Cult News

The Krishna organization, often called a “cult,” is now trying to grope its way out of a legal quagmire, reports the LA Times.

A class action lawsuit was filed against the controversial organization in 2000 on behalf of more than 90 victims of childhood abuse, within the group’s boarding schools.

The apparent strategy employed by the organization that cynically seemed to anticipate this action was to create a spin machine, in a hopeful effort to influence public opinion and subsequently the jury pool.

Krishna’s spin-doctor Anuttama Dasa said the organization had changed, admitted the gross abuse in the group’s schools and claimed everything would be taken care of, including the victims.

But it appears Dasa like Krishna was more spin than substance, so eventually the group’s victims sought relief through a class action lawsuit.

Krishna’s next move was to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

A Krishna lawyer explains now, “We are working on reorganization plans that will provide meaningful compensation for anyone found to have a valid claim. The judge will determine the capacity of these temples to pay based on the Court’s analysis of their assets, and not on the whims of an inflamed or biased jury,” according to self-serving press release.

Meanwhile, the federal lawsuit was dismissed, but was filed once again as a state action in Texas.

Krisha’s counsel got it right.

The horrific abuse of children within Krishna schools would inflame almost anyone. And it is hard to imagine what would be “meaningful” compensation, given the admitted scope of abuse, let alone what could be set as punitive damages.

According to a friend of Krishna, academic and apparent apologist E. Burke Rochford Jr., “20 percent of all students…[and] 75 percent of the boys” at one Indian boarding school alone were victims of abuse.

3,000 children went through the Krishna schools in question. This means there are literally hundreds of victims.

Virtually the same entrenched autocracy exists today than ran the Krishna organization during that era of abuse.

Almost all of Krishna’s leaders are Americans and/or Westerners that became devotees when the sect’s founder Swami Prabhupada was alive.

The controversial swami built his first temple in New York City in the sixties. Krishna temples typically include a statue of him, which appears to be virtually an object of worship.

Rather than being a part of mainstream Hinduism, Krishna is largely seen as an aberrational sect defined largely by the personality and idiosyncrasies of Prabhupada, rather than traditional Hinduism.

Now it seems like the old swami’s creation is crumbling under the legacy of its past deeds. But rather than its leaders receiving judgement through some future incarnation, it may be that an earthly judge will mete out their punishment.