HARE KRISHNA CULT EXPOSED: cults

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ISKCON’S “ FESTIVAL OF COLORS” PART #2: LEGAL NIGHTMARE

FESTIVAL OF COLORS GETS A WAKE-UP CALL. . .

In the United States, evidence that people have been exposed to toxins poisoning the air, drinking water, as well as minerals used for personal care products has led to an ongoing explosion of civil lawsuits.

Personal injury law firms have had tremendous success representing victims whose cancers they claim are attributable to both negligence and indifference to public health. In many cases, appeals of jury awards require adjudication by state and federal court systems, particularly when bankruptcy is used as a means to dodge or reduce liability. Here are a few notable examples:

Hurley, Lawrence, “U.S. Supreme Court Rebuffs J&J Appeal Over $2 Billion Baby Powder Judgment.” 1 June 2021. Reuters.com. [Stung by the Missouri Court of Appeals’ refusal to overturn $2.12 billion jury award to 22 women, J&J made a last ditch attempt to have it overturned by the higher court.]

Friedman, Lisa and Vivian Giang, “3M Reaches $10.3 Billion Settlement in ‘Forever Chemicals’ Suit.” 22 June 2023. The New York Times. [Payout to cover testing and remediation efforts by U.S. municipalities over 13 years. Settlement has no bearing on thousands of lawsuits.]

“Levy Konigsberg Files 116 Mesothelioma Suits Against J& J Spinoff Kenvue,” 16 June 2023. Levylaw.com. [This lawsuit is especially relevant since it involves a corporate spinoff designed to insulate J&J in case its bankruptcy maneuvers fail.]

What Johnson and Johnson (“J&J”)—a trusted household name in America and abroad—has endured due to the presence of asbestos in its famous baby powder is a test case for what happens when the profit motive overwhelms common sense.

This pharmaceutical giant has bitter experience in this regard. By 2023, this venerable American institution paid billions in punitive and compensatory damages to settle at least 52,000 claims asserting that its famed line of talcum powders contained asbestos (which causes ovarian cancer as well as the fatal lung cancer mesothelioma).

Keep in mind that J&J was sued by claimants who showed proof that they suffered from cancers they said resulted from using its talc-based products as infants or later on. No proof of purchase has ever been required. Jury trials have awarded huge amounts after hearing claimant accounts of their medically diagnosed illnesses and also in knowledge of J&J’s concealing the asbestos menace.

The Festival of Colors organizers, on the other hand, have posted thousands of images of its guests in many venues domestically and internationally as promotional materials on the Internet. It is obvious that massive amounts of “Holi” powders imported from India coated their guests and were inevitably inhaled. The chemical pollution issue from the toxic chemicals in these powders has been extremely well-documented in peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as numerous newspaper articles.

In addition, the many lawsuits filed during the decades after the September 11, 2001 tragedy have shown that lung damage caused by breathing airborne pollutants laced with lethal toxins can take years to develop into mesothelioma and other cancers.

These facts have given future claimants of the Festival of Colors lawsuits a distinct advantage over their J&J counterparts because their contact with the toxin-laced Holi dust has been thoroughly documented by the festival organizers themselves.

Furthermore, the requirement to show proof of suffering any medically diagnosed illnesses acquired as a result is a moot point in light of the long exposure timing issues legal experts have encountered when dealing with toxic pollutant lawsuits involving air and water contamination. In other words, no matter when and how you were exposed to chemicals with potentially harmful and/or fatal toxic properties through inhaling, ingesting or any other means, the corporations or organizations responsible remain culpable indefinitely.

Instead of treating their guests simply as a throng of pleasure-seekers eager to part with their money, the promoters will shortly find themselves besieged by lawyers seeking to collect millions in punitive and compensatory damages for claimants exposed to

Since most claimants will seek class action status to expedite their claims and can provide irrefutable evidence to substantiate them, the Festival of Colors organizers will be in a much worse position than others accused of exposing people to hazardous substances.

In recent years such environmental toxic tort settlements have resulted in multi-million dollar payments to claimants from companies otherwise known for their rigid product safety measures and consumer loyalty.

Furthermore, the ongoing exposure assessments used in civil lawsuits to evaluate multimillion dollar environmental toxic tort settlements have been rendered unnecessary by the mountain of photographic evidence that the festival’s organizers have used for promotional purposes. This fact will expedite the claims process for the multitudes whose cases will keep personal injury law firms occupied for years to come.

Notes

1. Virtually all of the civil lawsuits against J&J have been based on adult claimants’ allegations that its talcum baby powders were the source of the mesothelioma and ovarian cancers they developed after years of using the product for personal hygiene purposes. However, in 2018 a Reuters investigative report exposed J&J’s knowledge of asbestos contamination in its talc products tracing back decades. Tests from different labs found asbestos in Its talc from 1971 to the early 2000s, and the company failed to report the findings to the U.S.# Food and Drug Administration. Although J&J insisted that scientists have found no correlation between use of its talc-based products and cancer, juries have overwhelmingly rejected its findings and ruled in favor of the claimants without requiring proof that any of them actually used Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder. The sheer number of such lawsuits (currently 52,000 with many more in the pipeline) led J & J to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection twice (in an obvious effort to sidestep additional jury trials).

For a concise summary of the history of the Johnson & Johnson asbestos issue and lawsuits, please see:

Whitmer, Michelle. "Johnson & Johnson." Asbestos.com, 24 Jan 2024, https://www.asbestos.com/companies/johnson-johnson/.

Knauth, Dietrich. “J & J Effort to Resolve Talc Lawsuits in Bankruptcy Fails a Second Time.” Reuters.com. 31 July 2023. 5 Sept. 2023,

<https://www.reuters.com/legal/jj-effort-resolve-talc-lawsuits-bankruptcy-fails-second-time-2023-07-28.

2. Although J&J has consistently upheld the safety of its talc-based products, scientific analyses have long since definitively shown that the mines from which it is extracted are naturally contaminated by asbestos. J&J was aware of this fact from 1957, but continued to sell them in the USA and Canada until, under pressure from a mountain of ongoing litigation, it finally ceased production altogether in 2020.

3. For example , in 2021 two lawsuits awarded two municipalities settlements of nearly $90 million in damages for the presence of polyfluoroalkyal (PFOA) in water in upstate New York. And these are only the tip of the iceberg. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry of the Department of Health and Human Services (CDC/ATSDR) is currently conducting exposure assessments by enlisting the voluntary cooperation of people living in areas around the U.S. known to be contaminated by PFOA in the soil and water (all attributed to nearby U.S. military operations). It is also conducting a thorough governmental and legal examination of regulatory issues dealing with the knowledge that various branches of the U.S. government had in allowing the PFOA contamination to continue unabated for decades.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This essay and all of the charts and illustrations were prepared by and are the exclusive property of the blog author. Using any part of them in any manner, in print or online, is strictly forbidden. A standard link to this blog is a better alternative.

ISKCON’S “FESTIVAL OF COLORS” PART#3: DOING THE MATH

THE PARTY’S OVER, HOLI MEN

As you might have guessed, the reason why ISKCON engages in such irresponsible behavior is purely financial.

Each year thousands buy tickets, Holi powder bags, meals, and yoga-themed merchandise at each of the multitudes of Festival of Colors venues worldwide. To understand how ISKCON uses these events as multi-million dollar sources of fundraising revenue, look no further than the annual festivities at Spanish Fork, Utah, which tops the list in terms of ticket sales and crowds. For example, while the event organizers expected approximately 10,000 to attend in the past few years, that number can easily balloon to 30,000 by opening day.1

In Utah, this includes, in addition to Spanish Fork, Salt Lake City and Ogden. In California, there are at least six, and many more in major cities nationwide. The list grows exponentially if many major cities around the globe are added to the list, with the slogan of the Festival of Colors event in Sydney, Australia, “Be a Part of the Celebration of the Oneness of Human Spirits” illustrating how ignorance and group hysteria remain powerful tools of duping people out of their money and health.

Those “bliss” peddling snake oil merchants are overdue for a legal reckoning to compensate the thousands of people who have attended their Festival of Colors yoga-themed extravaganzas.

After the dust settles—no pun intended!—and you have contacted the personal injury law firm of your choice, the next step is having them contact the Department of Public Works (DPW) where you attended the Festival of Colors party. The primary function of this branch of local government is determining whether the group wishing to obtain a “Mass Gathering Permit” meets the municipality’s health department regulations. These details must be included in each and every Event Permit Application. For example:

Utah County Public Works

Phone: (801) 851-8600

Fax: (801) 851-8612

chrissa@utahcounty.gov or jamie@utahcounty.gov

It will be up to your attorney to ascertain to what extent the department of works in your municipality was negligent in issuing event permits to the Festival of Colors organizers. You are also free to contact a number of these public works offices on your own or as a group of your associates you might organize on the social media account of your choice.

However, you can be sure that since they clearly failed to conduct due diligence regarding the glaring threat to public health posed by the Festival of Colors, the DPW will be eager to investigate the oversight and take corrective action. In due course the Hare Krishna /ISKCON organizers will face scrutiny like never before and be forced to drop the “peace and love” mask they have hidden behind for more than a half-century.

CONCLUSION

The philanthropic smokescreen cults use to hide their fundraising operations often relies on selling to the unsuspecting public ancient traditions and rituals packaged to suit modern sensibilities. Hare Krishna followers made a memorable nuisance of themselves back in the hippie era of the sixties and seventies hawking their guru’s books in airports and the streets. Back then, users of psychedelic drugs with their fluorescent tie-dye attire flocked to the Hare Krishna outdoor events, where group chanting and gobbling up free vegetarian food was used to entice them to join up and waste precious years of their youth promulgating nonsense.

Today the approach has changed but the rationale has become a great deal more opportunistic and cynical. Instead of their mind-numbing chanting, those smug “better than Hindu” hypocrites who used to parade about in saffron robes wringing their hands over the evils of rampant materialism have mastered the practice themselves. Distorting the traditions of the Holi festival in India and the Indian diaspora by serving it up as a New Age springtime festival is bad enough. Worse, however, is dousing their guests (and encouraging them to apply it to other’s faces) with a powder I have shown in this posting is a fluorescent mixture of minerals in a cornstarch base that no one in their right mind would think of inhaling. Yet, sadly, that has been the case many thousands of times.

Readers of this blog from all over the globe—yes, ISKCON, it’s really a globe!—should feel relief that the whirlwind of karmic retribution has finally caught up with those jokers, who, if they have a drop of self-preservation in their veins, will immediately stop making clowns at their un”Holi” parties and stop abusing the public’s trust in the scientific method.

For Jamie 🪷🌈🙏🏻

1. Using the more conservative figure (10,000), if each attendee pays $7 for admission and purchases only one bag of Holi powder for $3, the total would be $100k; if they each bought five bags for $12, it would total $190k, and if ten bags the total would be $290k. If 30,000 attend, the Hare Krishna organizers can expect to be flush with half a million—500k!—in profits with minimal overhead. Add to that prices for meals and the purchase of such merchandise as Ganesh and OM t-shirts, etc. Not bad, you say? Keep in mind that ISKCON has 88 temples and ashrams in the USA, and holds annual Festival of Color events in most of them. And those are just the revenue streams for the Festival of Colors USA operations! Do the math.

FACT SHEET FOR ISKCON’S “FESTIVAL OF COLORS” HOLI POWDERS

Holi powders are bad for the environment and a menace to public health! If you have any doubts, the following presentation should help.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this blog essay is meant as a substitute for professional legal advice. If you wish to proceed with any claims against the Festival of Colors organization either as an individual or as part of a class action settlement, it would be prudent to contact a reputable personal injury law firm in your area. Although I stand by the research findings in this essay, all of it and much more can be obtained using the services of any competent paralegal.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This essay and all of the charts and illustrations were prepared by and are the exclusive property of the blog author. Using any part of them in any manner, in print or online, is strictly forbidden. A standard link to this blog is a better alternative.

SAINTS OR SWINDLERS? ISKCON’S LATEST RECRUITMENT TACTICS

Why is the Hare Krishna (ISKCON) sect so hell-bent on convincing the Indian public that they are genuine Hindus while spending millions convincing non-Hindus that they are simply “peace and love” yoga enthusiasts?

ISKCON spares no expense in catering to wealthy Hindus as it strives to build its reputation as a genuine branch of mainstream Hinduism. All of these efforts have one thing in common: they are nothing more than self-serving propaganda. Money, as usual, talks. If the cult builds another massive temple and continues its well-publicized food relief programs in India, it expects the Hindu public to follow its lead like a pack of blinkered horses.[i]

However, its sordid past—including child abuse, scams to defraud the public, and its founder’s sexist and racist statements—has proved difficult to hide.

In a desperate attempt to replenish its dwindling numbers among non-Hindus in western countries, ISKCON has revamped its old policy of withholding information about its real beliefs and practices. Now the cult uses social media sites to ensnare new members by positioning itself as another of the meditation and yoga groups offering therapeutic emotional and health benefits. This watered-down appropriation of Hindu religious practices reduces an ancient faith to another “feel-good” experience much like meditation and hatha yoga have been served up to non-Hindus everywhere.

Recently I discovered the latest recruitment efforts by the Hare Krishna cult in the offerings of Meetup.com, a website that hosts software by a multitude of personal and professional groups and caters to adults seeking new friends with common interests. Nothing about the tactics ISKCON uses to attract new members surprises me, but the sheer nonsense in the groups I found was both sad and laughable. History does indeed repeat itself, as anyone familiar with the hippie movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s can see in the descriptions listed below:

Enchant Mantra Meditation/Vancover
Sacred Sounds Outside OM/Las Vegas “Tribe Kin”
Living Well, Being Well/El Paso, TX
Vedic Astrology, Karma, Dharma/North York, ON

In each case (and there are many more of these ISKCON sponsored groups all over North America and Europe), it’s clear that participants generally have no idea that the meetings they attend are organized by the Hare Krishna cult, nor do they know anything about its beliefs and history. Rather, as anyone who looks at the photographs included in each meeting can see, ISKCON has cleverly disguised itself as one of the multitude of yoga and meditation practitioners familiar to the general public.[iii]

Back in the 1960’s when ISKCON first attracted hippies to its outdoor kirtans and Sunday Feasts, the main lure used to reel in unsuspecting recruits was a mixture of mantra chanting and free vegetarian food, all of which supposedly granted the practitioner easy and instant access to the Godhead.[iv]

Today, these pleasure-seekers appear to have travelled in a time machine to the present, mixing with a new generation of gullible souls eager to delve in whatever variety of Eastern mysticism offers outsize benefits in proportion to the effort involved.

Now it’s fashionable among youth and their college professors to stridently endorse ecological concerns, along with the usual calls for ending discrimination based on sex, race, and gender. They are the tree-huggers of my generation on steroids. Science, in their twisted worldview, takes a back seat to misplaced sentimentality.

Cults have long since seized the opportunity to worm their way into this void, replacing scientific, objective inquiry with so-called authoritative statements, all ultimately non-refutable because of their ancient “Vedic” sources. So you have “Vedic Astrology” instead of the science of astronomy and the fuzzy, warm-sounding “Living well, Being Well.” Abusing the lonely souls who join Meetingup.com groups with a lot of half-baked pseudo-Hindu mysticism is a familiar practice of the Hare Krishna cultists.

For example, this past summer, ISKCON entered a local festival in the New York City Metro Area City of Newburgh, entitled “Colorfest,’ which in actuality mimics the Hindu festival of Holi, this past spring celebrated by Hindus (and Sikhs also) world-wide on March 2^nd. Its association with the Krishna legend is well-known, of course, and some describe it as “the Festival of Colors.” However, ISKCON takes it entirely out of context, as you can see for yourself with the psycho-babble title and activities of its program months after the official Holi celebration:

http://www.newburghilluminatedfestival.com/colorfest. “A Playful Festival to Strengthen Friends and Families with Happiness.” (Please note: this site has subsequently been shutdown.)

Pure, unadulterated bullshit! “Strengthen Friends and Families with Happiness”? What a nonsensical, illogical statement! If you or anyone you know has actual experience with the Hare Krishna devotees, you know that its mission is quite the opposite: while its members appear so welcoming at first, before long they urge you to give your time and money to them, with no consideration of how your actions affect your family and friends.

Worse, even the “colorfest” title is an effort to hide its true identity within the many groups in the

U.S.

sponsored by colorfest.org., an arts & crafts organization with no ties to ISKCON. In actuality, the website cult uses to advertise their color-chalk throwing events is https://www.festivalofcolorsusa.com, which bills itself as the “World’s Happiest Transformational Event.” These cheap diversionary tactics distort Hinduism in an attempt to lure in throngs of pleasure-seeking suckers.

This pattern of initially “love bombing” new recruits and then training them (by hours of chanting the same mantra on prayer beads and singing it with others during morning and evening services) to disassociate themselves from the “material world” or “karmi life” is ISKCON’s variant of a practice followed by many cults worldwide.[v]

In addition, let’s be absolutely frank: how can tossing colored chalk at another person do anything other than reduce an adult to the level of a toddler who plays in sand at a neighborhood playground and tosses some of it at his or her playmates? Without the cultural and religious significance Holi has to Hindus, the tossing of colored chalk at a neighborhood festival or any other venue is an insulting, irrational act of cultural appropriation. However, if you think that ISKCON cannot degrade Hinduism any further, you are sadly mistaken. . .

[i] ISKCON has worked overtime in the Europe and India positioning itself as Hindu adherents of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect. It founded the Hindu umbrella organizations of Hindu Forum Britain (http://www.hfb.org.uk) and Hindu Forum Europe (http://hinduforum.eu) to convince the academic and business communities of its authenticity as well as to advance its Radha Krishna worship and philosophy.

[ii] Since its founding in the mid-sixties, critics of the Hare Krishna/ISKCON cult have produced a mountain of anecdotal evidence of its massive and persistence abuses of its members, particularly women and children. Most of this abuse was and is a by-product of the views of the founder of the cult, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. My blog essays here and in its sister blog, https://iskconcultunveiled.blogspot.com, summarize much of this tragic history and contain verifiable documentation to support my views. For starters, please visit: https://harekrishnacultexposed.blogspot.com/2015/08/new-eastern-cults-as-incubators-of.html and https://harekrishnacultexposed.blogspot.com/2017/12/new-sex-starvd-idiots-slaves-how.html.

[iii] https://www.meetup.com/Newburgh-Yoga-Meetup/photos. Nimai’s Bliss Kitchen 94 S. Robinson Avenue, Newburgh, NY 12550. This restaurant is another instance of the Hare Krishna movement’s efforts to hide itself in the popular cultural norms of the current ecological trends: it’s a vegan restaurant offering Indian foods without the milk products that are an integral part of the Hare Krishna cuisine.

[iv] See my essay: https://iskconcultunveiled.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-hare-krishna-bliss-addiction.html.

[v] The term “lovebombing” was invented by the followers of the Rev. Moon, also known as “the Moonies.”

SEX-STARVED IDIOTS & SLAVES: HOW ISKCON REGARDS WOMEN & WHY IT MATTERS

When India’s Supreme Court ruled on 11 October that sex with girls under the age of 18 is always rape, it threw cold water on the so-called husbands of underage girls who suddenly found themselves unable to hide behind the former exemption for child brides as young as 15. It also brought to mind the revulsion—or should I say obsession?--with female sexuality so characteristic of the ISKCON/Hare Krishna cult and especially of its founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. One incident demonstrating this tendency comes to mind, dating back to the summer of 1977.

SWAMI TO BABY GIRL’S PARENTS: NO SURGERY TO FIX BIRTH DEFECT!

I was briefly staying at the ISKCON Mumbai complex at Juhu, living, as usual, in squalor, when an Indian devotee married to an American living in the room across mine told me what happened when they sought advice from our guru about an operation their infant daughter urgently needed to correct a birth defect. (For those readers puzzled by this situation, you need to know that our guru regarded himself as the ultimate authority in all matters relating to his disciples’ lives and invited them to avail themselves of his so-called expertise. Bizarre but true.) Predictably enough, as soon as they informed him that the defect needing surgical correction related to the girl’s sex organs, he told them to do nothing. I still remember the mother’s ashen face and sense of hopelessness. I still wonder if they heeded the advice of their pediatrician and ignored the smug, saffron-clad blathering’s of our know-it-all “guru.”

BEHIND THE BHAJANS & PRASADAM: HELL FOR HARE KRISHNA WOMEN

Today, in fact, there is a wide gulf between the public face of ISKCON and the lives of members of the cult. Rigid conformity to the published teachings of Bhaktivedanta Swami is enforced through coercion and threats of defamation and expulsion. Devotees live in a regressive universe where they actively deride women members who aspire to equal treatment as “feminists,” urging them instead to submit to their husbands and be content with the notion that they are intellectual inferiors better suited to keeping house and being mothers. These types of anti-feminist rants are vestiges of culture wars that were fought at least 30 years ago. Acting as if they have any significance today is just pathetic and laughable.

Furthermore, many of the beliefs about women that Bhaktivedanta Swami’s disciples and “grand” disciples insist are as authoritative as their guru was, are shockingly vulgar and repulsive. As a former disciple of his, I will always feel cheated for having wasted the best years of my life following and defending someone capable of slandering women and marriage in such horrible terms:

Prabhupada said, “The dog likes to smell the vagina. You are like that. What is business of going another vagina? You require vagina. Take one and be satisfied. That is intelligence. First of all there is no need of vagina. But if you want, take one and be satisfied. Why you are searching after dog vagina, this vagina, that vagina, that vagina? We must expose them, that’s all. This is our business. This is a good opportunity in the court, so that it will be published. People will know what is our philosophy. Licking of vagina civilization, this. Publish. Room conversation with Adi-Kesava Swami, 19 February 1977, Mayapur,West Bengal

They are never satisfied, the vagina business.One who is dhīra,sober, he tolerates little itching sensation: "What this nonsense?" And if you practice toleration, there will be no more. Finished. You become liberated. Therefore, from the very beginning of life, childhood, this teach him, that "Don't be a vagina-smelling animal. Room Conversation: 25 Feb. 1977 Mayapura, West Bengal.

I have done what he desired: with this posting, I have published his vile rant so people who think that the fancy temples and programs to which they give their hard-earned money--all under the impression that they are genuine Hindu mandirs--might stand corrected. For the ISKCON devotees themselves, they can either wake up or continue living in delusions as they see fit.

Of course, I am well aware that media and political personalities who have either supported or awarded prizes or praised ISKCON for its public relations follies would never have given their approval had they researched the cult thoroughly. The only way to inform such deluded parties is to contact them and send them the link to specific postings on this blog and its companion, https://iskconcultunveiled.blogspot.com.

The following is a collection of quotations about women from the published works of the founder/acharya of the Hare Krishna cult, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, categorized by topic. My comments follow each in blue. "SB" refers to Srimad Bhagavatam (see notes).

Preference of Male to Female Children:

Letter of November, 1975 to his disciple, Dhananjaya Das:

I've noticed that you gave birth to a girl. This is precisely the defect. I want male children. But you do not have the Stamina. When I saw the belly of Vilasini, I really thought it would be a boy...... Why is the majority of my married students only giving birth to girls?

More ignorance: The gender of a child is solely determined by the father. "Stamina" has nothing to do with it!

Approval of Wife-Beating:

Room conversation, 12 April, 1969, New York

Likewise, pasu, animals, when you say, "My dear dog, you shall not run there." Zack! (laughs) "No, dear dog."Zack! That's right. Likewise, women. If you become indulgent, it will make trouble. In India still, in the villages, whenever there is dispute between the husband and the wife, then she is beaten by the man and she is tame again (laughs).

ISKCON devotee-zombies who fail to object to this description of wife-beating will one day hear the "Zack! of a whip themselves when they are run out of town by people who are sick and tired of their nonsense.

Calling Indira Gandhi and other “Free”Women Prostitutes:

Lecture on 5 April, 1977, Mumbai

Prabhupada: Talks to students about former Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

She is not a leader. She is a prostitute. When women are liberated, this means prostitutes. Free women are called prostitutes.

Really? What does name-calling achieve but a display of envy and frustration? Get your facts straight. Every human being, man or woman, has the intrinsic right to personal autonomy, happiness, and the right to be the architect of his or her own destiny. Religious fanaticism is what puts shackles on the lives of people, training them to believe that they are helpless pawns of past karmic sins with no free will.

SB 6.17.34-35 Purport

It must be said clearly that the understanding of a woman is always lower than the understanding of a man.

More nonsense. I remember how early ISKCON devotees took this literally and claimed that all men were smarter than any woman. Amazing stupidity.

Lecture on SB 1.3.21, 26 September 1972, Los Angeles.

This is psychologically true, that within the brain, the brain substance, if there is more, then one is more intelligent.. . Just see, modern scientific psychology, how it was known, long, long millions of years ago. At least five thousand years ago. . . I was student of psychology, and our professor… He was a Scotman. He explained this brain substance, cerebular substance, Dr. Urquhart, that the more brain substance is there, more one becomes intelligent. And it has been found that a woman does not have more than thirty-six ounce of brain substance, whereas in man it has been found that he has got up to sixty-four ounce. Now, this is modern science. Therefore generally, generally, woman, less intelligent than man. You cannot find any big scientist, any big mathematician, any big philosopher amongst woman. That is not possible. Although in your country, you want equal status with man, freedom, but by nature you are less intelligent. What can be done?

Perhaps the most ridiculous statement our guru every uttered, based on a total ignorance of science, history, and common sense. His slavish devotion to the words of an European professor--what a big deal in to a student in Calcutta!--are particularly laughable. Trotting out the old claims of an ancient "Vedic Science" having existed is another myth and salve for people who hunger for self-importance instead of doing the hard work of getting a real education.

Letter to Madhukara, 4 January 1973

To understand Brahman is not the business of tiny brain. Alpha-medhasan. There are two Sanskrit words, alpa-medhasa and sumedhasa. Alpa-medhasa means having little brain substance. Physiologically, within the brain there are brain substance. It is found that the brain substance in man is found up to 64 ounce. They are very highly intellectual persons. And in woman the brain substance is not found more than 34 ounce. You’ll find, therefore, that there is no very great scientist, mathematician, philosopher, among women. You’ll never find because their brain substance cannot go. Artificially do not try to become equal with men. That is not allowed in the Vedic sastra. Na striyam svatantratam arhati. That is called sastra.You have to understand that woman is never given to be independence. But if there is sex desire, how to control it? Women are normally very lusty, more lusty than men, and they are weaker sex, it is difficult for them to make spiritual advancement without the help of husband. For so many reasons, our women must have husband. That's all right, but if once they have got a husband he goes away so quickly, that will not be very much happy for them.

So, women are so dumb and lustful, according to "Vedic Sastra" that they must rely on their husbands for their instruction and are also to be denied independence? This statement of Bhaktivedanta Swami is an unwarranted insult to women, and especially the many great women intellectuals of history, many of them Indians of all faiths and, yes, highly intellectual and educated. It truly pains me to state the obvious!

Belief That Women Enjoy Being Raped:

Morning walk, 11 May 1975, Perth

Prabhupada: “Rape means without consent, sex. Otherwise there is no rape. There was a rape case in Calcutta, and the lawyer was very intelligent. He some way or other made the woman admit, ‘Yes, I felt happiness.’ So he was released. ‘Here is consent.’ And that’s a fact. Because after all, sex, rape or no rape, they will feel some pleasure. So the lawyer by hook and crook made the woman agree, ‘Yes, I felt some pleasure.’ ‘Now, there is consent.’ So he was released. After all, it is an itching sensation. So either by force or by willingly, if there is itching, everyone feels relieved itching it. That’s a psychology. It is not that the woman do not like rape. They like sometimes. They willingly. That is the psychology. Outwardly they show some displeasure, but inwardly they do not. This is the psychology.”

No, sir, you knew nothing about "psychology" or the law. Rape is a horribly violent act that ruins the lives of millions of women and, unfortunately, is rarely reported or litigated because of fear and prejudices like the kinds you trot out here. Your judge without the slightest bit of decency or competence would dare ask a woman if she enjoyed the act! That is simple insanity. How dare you claim that women like being raped! Such evil!

SB 4.25.41, Purport

Although rape is not legally allowed, it is a fact that a woman likes a man who is very expert at rape.

More of the same ignorant, vicious generalizations from a man who married an 11 year old girl. Shame!

Support of Child Marriage, Slavery of Wives, and Sati:

Room conversation, 27 February 1977, Mayapur

Man has no maximum. Even an eighty-years-old man can marry a sixteen-years-old girl.

Disgusting nonsense! An old bag "marrying" a teenager?

Letter to Mr. Loy, 7 November 1972, Vrindavan

And it is recommended they should be married at very early age, then the wife will remain always chaste and devoted to her husband. At such young age, from the first night onwards, she can never for a moment forget him, being still child and unspoiled, therefore she becomes the perfect chaste wife, and in those times the wife was so much devoted to her husband that she would voluntarily die in the fire of his cremation, unable to live without him. Myself, I was very young when I got married, and my wife was 11 years only.

Where did our guru dig up this nonsense? His own wife clearly disliked him and for good reason. As for a wife committing suicide by burning herself alive, that's just another legend men use to dispose of widows. Sati was murder and nothing else. Nothing voluntary about it.

Room conversation, 15 August 1971, London

Sex life, sex urge is there as soon as twelve years, thirteen years old, especially women. So therefore early marriage was sanctioned in India. Early marriage. Boy fifteen years, sixteen years, and girl twelve years. Not twelve years, ten years.

See my essay: https://iskconcultunveiled.blogspot.com/2016/01/sex-lies-and-sadhu-making.html.

SB 4.25.42, purport

A young woman who has no husband is called anatha, meaning ‘one who is not protected.’ As soon as a woman attains the age of puberty, she immediately becomes very much agitated by sexual desire. It is therefore the duty of the father to get his daughter married before she attains puberty. Otherwise she will be very much mortified by not having a husband. Anyone who satisfies her desire for sex at that age becomes a great object of satisfaction. It is a psychological fact that when a woman at the age of puberty meets a man and the man satisfies her sexually, she will love that man for the rest of her life, regardless who he is.

Treating women like animals who mate for life with the first man who rapes them as a young child--it's called statutory rape, people--reduces them to the status of animals. It is pure fiction and a ghastly justification for sexual assault of children as well as child marriage.

Twelve years. And she was given to a boy, my brother-in-law, for the second marriage. Means that my brother-in-law lost his first wife, and still, he was twenty-one years old. My sister was twelve years old and brother-in-law was twenty-one. In the sastra I do not know exactly what is that sastra, but they say that if the girl before marriage has menstruation, then the father has to eat that menstrual liquid. Means it is, mean, very strict. And if the father is not living, then the elder brother has to eat. [break] …of getting the girl married rests on the father. In the absence of the father, the eldest brother. The girl must be married. That is it. It is called daya, kanya-daya.

Drinking menstrual blood because you can't get your little daughter married? Now I've heard everything.

Lecture: 19 March, 1976, Mayapura, India

And the women are declaring, “independent.” They are begging door to door to a man, “Please give me shelter. Give me a child,” and they’re independent. One American woman, was…. She was speaking that “In India, the woman are treated as slave. We don’t want.” So I told her that it is better to become slave of one person than to slave of become hundreds. (laughter)The woman must become a slave. So instead of becoming slaves of so many persons, it is better to remain satisfied, a slave of one person.. . . And our Vedic civilization says, narī-rūpa pati-vratam: “The woman is beautiful when she remains as a slave to the husband.” That is the beauty, not the personal beauty. How much she has learned to remain as a slave to the husband, that is Vedic civilization.

Sorry, but the only women I have ever encountered begging and being treated as slaves were ISKCON devotees, particularly those who spent their days hawking our guru's books and living like mice in a wall. To treat marriage as a kind of slavery is another reason why ISKCON will one day evaporate and be a blot on the history of Hinduism.

Morning Walk, Bombay, 12 April, 1974

Formerly, when I was married, my wife was eleven years old. So (laughing) an eleven years old girl and I was at the same time twenty-one, twenty-two. One day I captured her hand. She began to cry. A little girl, you see?

Yes, we all see, unfortunately for your reputation as a "pure devotee"! That little girl should have been home playing with her sisters and her toys. Instead, she got hell.

Education of Women

SB 1.3.13 Lecture, Los Angeles, 18 September, 1972

So dealing with woman… Especially instruction are given to men. All literatures, all Vedic literatures, they are especially meant for instruction to the men. Woman is to follow the husband. That’s all. The husband will give instruction to the wife. There is no such thing as the girl should go to school to take brahmacari asrama or go to spiritual master to take instruction. That is not Vedic system. Vedic system is a man is fully instructed, and woman, girl, must be married to a man. Even the man may have many wives, polygamy, still, every woman should be married. And she would get instruction from the husband. This is Vedic system. Woman is not allowed to go to school, college, or to the spiritual master. But husband and wife, they can be initiated. That is Vedic system.

Barefoot and pregnant, literally. Since Bhaktivedanta Swami, by his own admission, never read the Vedas and believed that women should be denied educations, reading his books is a waste of time and visiting temples erected by his followers is an insult to Hindu culture.

[1]

All quotations from the writings, lectures, and personal talks of ISKCON founder/acharya, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, can be retrieved here: https://prabhupadavani.org.

The following is a sample of documented comments he made in his role as ultimate authority of ISKCON, all addressed to his initiated disciples unless otherwise noted:

Srimad Bhagavatam , 4.26.26, purport: Generally when a woman is attacked by a man – whether her husband or some other man – she enjoys the attack, being too lusty.

Srimad Bhagavatam,4.25.42, purport: When a husbandless woman is attacked by an aggressive man, she takes his action to be mercy.

References and Notes

[1] This neatly summarizes the events that led to the lawsuit filed in 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1809847.stm.

[2] This article contains detailed information about the culture in ISKCON in its role in the Gurukula and Robin George lawsuits. http://www.icsahome.com/articles/authoritarian-culture-and-child-abuse-in-iskcon.

The "Srimad Bhagavatam" quoted here and elsewhere in my blog refers to what is more commonly known as the Bhagavata Purana, one of the eighteen puranas (histories) dating from somewhere between the eighth and the tenth century, CE. In common with most epic poems, it is a lengthy compendium of topics relating to the mythical origins of a people, in this case those of the Indian subcontinent. Other characteristics of similar works in the epic genre are claims concerning ancient composition, single authors, and an almost continuous stream of fanciful exaggerations that orthodox readers (such as Bhaktivedanta Swami) take literally. Its significance to the Hare Krishna cult rests on its placing the avatar of Vishnu, Krishna, on a platform that Vaishnavas (devotees of Vishnu) regard as higher than any other deity in the Hindu pantheon and the devotional practices of Bhakti Yoga as the culmination of all others. In reality, the Bhagavata Purana owes much of its influence to its composite nature as a work of epic literature and especially its syncretic philosophical underpinnings. Bhaktivedanta Swami's commentaries (he called them "purports") with their rigid literalism and emphasis on chanting and adoration of the Radha Krishna deity skirt the general philosophical agreement of the Bhagavata Purana with the monism of the great Shankara. The aim of all yoga is reunion of the errant soul with the Divine.

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