Bhavananda Is the Father of Mayapur

BHAVANANDA

SD: Two days ago, Jaya Gauranga (Zeke Berger) spoke at the ISKCON Dallas temple, as part of a combined event: Jayapataka Swami’s Vyasa Puja and TOVP fundraiser. Jaya Gauranga stood on a stage in front of hundreds of devotees and said, “Bhavananda is the father of Mayapur.”

Bhavananda is a confirmed child abuser with a CPO decision against him and a horrific history of child abuse.

Dhira Govinda was the first ISKCON Child Protection Office Director and he said: “Starting in 1998, the Child Protection Office received lots of comments and allegations, regarding Bhavananda. All sorts of very slimy, sleazy accusations . . . including raping boys . . . my subjective impression in regards to Bhavananda is that there is a whole lot more, that didn’t get into the Official Decision. And again, after some span of time, based on the testimonies and accusations we received, we processed the case.”

M das was one of Bhavananda's victims.

Around 1984, Bhavananda removed M das at the age of 12 or 13 from the New Govardhana gurukula in Australia. He brought M das traveling with him and sexually abused him (sex trafficking).

Bhavananda brought M das to the rural ISKCON farm community called New Gaudadesh, where M das burnt down a house. The temple president at the time was Krodhesvara, who said, “[Kadamba Kanana das] as he was known at the time, told me he (Kadamba Kanana) held the boy down on the floor with his knee on the boys neck and threatened to kill him if he didn’t confess.” 

The police took M das away for questioning. Days later a detective said the boy had admitted to being responsible for the fire and that he was being molested by Bhavananda.

Acyuta recalled that “Bhav was bitterly angry, spoke quite viciously about [M das]. He was adamant the boy should be prosecuted.”

The temple president from New Gaudadesh gave testimony in court against M das, and M das was sentenced to prison. M das later died by suicide, most likely a result of being abused by a top ISKCON leader, sex trafficked, and institutionally betrayed by ISKCON devotees who did not support him.

Instead of praising the child abuser Bhavananda, Jaya Gauranga should use his energies to make sure that ISKCON stops endorsing, promoting, and praising child abusers publicly. This is causing great harm to ISKCON, as it maintains the silence, denial and erasure of the past history, along with sustaining the environment of fear and intimidation that stops current abuse from being reported.

Everyone, please suspend any further donations to the TOVP, until they take an uncompromising stance for the protection of children. The TOVP needs to remove serial child abusers Bhavananda and Satadhanya from leadership, and the TOVP needs to publicly denounce them, apologize to their victims, and apologize to all persons who were abused as children by ISKCON leaders.

[PADA: Yup. Angel108b@yahoo.com]