Abuse in the name of Krishna - Mary Garden

I remember dancing with the Hare Krishnas on the streets of Auckland in early 1973. For me that was the ultimate rebellion, the finger up at authority and the establishment. I was a new devotee of Eastern mysticism then (yes I was lost, naïve and idealistic) and even though I did not join that particular group, I could well have done so. It was a bit extreme for my tastes and I regarded myself as not quite ready for the austere "pure" life style that the Hare Krishnas demanded.

How ironic then that of all the religious sects spawned from the counterculture movement, the Hare Krishnas, also called International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), ended up being the most authoritarian. It was also to become the most abusive to its most vulnerable: the children of its members. The full story is only now beginning to emerge, thirty years later.

In America, about 500 claimants are involved in a $616-million (US$400-million) child abuse lawsuit against ISKCON for abuse they suffered as children during the 1970s and '80s. This is the same lawsuit that was originally filed in Texas in 2000, when there were about 90 claimants. Attorney for the plaintiffs, Windle Turley has stated: "This lawsuit describes the most unthinkable abuse and maltreatment of little children as we have seen … As a result, a generation of ISKCON children are permanently (and many profoundly) injured."

Though it was regarded as a tactical ploy by some critics, last year ISKCON filed for bankruptcy in courts in California and West Virginia and hoped to pay compensation of as much as $15 million if the organization managed to raise money from contributions from its centres and temples worldwide (including Australia). However the courts then ordered them to search for any more possible victims who might make a claim against them. They were forced to place advertisements in several newspapers as well as post notices and claim forms on various websites. Subsequently, a further 400 people filed claims and also became eligible to join the Texan lawsuit filed by Turley.

In response to the bankruptcy plan, Turley said on 29 March 2004: "We have many concerns with the plan. The fact it is contingent on donations over a period of many years, is not secured with anything, and generally is not enough money for the 500 claims, will make it very hard for the debtors to achieve a favourable vote from the claimants. Work is continuing to make the plan acceptable, but I don't know if that will happen."

Not all former students have lodged complaints, but it is estimated that a total of eight hundred children as young as three years of age suffered neglect, emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Even though a few Australian children were among the abused and the former guru (teacher) for Australia, Bhavananda, aka Charles Bakis, was alleged to have abused children, there were no reports of abuse occurring at the Australian schools.

Unlike other Hindu-derived sects (Sathya Sai Baba, Prem Rawat (aka Guru Maharaji), Premananda, Muktananda, etc.), ISKCON is not disputing the abuse claims. In fact the organization commissioned Burke Rochford, a sociology professor at Vermont University, to investigate the allegations of abuse and published his report in 1998. ISKCON also established a Child Protection Office and Task Force that same year and compiled a list of 200 people who had allegedly inflicted the abuse.

Unfortunately, in February 2004 the Director of the ISKCON Child Protection Office, Dhira Govinda dasa, announced there was no funding to continue its operation. The activities of that office had included investigating cases of alleged child abuse, coordinating a grant program for youths who were maltreated when they were children, serving as a resource and guidance centre for all varieties of child protection concerns, and facilitating temples and schools to establish child protection educational programs and effective screening systems and child protection teams.

So what happened to the victims and why did it take so long for these allegations to be brought into the open?

Most of the abuse took place in ashram-based gurukulas (Sanskrit for school of the guru) and in particular those at Vrindavan and Mayapur in India and at Dallas, West Virginia, Vancouver and New York. During the 70's and 80's Krishna parents were encouraged to send their children to gurukulas at the age of five or even younger and were advised by letter to "trust the teacher" or not put their children in an ashram. They were permitted to see their children only once or twice a year at the most. Parental attachments (along with material possessions) were regarded as "maya" (illusion) and hence would prevent them from doing the work of Krishna. Parents were expected to raise money for the organization but little of this went to running these schools that were supposed to be taking care of their children. Funding the gurukulas was a low priority in the business of working for Krishna, the god of love in the Hindu pantheon. The children were also taught that in the spiritual world there were no parents, only souls. They were kept out of view from others, cloistered in separate buildings, sheltered from the "evil" material world. In 1975 while exploring India, I spent a few weeks at the Hare Krishna centre at Vrindavan but didn't take much notice that there were no children in sight even though I knew many of the members were married and had children.

From court documents lodged by Turley and reports from ISKCON itself, what happened during those years is horrifying. Children suffered broken noses, serious bruises and contusions, or lost teeth, from being beaten with clubs and fists and also from being kicked. A number of children were slapped around their ears so severely that bleeding and loss of hearing occurred. Medical care for life-threatening illnesses such as malaria, hepatitis and for broken bones was sometimes denied. The children did not receive proper food and some report they "were always hungry" and had to eat leftovers or insect-infested food. If they vomited they had to eat their own vomit. Children who wet their beds were forced to drink urine and wear soiled underwear on their heads. Apart from physical beatings they were also punished by being shut in closets, refrigerators or trash bins for hours or even days at a time. The schools were evidently filthy, overcrowded and the children slept on the floor usually in sleeping bags. There was no TV, radio, toys or games. Sexual abuse permeated the school system. Some children were raped every day for years. There were arranged marriages between girls as young as eleven years to men twice or thrice their age.

Allegedly, the perpetrators of these crimes were none other than the teachers, the ashram leaders, the administrators, and in some cases even sannyasis and ISKCON gurus. It was not uncommon for the children to be told they were being treated this way because it was their bad karma and they must have hurt a child in a past life.

The leader of the Hare Krishnas, Prabhupada, was told of the abuse of minors as early as 1972 and was unwilling to stop it. After he died in 1977, leadership was passed on to eleven male disciples (the gurus) and the abuse continued. Former devotee Nori Muster, author of book Betrayal of the Spirit, wrote to me recently: "If parents tried to speak up, the gurus either silenced them or kicked them out. Some parents just pulled their kids out and left the organization. Also, many parents abused their children, since they were low on parenting skills and violence was a way of life in ISKCON."

In 1988 one of the mothers wrote to ISKCON's Minister of Education regarding the abuse of her son at one of the smaller schools. "A total of 5 children are known to have been abused to some degree. Penetration had been attempted and oral sex had been done repeatedly to the degree of seminal discharge into the mouth with a condom. It seems it had all been going on for a year and a half with no one suspecting it …The real horror of all this, though is that …they were abused in the holy dharma by teachers, monitors, etc. And the children were even witnessing a Guru doing it to boys. It seems it had been very rampant and "just a part of life there". You were either forced to engage in it or you observed it around you." Her letter was ignored.

From 1990 the existence of the abuse began to leak out. A few autobiographical essays were published and circulated within the ISKCON movement and gurukula reunions held where, as young adults, survivors could at last talk about what happened and validate each other's experiences. However it wasn't until the late '90s that the stories reached the media.

This is not surprising. It was only in the mid-90's that stories of abuse within a range or religious organizations including the Catholic and Anglican church were aired. It seems that the Western world was not ready to hear or believe such claims before then.

For instance in 1988 when the first edition of my book The Serpent Rising: a Journey of Spiritual Seduction was first published, I was interviewed by Ray Martin on his Midday Show. However my allegations that the popular guru Sai Baba was sexually abusing young Indian and Western boys (victims now could be in the thousands) were disregarded, along with other examples of the dark side of gurudom. Instead, Martin questioned my mental stability (instead of the gurus' psychopathy) because I had spent time with not one guru but several (nothing unusual in those years). To my disappointment it was clear that my book was before its time.

In respect to exposing abuse within cults, the world of academia hasn't helped either. (Note that because of the pejorative use of the word cult, researchers have created the term New Religious Movements or NRMs). What is astonishing is that over the past twenty years there has been a tendency amongst academics to give more weight to the statements of (cult) members and leaders than to claims by former members and outside observers such as the media. Sociologist Professor Bryan Wilson of Oxford University states categorically that, "Neither the objective sociological researcher nor the court of law can readily regard the apostate as a creditable or reliable source of evidence". In what other sort of crime is a victim not a credible or reliable source of evidence?

Beit-Hallahmi, professor of psychology at the university of Haifa, Israel, challenges what he sees as the "supportive collaborative majority" in the NRM research community. He points out that allegations by hostile outsiders and detractors have been closer to reality than any other accounts; ever since the Jonestown tragedy, statements by ex-members turned out to be more accurate than those of apologists and NRM researchers. He says that the reality revealed in the cases of the Rajneeshees, the Branch Davidians, Aum Shinyikyo, Solar Temple, or Heaven's Gate is much more than unattractive; it is positively horrifying. In these "we encounter a hidden world of madness and exploitation in a totalitarian, psychotic, group, whose reality is actually even worse than detractors' allegations". And so it was with the Hare Krishnas.

There is also the problem of self-doubt. Survivors may doubt themselves and feel guilty at speaking out against someone they may have loved and worshipped deeply. These groups have been a family to them, and for a while the movement has given their lives meaning and direction. Also many good things happen in these groups (that is the snare of all cults). Because members have been taught to regard everything else outside the group as inferior, dangerous or evil, such indoctrination can't be thrown off overnight; confusion and ambivalence can last for years. Until the rise of the Internet, former devotees and victims have often been isolated and had no voice. Now there are a myriad of websites and chat rooms for ex-members of various religious groups. Also available to those who need them is a variety of highly active (usually non-academic, sometimes Christian) websites that post detailed and often critical information about cults.

Research on child abuse suggests that religious beliefs can foster, encourage, and justify the abuse of children. When contempt for sex (and hence children and women) underlie teachings (as it does in some traditional religions and certainly in ISKCON) this creates a breeding ground for abuse. Abuse is also widespread in many of the guru-based groups in India and this is further understandable given the fact that gurus are often considered to be vehicles of God if not God-incarnate. Part of this philosophy is that one should not question or doubt them let alone judge them. Devotees regard their masters as operating on a level beyond good and evil!

While there are people within the movement who have sincerely wanted to deal with the abuse issue, others have just wanted it to "go away". The Australian defendant Bhavananda told the Sunday Age in 2000 that the case had been blown up out of all proportion and was symptomatic of the litigious US environment.

What is deeply disturbing is that evidently some of the perpetrators still work within ISKCON and have not apologised or made amends in any way to their victims.

For the survivors of the horror that was done in the name of Krishna consciousness, the challenge is to realise it wasn't their fault, their karma. The abuse was real and the lawsuits are part of a process to regain control of their lives.

Today Australians of all ages still go to India to worship and sit at the feet of some gurus who are clearly charlatans. I am continually surprised that in spite of all the scandals and exposes, groups such as ISKCON still persist and newcomers of all ages continue to be attracted to them. Hare Krishna temples and restaurants can be found in most cities in Australia; in this time of religious tolerance (in the name of democracy) they are no longer considered an oddity. There are devotees who have remained members of the group from the time I first danced with them on the streets of Auckland thirty years ago. I can't help wondering, isn't it time for them to wake up and find their own way? And if they still need Krishna in their lives, they can still worship this godhead without belonging to ISCKON or visiting a Hare Krishna temple.