12/10/97 - 1311

Child Abuse Above Average

USA (VNN) - Letter from Bahudak das:

Dear prabhus, All Glories to Prabhupada. Please accept my obeisances.

Jagadananda has provided a quote suggesting that the accusations of child abuse in the Hare Krishna movement have been exaggerated by those wishing to scapegoat new religious movements, and that our rate of abuse is no worse and perhaps better than that of the general population. I sincerely wish I could agree with this assessment but I do not think that the facts support it. Even if it is true that our rate of child abuse is no higher than the general population that is a damning figure (estimates generally fall in the range of 1/3 for girls and 1/4 for boys), and a cold comfort to a society that prided itself on a high level of spiritual purity and religious principles.

I submit that the occurrence of child abuse in the movement was very very high and it is the greatest shame and the greatest scandal that we have to face.

In our defense it can be said that we were very ignorant and unaware of the dynamics of child abuse and this ignorance we held in common with the general population. But even when the sordid facts began to seep out we acted with denial, arrogance ,and irresponsibility. Like the Catholic church we were more interested in denial and keeping up our lofty image of ourselves than facing the ugly truth of our failure to protect our children. My hope is that phase of denial and cover ups is beginning to change but taking comfort in such quotes as Jagadananda has provided will not serve our attempt to accept responsibility for our failure.

I have seven children and of those five suffered sexual abuse at the hands of "devotees"; my two boys and three girls were abused. Vancouver always had a large population of children and therefore may have attracted more pedophiles than a community that was not so rich in children, but I believe that what happened in Vancouver was probably typical of a community that had a lot of children. Both my sons lived in Vrndavana gurukula for many years and their estimate is that 80% to 90% of the boys there were molested. By the time that the scandal began to surface in 1985-86 in Vrndavana, there was a whole group of teachers who were pedophiles and practically they had a pedophile club. Boys were molested either by teachers or by other older boys who had been molested themselves by teachers from an early age. There was a large contingent of boys from New Vrndavana and all reports indicate that the entire New Vrndavana gurukula was staffed with hard-core pedophiles headed up by Kirtanananda. Rumors and reports constantly surfaced about widespread abuse horrors in Mayapor as well. And what was the fate of pedophile teachers in the movement? I do not know of any instances where ISKCON authorities brought charges against individuals . Ananta rupa who was assistant headmaster of Vrndavana gurukula and a blatant, hard-core, unrepentant child molester was moved to Bombay when reports of his abuse surfaced, where he was given a post as an administrator.

There are many examples of this kind , where suspected or exposed molesters were shuffled off to some other temple and the whole thing hushed up. In fact, a little boy of eight years old was the one who blew the whistle on what was happening in Vrndavana and although he was beaten and reviled for being a dirty little boy there was no teacher beaten or reviled that I know of. A friend of my eldest son told me that he had written to a friend somewhere else in the world about the abuse going on in Vrndavana when he was there. Jagadisha heard about this letter in his travels and when he returned to Vrndavana he met this boy ( fifteen at the time) on the banks of the Jamuna and slapped him hard across the face and screamed at him for spreading rumors. I left the temple in 1986 and my children began to talk about being abused a few months later, once they felt free of the intimidation that they had experienced in the gurukulas and temples ( see above paragraph). At that time I consulted a therapist who specialized in child abuse and was horrified to find out the modus operandus and characteristics of pedophiles. I was shocked and guilt ridden to realize that my children had suffered abuse right under my nose due to my ignorance and complacency.

At that time , one of the "devotees" who had abused my children was still present in the Vancouver community. He was an old man who I now realized had been abusing children in Vancouver for years and did services such as fixing children's bike's, running a little ferris wheel, etc, all child related activities. I made an appointment with Kalakantha who was then the temple president and informed him that this man, named Prabhu das, had molested two of my children. He consulted with the "brahminical board " and they decided on the advice of their lawyer that they could not eject him from the community as he might "sue" the temple. (Harivilas, the co GBC ,was the only one with the guts to forbid him the community, which he later did) In that same year a devotee named Ganesh who was a teacher in the gurukula pulled and ripped the ear of a five year old girl and a devotee who had left L.A. under rumors of sexual abuse was made vice president of Vancouver by Kalakantha. I angrily confronted Jagadisha about these three events and warned him him that if he didn't do anything, I would. One of the persons who had molested my children, Sastra dasa (Steve Kapitany) was charged and convicted of molesting my son, only because our son and another boy had the courage to give testimony. The other known molester, Prabhu dasa, was not charged because the policy of the courts was that at least two children from different families had to give solid evidence before charges would be laid. Even though another little boy came to me and told me that Prabhu dasa had abused him, his parents refused to have him speak to a therapist or the police. So it was not just the ISKCON authorities who refused to bring charges or eject molesters from the community but the general population preferred to hide their heads in the sand of denial rather than open their eyes to ugly reality.

In the summer of 1987 I was contacted by a CBC reporter who had been told by someone that I was angry about child abuse and might be ready to talk about it. He asked me if I was ready to talk about it and I agreed in view of the the above mentioned events and the refusal of the devotees, leaders or otherwise, to act to protect the children. Both my children and myself were interviewed on national T.V. about abuse in ISKCON. Although time has mellowed me on this issue and I have come to some sense of forgiveness for myself as an ISKCON devotee and leader who failed my own and other children, and to the devotees who by their ignorance and fanaticism were complicit in the abuse of a generation of children, the children have not forgotten.

I am on the defensive now with my own children who have trouble understanding why I am back associating with devotees in light of what happened to them. My answer to them is that I believe there is an attempt mow to protect the children from abusers and some attempt is being made to address the past. Also I believe that I have a duty to help educate and work towards a healing in this area. There are many many children who were raised in ISKCON who were abused either in the temple communities or the gurukulas or both who are now adults. Their story has yet to be heard and their feelings must be acknowledged. Probably they are owed significant reparations and they are certainly owed our willingness to hear without denial what happened to them. As Badrinarayana prabhu recently pointed out, ISKCON is in real danger of facing massive lawsuits that could bankrupt the society. I understand that the Catholic church in New Mexico is facing bankruptcy. My faint hope is that an effort can be voluntarily mounted by ISKCON and all devotees to reach out to the "lost generation" to truly hear their stories, seek their forgiveness, and offer whatever help, financial and otherwise that we can. Moreover, if we can do this voluntarily out of moral responsibility, we might be the first religious organization to do so and we might be eligible for the empowerment of the Lord.

Bahudak das