And there was the one about his former wife. "At one point in the relationship," he told me, "I had to decide whether to be of service to the one or to the many." Rama often described his dream of living in a fortified desert compound with hundreds of heavily armed women devotees. Perhaps he broke up with his "jealous" wife—"She kept imagining that I was looking at other women... "—in search of the many.
Once I invited a friend from work to one of Rama's public lectures. She was interested in meditation and had recently left her boyfriend.
"Thanks, but no thanks!" she exclaimed when I mentioned the lecturer's name.
"So, what's wrong with Rama?"
"You mean the one who lists his past life credentials—dates and all—in full-page ads? The one who *specializes* in women?"
"Uh, yeah."
"He isn't bringing women to enlightenment, Mark. He's bringing them to bed."
"Come on," I countered, trying not to admit to her or to myself what he had been doing for years. "So he has a girlfriend. What's wrong with a spiritual teacher having a girlfriend?"
"There's nothing wrong with that," she said firmly. "But he is sleeping with many, many women."
"Where did you hear that?"