GOVT GIVES NOD FOR KRIPALU UNIVERSITY

The Pioneer
April 10, 2018

Odisha would have another private university as the Jagadguru Kripalu Yoga Trust (JKYT) has been allowed to set up a Jagadguru Kripalu University in the State.

This would be eighteenth university in the State to be governed through the Department of Higher Education. And this would be the sixth private university.

However, there are several other universities governed by the Department of Health & Family Welfare and the Department of Skill Development & Technical Education.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has approved a proposal of the Department of Higher Education for allowing the JKYT to set up a university. The university would come up at Banara in Cuttack district, where the trust has been allotted 100 acres of land by the State Government.

In fact, way back in 2008, the JKYT had signed an MoU with the State Government to set up a Vedic university.

Five schools of higher learning in Yoga, Naturopathy, Philosophy, Religion and Comparative Religion and others would be opened under the university. A committee of experts advised the authorities that study and research on AYUSH could be the focus area, where the university has enough scope to do well.

While the JKYT had proposed to offer study in Nanotechnology, the expert committee, which looked into the proposal, felt, “This will not be a rational proposition.” Secondly, offering Engineering and Management studies does not seem appreciable as a large numbers of colleges are already offering these courses and many of them are in the process of getting closed down, pointed out the expert committee.

The committee pointed out that such professional courses stand on the strength of employability possibilities of the outgoing learners to be sustainable; and for the purpose, a high level of professionalism would be necessary. The committee advised the trust to go for those areas of study where they have the expertise and would attain academic excellence. The trust accepted the advice and brought changes in their proposal.

The new proposed university would have a centralised library and a computer laboratory.

With the in-principle approval of the Government, a Bill would be placed in the State Legislative Assembly for passing it and then making it an Act.

Notably, while six months ago, the Government approved an Asian School of Business Management (ASBM) University, it is still hanging in balance. The Bill for the purpose is yet to be finalised for presentation in the Assembly.

However, a proposal for an Asian Institute of Public Health (AIPH) University, which was approved by the Government at the same time as ASBM has got has gone ahead with the Assembly passing the Bill in time.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/govt-gives-nod-for-kripalu-university.html

Thousands attend Vrindavan temple's anniversary celebrations

IANS
February 23, 2017

Vrindavan: The anniversary celebrations of one of the largest temples here -- the land of Lord Krishna -- saw thousands of devotees performing aarti on Wednesday.

The Prem Mandir, established by the fifth Jagadguru, Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, is part of a sprawling 54-acre complex on the outskirts of this holy town and is run by the philanthropic Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat (JKP).

The fifth anniversary celebration, attended by JKP President Vishakha Tripathi, was marked by a grand "abhishek", singing of devotional songs and a bhoj for devotees.

JKP Secretary Raam Puri said the temple, whose foundation stone was laid in January 2001, took about 12 years to complete and employed over 1,000 artisans.

The uniquely designed two-storey temple, which stands 125 feet tall, used both traditional chisels and hammers for intricate carvings, as well as computerised robotic machines that gave shape to its structure, made entirely of Italian marble.

Swami Dearest

October 1995

Jeannie Ralston

Texas Monthly

Swami Prakashanand Saraswati

HE WAS AGITATED. His fingers twitched. His deep brown eyes seemed to grow even more impenetrable. Fifteen minutes into our interview on a bright morning last November. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati made it clear he did not like the questions I was asking about his writings and the spiritual philosophy that governs Barsana Dham, his ashram west of Austin. The 66-year-old leader of the International Society of Divine Love (ISDL) reached toward my tape recorder to turn it off. “These questions are useless. I cannot explain. These are intellectual questions,” he said, shaking his head. His words came out in a breathy mumble, accented by the lilting accent of his native India. “It takes years and years of study to understand these things.”

Signaling an abrupt end to our interview, Swami Prakashanand, called Swamiji by his two thousand or more followers worldwide, slowly lifted his body—clothed in saffron robes, a saffron sweater, and saffron tube socks—from a chair shaped like a satellite dish. Then he walked toward the door of the room, past beatific photos of himself and paintings of the Hindu god Krishna. After telling me he did not want an article written about him, the small man with a hump of a stomach, flowing white hair, and a full beard paused and suddenly smacked the palm of his hand to his forehead, as if he had forgotten something important. He swooned slightly and collapsed in a controlled fall to the carpet, landing with his head near my feet. “Krishn, Krishn,” he called out as he lay on the floor. Two female “preachers,” Western devotees, who also wore saffron robes, rushed to his side. As they frantically administered to him, I was asked to wait downstairs.

When I was called back upstairs a few minutes later, I found a groggy Prakashanand sitting in a rocking chair and was directed to join the two preachers kneeling at his feet. He told me with a sight that his “divine mood” had been “upset unnecessarily.” Later, he explained what had happened in a written statement: “I felt the situation was very negative so I turned my mind away from that side, and it, thus, went into total ecstasy. Because I was standing at that time, so, I think, my body fell on the ground.”

Wanted Swami Prakashanand Saraswati

Even before this short, bizarre talk with Prakashanand, officials of Barsana Dham had been reluctant to cooperate with a story about the ashram and its leader. And, clearly, even after Prakashanand had seen me, more questions were raised than answered. Of course, for the ISDL this is nothing new. The organization has been a subject of curiosity ever since 1990, when it put down roots on 210 acres of prime Hill Country land. That curiosity heightened during the past three years, when the ISDL began building one of the largest Hindu temples in the United States; after a well-orchestrated public relations campaign, the ornate temple will be dedicated early this month, in a weekend-long ceremony that will attract holy dignitaries and more than a thousand Hindus from around the world.

Officials of the ISDL describe their organization as “non-profit, religious, educational, and charitable.” They insist that any speculation about its mission is of a different-equals-dangerous variety, that it demonstrates the kind of prejudice that plagues any religion whose precepts depart from the norm—particularly non-Western religions, which are easily misunderstood and therefore easily suspect. But the questions about the ISDL seem to be rooted in more than bigotry or ignorance. In interviews over the past year, some ex-members told me they felt pressured into giving money to the group and that the group is overly controlling; ISDL officials vigorously deny these charges. There are also the longtime Hill Country residents who are disturbed by what they see as ISDL’s lack of respect for the historical significance of its property, which was originally the site of one of Central Texas first secondary schools, then a retreat for three of Texas most famous writers, then a beloved boys camp. Last year an Austin developer sued the ISDL over modifications it had made to the graves of his ancestors, who were the land’s original settlers.

No one challenges the scholars and experts who say that the ISDL is legitimate and well-respected and that it is guided by basic Hindu teachings. No one faults Austin’s Indian community for embracing it. But for followers of a religion devoted to inner contentment and serenity, the ISDL has left some people feeling plenty of neither.

FROM THE TOP of what’s known as Friday Mountain, I could see most of Barsana Dham. Like some other first-time visitors, I had been given a tour of the ashram in an electric golf cart driven by Meera Devi, a preacher with tinsel-straight brown hair who travels the world as one of five robed women who spread the ISDL’s doctrine. Across an expanse of lush fields full of wildflowers and live oak groves, I saw the cluster of small wood homes that are occupied by the ashram’s resident families; seventy devotees, including eleven children, live on the grounds rent-free. A little farther out is a warehouse that operates as a mail-order fulfillment center, one of several businesses run by members but independent of the ashram. Just beyond that is a tall game fence that encircles the property to keep deer out of the gardens and the peach and persimmon orchards, where the devotees—who are all vegetarians—grow most of their own food.

Barsana Dham sits on Camp Ben McCulloch Road three miles east of the area’s famed barbecue pit, the Salt Lick. Its granite roadside entryway opens up to a majestic paved drive that is lined on both sides with Victorian-style street lamps and well-tended crape myrtles. The drive, in turn, leads to the ashram’s centerpiece: the $ 2.5 million, 35,000-square-foot temple that faces Friday Mountain and has a dome topped with a spire that rises ninety feet and will eventually be painted bronze and leafed in gold. The impressively detailed temple was constructed according to descriptions in ancient Hindu scripture. Since last summer, nine Indian artisans have been carving intricate patterns for the temple’s doorways and columns, with some of the designs inspired by Hill Country wildflowers. The Shree Raseshwari Radha Rani Temple will feature a lobby made of pink Chinese marble, a vast prayer hall that can seat 1,500 people under a ceiling painted to look like the open sky, reflecting pools made of Japanese tile, office space, and a religious book store.

Many of the area’s Indian residents donated generously to help pay for the construction of the complex, which was inaugurated in October 1994. Until Barsana Dham was established, Indians in Austin had to travel to another major city to practice their native religion. “When there was a festival, we’d go to the Hare Krishnas in Houston, or we’d drive to San Antonio when there was a temple there,” says Chandrika Amin, a hotelier from San Marcos. “Then we found out that Barsana Dham is right here in our back yard.”

Until the temple is complete, the ISDL has been running most of its activities out of a remodeled two-story limestone house built beginning in the mid-1850’s. Just inside the front door are shelves for depositing shoes; indoors, everyone must go shoeless—even office workers at computers, even cooks in the large stainless-steel and wood kitchen. The house is filled with surreal paintings of the divine couple, Radha and Krishna, and with photos of Prakashanand: a young, dark-haired Prakashanand meditating before a painting of a forest, an older Prakashanand with his face turned toward the heavens, a small likeness of him on cards that read “Silent Dining” and sit on the dining hall’s tables.

Some of the single devotees live in the stone house. Before he moved into an apartment inside the temple, Prakashanand lived there too, except for the time when he was lecturing at one of his ashrams in Vrindaban and Barsana, India; in New Zealand; and in Philadelphia and Austin. Since the ISDL bought the property, the house has been adapted for more of a residential use. In addition to administrative offices, there is a dining area and a room filled with washers and dryers. The upstairs women’s restroom has toilet stalls, showers, and plenty of sinks and mirrors, which are the center of activity when guests are preparing for a prayer meeting.

The first time I attended a prayer meeting, also known as a satsang service, I was invited to dinner beforehand. I arrived at the appointed hour with a friend only to find that the devotees had already eaten, but the food—pinto bean soup, salad, vegetables, and rice—was still in large bowls on a bar to one side of the dining hall. After we ate, Meera Devi and, later, Prakashanand joined us, and before long many devotees had gathered to hear Prakashanand hold forth on his past troubles with reporters. They listened raptly, patiently waiting during his many pauses and laughing loudly when he giggled at his own jokes, though at times I found his English so hard to understand that Meera Devi had to interpret for me.

Each of the prayer meetings I attended took place in an upstairs room of the main stone house. They began with melodic chanting led by one of the preachers, who sang into a microphone while she played a small Indian harmonium and another preacher kept time on a small drum. The call-and-response chants led to faster, more emotional singing, and several devotees played small cymbals and bells. Most of the fifty to sixty devotees who chanted along as they sat on the floor were Westerners, and most were women; many seemed to be in their mid-thirties and forties and wore brightly colored saris.

After a few prayers, the group would turn to a large monitor set to watch one in a series of taped lectures by Prakashanand (the same ones that air on Austin’s public-access channel). It appeared that many of the lectures had been taped in this room, which contained sophisticated video equipment and studio lights. His theme—at least in the lectures I heard—was that our souls are constantly searching for satisfaction, but that the only way to find it is through devotion to God and not in worldly concerns. “People think they’re happy, but they’re not really content,” he said on one tape, his speech clearer than it was at any time that I spoke to him. “Contentment is beyond material ambitions, material needs.”

When the tape would end, and after another chant, moments of quiet expectation would follow. Then the door would swing open and Prakashanand would step in. The devotees would immediately bow at the waist, some nearly touching their faces to the blue carpet, staying that way until he climbed upon a maroon cushioned platform at the front of the room, across from a flower-filled altar bearing the likenesses of Radha and Krishna. A preacher who had entered with him would place a garland around his neck. Speaking into a microphone that was partially hidden by a bouquet of flowers, he would then elaborate on his taped lecture.

Prakashanand’s teachings follow traditional Hindu scriptures and philosophy, which center on the idea that true seekers learn in stages that pleasure and success do not fully satisfy, that what they most long for—the experience of God in their lives—resides inside if they know how to find it. Hinduism is complex, but one of its few clear convictions, other than a belief in reincarnation and karma and in many different personifications of God, is the idea that believers need a guru to show them how to find oneness with God.

In India thousands of people call themselves gurus, most of them teaching their own twists on fundamental Hindu beliefs. “Each guru has his own following and can teach almost anything he wants,” says Robert King, a former dean of liberal arts at the University of Texas at Austin who is now a professor of linguistics and Asian studies there. “Hinduism is very elastic, so these guys can damn near do anything they want and no one’s going to say he’s a bad Hindu. There’s no pope of Hinduism, so there’s a vacuum. Anyone can stand up and say, ‘I’m the true prophet of Hinduism.’“ Most Indians, however, are cautious about selecting a guru. “Hindus [realize] that many gurus are not real gurus at all,” says Acharya Palaniswami, the editor of Hinduism Today, who notes that a Hindu can usually tell a real guru from a fake one by instinct.

There is no doubt that ISDL devotees believe Prakashanand is a real guru. However, while several Indians I spoke to expressed admiration for him, not all gushed over him the way some Western followers did. “When we go [to Barsana Dham] we don’t look for authority. We go there for spirituality,” reports Chandrika Amin, who recently became a life member of the ISDL. “If Swami Prakashanand asks anything logically, all right,” says Ashok Bhandari, who is secretary of Austin’s Indian Community Center. “If he said something and my heart said, No, don’t do it, I would never do it.”

SWAMI PRAKASHANAND SARASWATI began his guru days at mid-life. His official biography states that he was born in 1929 into a Brahman family in Ayodhya, India. At age twenty he renounced conventional life and went into isolation, traveling to the Himalayas, to the forests of India, and to Vrindaban and Barsana, which are considered holy places. For many years he lived in deserted temples and small caves. After taking his religious orders, he studied with his own guru, who taught him the philosophy he preaches today. In 1972 he began lecturing around the world, and nine years later he established the ISDL in the U.S. Soon after, he started his first American ashram in Philadelphia.

Prakashanand is one is a long line of Indian mystics who have come to the U.S. and found devotees with spiritual hungers that could not be satiated in an age of materialism. J. Cordon Melton, the author of The Encyclopedia of American Religions, says the ISDL is a mainstream Hindu group that fits into one of the main denominational categories of Hinduism: those who worship Krishna. In strictly devotional terms, Melton says, “the difference between [the ISDL] and the Hare Krishnas is like the difference between Southern Baptists and Bible Baptists.” According to Hinduism Today editor Palaniswami, the fact that Meera Devi was one of fourteen Hindus chosen by the council of the World Parliament of Religions to attend its centennial celebration in 1993 is a sign of how highly the ISDL is regarded.

Prakashanand instructs ISDL devotees to follow a path to Krishna called bhakti, which requires meditating on Krishna, usually for two thirty-minute sessions per day. A feeling of peace and contentment is what most devotees say they find through Prakashanand’s teachings. “I feel fullness of love in my heart,” says Marsha Kent, the co-president of an infomercial production company in Los Angeles and a devotee of Prakashanand’s for twelve years. “I feel protected by Krishna in my life.”

Just as vital as daily homage to Krishna, however, is service to the spiritual master and his mission. “If a devotee begins to think that devotion is more important than service, he is mistaken,” Prakashanand writes in his book, The Philosophy of Divine Love, adding that the spiritual master is “the personified form of God’s Grace.”

Ashram officials compare service to a master to the service a son might perform for his father. Usually, that means helping the ashram any way possible. “[Devoting your life to God-realization] becomes easier when you understand that God-realization is the prime aim in your life and you believe that your Master is caring for your Spiritual needs,” Prakashanand writes. “Now you have to do your Master’s bidding. You need not analyze his advice because it involves hundreds of sanskar situations [consequences of past lives] that directly or indirectly affect your Spiritual progress.”

The book also encourages devotees to be ready to give to their master. “The love and care which a Master gives to his disciple is invaluable,” Prakashanand writes. “Take an example. Suppose a king grants an opportunity to a beggar saying, ‘If you offer me a part or whole of your income, I will, accordingly, give you a part or whole of my income’ … If the beggar is foolish he will lose the opportunity and if he is wise he will make use of such a rare opportunity. Something like this happens between a Divine Personality and a soul.” Later, Prakashanand adds, “Imagine, in return for the material things used in service to his Master, a devotee receives Divine-love feelings which are invaluable …”

Asked about these passages, officials of the ISDL told me that Prakashanand’s book isn’t for critics—even though it is the basic book recommended for anyone interested in the society. “You cannot pick one sentence from here and there according to your choice and ask why it is so,” I was told, “because they are all interrelated with previous and forthcoming chapters.” Devotee Marsha Kent explained that only a believer can read such a book in the right spirit. “If you already have the feeling, then you can hear it correctly,” she said. “We don’t have critical minds. We’re not judging and evaluating.”

In fact, scholars generally agree that Prakashanand’s writings are not out of line with traditional Hindu philosophy. “It would be very easy to draw the conclusion that this is nothing but a con game,” says Robert King. “That would probably be the way most people unfamiliar with Hindu traditions would see it. But there is also an interpretation based on the Bhagavad Gita, which says you have no right to question your duty. What it teaches is submission to fate and to your master.”

DESPITE THE TONE OF AUTHORITARIAN-ism in Prakashanand’s book, ISDL officials say that Barsana Dham is a place where followers can live as they wish while they pursue their spiritual path. They state that Prakashanand gives advice only on spiritual issues, never on personal affairs, though the ashram does have a few specific rules, such as no alcohol or drugs and no smoking, “illicit lust,” or gambling. “One simple fact: A devotee always has free will to choose whatever lifestyle he wants or wherever he wants to follow,” Meera Devi told me.

This freedom extends to the donations made by members, ashram officials say, and J. Gordon Melton agrees; there is no more pressure to give, he says, than at a neighborhood church. The only funding the ISDL says it can count on is a one-time fee of $ 1,000 that devotees pay when they become lifetime members. There is also a smaller fee paid by lifetime members who attend intensives—extended sessions of mediation and devotion—and some income from the sale of the ISDL’s books and tapes.

Still, considering that the ISDL claims to have only a few thousand followers worldwide, that doesn’t add up to very much—so how can the organization afford its prime piece of real estate in the Hill Country, its ashrams around the world, and its multimillion-dollar temple? One possible explanation is that some of Prakashanand’s most devoted devotees run extremely successful businesses. Ron Jaggie, the president of Northstar Equipment Corporation in New York, admits that he freely gives to the ISDL. One way, he says, is to allow one of the preachers to use one of his corporate American Express cards. He gave it to her “in case she needed money while she was traveling, if she’s alone and she doesn’t have enough money to buy tickets or anything,” he notes. “I don’t see anything wrong with that, I pay for it personally.”

Two other wealthy devotees are Marsha Kent, whose company, Kent and Spiegel Direct, had sales of $ 39 million in 1994, making it the seventh-largest woman-owned business in Los Angeles County; and Katy Williams, whose Williams Television Time—a direct-response advertising agency—logged $ 64 million in sales, making it the fifth-largest woman-owned business in L.A. County. “I look upon it as a privilege that I can donate,” says Williams. “It’s so wonderful what he’s given me. He’s a saint. He’s given up everything and given us love. Anything I can give in return is inconsequential.”

Some ex-members, however, contend that there is great pressure to donate money and that lives are tightly controlled by Prakashanand and ashram leaders. Joe Kelly, who belonged to the ISDL in Philadelphia from 1983 until 1988, believes Prakashanand created an atmosphere there in which “giving without really thinking was encouraged.” One devotee in Philadelphia gave the ISDL an eleven-room house to serve as an ashram, Kelly reports. Kelly, who like many ISDL members had previously practiced another Eastern philosophy, Transcendental Meditation, estimates that he gave the society some $ 25,000 worth of goods, mostly charged on his credit cards. He paid for auto insurance and made partial payments on autos, rugs, and paint for the ashram.

“You got this feeling of expectation. You’d hear whispers about people who were stingy: ‘They’re not truly devoted,’“ says Kelly, who now makes his living counseling ex-cult members. “It was always very subtle, except for one time where [Prakashanand] blatantly called me into his room and said he needed two thousand dollars.” That request was particularly disturbing, Kelly says, because a few days earlier he had confided in Prakashanand that his import business was on the verge of bankruptcy. “It made me think, ‘Has he heard me?’ It led me to be extremely confused about who he was and what he really was. The swami represents himself as this benign yet strict authoritarian holy man, but in reality he is a schemer.”

Diane Hendel, also a former TM practitioner who joined the ISDL in L.A. in the late eighties, says she thinks she was courted by Prakashanand because he thought she was wealthy. At the time, Hendel was part owner of a commodity brokerage firm with a New Age client base. “We raised several million dollars very quickly and did real well until the stock market crash,” says Hendel, who followed Prakashanand from lecture to lecture “like a Deadhead” for two and a half months. “So Prakashanand started talking to me about money real soon—about what kinds of things I could do for the movement, about what kind of businesses I could set up, asking me all kinds of questions about taxes and investments.” Hendel, who is now a volunteer counselor for former TM practioners, believes Prakashanand recruits TM followers because they’re already suggestible.

ISDL officials deny these accusations. In a written statement they alleged that Kelly and Hendel were under the influence of Kelly’s roommate, Pat Ryan, who is also an exit counselor for people leaving cults, and that all three are anti-Hindu. The officials also implied that Kelly’s involvement with a group called the Cult Awareness Network is evidence of his prejudice.

“I am not anti-Hindu,” Kelly counters. “I would never detract from a religion that has helped so many people around the world.” Kelly says he regrets that his allegation may hurt his friends in the ISDL. “There are some very fine people at the ashram. It was fun at times. I don’t want to say it was all hell; that would be inaccurate. There was always a lot of excitement when [Prakashanand] was there.”

Another ex-member finds it easier to look back on the positive aspects of the ISDL. Julian Watson was on a trip to Ireland in 1985 when he met Prakashanand; he was living in his native England at the time following an eleven-year stint with TM. Though he says being based in England isolated him from other devotees, he saw enough to conclude the group was above board. “That situation, having a figurehead at the top, if that figurehead is not responsible—all manner of psychological abuse is possible, but at no point did anyone anywhere near step over the line,” says Watson, who is 42 and lives in Belfast. “Maybe some who had psychological problems felt they were abused. Anyone who’s been in a group and has found that it’s not for them is illogically angry, as if they’ve been caught with their trousers down. They’re angry that the dream has disappeared.”

Still, Watson ended up leaving the ISDL after two and a half years—not because he had problems with Prakashanand personally, but because he couldn’t abide an Eastern religion that demands deference to an authoritarian figure. He cited in particular the directive that a devotee must do as his guru asks. “It made me very uneasy. Like bowing to the floor—I don’t really know why they insisted on that,” Watson says. “That’s where all sorts of things get confused.”

NEARLY EVERY RELIGION—NEARLY every organization, for that matter, from the Elks to the Junior League—has ex-members who are more than happy to recite a litany of disgruntlements. And if greed and authoritarianism were the only accusations leveled at the ISDL they might be explained away as so much griping. But there is another complaint that can’t be dismissed as quickly—namely, that the ashram messed with Texas history.

Soon after moving to the outskirts of Austin—which, as the choose-your-enlightenment capital of the state, is known to be tolerant of most religions—the ISDL remodeled the main stone building on its property. Though the exterior is now covered mostly in wood siding and the inside is filled with plasterboard, vinyl-tiled floors, and commercial carpeting, there is still evidence—a wall here, a window there—of what the house used to be: the original Johnson Institute, which was founded by educator Thomas Jefferson Johnson and operated from 1852 until 1872.

Seventy years later, after changing hands several times, the property began another, equally illustrious life as the retreat of UT historian Walter Prescott Webb, whose stated goal was “to preserve the building and restore it as nearly as possible to its original state.” Friday Mountain Ranch, as Webb called it, was a haven for him and his two celebrated cronies, writer J. Frank Dobie and naturalist Roy Bedichek. Together, the three men are considered the last of Texas’ frontier intellectuals.

Webb, Dobie, and Bedichek spent many days on this land, their preferred hour being “after the heat of the day but in time for the clear blue of the sky to redden with sunset,” writes William A. Owens in his book about the men called Three Friends. Bedicheck lived a year at the ranch, writing his classic Adventures of a Texas Naturalist, in which he says that “the sights, sounds, odors and, especially, the feel of the place stimulate in me memories so warm and intimate that taking up residence here seems more like a homecoming than an escape.”

Starting in 1947, Webb allowed a friend, educator Rodney Kidd, to operate a summer boys camp on his ranch. Thousands of Texas boys filled their summer days riding horses, diving from limestone cliffs into a swimming hole, and searching for Indian artifacts. “This place to me was heaven on earth, a place of sanctuary,” says William Osborn, an Austin attorney who is writing a book about Friday Mountain Ranch. When Webb died in 1963, Kidd bought the land, and he kept the camp going until 1984. By the time the real estate crash of the next few years had come and gone, Kidd too had died, and his sons put the property up for sale.

Initially, developer Walter Reifslager III hatched plans to turn it into a retirement community. In the early eighties, Reifslager had been instrumental in bringing followers of TM to the same area as a developer of two subdivisions. But Reifslager had not secured the funding for construction of his retirement community and finally pulled out of the deal. “It would seem there’s some spiritual significance to the land,” he says, referring to the proximity of the TM developments and Barsana Dham. “But there’s not a connection [between the groups].”

Or is there? In early 1990, soon after the Reifslager talks broke off, the Kidd sons got a call from Dennis Wagner, a former TM follower who had lived in one of the TM subdivisions—and was now a member of the ISDL. After a period of negotiation, Wagner and the Kidds struck a deal. Deed records show that the purchase was made on May 25; according to the Austin American-Statesman, the price was $ 800,000 (ISDL officials won’t comment on this figure). Records also show that on the same day, in a separate transaction, Wagner optioned the land to the ISDL.

Asked why he flipped the land so quickly, Wagner responds, “I really can’t remember that far back how the transaction all happened,” but he maintains that the ISDL’s involvement was never covered up. Opinion within the Kidd family is split, however, on whether the ISDL’s status as the ultimate buyer was concealed. “With a name like the International Society of Divine Love,” insists Deborah Bynum, the family’s attorney in the deal, “that’s something people would have commented on.” Says Clay Kidd, Rodney Kidd’s grandson: “We thought [Wagner] was buying it as a ranch for his family.” But at least one Kidd brother, Desmond, says the family would have sold to the ISDL even if it had known. “It was nothing more than a flip deal. [Wagner] was the front man,” says Desmond. After the ISDL’s involvement was made public—another Kidd brother, Walter, sold 27 more acres directly to the group.

For his part, Prakashanand says he did not know about the property’s historic significance when he purchased it. The land simply reminded him of a holy region in India called Braj, and while preservationists saw in the main stone house a stunning example of early Texas architecture, he saw a building unfit for living. “When it rained we had to have buckets in our rooms to catch the rain,” Meera Devi recalls. “We had to enclose the veranda.” But there were other wholesale changes to the exterior of the building, which was designated a historic landmark in 1964; for instance, all of the chimneys were removed. “There was no condition that the face of the old building could not be changed,” officials of the ashram told me. “After renovation the historical society people happily took the [historic] marker away with our permission.”

Well, not so happily. “They knew that it was a registered historic landmark and they knew what their obligations were, but they purposefully ignored them,” says Lila Knight of the Hays County Historical Commission. Under state law, Knight points out, a person may not damage the historical or architectural integrity of a designated historical structure without notifying the Texas Historical Commission (THC) at least sixty days in advance. The ISDL did not notify the commission, but civil penalties of up to $ 1,000 a day were not applied because the building was beyond restoration when the changes were discovered, says Cynthia Beeman of the THC. Instead, the market was simply removed in 1992. “It was obvious that they had dramatically altered the structure,” says William Osborn, who visited Barsana Dham during the renovation. “It was very traumatic. I decided never to go out there again.”

This past year, alterations to another relic of the Johnson days have prompted more exasperation—as well as a lawsuit filed by 90-year-old Emmett Shelton, the founder of the Austin suburb West Lake Hills and a great-grandson of Thomas Johnson. Johnson, his wife, and a few relatives and slaves are buried on the former Friday Mountain Ranch close to the site of the new temple on a half-acre plot that the deed specifically reserved as a cemetery site in the 1990 sale. Yet the gravestones belonging to Johnson and his wife have been taken out of the ground, and the tops and bottoms, where the Christian mottoes were located, have been cut off. “We have found that they moved the stones and took them somewhere to be cut,” says Shelton’s attorney, Louis Bratton. “This was not just something done on a Saturday afternoon.” The truncated stones, it turns out, were embedded in a slab of concrete that was poured over the two graves.

In the suit, Shelton is asking for the graveyard to be restored to its original condition. “That’s the minimum they get to do, if this was an innocent, non-malicious act,” says Bratton. “But if we find it was malicious, [Shelton] may want to pursue punitive damages. He would be very upset.” Because both the mottoes were clearly Christian, Bratton is trying to find out if there were religious motives for removing them.

In response to questions about the lawsuit, the ISDL issued this written statement: “It was a totally neglected and scary looking grave in the middle of our family residential area. To our knowledge no one ever cared for the graves. So the person in charge of maintaining the grounds cleaned it up and made it look neat in good faith and with respect to the graves. The lawsuit appears to be a prejudicial harassment and hindering the God’s work which we are doing to create a spiritual base for endorsing religious harmony and peace in the world.”

Of course what ISDL officials fail to realize is that Texas law prohibits people from tampering with graveyards—even if they own the land. “I think what they have done is terribly insensitive,” says Lila Knight. “It makes me suspect they’re not concerned about what people think. I think it blows their goodwill in the community.”

THE GOODWILL KNIGHT REFERS TO IS important to the members of the ISDL and they hope it, in the end, will win out over any controversy that might be brewing. Already, the image-polishing seems to be working. “They’ve always been friendly and gracious to me,” says Mitchell Brown, who runs a nursery in Driftwood and has done work for Barsana Dham. “I’ve got kids who play baseball with [their] kids,” he adds. “I only have positive things to say about how they’ve interacted with the community.”

Likewise, ashram devotees occasionally attend neighborhood meetings, and they invite locals to their festivals. Soon, the ISDL will offer public classes in Indian language and culture. “They’re good neighbors,” says Joe Thielepape, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church, which is the ISDL’s next-door neighbor. “Swamiji was in my office a couple of years ago. He was very jovial and courteous. I’m glad to be in America because in America they have as much right to exist as we do.”

And exist they will keep on doing—for quite some time, apparently. The new temple is being built to last one thousand years, a devotee told a local paper, and Prakashanand shows no sign of slowing down his guru work. During one of the first ceremonies held on the site of the new temple last year, he sat on a lavender-and-bluesatin-covered platform near the new large altar, watching a skit about Krishna’s boyhood performed by members of the ashram. Bare plasterboard and the steel framing of the temple walls were visible. The windows had not been installed yet, so the cool Hill Country air blew through the cavernous temple. Outside, the light was slipping from the sky. It was the same time of day that Webb, Dobie, and Bedichek had preferred. Of course, Friday Mountain Ranch has a new master now, and as he watched his devotees that night, he leaned back on a bank of pillows
http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/swami-dearest/#sthash.5LSss5vT.dpuf

Obituary: Joan Eady a member of Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat

Sophie Ryan
The New Zealand Herald
September 29, 2015
Couple die just days apart

Bruce Eady and wife Joan were married for 40 years.

An Auckland couple's four-decade romance has ended with a heartbroken husband dying within a week of his wife.



Bruce and Joan Eady married in April 1974 and were together in Auckland City Hospital, lying side by side, when Mrs Eady died on September 14.

Mr Eady - founder of Jansen, the first manufacturer of electric guitars in New Zealand - died six days later. He was 90; his wife 85.

Son Brent Eady said his father was lost without his wife, and seemed to fade as soon as she died.

"They were extremely loving," he said.

"You can see it in the photographs of the later years - everywhere they went together, they were holding hands, they were supporting each other. He just wanted to take care of her.


"It is kind of a sad love story, and tragic."

Mrs Eady, who was Mr Eady's second wife and Brent and sister Frances' stepmother, suffered a fall that caused her to spend a month in hospital before her death.

"While she was in hospital my father didn't do so well. He was missing her ... I think at home he didn't care very well for himself," Brent said.

"He checked himself into hospital and he ended up side by side in the Awatea Ward with her."

Mrs Eady recovered before Mr Eady was ready to be discharged. She went into temporary care, but soon fell ill with a lung infection.

"It was just a small cough at first, but within 24 hours it was disastrous and she died," Brent said.

"When she died he just seemed to fade away. He said it a few times to me, but her death really knocked him. He wouldn't weep or cry, he just was resigned to the fact that she had gone."

Brent was making arrangements with his father for his stepmother's funeral. The night before Mr Eady died, he was getting ready to move into Brent's home in Te Atatu.

"That evening, he wanted me to take a lot of his belongings away, and I thought that wasn't good ... I had a bad feeling, and then of course I got the phone call on the Sunday morning. I was almost expecting it. He was just looking sad."

Mr Eady's life was filled with his music business, philosophy, family and sailing. The couple's shared interest in philosophy brought them together in 1970, Brent said.

Mrs Eady was a member of the Auckland Indian church Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat, and had worked with many different businesses.

Frances Eady has flown to NZ with her mother from a village in the Himalayas, where the family have a home, for the funeral tomorrow at Purewa.


Jansen Invader electric guitar made in New Zealand by Lewis Eady Ltd. Photo / Supplied

They were New Zealand's answer to the Fender Stratocaster.

Almost every Kiwi pop guitarist of the 1960s, and many bedroom and garage enthusiasts, had one - a Jansen Invader.

The electric guitars were first made more than 50 years ago by Auckland's Jansen Guitar Company, the brainchild of Bruce Eady.

Named after local pop group Ray Columbus and the Invaders, it soon became the biggest-selling guitar in New Zealand - even outstripping its famous American forerunner, the Stratocaster.

Mr Eady was born into a musical family, with his grandfather Lewis and great-uncle Arthur running rival Auckland musical instrument businesses while his father owned a piano company.

He worked there in the mid-1950s before training as a radar mechanic with the navy.

Mr Eady then set up his own business repairing radios and guitars.

Seeing a gap in the market, he started selling his own high-quality new electric guitars.

In 1958, Mr Eady - who counted Howard Morrison and Ray Columbus as friends - hired expert Nelson guitar maker Ray Simpson.

Using Nelson white birch and kauri beams recovered from demolished houses, they began making guitars modelled on the American Fender brand.

With the surge of Beatlemania, Jansen was soon making up to 50 guitars a month. Members of Kiwi band Split Enz worked in the factory before they hit the big time.

It was the Invader model, made from 1964 until 1979, that became the company's lasting legacy.

Originally, they retailed for £82 10s, including case.

Now, they are collectors' items, highly sought after all over the world. A collection of Jansen guitars is on display at Te Papa.

"I believe New Zealanders could achieve anything they wanted in industry if they tackled it with common sense," Mr Eady said in a February 1964 New Zealand Woman's Weekly article.

Thousands Celebrate Janmashtami at Radha Madhav Dham Temple

Indo American News
September 11, 2015.


AUSTIN: Over 4,000 devotees, from newborns to seniors, gathered at Radha Madhav Dham Temple in Austin to celebrate Shree Krishna Janmashtami.  The excitement was palpable days in advance when volunteers began preparing for the grand celebrations and decorating one of the largest temples in the U.S. for the occasion.

In anticipation of the festivities, hundreds arrived a day in advance and stayed overnight at Radha Madhav Dham’s beautiful facilities which overflowed in attempt to accommodate over 300 guests.  As the evening approached, the crowds surged into thousands, backing up the main road leading up to the temple for more than a mile.  Devotees were welcomed with dinner prasad as they arrived and food stalls selling samosa, dosa, lassi, etc. were set up for those wanting a quick snack or a light meal.  The temple program started with singing of beautiful kirtans revealed by Jagadguru Shree Kripalu Ji Maharaj in praise of Lord Krishna.  A jhula (decorative swing) was set up for baby Krishna and Radha Krishna deities presiding in the temple were decorated in a spectacular sixteen fold shringar. The line of devotees eager to have darshan (vision) of Radha Krishna and an opportunity to swing baby Krishna kept getting longer and longer as the evening progressed into the night and continued from 6 pm till midnight.  Sushree Diwakari Devi spoke about the spiritual significance of Janmashtami.

The cultural program started with hundreds of children, as young as few months old adorably dressed as Krishna or Radha, walked alongside their parents or were cradled by their parents, as they participated in the costume contest.  Children competed in four different age groups and charmed the audience in an overcrowded temple hall.  After that Kathak maestro and disciple of legendary Pandit Birju Maharaj, Shree Murari Sharan Gupta enthralled everyone with a rich blend of dances presented in a pure Kathak style and vividly bringing to life the Divine pastimes and glories of Lord Krishna.

Music of “Govinda ala re ala…” (Krishna is coming…) resonated the hall and peeked the curiosity of the crowd, as a team of butter thieves led by a young Krishna, approached a butter pot hanging high in air.  Aided by loud cheers from the large hall that was packed with people from wall to wall, the team formed a three story human pyramid and after a couple of failed attempts finally helped Krishna break the pot.  The energy and excitement kept growing as the dahi haandi (curd pot) breaking led right into raas garba.  People danced in joy to the live chanting of Shree Radha Krishna’s name and enlivened by a devotional band.

With only an hour to go until midnight, enchanting kirtans of Lord Krishna immersed the audience in devotion.  Shortly before midnight, the sound of thunder and lightning filled the air and a leela (enactment of Krishna’s Divine actions) depicting Baby Krishna’s appearance and His arrival in Gokul was presented.  Everyone rose to their feet and to the sounds of conches, drums, and cymbals burst into joyous outcry of “Nand ke anand bhayo….Jai Kanhaiya Lal Ki” which continued for over an hour past midnight until 1:00am.

Overjoyed with the exciting devotional atmosphere of Radha Madhav Dham and family centric activities of the day, steeped in tradition, culture and devotion, people couldn’t stop talking about their experience and several visitors unanimously commented “this was definitely one of the best Janmashtami celebrations we have ever attended”.

http://www.indoamerican-news.com/?p=36800

Gangwar opens free Jagadguru Kripalu Chikitsalaya in Vrindavan

IANS
September 18, 2015
Business Standard

Union Textiles Minister Santosh Gangwar on Friday inaugurated the Jagadguru Kripalu Chikitsalaya, a free charitable hospital, in Vrindavan and hoped it will prove to be a boon for the residents of the Braj region who cannot afford modern healthcare costs.

"It is heartening to see that this hospital is fully equipped with all modern healthcare facilities," Gangwar said, after opening the hospital with the Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat presidents Vishakha Tripathi, Shyama Tripathi and Krishna Tripathi.

"The Jagadguru Kripalu Chikitsalaya is our third charitable hospital," said Vishakha Tripathi, adding that the foundation was laid by the Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj himself on Feb 20, 2008.

Trust authorities said it will serve as a multi-facility, 100-bed hospital that will provide free consultation, in-patient treatment, diagnostics and medications to the residents of Braj.

"The hospital will render services in general medicine, including general surgery, ENT, ophthalmology, dermatology and gynaecology, along with dental care, physiotherapy, naturopathy and homoeopathy," the trust said in a statement.

"The hospital also has in-house radiology lab with X-ray and ultrasound machines, as well as modern pathology lab and state of art equipment and machinery," said another senior trust representative Ram Puri.

The Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat has already established two free hospitals in Mangarh village in Pratapgarh District that have been functional from 2003, and at Barsana since 2007. They serve Thousands of poor and needy each year.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/gangwar-opens-free-jagadguru-kripalu-chikitsalaya-in-vrindavan-115091800745_1.html

Swami Prakashanand Saraswati Gets 280 Year Prison Sentence for Child Molest But Flees Court, Still at Large

August 7, 2015

Watch Video

ID #15-375

A Hays County fugitive convicted of nearly two dozen counts of child molestation has failed to appear in court and is currently at large.

According to the U.S. Marshals Service, Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, also known to his spiritual followers as Swamiji, failed to appear in court on March 7, 2011, and has not been seen since.

The court date stems from a 2007 incident in which three female victims of Barsana Dham, an ashram in northern Hays County, made an outcry to the Hays County Sheriff’s Office, alleging they had been abused in the ashram at the hands of Saraswati.

In April 2008, a warrant was secured, and Saraswati was arrested, U.S. Marshals said. He was released on $1 million bond and was barred from the ashram as a bond condition.

In 2011, Saraswati was convicted by a jury on 20 counts of child molestation and was allowed to remain on bond pending the sentencing phase of the criminal trial process. The punishment phase continued as scheduled, and the Hays County Jury sentenced Saraswati in absentia to 280 years and a $200,000 fine.

When Saraswati did not show up for his court date, the Lone Star Fugitive Task force initiated an investigation to find him. They believe with the aid of his close handlers and devotees, Saraswati had crossed over the border into Mexico and fled to India, where it would likely be more difficult to get a high-profile criminal extradited to the United States.

http://www.fugitive.com/2015/08/07/swami-prakashanand-saraswati-gets-280-year-prison-sentence-for-child-molest-but-flees-court-still-at-large/

Search continues for Indian 'guru' who abused children in Texas ashram

International Business Times UK
Jayalakshmi K
August 7, 2015 

If you've seen Prakashanand Saraswati, please call 1-866-THE-HUNT or go online at CNN.com/TheHunt and report him to the authorities.

Prakashanand Saraswati

Authorities may be no closer to hunting down a "rogue" Indian guru who abused children at an ashram in Texas, but two of the girls who suffered at his hands still hope that Prakashanand Saraswati will be brought to justice.

After enduring much torment, and amid a lack of support from their parents, three American girls managed to get a court to sentence Saraswati to 14 years of imprisonment.

But the man escaped, probably to India from where he had come to the US.

The hunt has continued for four years now and the Tonnessen sisters hope justice will prevail.

"He's still out there and he's still abusing people," Vesla Tonnessen told CNN's The Hunt. "I don't think that will stop until he's imprisoned."

CNN traces the story back to the 90s when the girls and their parents lived on the 200-acre wild land at Barsana Dham, the ashram of the International Society for Divine Love in Austin.

In pursuit of enlightenment under the guidance of Saraswati, the girls' parents asked them to see him as "the god on earth".

But Saraswati was more of an Indian version of Santa Claus for the girls. Affectionate and cuddly with hugs and kisses he was like a grandpa.

However, once the girls turned of age things changed. Hugs turned "inappropriate". A call to bed, a hand slid under and other requests, short of an intercourse, petrified the girls.

The girls were even more terrified when their mother refused to accept their version and preferred to keep faith in the spiritual leader.

The girls put up with the visitations until they grew up and could leave at 18.

In 2000, when they heard that Saraswati's guru, Kripalu, had been accused of rape in India and Trinidad the girls decided to act.

In 2008, they took their allegations to the Hays County, Texas, authorities and an indictment was handed against Saraswati.

Surprisingly, the man's devotees including the girls' parents rallied around him.

Vesla's sister, Kate Tonnessen, told CNN: "It feels like potentially what it feels like [when] a parent dies. But it wasn't death that took them away. It was their own attachment to their guru that allowed them to override their love for me and my sister."

Saraswati was released pending trial on a $1m (£645,000) bond paid for by a member of the ashram.

After delaying proceedings for three years, the case finally went to trial in 2011 and on March 4, Saraswati was convicted of 20 counts of indecent behaviour with a minor.

The judge permitted Saraswati to return to Barsana Dham for the weekend then, with punishment to be decided the following Monday.

However, Saraswati did not show up on that Monday. He had fled the country and in his absence, the judge sentenced him to 14 years in prison for each of the 20 counts.

The US Marshals Service now believe that Saraswati is living in India between New Delhi and the northern town of Mussoorie.

If you've seen Prakashanand Saraswati, please call 1-866-THE-HUNT or go online at CNN.com/TheHunt and report him to the authorities.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/search-continues-indian-guru-who-abused-children-texas-ashram-1514480

The Hunt with John Walsh takes on Swami Prakashanand Saraswati

"The Hunt" airs Sunday, August 9th, 2015 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CNN.

Swami Prakashanand Saraswati

Swami Prakashanand Saraswati a so called religious guru is on the run after being convicted of 20 counts of indecency with a child. Swami Prakashananda Saraswati is the founder of the International Society of Divine Love (ISDL) and the Austin Texas based Brasana Dham.  He is associated with Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat (JKP) and its founder Jagadguru Kripalu Maharaj.

An unseemly battle erupts over spiritual trust

IANS

January 10, 2014

Lucknow : A war of legacy has broken out in a well known charitable trust founded by a spiritual guru, pitting his three daughters against the family of one of his two sons.

The Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat (JKP) is a multi-billion-rupee charitable trust founded by the late Jagadguru Kripaluji, who passed away in November last year.

The trust has institutes and properties in India and abroad and is engaged in spiritual, philanthropic and humanitarian activities.

Trust spokesperson Muktanand told IANS that the death of Jagadguru, as he was widely known, has led to unexpected convulsions in the trust.

The Jagadguru, the spokesperson added, had annointed his eldest daughter, Vishakha Tripathi, as his spiritual heir.

She has been the face of the organization as the president of the JKP and has managed its affairs from its headquarters at Mangah in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, about 165 km from here.

Shyama Tripathi, the second daughter, heads the Shyama Sham Dham in Vrindavan, also in Uttar Pradesh. The third daughter, Krishna Tripathi, oversees the ashram at nearby Barsana.

Since the Jagadguru died, the trustees say that Divya Shukla, the estranged wife of Ghanshyam Tripathi, a son of the late holy figure, has begun frequently visiting the Mangarh Ashram.

Her former husband is also presently stationed there.

None of the children of the Jagadguru could be reached for comments despite repeated attempts by IANS.

Ghanshyam Tripathi and Divya have three sons — Ramananda, Krishnananda and Premananda — who are based in Delhi and reportedly engaged in real estate business.

“Ever since the demise of Kripaluji Maharaj, all of them are stationed at Mangarh with the seeming intention of taking over the trust and demanding the respect of the devotees,” Muktanand told IANS.

Ghanshyam Tripathi, around 65, is otherwise based in Lucknow. Some say he has never been closely associated with the activities of the trust.

The trust manages free educational institutions and hospitals and organises humanitarian programmes in which financial and material help is provided to the destitute and underprivileged sections.

Balkrishna, the younger son of Kripaluji Maharaj, is based in Mumbai and engaged in business. He too has never been actively involved in any activity of the trust.

In contrast, all the three daughters of Kripaluji Maharaj have shunned marriage and family life to serve the trust.

The devotees and ‘pracharaks’ of Jagadguru are aware that he had himself charted the future of the trust.

At a public function organised in the presence of an Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker, Kripaluji had said he had deposited enough funds in the banks so that charitable works could go on even after his death.

He had also decided the roles his children would play after his demise vis-a-vis the JKP.

Born Ram Kripalu Tripathi Oct 18, 1922, the holy man took to spirituality at a young age. He received the title Jagadguru at age 34 in Varanasi.

He passed away at age 91 in New Delhi.

Besides the four main ashrams in India and one in the US, Jagadguru has set up centres in many countries besides four temples, two free hospitals and an educational institution and has been active in disaster relief.

http://twocircles.net/2014jan10/unseemly_battle_erupts_over_spiritual_trust.html

Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat bags Zee Achievers Award

Vancouverdesi.com
IANS
November 4, 2014

Lucknow — Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has conferred the Zee Achievers award to Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat, led by its president Vishakha Tripathi, in recognition of its work in the field of education, healthcare and philanthropy.

Instituted by the Zee Media Group, the award is given to individuals and organizations for significant contribution in the field of economic and social development in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

More such institutions like the Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat should join and contribute to societal causes, especially to help the poor and the deprived, Yadav said, presenting the award Monday evening to the institution’s representative Ram Puri.

Specific mention of the institution was made at the event for providing free, secular education to the deprived and minorities. More than 5,000 girls from pre-primary to post graduate levels receive free education at its institutions in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh.

“In addition to education, the parishat also runs three hospitals to extend free healthcare to the poor and the needy, including free surgery and post-operative care. It also works throughout the year for supporting destitute widows,” the event was told.

In the past, the institution has received the Rajiv Gandhi Global Excellence Award, the Nari Shakti Award of Jagran group, Mother Teresa Excellence Award and Nelson Mandela Award for exemplary work in education and healthcare.

http://www.vancouverdesi.com/lifestyle/jagadguru-kripalu-parishat-bags-zee-achievers-award/808613/

Jagadguru Kripalu denies link with wanted godman

IANS 
October 14, 2012   

New Delhi: Jagadguru Kripalu Ji Maharaj and organisations functioning under his guidance have denied any connection with Swami Prakashanand Saraswati who has been declared a criminal in America, his trust said in a statement here. 

Reacting to some media reports, the Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat-Shyama Shyam Dham said the guru is strictly against the practice of making disciples. 

"Maharaj Ji has never ever made disciples and has never given initiation to anyone," it added. 

"It is to be noted that Prakashanand Saraswati is a disciple of Jagadguru Shankaracharya Brahmanand Saraswati (a sanyasi). Jagadguru Kripalu Ji Maharaj is a family man and is a Vaishnava," the statement added. 

"The above statement is stated by Jagadguru Kripalu Ji Maharaj's trust in reaction to news published in a newspaper which says that Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, wanted in a case in America, is related to Jagadguru Kripalu Ji Maharaj," it said. 

According to the trust, several people in India and abroad claim to be their guru's disciples, impressed by his actions and his "irrefutable devotion towards god". 

"Under such circumstances, creating a misconception and thereby deluding the public by saying that a wanted criminal is his disciple or associated with any of the trusts functioning under his guidance, is definitely a condemnable action," the trust said. 

An unseemly battle erupts over spiritual trust

Lucknow, Jan 10 : A war of legacy has broken out in a well known charitable trust founded by a spiritual guru, pitting his three daughters against the family of one of his two sons.The Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat (JKP) is a multi-billion-rupee charitable trust founded by the late Jagadguru Kripaluji, who passed away in November last year.

The trust has institutes and properties in India and abroad and is engaged in spiritual, philanthropic and humanitarian activities.

Trust spokesperson Muktanand told IANS that the death of Jagadguru, as he was widely known, has led to unexpected convulsions in the trust.

The Jagadguru, the spokesperson added, had annointed his eldest daughter, Vishakha Tripathi, as his spiritual heir.

She has been the face of the organization as the president of the JKP and has managed its affairs from its headquarters at Mangah in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, about 165 km from here.

Shyama Tripathi, the second daughter, heads the Shyama Sham Dham in Vrindavan, also in Uttar Pradesh. The third daughter, Krishna Tripathi, oversees the ashram at nearby Barsana.

Since the Jagadguru died, the trustees say that Divya Shukla, the estranged wife of Ghanshyam Tripathi, a son of the late holy figure, has begun frequently visiting the Mangarh Ashram.
Her former husband is also presently stationed there.

None of the children of the Jagadguru could be reached for comments despite repeated attempts by IANS.

Ghanshyam Tripathi and Divya have three sons -- Ramananda, Krishnananda and Premananda -- who are based in Delhi and reportedly engaged in real estate business.

"Ever since the demise of Kripaluji Maharaj, all of them are stationed at Mangarh with the seeming intention of taking over the trust and demanding the respect of the devotees," Muktanand told IANS.

Ghanshyam Tripathi, around 65, is otherwise based in Lucknow. Some say he has never been closely associated with the activities of the trust.

The trust manages free educational institutions and hospitals and organises humanitarian programmes in which financial and material help is provided to the destitute and underprivileged sections.

Balkrishna, the younger son of Kripaluji Maharaj, is based in Mumbai and engaged in business. He too has never been actively involved in any activity of the trust.

In contrast, all the three daughters of Kripaluji Maharaj have shunned marriage and family life to serve the trust.

The devotees and 'pracharaks' of Jagadguru are aware that he had himself charted the future of the trust.
At a public function organised in the presence of an Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker, Kripaluji had said he had deposited enough funds in the banks so that charitable works could go on even after his death.

He had also decided the roles his children would play after his demise vis-a-vis the JKP.

Born Ram Kripalu Tripathi Oct 18, 1922, the holy man took to spirituality at a young age. He received the title Jagadguru at age 34 in Varanasi.
He passed away at age 91 in New Delhi.

Besides the four main ashrams in India and one in the US, Jagadguru has set up centres in many countries besides four temples, two free hospitals and an educational institution and has been active in disaster relief.

At An Austin Ashram, A First-Person Account

The author of Sex, Lies and Two Hindu Gurus shares her experiences by Karen Jonson

September 16, 2013

In 1991, American writer Karen Jonson wasn’t in love and was in a dead-end job when she joined an ashram, the Jagad­guru Kripalu Parishat (JKP) in Austin, Texas, attrac­ted by local guru Prakashanand Sara­swati’s talks “about god and loving god”. 

The JKP proclaims the divi­nity of Kripaluji Maharaj. In the beginning, she was happy to be among a group of people who had the same feeling and purpose, picking green beans by the moonlight, cooking meals, acting in skits. After living in the ashram for 15 years, she quit in 2008, three years before Prakashanand was found guilty on 20 counts of child sex abuse. Jonson published a tell-all book, Sex, Lies and Two Hindu Gurus, which JKP followers dismiss as a ‘Christian conspiracy’. Here Jonson tells Debarshi Dasgupta how her spiritual quest went awry:

In hindsight, I always had some small doubts about both Kripalu and Prakash. But I had no proof of anything. I was also very religious and wanted to believe what they were telling us, about achieving God realisation and becoming a gopi in divine Vrindavan. All we had to do was ‘surrender’ to them, they said. So I tried really hard to do that, and whenever I stumbled, I believed it was because of my own lack of devotional qualities. So whenever I had doubts, I would push them back into the corners of my mind.

But the major onset of scepticism occurred when Kripalu was arrested in Trinidad for raping a young woman in May 2007. It was while he was on a ‘world tour’ that year for a few months. He had just spent about four weeks in the JKP ashram in Austin where I had lived full-time since April 1993. His plan was to go to Trinidad, then Canada, then come back to Austin.

Some uncomfortable events took place when he was in the Austin ashram, called Barsana Dham at the time (the name was changed to Radha Madhav Dham later, after Prakashanand fled to Mexico on his own cases becoming public). For the first time ever, I was invited to Kripalu’s bedroom to perform a secret ritual they called ‘charan seva’. I had never heard of it before. But I later learned that many of the women in JKP’s ashrams participated in this ritual, which took place several times every day at specific times.

During this ritual, 5-6 women are brought into the guru’s bedroom. He is lying on his back in the middle of his bed on several pillows with his arms and legs spread out. The women each climb up on his bed and kneel near one part of his body, the thigh, calf and feet. (At that time, one foot was not available for massaging due to an injury, which I later learned was tuberculosis that had gone into his bone.) We had been instructed to “press him very hard.” So we just pressed hard on whatever body part we had.

My first time was his left thigh. The room is very dark so it was hard to see what else was going on. Also, my attention was very focused on massaging him correctly, as instructed. While pressing him as hard as I could, his hand reached down to mine and tried to nudge my hand up to his groin. At the time, I naively thought he wanted me to massage him higher on his thigh, so I tried, but there was really nowhere else to go. He nudged me again. And again I went a tiny bit higher, but that was it. Then it was over and we were told to leave. “Jao!”

I had four more pressing sessions. In two, nothing that I know of happened. But then I wasn’t really expecting anything. But one time, when I was on the left thigh again, I saw movement on his groin from the opposite side. While focusing on my pressing, I also kept glancing over. It looked like another woman, who I knew, was massaging his penis. I really could not believe my eyes. I kept glancing, but was in shock. But I now knew that is exactly what was happening.

That’s when I started putting together pieces of the puzzle—including my past doubts and experiences in ‘charan seva’.

  

Another time I was on his left calf, and out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement. When I glanced up, I saw that Kripalu’s hand was up the woman’s blouse. I knew this woman too. Again I was in shock. Each of these three times, I tried not to think about the incidents. I still tried to believe that Kripalu was God and that I could not understand God’s actions. Plus, with him in residence there is way too much work to do and no one gets enough sleep, so we are sleep-deprived every day. I was constantly exhausted trying to keep up with the brutal satsang schedule from 4 am to 10 pm. Plus the work we had to do. My job was baking “birthday cakes”. They offered a thing called a “birthday seva”, where an interested person paid US $2,500 for the privilege of having Kripalu acknowledge their birthday—even if it wasn’t the person’s birthday. I baked over 50 cakes in four weeks for this!

About a week after his arrest in Trinidad, one of the preachers gathered us together one night to inform us. After spinning the story in Kripalu’s favour (she didn’t use the word rape), she told us: “Do not go on the internet and read about this.” I think that was the exact moment I got my mind back under my own control and snapped out of my cult delusion. Because I decided that is exactly what I was going to do: I went online, typed in ‘Kripalu’ and ‘Trinidad’, and started reading. I was in complete shock.

That’s when I learned the truth. So many people from around the world were commenting on the real JKP and Kripalu. I just knew they were telling the truth. Everything. The sex, the money collection, the abuse. That’s when I started putting together pieces of the puzzle—including my past doubts and recent experiences during “charan seva”.

It took me a little more time to accept that Prakash was as bad as Kripalu, because I knew Prakash first and had hardly known anything about Kripalu until the fall of 1999. Prakash had stopped talking about him after Kripalu’s first arrest for raping two underage girls in India in the early 1990s (I joined in 1991). That case has never been resolved. He ‘reintroduced’ us to him in late 1999, saying he was the fifth jagadguru, an incarnation of Radha-Krishna and Chaitanya, and a lot of other fairy tales.

One day, I realised that Prakash had to be as bad as Kripalu, because he served him and brought us to him. Within a couple of months, I heard from the young women who had been molested by Prakash as children while living in the ashram.

I’m not sure why certain people calling themselves “gurus” in India are so popular among Indians. I don’t fully understand the beliefs, culture and history surrounding this relationship. I’ve been told by some of my Indian friends living in the US that to worship so blindly is an aberration of the traditional guru-disciple relationship. In fact, an Indian man living in Austin wrote a chapter in my book on that subject. He stressed that there should always be an element of verification on the student’s part. In other words, be sure the person is a true guru. But it seems that some people have completely abandoned this step.

I believe that conmen gurus don’t leave any room for verification. In my case, Kripalu and his preachers went out of their way to teach that it’s a sin to doubt the guru, question him or second-guess him. The only option is 100% unquestioning belief. I now know that this is a red flag. Only a cult would not want a person to use their reasoning mind to make an informed decision.

If a person stays in such a situation, well then they are just sitting ducks. This unquestioning attitude gives the conmen complete control and allows them to shape the followers’ minds anyway they choose. The conman has effectively stolen the individual’s personal power and used it for their own purposes, much like a vampire sucks a person’s blood to stay alive.

At the same time, they claim a kind of shield. Just before his arrest in Trinidad, one day at the Austin JKP temple, Kripalu said: “The actions of a saint may seem more worldly than the most worldly person’s actions. But you cannot judge them, because you are worldly and a saint is divine.” That’s the kind of thinking that gives a person a licence to kill. Very scary.