“Iskcon child abusers named” [“ISKCON में बच्चों का उत्पीड़न करने वालों के नाम उजागर”]: VOICE द्वारा संकलित पूर्व गुरुकुल छात्रों के बयानों (दिसंबर 1996 – अप्रैल 1997) का खंड II “Perpetrators” [“अपराधकर्ता”] (2.1-2.17), जिसमें यान ब्रज़ेज़िंस्की (Jan Brzezinski), जिन्हें हिरण्यगर्भ (Hiranyagarbha) / जगदानन्द दास (Jagadananda Das) के नाम से भी जाना जाता है, का 5 जनवरी 1997 का पत्र शामिल है, जैसा iskcon-truth.com पर पुनः प्रकाशित किया गया

Copy of http://www.iskcon-truth.com/childabuse/childabu.htm as it stood on 2019-05-16. Saved for the record; page
 furniture (menus, ads, comment forms) removed; names of private persons blacked out.




     None of us escaped being abused...                                  Childrens witness account:
     and no one helped us...
     and no one protected us....                                         Iskcon child abusers named
     and no one believed us...                                           ------------------------------------
     and no one listened!                                                2.1     Ananta Rupa
                                                                         2.2     Bhavananda
     Taken from the "VOICE"                                              2.3     Bhurijan
     Violation of ISKCON Children Exposed                                2.4     Dhanurdar Swami
     email: voice@islandnet.com                                          2.5     Chandrika
                                                                         2.6     Gyanagamya and Krishna-Kumari
                                                                         2.7     Doyal Govinda
                                                                         2.8     Hare Krsna das
                                                                         2.9     Hiranyagarbha
                                                                         2.10 Lalita Madhava
                                                                         2.11 Mandaleshwar
                                                                         2.12 Manihar
                                                                         2.13 Niragadeva
                                                                         2.14 Padasevana
                                                                         2.15 Raghunatha Swami
                                                                         2.16 Rupa Vilas
                                                                         2.17 Venkata


II. Perpetrators
================

2.1 Ananta Rupa

Ananta Rupa, along with his group of monitors, were known to be sexually abusing children in the
Vrindavan gurukula. Ananta Rupa was American. He was extremely domineering toward the boys and did
not hesitate to yell, punch, slap, throw things, or pull our ears.

Ananta Rupa was teacher at the Mayapur Gurukula (from 19?? to 1981) and was openly known to be
having sex with some Bengali children there. The circumstances surrounding is discharge from Mayapur
are unclear, but it was common knowledge amongst the gurukula children, that he left Mayapur because of
his pedophile activities. He was transferred to the Vrindavan gurukula, where he stayed from 1981 to 1984

Ananta Rupa came to Vrindavan, while Dhanurdar was the principal, and was assigned immediately to be a
gurukula teacher. There is little doubt that Dhanurdar was well aware of the allegations. The impression was
that Dhanurdar fully cooperated and endorsed decisions and punishments made by Ananta Rupa while he
was a teacher in Vrindavana gurukula.

Ananta Rupa was extremely domineering and mean toward us - he did not hesitate to punch, slap, throw
things, or pull our ears. He constantly yelled and used very intimidating gestures and words when he
interacted with us.

Ananta Rupa arrived at the Vrindavan gurukula with several of the adolescent - adult boys with whom he
was having sex with in Mayapura.

These adolescents, who came to Vrindavan with Ananta Rupa, where from my estimation between the ages
of sixteen and twenty two. It was difficult to determine their age since none of them knew their birthday or
age. During the four years they were around, they didn't grow any taller nor change in physical appearance,
so I suspect they were adults. The rumour was that these were the Bengali boys, Ananta Rupa was having
sexual relations with in Mayapur.

As for his ashram, Ananta Rupa was very friendly with the monitors, while he was extremely mean to us.
Each of these monitors had an ashram of between five and fifteen younger boys. They would pick out the
boys in their ashram who they thought were vulnerable or non threatening and sexually molest them. If the
situation was appropriate they would bring the boy to Ananta Rupa. Ananta Rupa had an ashram with those
people that came with him as monitors, for around two or three years.

All of these monitors were brahman initiated mainly by Bhavananda and possibly another guru. They
frequently led kirtans, performed aratis, and were treated by all the devotees including visitors, with a high
degree of respect.

These were some of the sexually molesting monitors in Ananta Rupa's ashram: Doyal Govinda,
Padasevana, and Hare Krsna Das. They were also all Bhavananda's disciples. There are others in that group
who slip my memory right now who were also involved in sexual as well as physical abuse.

I saw that there were a number of young boys who were passed around between the monitors in Ananta
Rupa's ashram and Ananta Rupa, and other teachers and monitors. I was lucky in that, although I was in
both Ananta Rupa and Niragadev's ashrams, I wasn't sexually molested by them or the monitors. This was
only because of my father's position.

This doesn't mean they didn't make passes at me. I found it confusing and pretended not to notice it because
I didn't want to get involved in that. I was attracted to girls and a particular girl back in the US. To some
people, it may minimize the truth or validity of what I am saying because I didn't have any physically
sexual contact with these people. However, I don't feel that the only way for people to believe that the boys
that were victimized and molested in Vrindavan and elsewhere, is for them personally to come out and
disclose exactly what happened to them. ██████

Bombay, India -- Temple Vice-President and Head of Orphanage 1986 - ?

Dhanurdar mentioned at an Isthagosti (community meeting) in 1993, that in 1987 he became aware of
Ananta Rupa's pedophile activities and removed him. Ananta Rupa was moved to the Bombay temple,
where he soon became the vice president of the temple and was again ina position where he wa molesting
children. Dhanurdar stated that he had again, with considerable effort convincing people of this man's past,
had him removed from that position. He concluded by saying that now thge man was thought to have
started an orphanage where he is undoubtly continuing his activities. As usual, nothing was ever reported to
the law, and the only reason for his action seems to be reputation, after all he continues to molest innocent
children.


2.2 Bhavananda

Bhavananda was a member of the GBC, Governing Body Commission, and was one of the original eleven
zonal gurus assigned a region after Prabhupada left in 1977. Bhavananda's region included the India
gurukulas of Vrindavan and Mayapur - two of the worst gurukulas for child abuse.

When he took power as a guru, he had people address him as Vishnupada, or at whose feet Vishnu serves, a
title of dietification and reverence.

Prior to joining the ISKCON movement, he was known
to be bi-sexual. There is ample evidence that he carried
on homosexual activity throughout his time in the
movement and that the GBC knew of his sexual
activities.

As a guru and sanyasa, he was known to engage in
sexual acts with children.

Bhavananda was in charge of the zone which included
both Vrindavan and Mayapur. Most of the Bengali boys
were his disciples and so was Ananta Rupa. When
Bhavananda would come to Vrindavan, his disciples and Bhavananda - homosex-guru and child abuser
others who were in the gurukula would be sent to his
quarters. Sometimes they would go over to Bhavananda's suite in the guest house and spend days there with
him, serving him, and I presume in sexual ways as well.

Many of these boys who were Bhavananda's disciples were known to be having sex with each other and
molesting other younger children.

Since these boys were Brahmana initiated, they performed aratis, they led kirtans and they were looked on
by Dhanurdar and the teachers, as our superiors, and role models.

Bhavananda and Dhanurdar would insist on inspections of us children during his visits. We were to line up
with only a loin-cloth, and then he would go through the showers while we were naked in the shower. He
then, with a corn scrubber in hand, would look at our bodies and arbitrarily scrub some 'dirt' off.

I was standing in the line up, naked and scared. When he came to my turn for inspection, Bhavananda told
me to go to the initiates bathroom because I didn't have to be inspected. He was trying to act as though he
was being benevolent to me, but this was their way of getting you to feel special so you would become

initiated and join the clique. Of course I felt really relieved that I wasn't inspected. At the same time, I felt
horrible for my friends that were forced to stay and go through this abuse and humiliation. He was also just
trying to protect his hide by not torturing me.

Bhavananda did not excuse me out of compassion, but rather because my father was a member of the GBC.
He did not want to compromise his position by risking having me tell my father.

At times some of us were singled out and treated in what may seem to be preferencial treatment. This was
actually another form of control and torture. I think that this tactic was to break our solidarity, and to get us
to become like them. To ensure that we were totally alone. When these type of situations happened, I would
just look at the boys who were having to undergo the mistreatment, and feel for them. To me it was the
same as if they had done it to me. ██████


2.3 Bhurijan

Bhurijan and his wife Jaggatarini arrived to 'teach' at the new gurukula in mid PA, later to be called the Gita
Nagari farm, around 1976. Bhurijan had a seemingly endless list of "crimes and punishments". Most of the
punishments seemed to involve going behind the haystack for a caning in one way or another. -- from this
gurukula 1975-1976 (10 Dec/96)

Bhurijan was a teacher in Vrindavan gurukula starting
from around 1982 until some time in the not-too-distant
past.

Bhurijan was an intense emotionally abusive teacher, and
seemed to delight in controlling and feeding the fear
environment. He fully endorsed all the abusive policies.

He was not known to sexually molest the boys, but he
certainly ignored that molestation that was taking place
and hardly did anything when it was "discovered".

When sexual molestation of children became publically
known in the society, the only action that he took was to              Bhurijan - child abuser
remove these teachers and monitors from the school. He,
along with Dhanudar, used the principle 'not in our backyard'. The pedophiles were just relocated to another
temple where they could continue molesting children. There was no attempt at justice or retribution or
apologies to the children or parents.


2.4 Dhanurdar Swami

Dhanurdar joined the Dallas temple as a neophyte (Bhakta Dennis Wiener) around 1972. Around 1975 he
became an ashram teacher at the Vrindavan Gurukula and by 1981 he was the Principal of this gurukula. He
was made a guru sometime in the late 1980's.

As the Principal of the Vrindavan
Gurukula he made the decisions to engage
teachers knowing their history and
encouraged severity in all of our
treatment. The atmosphere that Dhanurdar
created for the Gurukula was one of cold
hard "discipline," based on his
philosophical attitude that there was no
such thing as "love" in this "material
world". We existed in a very cold
uncaring environment, where there was no
love or sympathy toward any of us. No
attempt was made to act with compassion,
empathy and fairness. We were under a
nonstop onslaught of spiteful and abusive
tactics intended to destroy and control our
will.
                                                   Dhanurdhara Swami 2008 -- child abuser beater
Dhanurdar defended this Gurukula from
anything that could threaten it's existence. This included preventing us from saying anything about the
conditions and treatment at the Gurukula. The method he and the teachers used was surveillance and
tyranny; all of our correspondence was censored, inspections of our belongings, and monitoring of

conversations were constant. If we even insinuated that we were being mistreated, the result would be
severe and public (amongst your peers) punishment.

We were forced, through fear, to keep up the appearances and be on our best behaviour when our parents or
any other guests visited. Dhanurdar and the rest of the teachers would also be very friendly with visitors and
parents and made arrangements to give them all kinds of nice treatment. This was all done in such a way as
to give the impression that this was the normal condition.

A memory of his stupidity, was he would want to punish one of us, he would order you to "go wait outside
my room!" then you would go there and wait. You would wait there anticipating that he was going to come
back and hit you or yell at you or tell you what your punishment was. Then he would come back ten
minutes later, or a couple hours later and he would say, "what are you doing here?!" You would be like,
"you told me to wait here." And he was like, "no I didn't, don't lie." Then he would get really pissed off at
you and tell you to get out of there. It was just stupid. He was just really stupid.

There may be some question as to wether Dhanurdar knew about all of the sexual abuse perpetrated by his
'employees' on the children. It appeared to us that Dhanurdar either didn't know about it, or chose to 'act'
ignorant.

Regardless, he is responsible for creating and maintaining the environment that allowed, and even
encouraged sexual molestation of young boys by the teachers and supervisors. Throughout his years as
principal, he took to active steps to change or improve the conditions for the children under his protection.

Indeed, he totally advocated and participated in the use of violent discipline and mistreatment to make us
submit. He never allowed us to speak in our defense against accusations. He was in favor of hitting us and
other forms of humiliating punishments. All of his actions engendered a great deal of anger and distrust
toward him, our teachers, and even our parents because of their having put us there. A side of me is very
reluctant to believe that he was totally unaware. This is because they had regular meetings where they
discussed their strategies and policies.

One perception of many of the boys', was that Dhanurdar was really stupid and naive. It was common
knowledge among us that the teachers like Ananta Rupa and Niragadev were abusing children and having
sex with each other. Dhanurdar seemingly acted as though he knew nothing of these abusers' pedophile
history and their on going abuse at his school. An aspect about this that doesn't make sense to me is that
Dhanurdar must have known about the allegations of child abuse on Ananta Rupa and those older boys
before they came from Mayapur. The only explanations I can assume, are that Danurdar either knew but
didn't care or choose to acknowledge the information, or he was just really naive or stupid.

We referred to him as stupid because for him to be unaware, we felt, would have required a certain amount
of stupidity or naivete. If, in reality, he wasn't aware, even though it was going on all around, these teachers
must have been glad to use this to their advantage.

Dhanurdar reserved preferential treatment toward the few students whom he thought could effect his status
in the Indian community. There was one child, for example, who was the son of a mayor or some other
district official, who Dhanurdar was extra attentive. He was also preferential to initiates and to some of the
children from poorer Indian families. To the children from the west, it was clearly interpreted that
Dhanurdar and the teachers paid extra attention and care for the Indian children.

Isthaghosti 1990 at Gita Nagari, Pennsylvania

In 1990 there was a community meeting, an Isthaghosti, at the Gita Nagari farm attended by Dhanurdar,
Ravindra, Satsvarupa, and around thirty five devotees.

The subject of child abuse came up. Dhanurdar mentioned an incident about a couple of teachers namely
Ananta Rupa and Manihar. After 1986, ISKCON finally started to slightly admit that there was a problem
with abuse in the gurukulas. By that time the molestation had become soo blatant. It was also around this
time when the guru Bhavananda's pedophile behavior could no longer be covered up. Dhanurdar, then
principal of Vrindavan gurukula, recalled that he had made those teachers leave the Vrindavan temple. He
sent Ananta Rupa to Bombay. Not surprisingly, Ananta Rupa was later appointed vice president of the
Bombay temple and allowed to open an orphanage, where he undoubtedly continued his molestation of
young boys.

Some time later, Dhanurdar recounted that with some effort he had gone to the Bombay temple and had
Ananta Rupa removed. Subsequently this man was forwarded to another temple where he continued to
sexual abuse boys until Dhanurdar told the temple authorities the man's past and again with considerable
effort had him removed.

In Dhanurdar's narration of this story, he did not appear agasted or appalled with the cyclic nature of these
events. He did not seem to recognize that he was responsible for informing the new authorities of Ananta
Rupa's past history of molestation, and that he, Dhanurdar, should have made sure that his previous
'employee' was not around children. It was as if the crime of child molestation did not merit punishment or

even an effort to prevent it from happening again. Dhanurdar even seemed pleased that the 'problem' was
solved 'in-house' and didn't warrant contact of outside authorities. Dhanurdar's main point in his narration
was to emphasize how he prevented further bad publicity.

I will grant Dhanurdar one concession, his behavior did present a marked difference from the absolute
complacency of the past, although his motivation was to me distorted.

I raised my hand and said that during ancient Vedic times such a crime would probably be punished with
death. I continued that we are not in that time, so we should use the legal means and go to the police and let
the law take appropriate measures. The response from the panel and the audience was one of horror and
repulsion. Everybody there looked at me like I was some lunatic radical person. As if to say, "how dare you
even mention that?" I seemed to be immediately written off as some angry, dramatic kid. ██████



2.5 Chandrika

Teacher at Dallas Gurukul. No further information available as of April 13, 1997.


2.6 Gyanagamya and Krishna-Kumari

Gyanagamya and his wife Krishna-Kumari were ashram teachers in Dallas. Here are some memories of the
abuse and anguish they inflicted on small children.

I was Locked in a Trash Can
I remember spending a long time (I think it was the whole day) in a trash can. It was one of those plastic
barrel size things with plastic lid. I was 3 or 4 years old at the time. (I always remembered Gyanagamya as
the teacher involved.) I was put in the thing at first with no lid. I remember crying and screaming until I
didn't have the energy any more. Then someone showed up. I thought rescue was at hand. I was wrong.
That's when the lid went on with a small air gap "so I could breathe". I screamed some more, but no one
came. I managed to curl up in the bottom of the thing and sleep for a while. When I woke up I was still in
the thing and it wasn't all a bad dream like I'd hoped. That's when I decided that the only way I'd get out
was on my own. I tried climbing the inside by pushing my back against one side and walking up the other
side. When I got to the top I pushed the lid aside and started to climb over the edge when the teacher came
back. I got a beating for good measure, was put back in the thing and the lid was nearly closed so that it
could support some heavy object that would keep me from opening it again.

After expending most of my energy climbing the inside again and trying to move the lid I collapsed in the
bottom, totally demoralized. After a while, boredom took over and I started trying to get out again. I
alternated screaming for help and trying on my own. Somehow I discovered that I could rock the barrel
back and forth by throwing my body against the walls. Before I had a chance to get scared about falling
over, the thing had tipped and I was free. I knew that there was nowhere that I could go. I was in my
underwear, sweating from head to toe, and exhausted. My only hope was to find somewhere to hide.
Looking around, the only thing that I saw was the dirty laundry hamper. It was like a giant trough that 50 or
60 kids had thrown their dirty underwear into. I climbed in. I buried myself in urine soaked underwear and
waited in abject terror for the teacher to return. As time passed, I fell asleep again from exhaustion. I was
awakened by the teacher lifting me bodily from the hamper and throwing me on the floor. I kept wondering
how he'd found me. I thought my hiding place was perfect. Back into the barrel I went. This time, however,
I wasn't getting out on my own again. The bottom of the barrel was filled with about 6 inches of water. The
lid was put back on all the way with the weight on it and a hole was made in the lid so I could breathe. I
have no idea how long I was in there. It seemed like forever. I thought I was living a whole lifetime of
hellish existence in that thing. I could no longer curl up and sleep because of the water. I sat there freezing,
scared, and exhausted until my body turned white from immersion. When I was let out of the barrel it was
dark outside. I think the punishment lasted all day.-- from Dallas gurukula 1972-1976

Other examples can be found under 1.3


2.7 Doyal Govinda

Monitor in Ananta Rupa's Ashram, Vrindavan 1981-1985 (initiated by Bhavananda). No further information
available as of April 13, 1997.


2.8 Hare Krsna das

Monitor in Ananta Rupa's Ashram, Vrindavan 1981-1985 (initiated by Bhavananda). No further information
available as of April 13, 1997.

2.9 Hiranyagarbha (aka. Jagadananda das, aka. Jan Brzezinski)

The following is a letter we received from Jan Brzezinski on 5 Janunary, 1997. He was a gurukula teacher
in Dallas (Texas, USA), New Vrindavan (West Virginia, USA) and the head master of the Mayapura (India)
gurukula. His letter provides verification for many of our memories, albeit from the perspective of one of
the abusive teachers, while also providing evidence of other participants who abuses us as children. By
publishing Jan's letter in its entirety, we are by no means agreeing with his analysis and conclusions.
In fact, we strongly disagree with his attempts to justify and/or explain the behaviour of teachers and
others (bramacharis and sannyasis) who physically, sexually and spiritually abused young boys. We
will recognize that he has showed courage by publically acknowledging his role in abusing children under
his care.

"Dear anonymous writers and organizers of VOICE,

"My ISKCON name was Hiranyagarbha Das and I was formerly a Gurukula teacher (on and off from
1972-75) at Dallas and later the headmaster of the short-lived New Vrindavan Varnashram College in 1974
and the Mayapur Gurukula from 1975- 1979. I think I had a rather unique position in that I was involved in
the early stages of these Gurukulas. I left in disgust when I realized that I was not spiritually or materially
qualified to run such a school and when I realized that the ISKCON institution itself did not seek to
improve the situation.

"Reading your articles brings back many memories about painful experiences that I had. Painful from bad
conscience because I myself perpetrated acts for which I am eternally sorry. I wish to take this opportunity
to beg forgiveness for all those acts of violence towards innocent children in which I was involved.

"First of all, I would like to confirm both the stories about Smaranam and the institutionalized use of
physical punishment in the Indian gurukulas. Smaranam the paddle was the invention of a certain
Dvarakanath Das. It seems to have gotten used to circumvent bursts of sudden violence by frustrated
teachers against misbehaving or recalcitrant students. There were very few qualified or experienced
teachers in the early Gurukula at Dallas, the only exceptions being Rupa Vilas and Chandrika. At that time
in ISKCON in general there was a hubris about individual qualifications. It was thought that a devotee who
was chanting his rounds was empowered to do anything and that he did not need any special training. The
task of dealing with a hundred children or so from morning to night on a tough schedule through mangal
arati to bedtime was too much for most of them. I can remember in 1975 sneaking out of my classes after
lunch to go and take a nap in the rooms above the stage in the main prasadam hall where Sunday feasts
were held. The schedule was far too demanding for the teachers and far too demanding for the children.
There was little or no playtime. There was insufficient time for sleeping. There was little real concern for
education in that the primary goal of the school was to get the children to do things like chant sixteen
rounds and follow the morning program.

"All these things were doubly true at the Varnashram College and again at the Mayapur Gurukula. I
personally always placed a lot of importance on academic education, but ISKCON in general alway
downplayed it, saying that all we needed to know was in Prabhupada's books so why bother with too much
education? Even Sanskrit, which I started teaching with only a smattering of knowledge, was considered
rather unimportant if not a bother. It was only a superficial understanding which was sought. Too much
knowledge of Sanskrit and Bengali was indeed blamed as the major cause of my blooping in 1979 as well
as in that of other Sanskrit scholars such as Nitai Das, etc.

"There is little that I can say to exonerate myself from personal acts of violence against some of the children
in my care, especially at New Vrindavan. I was there in 1974 when, as all you readers of Monkey on a Stick
will know, there was a very strong militant spirit being instituted by Kirtanananda. My own discriminatory
powers were still weak and I participated in giving Kirtanananda an exaggerated amount of respect. I also
thought that a strong discipline was needed to help bring the children up, to produce in them the necessary
qualities to become a little foot soldier for Krishna and Prabhupad. I enlisted the help of a certain
Madhupati Das who was an ex-marine and he turned our Varnashram College into a boot camp. We used to
march on the main road from our site (known as Prabhupad's House, I believe) to Madhuban, keeping time
with the maha-mantra instead of 'left-right'. Once again, though, the basic lack of understanding of child
psychology and inexperience, coupled with fatigue and overwork were the principal causesof sudden fits of
temper on my part which on occasion led to spankings of a particularly unpleasant nature. For this I wish to
especially beg forgiveness of ████████ and ██████████████████ as well as ███████ and
██████████. You may have a hard time believing this, but I really did love you all. In my ignorance, I
thought that I was doing the best that I could for you. It took me far too long to realize that I was wrong.

"At Mayapur, the situation became in many ways worse. As some people may already have pointed out on
these pages, Bhavananda Maharaja, Nitai Chand, Tapomaya and other members of the Mayapura leadership
were actively involved in sexual abuse of some of the children. ████████████████████████
were particular targets of their affections. I was a true ignorant and it took me a long time to become aware
of these activities. Some of the children started to accuse the teachers in 1978 and a number of them were

reprimanded for sexually molesting the children. We had a worse problem with brahmacharies living in the
temple who had fairly easy access to the children. Some of them were true predators and took advantage of
them. For the Western kids, the worst case was that of Bhakti Caitanya Maharaj, a Punjabi who later
became a sannyasi and president of Chandigarh temple. In 1975 he attempted to sexually abuse several of
the American children in the Gurukula. Naturally, these boys were vulnerable and starved for affection as
well as material comforts and goodies and were easy prey. The same was true of the Bengali boys who were
easily bribed with small gifts of a Western nature, watches, etc., which they, mostly being poor, could never
hope to otherwise get. When some of my most trusted teachers started to get involved in such activity, I
became so frustrated that I did not know what to do. In a way, I could understand the problem. Living so
closely to the children, brahmacaris who had no outlet for sexual activity found themselves tempted by
children who were often genuinely affectionate and with whom a certain form of loving relationship was
formed. There is, of course, no excuse for such a breach of confidence. But people like Venkat were not
pedophiles by nature. The situation in which they found themselves in good faith was compromised by the
emotional and sexual fulfilment of which they were themselves deprived when combined with the
innocence and affection of the young children with whom they were in contact from early morning to late at
night. I find it easier to forgive someone like Venkat than those who like Nitai Chand or Bhavananda were
more directly exploiters and pedophiles by nature and predilection.

"Although I was the head of the Mayapur Gurukula, I had little real control over policy. Indeed I kept my
distance from the Mayapura leadership, feeling more affinity with the less-empowered Western and Bengali
devotees. Bhavananda ran things by bullying and his minions, of whom I was one, all adopted his style to
some extent. Education had little place in the Mayapura scheme of things. Bhavananda, Tapomay and Nitai
Chand saw the Gurukula children as useful free labour. The Bengali children were considered insufficiently
intelligent for academic work, as sudras, and better off doing field work or cleaning toilets. Though this
assessment was not entirely without foundation, even those children who had intellectual potential were
given little or no time to study on their own, to pursue their intellectual curiosity or to take any academic
initiative. Even had they wished to, the facilities were nil and besides there were perks for doing other tasks.
According to Prabhupada's instructions, the most important thing was that the children follow the morning
programme. This led to the ridiculous situation of teachers monitoring young children of five or six years
old in lines in the temple room at mangal arati, forcing them to dance! Walking up and down lines of dozing
children chanting japa. I don't think I ever became more frustrated at a useless waste of time. How much
better off these children would have been getting a decent night's sleep and then coming to evening arati
with genuine enthusiasm!

"Before I left, I had come to the point of thinking that our entire Gurukula policy in Mayapura needed to be
changed. First of all, I felt that we needed to hire professional teachers from Nabadwip and elsewhere to
offer a complete course of education. (This incidentally is the policy at the Bhaktivinode Institute at the
Caitanya Janma Sthan in Mayapur, run by the Caitanya Math.) I felt that if ISKCON wanted to get the most
mileage out of its educational system in India, it should make it attractive to life members, etc., who would
send their children in order to get a real, professional quality education. This would mean minimizing
devotional activities to a few classes in religious instruction and perhaps a few formal ritual activities. The
school would be segregated from the non-teaching devotional staff and teachers would be divided into
ashram teachers and class teachers whose competences would be carefully monitored. These policies were
based greatly on the success that the Ramkrishna Mission has had in using their schools to train people for
public life who later support the society. This in turn was based on the example of Christian schools in India
which continue to furnish the best education there. I believe that some of these proposals were accepted
after I left the movement in 1979, and hopefully the entire movement has become more mature in its
approach to education. I can only apologize to those who suffered through those first years, and all those
who have continued to suffer abuse at the hands of incompetent educators who though that chanting Hare
Krishna was a substitute for real training as a teacher.

"Speaking in accordance with certain psychological profiles that were done in the 1980's by scholars
studying the Krishna consciousness movement ('The Hare Krishna Character Type), a dominant personality
type found amongst Krishna conscious devotees is based on a fear of sensuality, of losing control of one's
self. Many of the early devotees, like myself, were ex-hippies who were attracted by the structure of temple
life, who were excited by the prospect of becoming self- disciplined and purified of material desire. In our
vision of school life we thought to instill the spirit of discipline which we ourselves had not attained but
were only aiming at. Thus we found ourselves in the silly and tragic situation of expecting things from the
children which we ourselves were unable to achieve for the most part. Our frustration with our own failures
found its natural outlet on the innocents who surrounded us.

"I learned my lesson in 1977 when the Mayapur Muslims attacked the temple after Nitai Chand beat up on
one of theirs. I was badly beaten up in the affair, receiving a broken arm which was improperly set and to
this day is crooked. I took it as a sign that Krishna was giving me back something of what I had given to the
kids and from that day on stopped hitting the children. There was only one exception: when I tried to slap a
boy who refused to immediately obey a command, I broke one of my knuckles on a concrete pillar. It
remains a cavity on my right hand which like my crooked left arm, bears permanent testimony to my past
sins.

"To conclude, I would like to say one last thing. I am happy to say that in some cases, children who were
brought up in Krishna consciousness do look back on their experience in a positive light. I am pleased to
say that my own daughter, with whose upbringing, I as a sannyasi had absolutely nothing to do, grew up to
be well- educated and good-mannered due to the constant intervention of her mother, who did not allow her
to suffer abuse in closed environments, who let her go to public schools when she desired it and who
despite personal difficulties managed to provide love and a personal example of dedication to principle. For
this I would like to publicly thank her in this space.

"By abandoning my own child, I fit the ISKCON model of an uncaring parent about which I would like to
say aword or two, which fits in with what I said above about character type. I notice similar regrets in
recent statements which I have seen on the internet about Jagadish Das's abandonment of sannyas and
guruship in order to live with a female disciple, citing emotional needs as his reason. In his letters of
demission, Jagadish laments his failures as a husband and a father. These are no doubt common sentiments
amongst those who like Jagadish and myself, were involved in arranged marriages in the early 70's under
pressure from Prabhupada, who seemed to think (and probably with some justification) that any mature
male and mature female in Krishna consciousness should be able to live together and raise a family if they
had this common objective. Of course, we have seen how many mature individuals there were in Krishna
consciousness. Misogyny is a fact in ISKCON and many intelligent ISKCON bloopers have cited it. In
particularly, I advise you to get a hold of a statement made by Subhananda when he left ISKCON, in which
he details how misogyny has been institutionalized in the movement. This attitude is particularly destructive
in the marital situation where it leads to abuse of both physical and sexual kinds. These attitudes have been
amply documented in feminist writings and there is no need for me to go into it here. Of interest might be
Manisha Ray's 'Bengali Women' in which she details masculine sexual attitudes in Bengal which has some
similarities to the ISKCON situation. The ISKCON male personality type, seeking perfect control over his
senses, is perpetually frustrated. Sannyas is the only real ideal. Whatever praises of the grihastha ashram
might be found in Prabhupad's books, everyone knows that sannyas is really where it's at. This attitude,
funnily enough, was started only after Prabhupada returned to India in the early 70's and started making
sannyasis. When these sannyasis (and I mention Bali Mardan in particular, but Subala, Gurukripa,
Yasodanandana and others also) returned to America, they made it obvious that they were the real devotees
and that everyone else had to strive for the same goals. As St. Paul says about householder life in his
epistles, 'It is better to marry than to burn [in the fire of hell]' but that is about it. Prabhupada contributed to
this with his famous 'licking a leaking vagina' remark which he made to Acyutananda, Bhavananda,
Sudama and other homosexual misogynists in Mayapur in 1976. His comments about women's smaller
brain size did not help.

"ISKCON reformers who criticize the guru institution should also seriously consider eliminating sannyas as
undesirable and even prohibited in the age of Kali. There is a statement to that effect in the Puranas which is
quoted in the Caitanya Caritamrita. Hinduism in general never worships a god without his Sakti. This must
be telling us something. There are many who will tell you that sannyas is something that only really came
into Hinduism as a result of the Buddhist influence. Even in Gaudiya Vaisnavism, though Caitanya took
sannyas, the movement was really a householder movement. The six goswamis did not marry, or left their
wives, but they were never formally initiated as sannyasis. The real leaders of Caitanya's movement were
householders such as Nityananda, Advaita, Srinivas Acharya, etc. Even Narottama, who never married,
made householder disciples who carried on the tradition. As an essentially protestant movement, ISKCON
reformers should think about Luther and his criticisms of the abuses in which celibate priests and monks
were engaged during the high middle ages. This is what the sannyas institution is accomplishing in
ISKCON. Sannyas should be a natural development of an individual who has gone through the grihastha
life and learned how to live with people of the opposite sex and appreciate their qualities. Celibacy is not a
prerequisite for spiritual realization. The body is (acintya-bhedabheda) simultaneously one and different
from the supreme truth, so why do we only see the different? It is evident that the truth has been entirely
misunderstood. Sannyas is an innovation in Gaudiya Vaisnavism created by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati who
was looking for committed monks like those in the Ramkrishna Mission. Vairagya in babaji circles has
taken on the character of a formal initiation also, so it too has lost to some extent the true spontaneous spirit
of renunciation that was characteristic of Rupa and Raghunath. The Advaita line in Bengal is the only one
that truly maintains this tradition, and those interested may consult with Advaita Das in Holland.

"In summary, then, I would like to say that ISKCON has promoted a negative attitude towards women and
children and family life in general. There is absolutely no reason why this should be the case. The Absolute
Truth for Gaudiya Vaisnavas is Radha Krishna, the divine syzygy. Look at Radha and Krishna and don't
deny what they symbolize. ISKCON people are so eager to say Radha and Krishna are not symbols of
mundane sex. This is serious denial, folks. They represent the ideal love and we should think of that when
we love, just as we should think of Yasoda and Krishna when we see our child. Your wife and child are
Krishna for you. Krishna is everywhere, he is even in the temple, but his presence is most important in the
objects of love around us. You want to learn to love Krishna? Love the people who are around you. Love
those whom you are supposed to love. Remember Jesus who said, 'As you do to even the least of these, you
do to me.' That, my friends, is Krishna consciousness.

"These are a few of the realizations that have come out of my experiences. To my daughter and students
whom I failed I sincerely pray daily that they will be able to overcome the sadness and anger that these

failings have caused them, that they may find their own path in spiritual life and all satisfactions, material
and spiritual."

Your humble servant,
Jan Brzezinski.
aka. Jagadananda Das, Hiranyagarbha Das.


2.10 Lalita Madhava
Teacher at Vrindavan Gurukula, 1982-1985 (initiated by Kirtanananda). No further information available as
of April 13, 1997.


2.11 Mandaleshwar
Teacher at Dallas Gurukula. No further information available as of April 13, 1997.

2.12 Manihar
Teacher at Vrindavan. No further information available as of April 13, 1997.

2.13 Niragadeva

Niragadev was an ashram "teacher" in Dallas. I know this because I was in his ashram. I hated him even
then. He was an expert torturer. I remember Niragadev making me go to the programs and to the park to
play while wearing dirty underwear on my head. At the time I didn't know which was worse: being seen by
the deities or by all the other name-calling kids at the playground. There was other stuff too. When I got
to India, he remembered me. He told me that the fun would now begin. He really loved to hurt small
weak children and readily admitted it, even bragged about it. I'd just love to see him again. -- from dallas
gurukula 1972-1975 (2 Mar/97).

Niragedeva came into ISKCON around the age of sixteen and was put into the Dallas gurukula system as a
student then ashram teacher, around 1974. This was strange for him to be a student, because the Dallas
gurukula was for predominantly very young children. I was in Dallas at this time and was five years old.
Niragedeva was originally from England. His parents, to my knowledge, did not join the movement.

Niragadeva was known to be sexually abusing boys at the Vrindavan gurukula.

In appearance and actions, Niragadeva was a very effeminate man. He would wear long frilly, transparent
kurtas, and his mannerisms were feminine. Everyone knew he was gay and wanted to be a woman - he
actually appreciated being referred to in that way. He might not openingly admit to being gay, but that was
only because being a homosexual was not accepted by the religion.

Niragedeva was a teacher in Vrindavan during the early 1980's, and was in his early twenties. He was not an
aggressively abusive teacher, however he did sexually molest many of the young boys in his ashram.

He did associate a lot with Ananta Rupa and his troupe of initiated monitors, all sexual molestors.
Niragedeva was having sexual relations with these Bengali monitors, as well as molesting the young boys
in his ashram.

Niragedeva was married and some boys told me they were having sex with his wife, and that he knew but
didn't care.


2.14 Padasevana
Monitor in Ananta Rupa's Ashram, Vrindavan 1981-1985 (initiated by Bhavananda). No further information
available as of April 13, 1997.

2.15 Ragunath Swami

Ragunath Swami was another person who was a teacher between 1980 and 1986. He didn't have the
reputation of being sexually involved with any of the children. He was a very strict intimidating person. He
would hit boys and yell at us with a very loud and commanding voice. He had a very short temper and you
never knew what could happen if you said or did the wrong thing. Toward the end of my stay in the school
he began to change. He seemed thoughtful of the things he had done. He started to act a little more nicely
toward us.

At one time though, he was very scary. He had a personal servant, as did all of the teachers, that would
wash his clothes by hand. The boy who was his servant was a boy from Australia who was kind of timid or
shy. He didn't say much, and he was a really nice kid. One time, he had dirtied his clothes, he had a bowel
accident or urine, just a little bit in his clothes, and he was going to wash them. He had put his clothes and
Ragunath Swami's clothes in the same bucket. Ragunath Swami came in and found out what he was doing

and right on the verandah, he was just kicking and punching the guy. I was there with a bunch of other boys
watching and I thought he was going to die. I don't remember his exact age, be he was around ten or twelve
years old.


2.16 Rupa Vilas
Teacher at Dallas Gurukula. No further information available as of April 13, 1997.

2.17 Venkata

One of the teachers that you don't mention from Vrindavan that I remember vividly is Venkata. He taught
Sanskrit and Karate. He also knew bengali very well. Do you remember him? As far as I know he never
molested anybody which is about the only good thing I can say about him.

On the other hand he had a certain fondness for exotic canes and sticks. I remember that he had at least 8
different sticks. He used to joke that he had one for every day of the week and an extra one for holidays.
During class he always had a stick handy. He'd bring at least one in with him to handle the "troublemakers"
and sleepers. (In a certain other person's class you'd wake up after being beaned by a wooden eraser, in
Venkata's you'd get hit in the head with a stick.)

One time during one of his classes I snickered about something. He came on over to me and asked if
anything was funny. I said no. He told me to get up so I did. He then started to hit me with this dried lotus
stem cane that he had (I mentioned exotic). This stick was about an inch thick and he beat me over and over
again on the legs and back with it. I curled up into a ball to try to protect myself. He stood over me like a
lumber-jack and beat down on me with all his might. Each hit hurt so much it took my breath away. I could
barely cry. I felt numb and dissembodied. I thought I was about to die. I think I passed out because I never
knew how I got out of the classroom.

When I checked the places that hurt the most later I found huge welts some of which were cracked and
bleeding. Some of them got infected and turned into sores that festered for weeks. -- from Vrindavan
Gurukula 1978-1983 (15 Dec/96)



                 MORE ACCOUNTS OF CHILD ABUSE IN HARE KRSNA SCHOOLS