Hare Krishnas and Child Abuse Case

Most of the news about the Krishnas in June was in regard to a $400
million lawsuit filed by more than 40 former pupils of boarding schools
run by the organization between 1972 and 1990. The news release from
the office of the attorney handling the case began:

        Today 44 young adults filed a $400 million dollar damage suit
against the "Hare Krishna" for sexual, physical and emotional torture
inflicted upon them as children.  The suit says Plaintiffs were sexually,
physically and emotionally abused, along with hundreds of other children,
who were kept during two decades at Hare Krishna's boarding schools.
        The suit, filed in the Federal District Court in Dallas, Texas,
names the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF KRISHNA
CONSCIOUSNESS (ISKCON) as the lead defendant, along with sixteen
other ISKCON entities and seventeen individual members of its
GOVERNING BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, including the Estate of
the movement's founder, BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA.
The Plaintiffs reside in various cities in the United States, Canada and
England.
        Dallas trial lawyer WINDLE TURLEY, attorney for the plaintiffs, said
today, "This lawsuit describes the most unthinkable abuse and maltreatment
of little children which we have seen. It includes rape, sexual abuse,
physical torture and emotional terror of children as young as three years of age.
The worst of the practices spanned two decades, starting in 1972 with
ISKCON's first school in Dallas, Texas. The abuse continued in a half-dozen
other schools in the United States and eventually at two boys' schools in India.
        "Although the leadership in ISKCON has long been aware of the
mistreatment and abuse inflicted upon little children entrusted to it to raise,
the full scope and profound maltreatment of its children has only recently been
exposed.
        "We believe the facts as they are developed will reveal more than a
thousand child victims, many of whom have already taken their own lives
or are today emotionally and socially dysfunctional.
        "Elements within this new religious movement have attempted to
operate outside the child protection laws of a half-dozen states.  As a result,
a generation of ISKCON children are permanently, and many profoundly,
injured."

Former ISKCON member (for 13 years) Nori Muster wrote to Steve Hassan in
connection with this lawsuit:

        I support the lawsuit because I was a member of that group and I was
hurt by the child abuse too. I knew some of the victims and their families and
have to live with what they did to ruin my friends' lives over the last 23 years.
Iskcon's leaders have had an easy time deceiving for their own gain; they
hijacked the religion and used it to hide their own criminal activities. The
lawsuit was a last resort. The leadership has been non-responsive to the
problem, even threatening people who tried to speak up or stop them.

Nori is the author of the book Betrayal of the Spirit.

ABC News reported on one specific case of abuse:

        Greg Luczyk was 9 years old, attending a Hare Krishna boarding
school in India when he made what the religious community's leaders
apparently considered a grave mistake: He found money on the streets of
Mayapur and spent it on chocolate for himself and his fellow classmates.
        His punishment: Luczyk, now 30, says he was locked in a room for
three days without meals and subjected to regular beatings by a Krishna
minister.
        Luczyk said that until a few years ago he could not speak about the
horrors he says he experienced at the hands of the Hare Krishna teachers.
He said the abuse has had lasting effects: He is unemployed and has trouble
finding work because of what he describes as a lack of self-esteem. "I just
have a fear of people," he also says.
        "I always thought that this stuff would never come out," Luczyk
said. "A lot of suffering and internal pain does not always come up to the
surface. For me, it was just blocked right out."

ABC News also told of another case:

        One Hare Krishna devotee who asked not to be identified said she
thought many of the movement's members are now relieved that victims
of the abuse are speaking out.
        "For the last 20 years it has been kept under the covers," said the
devotee, a 53-year-old mother of a child she says was verbally abused
at an upstate New York ashram. "There is a lot of fear involved in telling
about these things. It takes a lot of strength to go through this and to tell
about it."
        The woman said her son was continually belittled, controlled by his
teacher at the ashram and that he was kept from interacting with her as he
grew up. "He said he felt like he was in a prison," she said.

ISKCON Communications said in a response to the lawsuit:

        "It is terrible that child abuse has affected public and private
schools, neighborhoods, churches, and families," said Anuttama Dasa,
Director of ISKCON Communications. "Sadly, some children of the
Hare Krishna society have also been victimized. If any of the events
alleged in this suit did occur, we regret that they did, and we will continue
to make every effort to help address the needs of the young people named
in the suit," said Dasa.
        "At the same time, numerous allegations made in the suit by the
lawyer, Windle Turley of Dallas, are gross exaggerations and outright
falsehoods," Dasa said.
        "Mr. Turley has deliberately fabricated, distorted and misrepresented
much of what actually occurred in order to conceal serious deficiencies
in his case," said David Liberman, an ISKCON attorney. "As an attorney,
he may be held accountable for that at the appropriate time in the future,"
Liberman said.
        The Vaishnava religious tradition to which Hare Krishna devotees
adhere is a monotheistic branch of the Hindu faith. Vaishnava scriptures
state that the protection and care of children is an essential religious practice.
According to Dasa, child abuse in any form is "horrible violation" of Krishna
principles.
        Krishnas have made considerable efforts in recent years to prevent
abuse and, when necessary, to provide counseling and financial assistance for
past victims. In 1990, policies were established requiring abuse-prevention
education for Krishna children and the immediate reporting of all suspected
abuse to government and legal authorities.

The statement concluded by outlining some of the things the organization
says it has undertaken to prevent future abuse and to help those who suffered
abuse in the past. Reuters reported in addition that ISKCON spokesman
Anattuma also said, "I think the size of the suit, $400 million, is excessive.
It is far more than the total worth of temples worldwide."

Cult News Summary, June 2000, Part Two.
--
Lawrence A. (Larry) Pile
Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center
PO Box 67
Albany OH 45710
740-698-6277
740-698-2053 (fax)
freemind@wellspringretreat.org
lapile@frognet.net