guru
今回はオウム関連の記事から英語表現を拾います。
Aum spinoffs still out there, and as devious as ever
Shouts of jubilation emanated from police stations in Tokyo, along with exchanges of high fives on June 15, as Tatsuya Takahashi (age 54), the last wanted fugitive member of the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult was apprehended. Two weeks earlier, a female cult member also wanted by police on various charges, Naoko Kikuchi, 40, was turned in by an informer who had noted her resemblance to the 17-year-old photographs on police wanted posters.
“At the time Takahashi was apprehended, he was found to have in his possession photos of guru Shoko Asahara, more than 10 books published by the cult and voice tapes containing sermons,” says a news reporter assigned to cover the Tokyo police. “Moreover, in his cell, he assumes the lotus position and chants mantras. During interrogation, he referred to Asahara as ‘sonshi’ (the holy master) and has stated ‘I still believe, even now.’”
For six years from 1989, the cult had engaged in a number of vicious crimes, beginning in 1989 with the murder of human rights attorney Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33, his wife and infant son, who were abducted from their Yokohama apartment by senior cult members and buried in a remote mountain area. In June 1994, the cult—aiming to postpone an unfavorable court ruling in a real estate dispute—released the toxic nerve gas sarin in a residential neighborhood in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, killing eight people and injuring some 660. Then 10 months later on March 20, 1995, the cult’s coordinated nerve gas attacks on five Tokyo subway lines killed 13 and injured some 6,300.
Despite these and other horrific criminal acts, reports Shukan Taishu (July 9), some believers have not only remained loyal to Asahara, but also still adhere to his precepts.
もちろんここは日本語の「グル」（例：「グルになって~」）ではありません。卒業生で静岡県の教員になられたKoyamamoto大先生やUG先生も書かれているように（http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/20100917/1284678542；http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/20120604/1338772542）guruはヒンドゥー教で「導師、教師」という意味(『ジーニアス英和辞典』、第4版、大修館書店)です。そこから一般的には「(運動・思想の)カリスマ的指導者、権威者、専門家」という意味(ibid)になります。
余談ですが、先月読んだ記事で、今の高校生の中には地下鉄サリン事件やオウム真理教の事を知らない生徒も多いという事を知りました。この事件は風化させてはいけない事件の一つであるので、私が教師になった時には次世代の子にしっかりと伝えていきたいと思います。(EnDough)
