I know that quite a number of us (not just me) have commented on David Smith in not the best light.  Patrick Wilson is a lot more negative on the guy that I am, by the way, and in this context, I think David is just one of the best examples of the destructive nature of the cult on one individual, and then the havoc and pain he can cause because he was in a power to control other peoples' lives, in this case the ashram premies, first in the UK, and then on the West Coast of the USA.

Actually, when David didn't have power, he was fine from what I observed, and I liked him personally.  He was totally self-depricating, always giving satsang about how he knew nothing, had to surrender completely, etc., etc.  We all said stuff like that, but David seemed to do more of it.

But the downside of that, was that when he was put by Rawat into a power position, he became a tyrant, and he was so deluded about his surrender, he became something like other religious fanatics, in that he believed that what he was doing was being directed by God (at least that's what he told me), and therefore ordinary human and societal ethics and compassion DID NOT APPLY.   See, those were illusions when only the Lord's agya, (including, apparently, inner agya), applies.

So, you are right, David was as much a victim of the cult and its destructive ideology as anybody else, but I think he might have been particularly vulnerable to it, and I detected this incredible rigidity in David, and a streak of sadism that kind of got out of control when he was in the later stages of cult automatonism, and during a period when Rawat was particularly pissed off and setting him up in a pretty no-win situation.

But perhaps you never saw him in full tyrant- mode.  It was an amazing thing to see.

But I agree, on a personal level, David was a nice guy, and when he wasn't in a power position, he was a really nice guy, although I didn't know him well.  Also, when he was just an ordinary Initiator, and didn't have actual power over people he was okay too.  But when Rawat told him to "clean up the ashrams," well, that changed, with pretty weird, unfortunate, results.

I think I also mentioned that after the atrocities he inflicted on the ashram premies in San Francisco, he came back about a year later, and kind of apologized, but when I confronted him on it, he reverted to cult-mode, and said that everything that happened was what was supposed to have happened, because Rawat is in charge.  So, he, in the end, refused to take any responsibility.  Frankly, I think the reason he did even the little bit he did was because there was some level of embarrassement, because I think he knew (somtime after the inquisition) that the ashrams were going to be closed (the "apology" happened probably in 1982 and the inquisition happened in 1981), and it made his attempts to turn them into rigid concentration camps in which we were all afraid to move, while simultaneously looking like Young Republicans living in houses with nice furniture, look even more ridiculous, pointless and unnecessary.  I'm sure David really had to surrender and have faith when looking at that situation.