Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

His account in 2004. On 1 May 2004, after what he called “gathering exposure”, he wrote to ISKCON’s leaders that he had tried many therapies for a severe anxiety disorder, that “a Godsister was helping me as a counselor, and regrettably I held sessions alone with her. And so the relationship developed.” He wrote that “a sannyasi should never be alone with a woman” and that he would not initiate any new disciples. On 10 May, answering his disciples’ questions, he wrote that “a naturally occurring emotional attachment between the counsellor and client was mishandled”, that they ended the relationship and all contact, and that “we did become physically intimate and this was wrong”. Asked why he had been silent until it was exposed, he answered that the relationship “had been completely closed” and that broadcasting it “would simply cause more harm than good”.

The GBC’s response. The GBC Executive Committee’s statement, published with his first letter on 11 May 2004, called it “a falldown”, expressed its “deep gratitude” toward him and acknowledged “his career of dedicated devotional service”, noted that as GBC Emeritus he held “no official position in the management of ISKCON”, and announced that he had agreed to stop initiating. It said he had “re-dedicated himself to his vows and asrama”. He kept the sannyasa order. In 2008 the GBC accepted his resignation as GBC Emeritus, without giving a reason.

His later account. In 2018 he wrote on his website that after taking sannyasa he had become infatuated with a woman, that years later a letter he wrote her “aroused her romantic feelings for me, and I reciprocated. Shortly after this, we had a falldown on two separate occasions. An anonymous person exposed the scandal, and I was given some restrictions by the GBC. Those disciples of mine who had lost faith in me were advised to take shelter in another ISKCON guru, and I was forbidden to initiate any more disciples in my life.”

The woman is not named here.