I just watched Philip Short author of “Pol Pot: Anatomy of A Nightmare” on C-SPAN2 speaking at UCLA. (see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805066624/qid=1111949342/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/002-4060980-7080819)

Short described the Pol Pot regime as similar to a monastic cult where one denounces material goods, family, and relationships.

While Short said that Pol Pot did not have a personality cult, he said that Pol Pot was charismatic and his smile was captivating and that he was a very persuasive speaker.

The monastic cult with the requisite requirements sure struck a chord in me that sounded very much like Maharaji’s DLM in the 1970s.  And another similarity between the Khmer Rouge and DLM was the denouncement and ridicule of attaining higher education. Remember “Get the Knowledge you can’t get in College”?  And I personally remember being told by instructors not to go back to college because it was wasteful and what I only needed in life was to surrender myself completely to Maharaji.

Also, Short mentioned how paranoid and secretive Pol Pot and his inner circle were.  They were so secretive that when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979 that Pol Pot and the Inner Circle knew of the invasion but he did not relay that information to the appropriate army Generals so they could mount a defense.

Sure, Maharaji has not committed crimes against humanity as did Pol Pot, but the similarities on these points seem striking.  And, um, er, ok, perhaps Maharaji is not a persuasive speaker.