“Krishna Killers will go a long way to reconcile ISKCON’s most notorious crime, the murder of Steven Bryant (Sulocana Das). In the spirit of the biblical quote, “The truth will set you free.” Henry Doktorski offers ISKCON followers the truth about their organizations dark history.”—Nori Muster, former ISKCQN Public Relations Assistant and author of Betrayal of the Spirit. (Henry Doktorski [Hrishikesh dasa], author of a forthcoming book titled KRISHNA KILLERS THE DANGER OF DERANGED DEVOTION)
Chapter 35: The secret homosexual society: the inner sanctum
Was it possible that Cheryl Wheeler was correct in her suspicion that her son with Hayagriva had been sexually molested by Kirtanananda? Certainly her husband’s behavior was not up to Vaisnava standards; he became known throughout ISKCON as a major sense enjoyer; one who consistently breaks the regulative principles, especially regarding illicit sex and intoxication. Satsvarupa put it mildly when he wrote, “Over the years, Hayagriva has experienced his own difficulties.” 2
From the very earliest days of New Vrindaban, one wonders whether Hayagriva and Kirtanananda ever strictly followed the regulative principles of Krishna consciousness. Although before meeting Prabhupada in July, 1966, they had been practicing homosexuals (with a marked preference for teenage partners), it is reasonable to assume that both followed the regulative principles while living at Swamiji’s 26 Second Avenue ashram.
Prabhupada made it known that homosexuality was demoniac.
. . . the homosexual appetite of a man for another man is demoniac and is not for any sane male in the ordinary course of life. (SB 3.20.26, purport)
The world is degrading to the lowest status, even less than animal. The animal also do not support homosex. They have never sex life between male to male. They are less than animal. People are becoming less than animal. This is all due to godlessness. (Conversation with the GBC, May 25, 1972, Los Angeles)
I am very sorry that you have taken to homosex. It will not help you advance in your attempt for spiritual life. In fact, it will only hamper your advancement. I do not know why you have taken to such abominable activities. What can I say? Anyway, try to render whatever service you can to Krishna. Even though you are in a very degraded condition Krishna, being pleased with your service attitude, can pick you up from your fallen state. You should stop this homosex immediately. It is illicit sex, otherwise, your chances of advancing in spiritual life are nil. Show Krishna you are serious, if you are. (Letter to: Lalitananda, Hawaii 26 May, 1975)
Novice devotees often follow very strictly for a few months or a few years, but all devotees’ vows are eventually tested in time. Hayagriva and Kirtanananda’s vows were tested after about one year of following the regulative principles and they failed the test. Kirtanananda resumed smoking marijuana after he left ISKCON in September 1967 and it is probable that he also resumed his homosexual relationship with Hayagriva and other partners. When Kirtanananda and Hayagriva returned to ISKCON in July 1968 it is unlikely that they renewed their vows and following strictly. How could they—living alone without association in the wilderness of West Virginia?
This suspicion is corroborated by several devotees. One early New Vrindaban resident described the very curious relationship between Kirtanananda and Hayagriva:
I visited New Vrindaban during the winter of 1968 and lived there briefly in the spring of 1969 and 1970. At that time Kirtanananda and Hayagriva appeared to still be lovers. They acted very curiously when around each other: like a husband and wife. Hayagriva was the dominant partner.
During my first visit to New Vrindaban, Hayagriva was standing at the bottom of the stairs at the old farmhouse on the top of the hill and screaming: “Ham! Ham!” Kirtanananda responded with a girlish giggle, and then in a high-pitched flirtatious voice, he replied, “Yes, Mr. Wheeler?” The word “Ham” is, of course, a double entendre. . . .
I believe that Kirtanananda and Hayagriva continued their homosexual relationship even as late as 1968 and 1969 and perhaps 1970. I do not know what occurred after that. 3 4
One of New Vrindaban’s neighbors who was friends with Hayagriva since 1968 remembered, “Howard. . . he has never hidden the fact that he was a blatant homosexual, and that his preference was younger men in sexual partners.” 5
During 1969 in England, Umapati dasa verbally chastised Hayagriva for his homosexual activities. Hanuman Swami recalled, “When I was in England in 1969 (living at John Lennon estate) I witnessed a very big verbal fight, where Umapati was trying to lecture Howard ‘that he should stop his homosexual lifestyle.’ Howard got real pissed. I was 19 and just could not understand then, but it does make sense now.” 6
During May 1972, Hayagriva had so many difficulties that he resigned from his position as president of New Vrindaban. Kirtanananda said, “Hayagriva, unfortunately, being an only child, was also a spoiled child and never very disciplined. He had great difficulty controlling his senses, and that included staying in New Vrindaban, staying in one place. He used to travel a great deal. He used to, as a matter of habit, spend the summer months in New Vrindaban when it was nice weather-wise, and then he would take off for Mexico or India or other places for the rest of the year.” 7
While Hayagriva vacationed in Mexico and India he found dark-skinned young men with whom he enjoyed sporting pleasures. One devotee who spent time with Bhaktipada and Hayagriva in India claimed, “It was known that Hayagriva preferred dark-skinned young men.” 8
Hayagriva was known at New Vrindaban for his parties with young dark-skinned Mexican men. He even boasted to his friends about his young homosexual adventures. Randall Gorby said that Hayagriva called his Mexican boys “his treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
Q. Did Mr. Wheeler state to you that he engaged in sex with any one or more of these Mexicans?
A. Yes, he did. In fact, he was rather proud of it. He referred to a couple of them as his “treasure of the Sierra Madre” when he brought them. 9
Sometimes Hayagriva brought his young Mexican lovers to Gorby’s home in Bethany, West Virginia, where they would spend the night sporting together in Gorby’s guest house. Randall remembered:
Q: Would you engage in lengthy discussions with Mr. Wheeler at your house?
A: At all times.
Q: And would he tell you at your house, and at other times, about say his Mexican trips?
A: Yes, in fact, he would, whoever the one that was selected that he brought back personally, he would come by the house, and I had a structure in the back of the house, a sleeping structure, because I have a large family and they have a lot of friends, and we had a sleeping structure in the back, and they would stay overnight, and go on down to the community the next day. He was proud of his “accomplishments,” and he would come by to show me. 10
Janmastami recalled one time in 1979 when Acyutananda Swami visited New Vrindaban and chastised Hayagriva for partying with Mexican men. Hayagriva responded by blowing cigar smoke into Acyutananda’s face. Janmastami recalled:
I was drilling a water well in the front yard over at “Lake Visvadika,” the name Vahna had given the property that his father had purchased for him over at Talaban. . . Anyway, he needed water and I was to drill the well so that he could move in.
In the interim, Hayagriva, who had just returned from a trip to Mexico with two carloads of Mexicans, was staying in that house. He brought two carloads of potential laborers to help with the construction at the Palace. Some of them it turned out were only there because of their attraction for Hayagriva himself and they moved in with him over at Talaban. The rest stayed in various locations and did a large portion of the cement work at the Palace as Atmabhu’s construction force. They mostly stayed at the two story red house, half way up the hill at Bahulaban, the old brahmacarini ashram. Those who stayed with Hayagriva over at Talaban were all party animals, homosexually inclined, and they consumed vast amounts of intoxicants, heavy to beer and hard liquor.
While I was drilling, the music always blasting from inside, Acyutananda Swami was coming over on almost a daily basis. He was writing a cookbook and Hayagriva was supposed to proofread it before it went to press. He was very anxious about getting it done but Hayagriva was not quite as excited as he was. Acyutananda came by and one of the times that I saw, the Mexican boys were inside, in their jockey shorts racing around the brim of a large sombrero.
Hayagriva was smoking a big fat cigar when he answered the door and Acyutananda went in to a long sermon about how Srila Prabhupada would not be pleased by Hayagriva’s behavior. Hayagriva listened patiently for about five minutes and then after taking a long drag on his cigar, he blew a long stream of smoke right into Acyutananda’s face and said “Thanks for the lecture, Swami!” and then he closed the door. Acyutananda came over to me and asked “What should I do?” and I just told him, “I guess you just have to wait.”
Acyutananda did wind up waiting about three or four weeks at New Vrindaban and I don’t know if Hayagriva ever really did the proof reading or not. 11
In public, Bhaktipada preached about the evils of sex, but in private he indulged his senses. New Vrindaban had an underground secret homosexual society of perhaps a dozen or more practicing homosexuals and pedophiles. Soon after I joined the community in August 1978 I was unwittingly auditioned for membership in this secret society. At the time I did not know what was happening; I thought I happened to overhear a mock debate about homosexuality, but years later, after hearing reliable accounts of some of Bhaktipada’s sexual escapades, I understood I had been tested to see if I was open to gay sex.
In an article for the Sampradaya Sun, I wrote:
One experience at New Vrindaban which I never forgot, but did not completely understand until recently, was when Hayagriva, in the company of Kirtanananda and some other male devotees, attempted to ascertain my opinion about gay sex so they might invite me into the New Vrindaban practicing homosexual’s club. It was in the summer of 1978, a few days after I had become freshly shaved. At that time I was an attractive 160-lb., nearly-six-foot-tall, physically-fit twenty-two-year old with a great tan, as at New Vrindaban the men often went shirtless in the summer heat.
I was walking from Bahulaban to Prabhupada’s Palace-under-construction, when Kirtanananda pulled over in his jeep and asked, “Want a ride?” I replied in the affirmative and hopped in the back of his truck, squeezing in with the spare tire and a few bags of cement. Kirtanananda was driving. Hayagriva sat in the passenger’s seat. The back seat had two or three other male devotees. 12 I squatted in the trunk with the spare tire and cement bags, trying to get comfortable.
There was an interesting conversation going on about homosexuality. Hayagriva was acting as a protagonist, proclaiming—in a reserved uncommitted manner—the glories of the gay lifestyle: “Some say that homosexuality is not a sin; it is an inborn genetic disposition which results in sexual attraction between members of the same sex. I hear it can be a stimulating and fulfilling activity between consenting and likeminded parties engendering great pleasure and even ecstasy.”
Another devotee in the back seat, who I do not remember, acted as the antagonist. This devotee replied to Hayagriva, “Not necessarily so. The scriptures condemn the practice of homosexuality as immoral and unhealthy and an abomination to God and man. Even the Bible with all its faults soundly condemns those who practice these gross and disgusting activities. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God as punishment to those who perpetuated these unnatural acts contrary to God and Nature.”
But Hayagriva did not seem convinced, and he defended his position, “Yet some say these scriptures are based on primitive and antiquated assumptions and superstitions about sex; that sex is meant only for procreation. Yet the desire for homosexual relations is not chosen by the individual, but is God-given. Why should not those who are blessed with this orientation be allowed to enjoy sexual pleasure with their own kind, as heterosexuals are permitted to enjoy intimate relations with the opposite kind?”
Kirtanananda conspicuously remained silent during the entire conversation as Hayagriva and the other devotee argued back and forth. Suddenly the conversation paused, and Hayagriva looked at me and boomed in his stentorian voice: “Bhakta Hank? What do you think about this? What is your opinion?”
I reflected a moment before answering. I had several gay friends in college, even a roommate. Some of my professors were also gay. I knew this because they thought I was hot. Three or four college professors and at least two students had expressed their desires to have a sexual relationship with me. Although I was flattered, I had to respectfully decline their propositions one after another, as I had no innate sexual attraction for men.
I replied to Hayagriva’s question with confidence and boldness, offering my frank viewpoint on the matter, and hoping to please Kirtanananda and the assembled Vaisnavas, as I had already heard several classes by Kirtanananda condemning ANY type of sex life: “I think homosexuality is GROSS with a capital G! I once had a college professor who asked me to sleep with him, and I couldn’t look him in the eye again! I lost so much respect for him. Maybe for others it’s okay, but NOT FOR ME!”
Hayagriva muttered a long “Hmmmnnn,” and that was it; the conversation abruptly ended. There was a strained and uncomfortable silence in the vehicle. I was a bit curious why the conversation had stopped so suddenly, as I thought the discussion was interesting. Several times I had heard devotees engage in mock debates; one taking the personalist and another taking the impersonalist side. I thought this discussion was like that. But there was no conclusion to the debate. Everyone remained silent for the remainder of the ride.
After a minute or two Kirtanananda abruptly pulled over in front of the Palace and I hopped out to do my service of gold-leafing the column capitals in the kirtan hall. I thought nothing about the conversation again for many years; until recently. At the time, I did not know what was happening, but now I understand that I was being tested. Gay men thought I was hot. If I had responded favorably to Hayagriva’s question, I believe I would have been invited to experience an entire realm of underground New Vrindaban life which may have existed from the very beginning of the community ten years earlier in 1968. 13
Some others claimed that children in the community were abused both physically and sexually. Naranarayana dasa, who first visited New Vrindaban in 1968 and lived there during 1969 and 1970, believed that the first two boys (young teenagers) who came to New Vrindaban had been molested by Hayagriva, who, he claimed: “was frequently a pedophile. He actually destroyed the lives of two devotee boys: [G] and [B]. Later when he was living in Ensenada, in Baja California, Mexico, he had a thing going with some of the boys there.” 14
Labangalatika devi dasi, who lived at New Vrindaban from 1969 to 1972, claimed, “Hayagriva to me is a very dangerous . . . child molester. . . . He did a lot of service by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, which is for his eternal benefit, but . . . it should be known what he had become and what things he did. He molested [B], Silavati’s son . . . for sex.” 15
Another early resident, Puskara dasa, who lived in New Vrindaban in 1971, also claimed that Hayagriva molested [B] and [G]. 16
While most residents of New Vrindaban were aware of Hayagriva’s tendency for sense enjoyment (when I was a new brahmacari, the Old Vrindaban Temple President, Atmabhu Swami, forbade me to associate with Hayagriva or others like him), few suspected the unthinkable: that Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada—considered by the Brijabasis to be the dearmost disciple of Srila Prabhupada, the most renounced ISKCON sannyasi, a pure devotee and self-realized soul—had a long history of sexual deviations even while he was an alleged sannyasi.
Kirtanananda bathes naked boys.
In 1970, while traveling with Prabhupada in India, Kirtanananda started a daily program of bathing naked boys at the Calcutta temple. This caused anxiety and dissension amongst his godbrothers and they tried to convince him to stop. Prabhupada himself had to personally mediate in the affair and end Kirtanananda’s “bathing program.” Hanuman Swami remembered:
I met Kirtanananda for the first time in Calcutta. There were just six of us devotees living in a house with Prabhupada, and one day Tamal-Krishna got very upset because Kirtanananda was bringing hordes of boys inside the house, bathing them, feeding them, and then sending them away. This was Kirtanananda’s daily program.
Tamal-Krishna thought that the neighbors would wonder, “What are those Westerners doing with our boys in that house? Are they pedophiles; are our children being molested?” Tamal-Krishna tried to express his concerns to Kirtanananda and the two got into a big shouting argument. Later that very day, Tamal went to see Prabhupada about it; Prabhupada was in complete agreement with Tamal and in a subsequent meeting told Kirtanananda to end his program.
Kirtanananda—who was sitting directly in front of Prabhupada with only Tamal and me in the room—became insolent and questioned Prabhupada, “Why do you give preference to Tamal-Krishna above anybody else in the movement these days?” Kirtanananda badgered Prabhupada, asking two, three, four time the same question in a row very quickly, “Why him, why him, why him?”
I was a new devotee at the time, and I was horrified to hear Kirtanananda actually raising his voice and interrogating his spiritual master. I had never heard of such a thing.
Finally Kirtanananda stopped speaking, and waited for Prabhupada’s answer. Prabhupada sat there for a very long moment, then slowly but firmly said, “I am like the sun. The sun is the sun; it shines for everyone. It all depends on how close you want to come; how much you want to expose yourself to the sun.”
And that was the end of the argument. Kirtanananda was stunned; he became mute, speechless. He was unable to reply. 17
During his travels in India, Kirtanananda Swami also tried to convince a twenty-year-old brahmacari godbrother to have sex with him. Hanuman Swami recalled:
Kirtanananda made sexual advances toward me when I was twenty years old. That happened around the same time that we were in Calcutta together, in 1970. It was the first time I had the occasion to associate closely with Prabhupada, as I had just opened a temple in Paris with Umapati and I had been living basically alone with Umapati for a year.
In Calcutta, Kirtanananda took me apart in the ISKCON house and told me that Tibetan monks in the monastaries were permitted to have sex between monks. (He told me this in a low quiet voice near my face, which I know now was a complete lie.) After a few times, I made it clear to him that I was totally ignorant of the Tibetan monks’ way of life and I was not interested in learning about it. I was serving directly Prabhupada now.
Looking back at it now, it was a come-on move on me. In those days I was a new devotee—I had no idea that Keith was gay. 18
Kirtanananda explained some of the difficulties of long-term celibacy. He said:
Prabhupada said that women are like fire and men are like butter. You put the two together and the result is sure. We used to laugh about that. We used to say, “Prabhupada, we can be around women and it doesn’t bother us at all. We’re so jaded.”
But as you become a little purified or refrain from illicit sex for some time, then you say, “I’m not as invulnerable as I thought I was.” When one is very jaded, it may appear that way, because your senses are dulled by excessive gratification. But when the senses are
again denied for some time, they will again be very much subject [to temptation]. So our boys have to be very careful, otherwise after being in Krishna Consciousness for some time, they will again be agitated for sex. 19
When Kirtanananda Swami returned to New Vrindaban from India, his homosexual and pedophilic tendencies continued. He secretly and routinely molested boys and young men in the community and personally picked boys from the gurukula to stay with him overnight in his cabin at Bahulaban. Only a few select boys were invited. This was common knowledge. The Brijabasi Spirit explained: “When Maharaja was living in his cabin, it was considered a great privilege to get to stay in the back room. Only a handful of selected boys got the opportunity.” 20 more >>>
Full article continued here: http://www.iskcon-truth.com/sulocana/krishna-killers.html
Speak Your Mind