Subject: thanks Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 07:38:50 +0000 From: -anon 2nd gen To: Nori Muster (the article says:) Parents were often unaware of the abuse because they weretraveling around soliciting donations for their guru'sbooks, in airports and on the streets, leaving theirchildren in the care of Hare Krishna monks and youngdevotees who had no training in educating children and oftenresented the task, the report says. This is not true. Several of the parents were living in the sametemple as their kids and they saw the abuse. And some of the parentswere abusive teachers or temple administrators. This should not beoverlooked when this shit(sorry) finally hits the fan. (the article says:) "Many people don't trust the leadership," E. Burke RochfordJr., a sociologist of religion at Middlebury College inVermont, the author of one of the two studies published inthe most recent Krishna journal, said Thursday. "They don'ttrust the movement, and people have become estranged as aconsequence. The children who in all probability would havebeen more likely to embrace the movement in the long term,some of them have withdrawn." So true. I am going to do whatever I can to let my stories and othersbe known, because I think that PRabhupada had the best of intentions andbrought us the highest knowledge. Some of the corruptleaders(murderers) are still in power and I would love to see justicedone. This movement has always been my family and I want it back to howits meant to be or how it was for at least a little while whenPrabhupada was here. Of course, I never had many dealings withPrabhupada, I was just a child and even adults were not allowed tointeract with him personally. He seemed to be surrounded by a handful ofpeople who are now suspected of killing him. (the article says:) "We need to get to the bottom of it," said Anuttama Dasa,the North American director of communications for ISKCON,"and to the best of our ability do whatever we can to try torepair the damage to the kids and show them we do care as areligious society." I trust this statement about as far as it takes my finger to reach thedelete button to trash it. (the article says:) Several schools with dedicated, loving teachers avoided anyallegations of abuse, Rochford wrote. Wow, where and which ones are these? I've been in the movement since1972, I never heard of any. (the article says:) But severe sexual andphysical abuse was common at the gurukulas, as Krishnaboarding schools are called, in India, where many Americanadherents sent their adolescent boys. When children tried tosend letters home sharing their misery, some schools inIndia censored the letters, Rochford said. The highestlevels of abuse in American gurukulas were reported inDallas, Seattle and New Vrindaban, W.Va. All mail was censored. I was in Dallas and SEattle. I could take youto a few closets, basements and dungeons in Seattle and Canada, that Iwas made to sit in all day, with no bathroom visits or food., yet whenpeople visited they put new clothes on us to make us look happy and welltaken care of. What a bunch of liars. (the article says:) In 1997, the movement established a Child Protection Officein Alachua, Fla., the site of one of the most thrivingKrishna communities remaining. The office helps Krishnatemple leaders identify and prevent further abuse,investigates cases of past abuse, and reports them to locallaw-enforcement authorities. Sadly, most of us don't think much of this organization. Why cant' we-the abused kids-- select the officers to help do this and to representus? Iskcon seems to pick their right people for the job. (the article says:) "There have been a surprising lack of suits up until now,"Rochford said, "for reasons I don't fullyunderstand." WEll, its taken some of us a while to figure out that the abuse wereceived was not right, that we did deserve better and to get up enoughself-esteem to speak out. Still there is the lingering fear that we'llend up dead in an alley somewhere. So many of us see this Iskconmanagement as a mafioso-type organization. We gotta watch our step.I've got a child I cant' leave behind, you know. (the article says:) Jahnavi Dasi, who remembers being forced to sleep in abathtub, still believes in the Krishna philosophy, andsends her 5-year-old son to a Krishna kindergarten inAlachua. But unlike her mother, who was a Krishnamissionary, Ms. Dasi lives in her own house, earning herliving running a computer business with her husband. Everyday, she picks up her son from kindergarten.. Well, Jahnavi kind of got lucky. She'll always have some kind of incomebecause she collects money for her disability(diabetes). Some of us havetried to live in the community and do service, but its slave-labor andfor me as a single mom(a prostitute in their eyes) its not the bestatmosphere. Subject: Re: ISKCON Story on NYT Front Page/today Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 14:42:09 -0700 From: -dasi To: nori@steamboats.com Hi Nori - Thanks for sending me the article. Could you send it to mydaughter _______ . I don't know how to re-route it toher. She has been in touch with some of her Gurukula teachers & isfinding some peace by the responce - I don't know details but amsurprized that they could give her any healing words. I never heardthose words quoted by Prabhupada - "cutting the ropes of affection"between kids & parents. I never had a good gut feeling about Gurukulabut it was known that Prabhupada called public education aslaughterhouse - that was quoted alot to keep parents from doinganything other than G.K. I feel that as devotees, we were put between arock & a hard place on many occasions to the point that you either threwyour hands up & surrendered because you'd end up on the "mentalplattform" & we had to get our rounds done, etc. etc. or you were in"maya" & punnishable by fate because you knew better. Such fear we werecontrolled by. My life is easier now that I live a cloistered life ®ulate what energies I let get through to me. Those years were prettyintense. Talk to you later -dasi Subject: Re: ISKCON Story on NYT Front Page/today Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 10:40:44 -0700 From: Maria Ekstrand To: nori@steamboats.com Dear Nori, Two things concern me about the NY Times article. First, the fact that itsays that our leaders didn't know about the abuse until 1996. This isclearly not true. I've enclosed a letterluxury hotels in Cascais that was re-posted on VNNtoday that shows that someone wrote them already in 1988. Actually, weknow that there are earlier references than that, both from individualtestimonies I have heard and from the kids' rememberances on the VOICE site. Secondly, the article 9and the ISKCOn press release) state that there areno more asramas in North America, but we know that there is at least one:Laxmimoni's asrama in Alachua (the boys' asrama may have been closed downafter the Muralivadaka scandal). Seems like the press wouldn't have to do too much sleuthing to find that out. Take care, Maria Nori, It sounds like a major step has been taken- but it gives the impression that iskcon is somehow better than the Catholic church- what about the mind control abuse issues? I see mnd control when any group tries to undermine a person's free will- installing phobias, teaching thought stopping- or suppression of feeling. I guess I believe in a free will/ individuality/ rights model for humanity rather than a slavery/clone/depdendency model. Of paramount concern is the free flow of information and relationships- when any group tells people that they can't/shouldn't speak with their family/friends/former members/ critics they use information control- something which undermines personal responsibility and free will. For iskcon to be a viable religion for me, they would need to fundamentally change their policies- something far more reaching than just getting rid of the drugs/sex and other criminal activity. Anyway, I hope you will still be writing your book! Steve Hassan They will have to do something to help the survivors & their families. -former iskcon member There probably will be big lawsuits coming up. -outside observer I agree, ISKCON is a cult, and will remain one unless they make some far reaching and fundamenal changes. Did you see the article in Hinduism Today, in which they expose ISKCON as being non-Hindu? -outside observer |