Calcutta Rag Covers Up Guru

File under: Gurus Doin' Time

A Calcutta newspaper reporting on the statement of a murder suspect has curiously left out the details of the alleged crime. Perhaps it's a quirk of the Indian media sensibility, but isn't that like covering a movie premiere but failing to report a nip slip?

The alleged murderer is none other than Jayendra Saraswati, the shankaracharya of Kanchi, who is accused of murdering a temple manager and was arrested in November, 2004. It's sort of like the pope getting caught whacking a cardinal.

Naturally, it's rocking the Hindu world like a Springsteen concert at a New Jersey bar mitzvah. An unfortunate reality-check for the devout and pious, but a good demonstration of the fact that the divine seem to fall by the same means as the ordinary: lust, greed and power.