To them I say;
If you are ashamed of the Swami's actions but are compelled to follow through with defending the Swami rather than admitting your own mistake of throwing away everything for a false master, please do not feel guilty. Today you may want to return to your normal life. That is absolutely fine. First of all, there is nothing to be ashamed of. If you liked the message, it still holds good. For the message does not get tarnished because of the Swami's actions. All the messages existed long before his prominence and will continue to hold good in the future long after we all depart. If you have lost respect for the Swami, consider him as merely a person who delivered them eloquently with illustrations just like your high school physics teacher who tried to convince you about Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity as if he had arrived at the same conclusion in the school labs. There is a sure difference between experience and understanding but it may not be evident for us ordinary people.
It is not to say that your master was not self-realized, as I found a lot of consistency in the spiritual message which is very difficult to maintain in volumes of discourses unless there is complete understanding or real first hand experience. I leave that debate for you and the Swami's skeptics to fight. I have not been in the vicinity of his physical realm to participate in that discussion.
That aside , many of you have been able to throw away the material life altogether for spirituality. All you have to do now is continue in the path wth another master or by yourselves under the guidance of the scriptures. Chin up! It is still better than folks like me who are afraid to take the initial plunge.
To finish up, a few lines from Vettaikaran song to bring back strength to all affected souls:
asatoma sat gamaya;
tamasoma jyotir gamaya;
mrityorma amritam gamaya;
om santhi santhi santhih.
