Who is Bhavananda?

Bhavananda – photo from YouTube video, where he says:
“I once’d said to him: Prabhupada, I said: I am so lusty, I said my eyes go everywhere“

WHO IS BHAVANANDA

“Bhavananda (Charles Bacis) a practicing homosexual in the Holy Dham, molesting Iskcon’s Children in the name of Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. Bhavananda, a notorious pedophile and women hater, was caught having anal sex with a young boy in Mayapura. In Vrindavan he was sucking the genitals of a pimp Taxi driver. Afterwards he is sitting on the Vyasasana to preach perverted philosophies, receiving honour titles such as Vishnupada – as if Vishnu would abuse his children or have homosex?”

Bhavananda, one of the most notorious child molesters in Mayapur, is today sitting in front of Radha Madhava with a garland around his neck giving class to all of the devotees calling them rascals, and all present clap their hands. How stupid devotees can be? Unbelievable? – NO it is real. It’s not just the bad people like Bhavananda who cause problems in the world, but rather, it is all the so called “good” people who stand by and do nothing, letting bad things (abuse) happen and just go on year after year, continuously supporting criminals, homosexuals, bogus gurus and other Iskcon perverts. But some doevotees protest, crying for help: Bhavananda is back.

Bhavananda should be removed immediately as the main project manager for building the TOVP in ISKCON Mayapur.

The following letter was published at chakra.org, a GBC-approved Internet forum for discussing controversy. According to Dr. Ekstrand’s witnesses, Bhavananda first began hitting devotees’ children in 1970. He became a guru in 1978 and remained in good standing? until 1986-87, when the GBC suspended and later expelled him for carrying on homosexual affairs and violating GBC orders. Throughout the 1990s, Bhavananda has tried to win his status back and he has many supporters throughout ISKCON, especially in Australia, his former zone. (http://www.surrealist.org/gurukula/timeline/docs.html#30)

The Past is Not Done With
by Maria Ekstrand, Ph.D.

Dear Nrsimha Kavaca Prabhu,  After reading your letter about Bhavananda, I can only hope that you are completely ignorant of the severity of Bhavananda’s past or of the psychology of trauma. You wrote “the past is done with,” which shows that you know nothing about the long-term effects of abuse. I’m sure that the victims of Bhavananda’s abuse pray that the past could be over for them. Unfortunately, it cannot, and they have to live with it every day and night, probably for the rest of their lives. Many still have nightmares from the beatings and other mistreatment they received from Bhavananda and others like him in ISKCON.

If Bhavananda has truly had a change of heart, then let him show this by apologizing to his many victims and offering them restitution. You are probably mean well, but you are not helping either Bhavananda or his victims by telling us to forgive and forget. It is not up to you or me to forgive him. He has to go straight to his victims. You stated that we all may one day be in a similar position. I certainly hope that this is not true, but if it is, may Krsna spare me from well-meaning but misguided individuals such as you. I would hope that instead, someone would have the sense and guts to sit down with me and tell me what I really needed to do to save my spiritual life.

Account #1. This occurred in 1970 in the New York temple. There were about a dozen children present (this was before the Dallas gurukula had opened), and someone had broken a minor rule. Bhavananda was very angry and wanted to find out who was the guilty one. All the kids were afraid and no one confessed or told. So he marched them all down into the basement, made them all pull down their pants (so that all the boys and girls were naked in the room together). Then he beat everyone hard with a stick. As you can imagine, this was both physically painful and extremely humiliating for them. 

Account #2. A boy ate a couple of unoffered raisins. Bhavananda saw this and decided to teach him a lesson. So he forced the boy to keep eating piles of unoffered raisins until the child finally threw up. This was Bhavananda’s way of teaching the boy that it’s wrong to eat unoffered food.

Account #3. In Mayapur 1975. During japa, Bhavananda used to circumambulate the temple with the kids. Every time he passed some of them, he’d punch them hard on the arm. The person who told me said that he used to have black-and blue bruises all over his arms. Another japa memory involved Bhavananda’s walking around the temple room with a “gong stick,” whacking the kids on the head if they were “spacing out” or not chanting (usually because they were tired). The person who told me this said that he used to have welts on his head, and that other kids did too.

Account #4. Also in Mayapur. The gurukula was run “like a prison” and one of Bhavananda’s favorite sayings was “no work, no food.” So many of the kids were walking around in constant fear that they wouldn’t get anything to eat.

Account #5. Later in Vrindavana, this boy was getting so tired of being in gurukula that he wrote to his mom that he wanted to come home. So his mother wrote to the school. When Bhavananda found out, he came after this boy (with two to three other men in tow), grabbed him by the shirt and completely intimidated him. He yelled at him that if he ever had a problem, he had to come to Bhavananda in the future.

Account #6. “Yes, I also remember for sure how he used to beat the kids. I got a little personal taste of it the very first day I joined the Vrindavana Gurukula. It was during arati, and because I wasn’t jumping up and down in ecstasy, I got his fat fist hammered on my head from behind. Boy, was I shocked! What a sweet beginning.”

Account #7. “He used to sometimes call the boys over to his room. Then we all had to sit there while some teacher (usually Dhanurdhar or Raghunath) used to tell all the bad things so-and-so did, and then that boy had to come up and get a good smack across the face. If you ever got one from him, you know what it means. It was about three times as strong as any other maniac would ever hit a kid.”

Account #8. This female ex-gurukula student reported that Bhavananda’s mistreatment of children was not confined to boys: “Bhavananda didn’t limit his attention to gurukula boys. I remember when I lived in Vrindavana when I was four, he used to take special delight in lifting me up by my pony tail.”

Account #9. “I want to confirm that story about how he use to bring up the boys to his room and smack them around. I was one of those boys.”

Account #10. “Something else I just remembered today that I’d like to tell: Bhavananda used to take special interest in the punishment of the kids in Vrindavana when he was there, especially if some infraction was committed in his presence. I remember one time during his Vyasa puja [guru’s birthday] I wasn’t adequately enthusiastic. He pointed at me and signaled that he’d seen me. After it was over, he had me and a few other kids come up to his room where he gave us a few of his patented smacks. He would smack harder than anyone else. After a few of his smacks my ears would ring, I’d see stars, and would be so disoriented that I could barely stand up. Needless to say, we were all crying when we left. I think he liked to hurt kids and make them cry.” (http://www.surrealist.org/gurukula/timeline/docs.html#30)

From the pages of the “old” PADA websites
we can find the following information about Bhavananda:

Bhavananda (formerly known as Bhavananda Goswami “SRILA VISHNUPADA”, birth name: Charles Bacis) joined ISKCON in January, 1969 in Los Angeles and was sent to Mayapur by Prabhupada in 1971 to help develop the Mayapur Temple. After Prabhupada’s death, Bhavananda was one of eleven disciples selected to become initiating gurus. As part of the Zonal Acarya system, Bhavananda initiated disciples within Vrindavan, Central India, Mayapur,USA, and Australia.

During the early 1980s Bhavananda was exposed engaging in homosexual activities, for example paying taxi drivers in the holy land of Vrndavana to engage in oral sex and having homosexual relations with underage children. Despite being exposed in these odious actions, in 1986 the other ISKCON gurus “re-coronated” Bhavananada as their “Acharya Vishnupada.” Bhavananda brought in his child molester friends into the ISKCON gurukula schools, resulting a massive child abuse lawsuit against ISKCON in 1999.

In 1985, Bhavananda, a sannyasi (celibate priest), GBC and Guru, confessed to forbidden active homosexuality, being exposed by abused devotees. The ISKCON Governing Body Commission (GBC)  than passed a resolution removing Bhavananda from his position of Initiating Guru and GBC positions and ordered him to give up the company of his travelling companion and stop giving initiations.

Bhavananda was officially removed as guru and GBC and suspended in 1987 for having homosexual relations with underage children. But just one year later he was taken back by  Iskcon and made in charge of the TOVP Temple Of the Vedic Planetarium, because of his connection with the multimillionaire Ambarish das or Alfred Ford, the great grand son of Henry Ford.

It as always been like this in ISKCON …a treatment for regular folks and another treatment for the people who have possibly millions of dollars to spend on ISKCON projects. From the very beginning Iskcon has always turn a blind eye to Alfred Ford scandalous relationship with the homosexual and pedophile Bhavananda (Charles Bacies) and ISKCON keep accepting Bhavananda and encouraging him to preach in their temples.

Hundreds of children’s have been raped and sexually abuses by pedophiles like Bhavananda in the Vrindavan and Mayapur temples in the past. More than 25 have committed suicides. Alfred Ford never gave any money to defend those children, abused by his friend Bhavananda.

All devotees should be careful about Alfred Ford and his Friend Bhavananda. Either Ambarish is heavily brainwashed (like so many other IskCon devotees) or he is compromised in his relationship with Bhavananda. Alfred Ford …..who had an arrange IskCon marriage with Sharmila devi …but now is preparing to become a renounced monk ……HE MIGHT BE AS GAY AS THEY COME …..but he is certainly brainwashed even if he is a billionaire.

Charles Bacis aka Bhavananda ex-Swami (USA) was one of the first to self-proclaim himself as ‘Guru’ or an infallible God’s representative on earth within ISKCON society in 1977. Even before becoming a Guru, he was the first one to torture, molest, abuse and sodomize young Krishna’s children at boarding schools (Gurukulas) in America and India. Young helpless children suffered terribly under his tutorship and guru-ship for about one whole decade. Children had no recourse but to live in agony and fear; they could not ask for help. Once when they grew up, with great pain and humiliation they gathered strength to put their ‘gurukula experience’ into the open. This came to be known as the infamous $500 million Turley Child Abuse Case of 2000.

Bhavananda – Charles Bacis – Ex swami, homosex guru, child abuser
how dare you are – shamelessly sitting on the Vyasasana, after molesting children

Internal Report presented to the GBC in 1986

“First of all BhavanandaSwami (Charles Bacis) was caught having anal sex with a young boy in Mayapura. (Tamal Krishna aka Thomas Herzig, covered up this incident according to Yasodanandana dasa). Bhavananda’s history is alleged to include his being present when the underground pornographic movie ‘Chelsea Girls’ was filmed, in which the ‘girls’ are actually homosexuals. This movie is full of grotesque homosexual relations like oral sex, anal sex, etc. The notorious Andy Warhol worked on it, and Bhavananda is said to be his friend.

“The next known case was in 1983, the one with the taxi driver (a chauffeur hired by the Vrindavana temple). This taxi driver also admitted he was having homosexual relations with Bhavananda’s appointed temple president for the Vrindavana temple as well.

“Bhavananda was riding in the taxi and he grabbed the driver’s genital and began working it. Being a pimp, the driver just smiled and kept driving. Later Bhavananda paid this driver 300 rupees to let him suck the driver’s genital. They went on to Delhi and he did it again and Bhavananda gave the taxi driver another 200 rupees.

The report details more “genital sucking” performed on the taxi driver and anal sex. Bhavananda praised the size of the driver’s genitals. Shortly afterwards Jagat Guru, Bhagavan, Mukunda, Sivarama, Tamal Krishna and Ramesvara Swamis were all given reports of these incidents. They said they would handle it. Giriraja Swami was then called in to make further investigations, and he concluded that the stories were true. Yet, somehow or other, the issue mysteriously remained dead in the water.

Of course the investigation had to be reopened shortly thereafter. A black devotee named Krishnacharana dasa complained that the GBC’s “guru” Bhavananda, had sexually assaulted him in Vrindavana. This devotee also confirmed that Bhavananda like to swallow semen after he had “sucked on other’s genitals.”

DEGRADATION
The document continues with the caption: “A Trail of Degradation” stating, “Everyone has noticed that whenever there is a homosexual in his zone, he gets the favor of Bhavananda. In summary, in the next few years that Bhavananda managed Vrindavana, he established a number of homosexual and other fallen people as his main men and admirers. A homosexual man was brought in, and the man’s son was soon caught engaging in homosexual acts. The temple guard was a homosexual. A boy from the goshala was caught engaging in homosexual acts. The temple president was a homosexual.”

LONG AND DARK HISTORY
“Mayapura has the longest and darkest history of homosexuality. Bhavananda (backed by the majority of the GBC) runs a very tight ship of fallen souls there, starting with Satadhanya, who for a long time was having sex with men and women (remember he was supposed to be a celibate sannyasi). Just last year Satadhanya had homosexual relations with a young boy who had to go to the hospital for stitches in his anus. One of Jayapataka’s disciples admitted that Satadhanya had sex with him in Prabhupada’s room in Calcutta.

NOTE: The GBC claims it was “unaware of the molestation developments in India.” But here we find that these activities were going on for a “long” and “dark” period of time. Some people thus joke, “if they did not know, they must have been hiding in a cave in Borneo.” Also, there were always rumors of an “anal reconstructive surgery epidemic” among the children circulated around this time? “If only one in ten of the rumors in relation to Nitaichand’s homosexuality are true, there is plenty to around. He was seen by a disciple of Tamal Krishna Swami, named Damodara dasa, having sex in his room with a young boy devotee. He is always surrounded by an entourage of young boys massaging him and doing all kids of services and favors. Stories of his stealing of the temple’s funds abound.”

NOTE: Kirtanananda Swami was also surrounded by an entourage of young boys, sometimes fifty or more, massaging him in public. This was an everyday public occurrence, yet the GBCs claimed later that they “did not know it was happening.” His “massages by boys” was even filmed by Jane Wallace of CBS news and was viewed by 23 million people. She asked me why this religion worships homosexual pedophiles? She was able to size up and realize that the GBC had created a violent pedophile worshipping cult in about thirty seconds, as soon as she saw Kirtanananda in his seat covered with the hands of boys who were petting him?

Kirtanananda (now dead) with his boys

And some GBC were singing the praises of Kirtanananda at this time? Later, Kirtanananda was carried on a palanquin by people like Umapati. Umapati also went to prison to reward the murderer of Sulochana by making him a swami in the jail. And so the GBC rewarded this pedophile palanquin carrier, and murderer apologist, by making him one of their current “gurus.” The 1986 report continues:

Mad Kirtanananda (now dead) pulling a boy to him

“Just last Kartikka (November 1985), three brahmacharis from Mayapura came to Vrindavana to do service, and within a week all three were found to be homosexuals. Two days after their arrival, two of them started sticking their hands onto the Vrindavana gurukula student’s genitals in the kitchen. The students ran off to tell their teachers. People wonder how so many of the people coming from Mayapura are homosexuals.

“Older devotees who have resided in Mayapura say that a good percentage of the men at Mayapura engage in homosexual affairs. On one occasion in 1982, one of the Mayapura gurukula ashrama teachers named Antaryami Krishna was seen by a new student having sex with another boy in the ashrama. In order to prevent this new boy from telling anyone, the teacher beat him very badly in the back and told him not to tell anyone. Some three days later the welts on his back started to go septic and the boy was brought to Mr. Kanva for medical treatment. Mr. Kanva was so shocked that he demanded that the boy tell him the whole story.

“Due to Kanva and another devotee protesting to Bhavananda the teacher was finally removed. It is also a fact, obvious to anyone who cares to inquire, that the (school) ashrama teacher in charge of all the small boys as of the current (1985) festival is also a homosexual.

NOTE: It was known that Bhavananda had set up groups of molester “school teachers” and other temple authorities. Many young boys were molested, and then threatened, beaten and sometimes sent to hospitals for “anal surgery.” There are also many other stories of beatings and harassment of children, from around the world, and GBC guru cover-up attempts.

(PEDOPHILE) HOMOSEX: ALL AROUND HIM.
“So we have Bhavananda doing it and having it done all around him. He also travels through Singapore and Thailand alone with Bala. Both of these places are notorious for the wide ranges of prostitution that they offer. Often when Bhavananda visits Los Angeles, a host of homosexual fringies, who are otherwise never around, show up to go out for a ride with him. Recently in New York, some Bhavananda disciples said that Bhavananda approached a boy for gross sex there, but he would not submit.

NOTE: This is a key point to understand. Wherever Bhavananda went he spread his influence, namely pedophile homosexuality, all around. This was well known. The report say these incidents were “obvious to anyone who cares to inquire.” Yet the GBC pretended to be oblivious to it.

TIP OF ICEBERG
“The above information is just the tip of the iceberg and is simply meant to create a picture of what is going on. There is more information available and much more can be dug up without much endeavor.” (From a report submitted to the GBC’s gurus for their 1986 meeting.)

NOTE: In short, the homosexuality and molestation increased by geometrical progression all over India, Australia and wherever Bhavananda travelled. Simultaneously, the largest GBC-backed USA project, New Vrindavana, became another homosexual and pedophile nest.

DYNAMITE THREAT?
An interesting side point there is that according to various reports Nitaichand dasa was already famous in his local district to be a dangerous “goonda,” or violent criminal, way before he even met Bhavananda. We have heard reports from the followers of “Sridhara Maharaja” that the GBC was considering using this Nitaichand dasa to “blow up the temple” of one of the GBC’s former “advisors,” an elderly and respectable gentleman living in Navadvipa who was also Srila Prabhupada’s Godbrother

MOLESTER UPHELD
We once asked a lone-wolf GBC named Atreya Rishi, often vilified by the other GBCs, why he did not oppose the molester guru situation in India. He said that this Nitaichand dasa would have him beaten, perhaps to death, if he ever proposed that anything was wrong there. He admitted that it was known to the GBC that this Nitaichand was a molester himself. He also said, “Nitaichand has at least fifty of his violent gangster friends at the Mayapura temple, they’ll beat me if I say anything.” He also said, “The GBC backs Nitaichand and Bhavananda,” and “Tamal Krishna is a demon because he backs Bhavananda, knowing that he is creating all this homosexuality.”

BHAVANANDA SUPPORTED AND ENDORSED
In another document, prepared by Yashomatinandana dasa, it says: Just last year, the entire acharya block (ISKCON’s self-appointed gurus), the six most powerful, Tamal Krishna Goswami, Bhagavan, Jayapataka Swami, Ramesvara, Harikesha Swami and Hridayananda Swami vehemently supported Bhavananda ….No shame, no remorse, no guilt.”

NOTE: The words “vehemently supported” are very significant. The “guru cartel” knew that they had a molester situation on their hands, but they also knew that it would be politically difficult to admit that another one of their self-appointed gurus had defects. So it was decided to “cut the losses …and back the bad guy.”

“Already Mayapura is losing all support and goodwill from the important Calcutta members. One member who has donated more than three million rupees is completely burnt out. The samadhi (shrine for Prabhupada) is at a standstill while Bhavananda spends 15 to 20 lakhs on his luxurious apartment. Bhavananda’s falldown has already been exposed on the most popular TV show in Australia. The worst is yet to come.”

NOTE: This is another problem. These gurus were living like demigods on earth, while simultaneously many children were being starved, beaten and molested. Ordinary members of the public are oftentimes immediately aware that the GBC’s gurus are defective conditioned souls. Yet the GBC does not care for anyone’s opinion, except their own. For example, when the GBC’s alleged guru Jayatirtha was decapitated (for drugs and sexual misconduct) by a disgruntled follower, the news was horrendous. “Guru’s Head Hacked Off” blared the headlines in England. Would the GBC step forward to explain to the public that this man never was a guru in the first place, and try to salvage the movement’s (and the lineage’s) reputation? No, never. Scandal incidents that reach the public and mass media matter little to the gurus. “We are all gurus now, these rascals are or were part of the guru cartel too, so what are you going to do about it? We can get you banned, beat or shot if you object.”

GBC OFFERS FAGGOT GURU TO GOD
The document continues: We all went back to our temples with our hearts broken and hopes shattered, having given Lord Chaitanya (God Himself) a wonderful gift of a faggot guru in His parampara on His 500th appearance day. We were absolutely convinced that our leaders were destroying ISKCON. Even a child in the material world could see what our great leaders could not see.”

NOTE: This is still the problem. No ordinary sane or moral person, or even a child with nominal religious training, ever states “child molesters are or were our gurus.” Only the GBCs are bold enough to make this outrageous and obnoxious claim, and enforce it, even up to 1999, by harassment, excommunications, beatings, and so on.

DEVOTEES EXILED
The report also details how Jayapataka Swami went to Australia to enthusiastically prop us Bhavananda’s sagging credibility there. He fanatically branded Bhavananda’s opponents as “blasphemers” who were committing “Vaishnava aparada” (offenses to God’s pure devotee, Bhavananda). As a result, the devotees who did not want to worship a homosexual child molester were banned from the temples in Australia, threatened with violence and sometimes beaten. A report states that many devotees were “forced to live in exile” as a result of Jayapataka Swami’s fanatical preaching efforts there.

BEST ASSOCIATE?
Meanwhile, Tamal Krishna Swami was saying openly, even in his class lectures, “Bhavananda is the most enlivening associate I have, out of all the GBC.” Hridayananda Swami told the temple president’s meeting that we should have compassion on our fallen brother Bhavananda. Nevermind that for the sake of this one pedophile “brother,” thousands of other good brothers were forced to leave the movement, and maybe a thousand or more children had to be molested.

CHARACTER WITNESS
In 1990, the GBC forwarded their known homosexual deviant, Satadhanya dasa, as their “credible character witness” in a debate with the pro-Prabhupada worshippers. He has been a staunch ally of Jayapataka’s molester regime in Mayapura. Naturally, Satadhanya defended the GBC’s child molester lineage worship. In a court of law, such a person’s testimony would not even be admitted, but he was their star witness (ISKCON Journal vol.1 no.1).

Oddly, in 1990, the GBC also prompted their (then) “advisor,” Narayana Maharaja of the Gaudiya Matha, to defend their bogus molester lineage. He not only supported the GBC’s molester guru lineage, he also stated that three of the named deviants (by Srila Prabhupada) of the Gaudiya Matha are examples of bona fide gurus. He was also making a “gopi bhava (divine conjual love?) discussions club” with some of the leading henchmen of the molester guru regime.

More oddly, in 1990, some GBC were arranging that their gurus should be “exorcized by tantric magicians” from alleged ghostly hauntings. Some of the “medications” (?) used by a “tantric ghost removal doctor” turned out to be dangerous psychotropic drugs. Even more oddly, Harikesha’s followers later claimed that other GBC were trying to kill Harikesha by giving him these dangerous drugs. And far more oddly, Harikesha admitted that molestation was going on in Mayapura in 1998, yet he vociferously defended and reinstated the worst of that regime’s leaders in 1986? If he was aware of the problem, and you’d have to be blind not to, why did he go on until 1998 defending that regime? Getting back to 1986:

The hundreds of innocent children who had to suffer homosexual pedophile attacks, abuses, even beatings from the “good brother” Bhavananda’s nests were not even mentioned by Hridayananda Swami, or any of the other Founding Fathers. Most of the other “brothers” were being driven out, excommunicated, some were thrown into the street in the middle of the night, some were beaten and few simply disappeared from the face of the earth, and a few were shot. What about their service? What about the safety of the society’s children and the exploding molestation problem?

GBC BUILDS FOUNDATION FOR MOLESTER NESTS.
First of all, in 1979, the GBC (then controlled by the eleven gurus) cleared the field for Bhavananda’s molester nests in India, by kicking out, even threatening to kill, the good teachers in Vrindavana – for example, Yasodanandana dasa and Dr. Sharma, under whose care no molestations were reported. Moreover, Srila Prabhupada had personally ordered these two teachers to care for his school in Vrindavana. Yet the GBC ousted them, and these original teachers are still vilified by various GBC’s for “not accepting the GBC’s (molester) guru lineage (parampara).”

The GBC gave the deviant Bhavananda almost limitless power by artificially declaring that he was “Prabhupada and Krishna’s living successor guru (Vishnupada)” “The eleven gurus” placed their worst sexual deviant and elitist to be worshipped as a person far greater than the Pope, and to be in charge of Prabhupada’s most sensitive and important project, and incidentally, some very large schools. The GBC simultaneously made Kirtanananda’s “New Vrindavana” (West Virginia) project their pet “model city” project in the USA. And this project evolved into another homosexual pedophile nest building situation.