"I was rotting in my household life."
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Room Conversation, Bombay, 21 Sept. 1973.
It has often been observed that the stricter the religious sect, the more obsessed it is about sexuality. This is most certainly the case with the Hare Krishna devotees. Of the four “regulative principles” whose practice is required of all aspiring and initiated ISKCON followers, the most onerous is the one banning any sexual activity not specifically intended for procreation. Furthermore, according to the direct instructions of the founder of ISKCON, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (“Srila Prabhupada”), privacy was out of the question as to when the conception might take place: the married couple intending to “try for a child” would have to appear before the congregation in the temple in the morning and announce that they would be doing so that night.
If that were not indignity enough, both partners were required to spend the day chanting 64 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra on their japa beads, which means that they would be rapidly mumbling it for a total of 6,912 times. In practice, this is a sort of self-brain washing ritual designed to rid the mind of any anticipation for the act to follow, which, in any case, was supposed to be limited to one fast act during which the couple was supposed to be chanting Hare Krishna anyway. Artificial insemination would have been far more humane.
 |
For the excuses and some outcomes of these sick practices, please see: https://iskconcultunveiled.blogspot.com/2016/01/sex-lies-and-sadhu-making.html
All rights reserved. No part of this essay can be reproduced in any medium without the express written consent of the author.
23 comments:
I spoke with a devotee who happily told me about the old days when he asked to get married. He was in his twenties, and he had to ask the temple president, who was also in his twenties, if he could get married. He acted like this was normal, and advanced spiritually. I looked at him like he was a nutjob. He was proud of his HK marriage.
Hi,
I am extremely concerned with the picture you have presented. My wife is seriously involved and I want to help her out of this quagmire. Is there any way I could talk to you?
I am happy to have found your blog-I stumbled into the Hare Krishna movement at age 16(after some very traumatic experiences)I was initiated at age 17 in 1973-saw Prabhupada for the first time in Los Angeles.
You are so right about "lost years"-for me it was from age 16 into my 30's-and the need to start thinking for oneself-after the frontal lobe of the brain has been on hold for so long!I am female and fit right into the scapegoat role...having had that role in the family in which I was raised. What can one do but believe lies when one does not know truth? We must seek truth. Thankyou for your efforts to speak out.
I do appreciate your honesty. The culture that has developed in the temples has bastardized the teachings. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that he is the sex for procreation. This means that the experience should be beautiful, just as God is. Not repugnant. If you think I am wrong, read the 3rd canto of the Bhagavatam where the marriage between Kardama Muni and Devahuti is described. Obviously, I have been involved with the movement for many years. Though I chose not to live in the temple. As I saw it, many devotees expressed aberrant behaviors indicating they had personality disorders. Not quite crazy, but close, sometimes too close. I have stopped going to the temple in the last two years because they tried to force me into marriage on three occasions to deadbeats. The first one was jailed for 10 years for producing child porn. The second one was so obese that he had every problem related to morbid obesity, which he died of. I do thank God for both of these things. Lastly, was a man who just wanted sex (by his own admittance) and a place to live. When I refused the advances of these individuals, I was accused repeatedly of being a lesbian, which I am not, and then to add insult, virtually all of the temple members kept telling me that I was sexy. There was, of course, additional sexual innuendo. I had been celibate for more than 10-years. What the F...? This attitude permeated the entire temple community. I decided the whole lot were hypocrites. Prabhupada said that 90% of the men would marry. They should just do that, and with people that they like and get on with it. These obviously sexual behaviors are undermining everything. And, they should stick to the teachings of the scriptures. Too much of the teaching is biased against women. But scripture tells a different story. What is the point of saying that all souls are equal, if they cannot be treated that way? Most of their spiritual masters want to do things right, but you need to know what is right first.
the problem is humans projecting their ego delusions on to god and spirituality.
Conditioned souls in dhotis, enlightened souls do not make.
And when you act bananas you get monkeys.
You sound like an intelligent, strong woman who has overcome the oppression of power hungry men. Keep your head up and find someone who loves you and respects you for those attributes. No man should claim divinity or presume to know what God thinks you should do. The fallibility of man kind without the ability to realize it has hurt all religions.
Thank you for your comments and wisdom. Indeed, the defining attribute of gurus and priesthood in general is the ability to dupe the public into thinking that they are direct conduits to the Godhead. They are actually nothing more than egomaniacs with an effective public relations strategy.
Im not sure if its really appropriate for me to post here. but I wanted to give you a view as an Outsider (Indian Hindu).
Krishna - was a peoples god, a god that had problems just like most of us do in our day to day lives. Im not sure what teachings of Krishna you would've had, but their are plenty of people (dare i say Billion's?) of devotee's that follow Krishna's path without ever needing a Guru/Swami/Pandit/Sadhu to tell them what to do.
I find what's best for you would be to break off all contact with any members of your former Hare krishna group and instead, focus on how you PERCIEVE Krishna yourself. This means, find what aspect of Krishna you love (Your lifelong dream of visiting a Krishna temple, or Going to a Store that sells Krishna statues) and from their TALK to the people there. and thoses TRUE devotee's who'm have no teacher will happily guide you to a spiritually complete life without a teachers help.
TRUST ME you will have a real spiritual journey this way, a true Quest for yourself to find the true meaning of GOD, this is what it is to be religious to Forge your own path.
Peace!
Thank you for your insightful and intelligent comment. You are right, the problem with cultists like the Hare Krishna devotees is their dependence on gurus. In ISKCON, this has resulted in so-called sadhus--often men with disreputable backgrounds--instructing their followers in every imaginable detail of their private lives (as this posting describes!)as well as keeping them from reading the original scriptures without loading them with commentaries meant to prevent them from doing the hard work of study and research. I'm happy to hear that you are on the right path and I wish you much success.
You dont know how big of a favor you are doing to the world, to neophytes like myself and to people who already suffered the inevitable damage of getting let down by both krishna and the cult. Iskcon as such targets youngsters because they are an easy catch and with its "holier than thou"philosophy"" it instills into people that they are good for nothing and evil and end up in hell. My friend who was a gold medalist in undergraduate medicine didnot continue further with post graduation but instead married a bald fat guy and settled down because her guruji wanted so. It is sad how even intelligent educated women and men fall for this. Im happy to see a lot of people like you come out and stand up for yourself. I hope God blesses you and gives you the necessary strength and support.
The methods cults use to indoctrinate new followers are vivid illustrations of P.T. Barnum's famous saying that "a fool is born every minute." They offer gullible, needy souls an easy pathway to spiritual perfection they have done absolutely nothing to deserve and then lull them into passivity by depriving them of adequate sleep and food in addition to insisting that they alienate themselves from "karmi" family and friends. This appears to be what happened to your once brilliant friend. I pray that she will see the light and shake off that dumb guru as well as her goon of a "husband."
Thanks for your good wishes. I do count on the Lord's blessings for continuing my work, but I find it odd and distressing that not one of the hundreds of people who visit this blog daily has ever offered to help to support my efforts. Not one penny, paisa, nothing. I just hope that at least one good soul is out there.
My husband has been a member of the Hare Krishna movement for quite a few years, in my ignorance I thought until now that I was the problem, but it seems not !!!
Thank you to all who have posted , I am now the ENLIGHTENED one.
Mam i need your help my brother been following iscokon temple past 20yrs they have really done a good brainwash...he been an engineer working in mnc co now left job past 3yrs now stay at in iscokon temple....i want to remove him from that place but those guys hv messed the thing ....plz help advice shd i take media help to expose them....regards preeti N
Sorry about your brother. If he has been associating with the cult for so long, it will be very difficult for you to convince him to leave it unless you educate yourself about what they believe. In most cases, people leave of their own accord after discovering how they have wasted their lives worshipping unqualified gurus and idols. If he lives with them and has given up his job, he needs to understand that he has abandoned his family and will himself be abandoned by the cult in his old age. Be patient and study his excuses carefully. The founder of ISKCON never read the Vedas and followed the teachings of Chaitanya, the 16th century Bengali Brahmin who elevated the minor Radha-Krishna of folk legends to a position of Supreme Godhead, treating the major Hindu gods such as Shiva and Durga as demigods. In this season of Diwali, this mistake is obvious. Sanatan Dharma does not consist of repeated chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and living for an imaginary moksha wherein you will spend eternity pining with the gopis after an adolescent blue flute-player. That is a fantasy every bit as ridiculous as the people who walk around playing video games instead of living the lives of rational, productive human beings. However, you still need to treat your brother and his beliefs with respect or you will never change him, particularly after so many years. Please read as many of my essays in this blog as possible and I hope they will give you some of the material necessary for convincing your brother that he should reconsider his fanatic devotion to that cult. Please let me know how you were doing and above all, be patient and take the time to see the truth for yourself.
UK krishna temple has taken over my friend of 20 years life and made him cut all friend and family ties. It has been 2 years now and first thing they did was get him straight out of rehab and into involvement in the temple. Soon he was trying to help the temple recruit people- buy and read their books and very soon he was constantly parroting the rubbish they had filled his head with and he began pointing out everyone's shortcomings in the eyes of krishna - renounced his family and friends as being lesser beings as they did not understand the truth as he described it. He said to me personally he could not stand to be around non -devotees of the temple and stated all the things I do in my life that do not agree with his temples rules and for these reasons he could no longer associate himself with me. He did this with everyone in his life. He moved over 60 miles away to be beside the temple. I didn't see him for nearly 2 years. Then he appears and seems as if he wants to mend bridges and says all the things you'd expect from someone with their tail between their legs- makes a convincing case for forgiveness which he got. After only two weeks his guru (an obese weirdo who creeps me out) takes him on a 10 day trip to the UK isckon headquarters at the George Harrison mansion. The same day they returned from there my friend messages me at 5 am to inform me that he will no longer associate with me or any of our friends as we are dumb ,meat eating addicts of a material illusion and I need to wake up to the truth that krishna and the study of their books is the reason humans are alive! I questioned him reasonably and was met by utter contempt as were others in his life. I had known this guy over 20+years and this was extremely out of character - personally attacking people from the standpoint that being a devotee demanded it and also demaned that he "cleans" his life of non devotees.
Gurudom , mantras, uniforms , rituals, statues, pretending to be nice , words, and books, factions, rigid unintelligent morality.
Remember he who travels fastest travels alone.
In the Vedas Men had concubines,multiple wives etc I dont get where this repressive sexuality comes from in modern hinduism;maybe from the British Raj or mughal period.also Chaodali or prostitutes in the temple was a practice in Vedic times .
https://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/live-in-relationships-vedas-marriage-rape-prostitution-supreme-court/story/1/3361.html
Hate to quote a Anti-hindu site but
https://realityofhinduism.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/adultery-and-prostitution-in-veda/
Also I read somewhere yrs ago that Vedas and Upanishads also had concept of Paradisal sex slaves-concubines like islam .
Modern Hindu Restrictions on male Sexuality are really Reactionary novelties from the Mughal period and islamic influence.in medievel times indian women didnt even cover their Breasts-like the women in Bali do today
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d4/08/99/d40899e28aabb10ecd8caae3a413de40--old-pictures-old-photos.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4zxSdUCT1sA/VAPVNpmVVqI/AAAAAAAAC4g/SeGjTrK4tD8/s1600/Dayak%2Bwomen%2Bfrom%2BBorneo%2Bby%2BKristen%2BFeilberg%2B(1860s).jpg
According to the vedic rituals there is also a concern that the woman should not have an orgasm during the act. Always only the man.
According to modern gynecology it is good for a woman to have orgasms becouse that makes it better for the sperm to reach womb and get pregnant.
So why did God create woman that is able to have orgasms?
Just thinking why.
I don't like Iskcon as they believe that SHIVA AND DURGA are demigod in Vedas krishna is incarnation of Lord vishnu not God
There is nothing in the vedas about celibacy, other than Guru commentaries. It is a hoax....
Why go back to the ignorance and horrors of ancient times....
Correction.... I did not realize that in "as it is " Gita, they mis-translate "celibacy" for brahmachari..... Brahmachari is a school setting and msot school settings have rules like no sex in boarding school...
The sanskrit word is Brahmachari vow - supposed to mean celibacy, but it is only a vow during school as many of them will get married later. SO again no mention of celibacy as a spiritual thing in the vedas... only the regular society idea of no sex in school, or in many many circumstances in . Society has many rules about sex.... Iskcon thinks it "owns" these principles, but they do not lol
Iskcon's idea that sex is bad is totally wrong. Sex can be dangerous but it is healthy and evidently a major part of life. But they don;t like life.... unless they are in control just like any other bully... whether u bully physically or mentally it is the same idea.
Regular society is dealing with these issues and we do not need "ancient religious ideas" from when the world is really messed up and primitive.....
Sexual harassment, for example is an issue that Iskcon has totally failed at.... also they inappropriately constantly talk about sex even in front of children and guests.
This is because they feel superior due to their supposed celibacy.
To all those dumb people out there who follow stupid religions and movements and make those manipulative leaders rich and drive themselves to poverty and slavery of those fake and man made religion/movement, there is no greater power in this world but the power of your own brain and if you believe in that power you are the god of yourself, you are the motivator of yourself, you are the healer of yourself and etc. If you believe in that and follow yourself no con man will fool you with their religious bullshit.
Post a Comment