"When I fail to see another being as I see myself, [overweight and ugly?] then wars will happen. When the causes and the reasons become greater than the sanctity of peace, wars will happen. When I fail to realize what is the value - the value - of being alive, wars will happen."

Would it be flippant of me to interpret that statement as saying that ‘wars happen when Prem Rawat forgets the value of being alive'?

WWII, perhaps? Hmm, no, the Cosmic Kid wasn't even a dirty twinkle in Shri Daddy's eye back then, but it's an interesting question. Imagine Prem Rawat, already fat on the wealth that running a cult scam can bring you - or, if you prefer, Shri Hans - living in a humble, three-storey, terraced house in Amsterdam, circa 1939. The Frank family live next door. Anne, a teenage girl, up in the attic writing a diary...

I don't know. Fuck knows. But I can't imagine much in the way of heroic Rawat-clan risk-taking, even on the part of the man who started it all by not realising the value of life...

I am pretty sure Anne Frank understood the value of being alive (as opposed to not being alive), as do we all. And we'll all be dead, soon enough, as will Prem Pal. But he, at least, understands the value of your support while he's on the planet.

Shit, does any premie really still imagine that when his turn comes, Prem will merge with the infinite, after several days' lotus-posed isolation, so calm, so peaceful that they'll have to hold a mirror up to to his piggy mouth to check whether he's still alive? (I bet he can't even do a lotus) Or even that he'll slip on a bar of soap in the shower, like his dad? That would at least appear attractively half-human.

Rather than die in a drunken coma after another row with his four-armed, tiger-goddess missus over the Monica business, and dwindling trinket and video sales.

The trick is, not to give him any more money than he gives you, in the meantime. It's common sense, really. Never AGAIN...

Nige