Sivarama Swami

1992–2018, Hungary. In his open letter of 7 December 2022 he answered the question “Why did you let a known abuser come to Hungary?”: “As he had been requested to travel outside India, in 1992 or ’93 he was brought to the Hungarian yātrā to help cook for our big travelling festival. He was liked by devotees for his knowledge of deity worship, culture, and his interesting classes. So he was invited back on multiple occasions, until 2018. In that time, he initiated six disciples and gathered a following amongst devotees, but he was never allowed to deal with children in any way.” He wrote that his “first knowledge” of Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami’s behaviour came from the 1991 investigation, and that “Since we were following his CPO restrictions, and since there were no new charges against him between 1991 and 2021, I mistakenly presumed that he had reformed his ways”. He concluded: “I accept that this is a case of misjudgement and mismanagement on my part”. When the six initiations took place, and so whether any of them fell under the 2000 and 2007 restrictions on Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami initiating, is not stated.

November 2022: support for him after the CPO decision. After the Child Protection Office’s 2022 decision, he wrote to GBC members on 6 November (in a copy posted by critics): “BVPS committed abuse but he is not a born abuser. He is a troubled person and he succumbed to temptation. But he gave 50 years of his life to ISKCON, and his abuse aside, he did valuable service.” Asking “now what is ISKCON’s duty towards him”, he put a list of questions to the GBC, among them: “What will the Mayapur management do to facilitate his new life?”, “Will the Mayapur management advise him and pay for counselling he desperately needs?” and “What does the financial package for the above two items look like.” Among the points with which the letter ends: “The GBC Body must ensure the Mayapur management take personal, spiritual and financial responsibility for the abused, and in a different and a more limited way for the abuser.” He quoted the Bhagavad-gītā verse “Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly …” and asked, of Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami: “If he is properly situated in his determination—and that’s for Mayapur management to determine—then how do we deal with considering him saintly?” The same letter asked what moral, spiritual and financial support ISKCON had given those abused, whether the GBC would censure the Mayapur GBC members for negligence, and for an apology to the victims.

December 2022: his clarification. In his open letter of 7 December he confirmed he had written it as a private letter to the GBC and the CPO, and wrote: “I mistakenly used him as the example to question whether the api cet principle was relevant to his crimes, and whether he would be eligible for compensation. I should not have done that.” He said these were questions, “not proposals placed to the CPO and GBC”, which “have now been mistaken for my way of thinking and a proposal that AVd receive some stipend and a lighter sentence. Nothing could be farther from the truth.” Imagining how GBC colleagues would have answered the letter, he wrote: “It sounds like you are a supporter of AVd, that you want to lessen his sentence and give him a pension or something.” He stated: “I offer no defence for his abuses, neither do I think he requires maintenance from ISKCON”, and “If Māyāpur offers any laksmi at all by way of compensation, and that is a big ‘if,’ then there is a long line of abused devotees to whom it will be offered first. … I do not believe for a minute that there would be any stipend for their abuser.” He also wrote “I wrote that I do not think he was a born abuser. That statement was wrong”.

How critics described it. A commentary posted with the letter on the critics’ blog krishna1008 on 10 November 2022 said that he “went on to ask the GBC what kind of financial package would be set up for BVP”. A commentary on the same blog in April 2024 called it “his letter pleading that the GBCs arrange a life pension for BVP”. The November letter, as posted, does not use the word “pension”. No source reviewed shows that a pension, stipend or other financial support was granted to or paid for Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami; the GBC’s resolution of 15 December 2022 on his status sets lifelong restrictions on him and does not mention his maintenance.