At the airport the other day a casually dressed man walked up to me in the security line and said, “you must be active duty or reserve.” Huh? “Excuse me” I politely replied. “Your haircut,” he pointed. Perhaps I had gotten it cut too short. I just love getting haircuts though. Having guessed wrong the man sheepishly walked off. Thirty seconds later he found a group of 3 young men and opened his suitcase to hand them something. Hare Krishna literature. The LA Times reported yesterday on an all to familiar story, but this one isn’t about the Catholic Church:
Leaders of the Hare Krishna faith last week began carrying out the terms of a $9.5-million settlement that closes the books on a long-running child abuse scandal.
Under the plan, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness organization has filed for bankruptcy in Los Angeles while it determines how to compensate 535 former students who say they were abused in the 1970s and ’80s by adults at boarding schools run by the society.
The settlement covers abuses at Krishna temples and schools across the United States and India that resulted in a 2001 class-action lawsuit.
Some Hare Krishna devotees and gurus, including at least one in Los Angeles, were subsequently convicted of child abuse, and others were barred from visiting temples, said Anuttama Dasa, spokesman for the society.
Of course, this isn’t an indictment against all Hare Krishnas, just as the entire Catholic Church isn’t on trial for the actions of some of its clergy, but it’s something to be aware of. There is actually a Hare Krishna temple on my block in LA. Once last year I heard blaring rock music outside my window. When I tried to discern the words I realized it was actually Hare Krishna rock.
Schools, known as ashram gurukulas, sprouted across the country, including Los Angeles.
“I hardly ever saw my parents, but when I did, I would ask my mother every two seconds, ‘What time do I have to go back?’ ” said plaintiff Anya Pourchot, now 37. “I was so fearful that if I did not get back to the ashram in time, they would take away my privileges of seeing my mother.”
Pourchot, a Santa Monica beautician, said she was able to fend off sexual advances from gurus, teachers and other devotees in a Dallas boarding school, but she was frequently beaten. She said she saw other children put inside gunnysacks and barrels as punishment. Children were locked in closets and told that rats would attack them if they moved, she said.
This is heartbreaking:
Sai baba has also been accused of molesting supporters: from the beeb
pakistani imams and thai monks have also gotten into trouble. he who speaks for god(s) is obviously looking down from a moral highground….
The entire Catholic Church (as an institution) is on trial in the court of public opinion for placing their institutional interests above the well-being of their flock. It’s disgusting that a bunch of church “leaders” in the Vatican and elsewhere would fail to take appropriate action and cover up the actions of more than a few priests when they had ample evidence that those priests were destroying people’s lives.
…and proving that they can be just as fanatical as their Muslim brothers who get all the headlines in Britain, Sikhs with too much free time on their hands grabbed the moral high ground by disrupting a wedding for being held in a conference center rather than a temple.
“…40 religious protesters forced the abandonment of a wedding…by storming the venue and seizing a holy book central to the ceremony. The wedding…was halted by a campaign group which had travelled by bus…after searching the internet for details of weddings which might break religious rules.”
i always knew Swami Bob was up to something…..and why does the ISKCON temple in detroit smell like a latrine….I know they’re all into India and all, but come on..
in all seriousness though, if these allegations are true, these people deserve a beating of their lifetime and to have their pony tails yanked out of their heads. It’s sad to see people defy God in the worst way possible and do it in his house. Where’s Narasimha Ji when you need him?
Considering that most Hare Krishna folks are self-styled converts from Christianity, they tend to bring the fundamentalist and intolerant aspects of their native faith into Hinduism. Hence, this spectacle…
A cousin sister of mine fell into the Hare Krishna swamp a few years ago, and she’s still not come out of it. Like most(or all?) Hindus, she would worship anything under the sun, including the sun itself. She would go with us to Hindu temples(of all hues), Jain temples, Gurudwaras etc. After she joined an Australian HK group, she’s become a consummate monotheist. She refuses to take prasad after Ganesh puja etc, saying that she will go to hell if she does so. In functions she is seen distributing HK literature, much to the discomfort of relatives and friends.
My take is: this is a brainwashing cult, not too different from David Koresh and others. I’ve seen my cousin’s steady and steep decline over the years, and when I tried to reason with her(as others), we encountered a stubborn wall that could not be penetrated.
They got to her. We lost.
M. Nam
As someone who grew up as a Hare Krishna, and one of the claimants, it’s unfortunately true there were terrible abuses in many of the schools.
For more information on this — not just one newspaper article — here’s a good start: http://www.iskcon.com/icj/6_1/6_1rochford.html
In response to M. Nam’s comment above, if a Hare Krishna devotee is refusing Ganesh prasada because they believe they will go hell, they don’t understand the Gaudiya Vaisnava philosophy that the Hare Krishna movement represents. Devotees of Krishna do not worship the demigods directly believing that worship of Bhagavan Sri Krishna is also worship of all other deities (see e.g. Bhagavad Gita 7:22), but there is certainly no call to be disrespectful of them. Now if the “Ganesh prasada” in question was chicken-tikka or something, well then her refusal to eat it makes more sense.
As you might imagine, in a worlwide society like the Hare Krishna movement, different communities have different moods, and I don’t doubt that some go overboard in their proselytizing and are fanatical in their (mis)beliefs — and I’m embarrassed for the movement when I hear such stories — but I think the “brainwashing” commment is excessive. Devotees do not live in armed compounds, and your cousin is, I’m sure, free to leave at any time. Why she’s chosen to be so fanatical, I have no idea.
the thing that bugs me most about HK’s is that Hinduism as a religion and per the Gita explicity says that proselytizing and missionary type work is not expected, that the Word of the Supreme Being is not to be forced upon anyone but it is to be demonstrated through ones own devotion to God and his daily activities and actions will speak louder than words. These same people who so claim to be ‘hindus’ are nothing more than Christianized Hindus, forcing their beliefs on others and violating the very texts and religion they claim to represent. I just don’t get it.
HK devotees are followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu whom they worship as the yuga avatara, and who explicity instructed his followers to spread his message of chanting Krishna’s names in every town and village.
Mahaprabhu’s philosophy, such as his emphatic rejection of caste-by-birth and his worship of Radha Krishna as the highest form of love of God, may not fit into certain conceptions of “Hinduism”, but then again “Hinduism” has always been known for the diversity of belief systems attempted to be described by this invented word.
that’s fine, and i agree that the beauty of hinduism is it’s open minded nature and how it incorporates different views under one roof, but these people also read the same holy scripture we do at least on some level, and there it states that the Lord said to not force belief upon others…too contradictory.
but what really gets me fired up is how they sin in the very presence of God and feel no remorse about it.
ouch. how many people do you try to offend on a daily basis? a previous comment stated that you grew up around malayalees, i would have hoped that you would have been less ignorant about christianity, if that were the case.
don’t confuse my views of Christianity as an organized religion w/ my jokes against mallus or my experiences w/ them.
Organized Christianity drives home the scare tactics and need to convert others to save us heathens. I’m comparing HK as being a fundamental Christian offshoot, carrying the same scare tactics and crazy behavior but under a different name. Most Christians I have met, Mallu or otherwise, are generally respectful in allowing for other beliefs. When it gets to the organized level, that’s where the tatti hits the fan. I have found in my experience that many HK’s are from devout Christian backgrounds and that they went HK to get away from the Christianity but forgot to leave the persecution behind. Again, my experience and beliefs only, I am not workign some secret plan to destroy the Mallus…hell, my sister is dating a Mallu!
Hare Krishna beliefs are likely to be different in India vs. the West. I remember meeting an earnest HK from Montreal a few years back and being told that Krishna’s “follow me” statements in the Gita mean that He supplanted the “Old Gods” of Hinduism and that He, Krishna, is the Supreme Deity.