Hello, I am just writting to warn persons who may be in or may have friends or family members in the present ISKCON cult to be very careful.
I was in various ashrams in ISKCON for a few years, and I have found that present day ISKCON is not like the ISKCON Srila Prabhupada left us with and today's ISKCON is maybe even dangerous to some of us. I was in one particular ashram for two years and they tried to segregate me from seeing any of my family and treated me like a work horse, wouldn't give me enough sleep, would always criticize me and made me feel worthless.
My words for persons in present day ISKCON.. please be careful and make sure your mind is you own.
I love Srila Prabhupada and the Bhagavad Gita and Krsna, but I think present day ISKCON is dangerous and not healthy. I agree with Jesus Christs commandments to love God with all your heart and treat your neighbor as yourself, but present day ISKCON doesn't follow the second commandment in my opinion.
Thank you for listening to my story and I hope you can get something out of my story. I am thankful that God is helping me to heal from my time in present day ISKCON. I learned a lot from present ISKCON and for that I am thankful, but at the same time it messed me up a lot and bottom line is -- I cant go back again.
I was in various ashrams in ISKCON for a few years, and I have found that present day ISKCON is not like the ISKCON Srila Prabhupada left us with and today's ISKCON is maybe even dangerous to some of us. I was in one particular ashram for two years and they tried to segregate me from seeing any of my family and treated me like a work horse, wouldn't give me enough sleep, would always criticize me and made me feel worthless.
They hardly ever complimented me in the end or thanked me, then I literally had a metal breakdown and they kicked me out from the ashram and pretty much and said I could only visit again if I stayed for a week ( well I was in no mental state to stay for a week). When I first joined they were all really nice and friendly and the perfect people to be around, but the end of the second year things changed.
When I moved back in with my mother after getting severe mental health issues, hardly anyone ever contacted me to ask how I was? Despite they made out they were my good friends, they didn't seem to care about their own sevakas. I was very unwell.
I got the odd occasional e-text, which was them -- but only asking if I could come back to work again, as they didn't have many other helpers. After I left ISKCON I felt very suicidal, and I feel that many of the members were manipulating me and had an unhealthy control over me where I was seen to be insignificant. And they insisted that I had to be 100% subservient and surrendered to my superiors, like a slave, and was preferred not to have my own opinion, or to have any say on any matters, but to just act and think as they said and think. And if I didn't listen to things they wanted me to, or that I did not feel comfortable doing, they would sometimes say rude things to me in person or gossip behind my back and wreck my reputation and do things to make my life difficult for me, in other words -- bullying tactics.
Also in ISKCON one is supposed to accept and worship many ISKCON gurus "as good as God" when many of them have been taking intoxicants, if not sleeping with prostitutes, and not even following the regulative principles. Yet we are supposed to be 100% surrendered to them and do whatever they say, give them all our money etc. And if we rebel and use our intelligence, and say these "guru" people aren't qualified, we are ridiculed and labeled deviants, bullying tactics again are used.
When Srila Prabhupada was present on earth, ISKCON was all fine and safe, but since he left there are many unqualified people running ISKCON with too much power which can makes ISKCON dangerous. I love Srila Prabhupada and his books, but modern ISKCON under today's management can be dangerous and more than a few persons / devotees in present day ISKCON under the new leadership have had major mental health problems, and some committed suicide.
I am glad that I recovered and now see things in a different light and see how I was manipulated, and taken advantage of, it seems that the mind control is wearing off.
My words for persons in present day ISKCON.. please be careful and make sure your mind is you own.
I love Srila Prabhupada and the Bhagavad Gita and Krsna, but I think present day ISKCON is dangerous and not healthy. I agree with Jesus Christs commandments to love God with all your heart and treat your neighbor as yourself, but present day ISKCON doesn't follow the second commandment in my opinion.
I am sick of being judged by people in ISKCON who feel they own me and that they can control my every action and that they are qualified to judge me when they are also sinners too and are not perfect. I agree with Jesus Christs statement "judge not lest ye be judged" -- and "before you pull out the beam from others eyes first pull out the beam from your own eye." I found present ISKCON to be an "elitist" group and I'm sorry that I have come across many arrogant, foolish and judgemental people, that have put me off wanting to belong to any religious institution.
Thank you for listening to my story and I hope you can get something out of my story. I am thankful that God is helping me to heal from my time in present day ISKCON. I learned a lot from present ISKCON and for that I am thankful, but at the same time it messed me up a lot and bottom line is -- I cant go back again.
Hare Krishna! Hare Krsna!
I stayed in ISKCON and vowed never to go. I was worked to death and exploited for every cent I could get for the local leaders while they did nothing. One day I understood who was fallen and spoke about it, and immediately I was kicked out for saying something after all that time and banned from the temple. Some of the leaders do indeed have "dirt" on other ones. I'm not saying they are all bad but I still feel the leaders where I was were. I heard them making statements about how they wanted to exploit the women, the congregation etc. STILL I wanted to serve, but Lord Krishna got me out of there by force. At first I could not understand why, all I did was serve. Now I know, no one has stayed at that temple. Lord Krishna kindly removed us all from there and placed us in other situations that were less abusive.
ReplyDeleteMy dear prabhu, you are not alone. There's so many devotees who have suffered the same abuses as you have, not only verbal or psicological, but phisical as well. I know this first hand because I personally experienced it and also witnessed others going through the same things. However, In spite of it all, I never lost faith in Srila Prabhupada and the message he so mercifully brought to us to save us from the miserable condition of material existence. So, do not dismay in your determination and efforts to attain to pure loving service at Lord Krsna's lotus feet under the able guidance of HDG Srila Prabhupada. If you do so, you can rest assured succes will be yours. My humble obeisances to you and all the real Prabhupadanugas. All glories to Sri-Sri Nitay-Gauranga! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Hare Krsna!
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