05/02/98 - 1777

Guru Hunters?

USA (VNN) - from the "Yoga Journal" - June 1998 (by Jennifer Barrett):

Title: Ananda Loses Sex Suit

February 5, a jury in San Mateo County, California, had to decide whether Swami Kriyananda and a minister of the Ananda Church of Self Realization were guilty of fraud and inflicting emotional distress on a former female member. While the jury ruled overwhelmingly in favor of the plaintiff, Anne-Marie Bertolucci, members of the Ananda Church claim that the case was less about abuse and more about religious freedom and they warn that it sets a dangerous precedent for all yoga teachers and yoga-based spiritual communities in the U.S.

Bertolucci filed the civil suit against Ananda in 1994, three years after she started living at Ananda Village, a community near Grass Valley, California, which is part of the worldwide, 2,500 member Ananda Church. She claimed that Danny Levin, a married church minister, caused her emotional distress during an ongoing sexual relationship; she accused Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters) of fraud for presenting himself as a celibate swami despite having sexual relationships with women; and she charged the Ananda Church with negligence for not intervening to stop the sexual exploits of its male ministers.

A press statement issued by Ananda immediately after the verdict acknowledged that Danny Levin had relations with the plaintiff, but called it a consensual affair-one they did not condone and "spent considerable time and resources helping both parties cope with" after

Levin ended the liaison and reconciled with his wife. They also conceded that Kriyananda had, on occasion, consensual sexual relationships with several women. But they pointed out that in contrast to "fraudulently passing himself off as a swami when he was not adhering to his vows," as charged by Bertolucci's lawyer Michael Flynn, Kriyananda had publicly renounced his vows of celibacy when he married in 1985. In an article he wrote for Yoga Journal January/FebruaIy 1982), he added that while he was no longer celibate, students and friends could still call him Swami, "if they so wish," since the word also means "teacher." Ananda spokespeople say that Bertolucci's lawyers put their religious beliefs and practices on trial. According to Ananda minister Asha Praver, Bertolucci's attorneys "aroused so much fear and prejudice against the unfamiliar that the jury lost the capacity to see what was going on." Flynn and attorney Ford Greene- who has represented ex members of groups like the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology in other trials-repeatedly equated Ananda with groups like those in Waco and Jonestown. A San Francisco Chronicle story titled "Guru Hunters Take On Palo Alto Swami" quoted Greene as saying that the reason he went to law school was to "do guru-hunting . . . these guys are public health hazards."

The jury awarded Bertolucci $625,000 in compensatory damages, and charged Kriyananda with an additional $1 million in punitive fees. Kriyananda has since relinquished his position as the church's spiritual director and his place on Ananda's board. According to Praver, the outcome of the trial will bring Ananda to the point of insolvency, but the group intends to appeal if they can raise the necessary funds.

-Jennifer Barrett