-pitka-international-man-o.html","title":{"rendered":"“Guru Pitka,” International Man of Enlightenment"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

What if a spiritual leader such as Deepak Chopra was channeled through the completely politically incorrect energy of a very famous comedian? You\u2019d get a character named Guru Pitka, and Paramount Pictures would want to make a feature film <\/a>about him.<\/p>\n

Guru Pitka is the invention of \u201cAustin Powers\u201d star Mike Myers,<\/a> who has taken to showing up at comedy clubs in the persona of an inappropriately touchy-feely guru offering \u201clove seminars.\u201d Presumably, much of the material from this routine–which he calls “Mike Myers’ Padsana on Human Potentiality and Equipoise by His Holiness the Guru Pitka”–will make it into the film\u2019s script, in much the way \u201cAustin Powers\u201d also developed from stage to screen. In fact, Guru Pitka was a part of the original \u201cAustin Powers\u201d script and was taken out because of the controversial nature of the character\u2019s spirituality. Myers said in an interview <\/a>that \u201cGuru Pitka was, in some people’s eyes, racially disturbing. It was a funny part, but it offended many Indians and I did not want a negative thing around Austin Powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe Myers doesn\u2019t understand the obvious difference between mocking a generation’s bad fashion and hairstyle choices and mocking someone\u2019s religion, but I am guessing the response to the new guru in his life might be less than groovy, baby.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if a spiritual leader such as Deepak Chopra was channeled through the completely politically incorrect energy of a very famous comedian? You\u2019d get a character named Guru Pitka, and Paramount Pictures would want to make a feature film about him. 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