ISKCON's Passing Abuse to Future Generations

I’m here because I’m a single mother. My ex-husband was abused in gurukul in Vrindavan. He later was abused by his stepfather, now a “maharaj” who has many women lovers in India. His sister may have been sexually abused by this same man. 

I’m here because the trauma was so deep that he and his siblings wouldn’t receive the help they needed, and their mother won’t believe that they were abused. I’m here because that resulted in a cycle of violence being perpetuated over and over.

I’m here because my daughter is safe now and because I made the decision to protect her from a cycle of abuse among devotees and leave that family and a community that chose to put on rose colored glasses to the domestic abuse that was occurring in that home…

I’m here to help change the culture and promote safety and take away stigma and shame. I’m here to protect devotee children, women, and families.

Thank you for having me here.

[PADA: Yes, abusive relationships can become taught to the juniors / handed down to the next generation, and then the next, and so on. That is one reason this issue is so important for ISKCON. However notice, the victim's mother won't believe the abuse is taking place. And the rest of the community wants to wear rose colored glasses and deny these problems exist. That offers little support for the victims. Worse, the stepfather becomes a big ISKCON sannyasa who has a number of female lovers in different locations. 

At least this person did the right thing, and abandoned the whole lot. 

One elderly sadhu man who is a village "seer of distant events" near Puri -- stopped my friend in India and he told him, he could see in the distance that one lady was made pregnant by one of your sannyasas, and she was killed by his paid thugs to cover up the scandal, and I can see her dead body. It seems like other folks are able to see the ISKCON problems -- often those who are living outside of the society -- just like our police, FBI, courts and media friends can here. 

In any event, more people are waking up and that is a good sign. PADA also got a very nice letter from a lady reader who says she has always reads our materials and it has given her a lot of encouragement. 

Anyway, these problems need to be identified before we can take action to fix them, and that is gradually happening. Unless this issue is nipped now, it can sometimes carry on into the future in different ways and means. 

That being said, not all abuse victims are currently abusers, and some of them are wonderful parents. However, that is not always the case. There is a trend and tendency for people who are trained in abuse, to continue being abusers, if not physically then sometimes emotional and psychological abusers. We need to have this issue identified and chased out, or it will haunt us going forward. 

And for all the people who said PADA is over stating the situation, ummm, we are not. Or testimony like this one would not keep re-appearing over and over.  

ys pd] 

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