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WORLD February 20, 1999 VNN3113 See Related VNN Stories Dhanurdhara Swami Assaulted By Former Student MAYAPUR, INDIA, Feb 20 (VNN) — Violence erupted in the continuing saga of ex-Gurukula students and other second generation devotions. Dhanurdhara Swami, ex-headmaster of the Vrindavan Iskcon Gurukula, was beaten by one of his former students. Both he and his former student, Bhakta Visvareta, were present in Mayapura for the ISKCON annual meeting and pilgrimage. Bhakta Visvareta Prabhu claims to have been beaten for years by Danurdhara Swami while at the Vrindavan Gurukula. When he saw Danurdhara standing on the balcony of the building from his room, he approached him and grabbed his heavy walking stick and started to give him a thrashing. Some witnesses say that had some of Dhanurdhara Swami's godbrothers not intervened, Visvareta may well have killed him. When questioned later, Visvareta said that he felt greatly relieved afterward and felt that he could now close this chapter of his life. We are not able to report on Dhanurdhara Swami's current physical condition nor his comments. The extent of Vrindavan Gurukula alumni bitterness can be ascertained by their reaction to the news of this beating. One devotee said, "In truth none of us shed a tear. In fact, we heard this news with relish." Bhakta Visvareta had come to Mayapura as a member of a delegation from the Children of Krishna along with Jahnavi Dasi and Hara Prita Dasi. All three made a submission to the GBC in which they told of their personal experience of abuse in ISKCON schools. They also recounted other stories which they had heard from other Gurukula alumni. Two of them said they would never trust their children to an ISKCON ashram school, although Jahnavi has a child in an ISKCON day school. Visvareta dasa has since made the following statement: "While I was in Mayapur I discovered an old acquaintance of mine and many of yours. Dhanurdhar was staying in an apartment directly across from me and I saw him on his balcony one day. A few hours later I went over to talk to him at the apartment which belonged to one of his disciples. I requested to speak privately and we went to Dhanurdhar's room. Alone together, I began telling him all the shit I'd wanted to tell him for years. How his actions toward us fomented a deep-seated hatred against him. How his actions were EVIL and by his own philosophy a person is judged by his actions, so that makes him an evil person. Allowing for the possibility that a person can change, he still has not adequately atoned for his actions in the past. I told him about the various ways in which he abused me directly and indirectly and how it continued to affect me to this day. Over all I was yelling at him for over an hour. Then I brought up the subject of my sexual abuser. They found out that a brahmachari in Vrindavan was molesting me. Dhanurdhar and Niragadev came and confronted me with it. I refused at the time to admit to anything for fear of being beaten. Within a month, the guy was gone from Vrindavan. I hadn't known where he'd gone to until this trip. He'd been sent from Vrindavan where he'd molested at least one kid for over a year continuously to New Mayapur, France where he was made a teacher and continued to molest and rape children (girls and boys). Dhanurdhar treated this subject, which was a total surprise to him, with callousness. (My impression is that he had calculated responses to the various issues he expected to face and was delivering them at me with surprising effectiveness. I almost believed the guy was sincere until this.) I lost my temper, grabbed his walking stick (which was about the size of a kids baseball bat) and hit him with it. I hit him twice, once on each leg, all the while yelling at him. At this point, the guy in the other room comes running and opens the door and tries to intervene. I shoved him out of the room and kicked the door shut so hard it cracked the frame. I then hit Dhanurdhar one more time as hard as I could in the arm, threw the stick down and left in disgust. I did not try to kill Dhanurdhar. I did not hit him in the head or face. I delivered to him as he'd done to me many times over the years. It was cathartic for me and now I feel that my business with him is finished. I wish you all the best in your lives." In another statement he wrote: "The whole reason I posted as soon as I got home was because I knew someone would hash rumours without knowing the true story. There were only 2 people in the room, me and Dhanurdhara Swami. What I posted is exactly how it occurred. My vision may have been blurred by rage, but I certainly did not attempt to kill him: I didn't hit him anywhere vital, nor did I attempt to. A further point that I made before is that he would do that kind of beating to me and worse in a day. In Dallas, every kid would get beaten with a stick 10 whacks every day to help burn karma faster and punish us for the stuff we did and got away with. When I first got to Vrindavan, he would beat me every day because I wouldn't obey him fast enough. It turned out that I could barely function because I was suffering from an accute case of jaundice. Basically I got beaten every day by this guy because I was ill." Another Gurukuli leader commented (from Raghu's Newsletter): "This is what happened three days ago (on the GBC meetings): Speaking on behalf of gurukula students worldwide, Jahnavi, Hara Prita dasi and Bhakta Visvareta told stories of both their personal experiences and the experiences of others in ISKCON schools. Because of their experiences, two of them said they would never trust their children in an ISKCON ashram school, although Jahnavi has a child in an ISKCON day school. Well the second part of the drama is that the next day it so happened that this Bhakta Visvareta Prabhu, who was beaten for years by Danudhara Swami , saw from his room that Danudhara Swami was standing on the other building's balcony. Visvareta went over and grabed Danudharas's very heavy walking stick and beat the hell out of him. Danudhara was saved by some Godbrothers as Visvareta would have killed him. I tell you the truth no one of us wept a tear and people heard this second part of the development with relish. Good for both of them. Visvareta said later that he felt greatly relieved. It appears that he can now close this chapter." See Related VNN Stories | Comment on this Story This story URL: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/world/WD9902/WD20-3113.html
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