Lokanath Swami and Child Abuse in the Hare Krishna Movement

Be Scofield is a prominent cult reporter who exposed Love Has Won which led to the hit HBO series. She is the author of Hunting Lucifer: One Reporter's Search for Cults and Demons. Her work is cited by the NY Times, Rolling Stone, People, Netflix, and more.

By BE SCOFIELD

August 12th, 2024

One of the most powerful and influential leaders in ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, also known as the Hare Krishna movement, is an admitted child sexual abuser. Since 1993, ISKCON’s top leadership has protected Lokanath Swami, keeping him a guru (top spiritual leader), allowing him to initiate thousands of disciples, host ceremonies, speak around the world, headline international festivals, and honoring him with ministerial positions within ISKCON.

30 years after ISKCON leadership found out Lokanath Swami had molested an 11 year old girl, ISKCON North America and ISKCON Europe banned Lokanath. This came after ISKCON member, Saraswati Jones, released confidential documents on April 15th, 2021 about Lokanath's child sexual abuse case. ISKCON leadership suspended Lokanath a month later in May of 2021 and referred his case to their Child Protection Office (CPO). Yet only five days later, they reversed their decision and set up their own ad hoc panel to investigate. The following year, ISKCON’s top leadership, the Governing Body Commission (GBC) voted to keep Lokanath as a guru in ISKCON.  ISKCON North America and ISKCON Europe did not agree and banned Lokanath.

One ISKCON GBC member who did not agree with this 2022 vote to keep Lokanath as a guru, resigned in protest. Praghosa Dasa served as an ISKCON GBC member for 25-years. "I really have little choice but to step down as a member," he said in his resignation video.

After decades of covering up child abuse, ISKCON set up their Child Protection Office in 1998. The Child Protection Office put out a call within ISKCON requesting members to submit cases of child abuse. Hundreds of cases were reported, some new and some old, all to be handled centrally by the CPO. The only case the GBC did not want the CPO to handle was Lokanath’s child molestation case. David Wolf said, "When I served as CPO director, the GBC gave specific instructions for the CPO to not address the case of Lokanatha Maharaja. The dealings of ISKCON leadership around the case of Lokanatha Maharaja was filled with concealment, deception, inconsistencies, and lack of accountability."  ISKCON leadership has downplayed and minimized his child abuse since 1993 when they first became aware.

As early as 1998 news articles reported on Lokanath being rejected by his students for "molesting" a young girl.

Lokanath holds the highest ranking position in ISKCON, that of "Initiating Guru.” He is treated like a rock star, with throngs of adoring disciples who wash his feet, bow on the ground when he appears, drive for him, cook for him, and wash his clothes. 

Despite the ISKCON GBC ratifying a resolution in 2018 that "No person, who has been determined to have engaged in severe maltreatment of children, will be allowed to remain active in a position of authority or trust within ISKCON," Lokanath continues to be worshiped as a representative of God. The 2018 resolution also states, "This includes activities such as leading kirtan, giving class, speaking publicly at any ISKCON event or representing ISKCON in official capacities.”

Contradicting their own 2018 resolution, ISKCON leadership stated, "[Lokanath] continues to be a senior member of our society, and guru for his existing disciples."

Meanwhile, other ISKCON members have been banned for less serious offenses, including philosophical disagreements.

In 2010 an ISKCON member was banned for life by the CPO from holding any leadership position, for caressing the legs of a child. "This panel has determined, based on testimony that is in the case file of this case, that Mayapur Candra dasa caressed the legs of a 12 year old girl, while the girl was at his home in Jagannatha Puri. According to the Task Force Report this transgression constitutes a precursor to child sexual abuse. As a lifetime restriction, Mayapur Candra must not hold positions of leadership in ISKCON or with an organization affiliated with ISKCON."

In 2010 an ISKCON member was banned for life by the CPO from holding any leadership position, for caressing the legs of a child.

In May 2021, when ISKCON proclaimed they would finally give Lokanath’s child abuse case to their CPO to be handled properly, ISKCON’s India leadership lobbied against this. Lokanath is one of the most prominent ISKCON leaders in India. The India leadership pressured the ISKCON GBC to yet again block Lokanath’s case from being given to their CPO, in essence, keeping him a guru.  ISKCON India wields a large amount of power with their large constituency, many temples, and wealth.  

Lokanath Swami Child Sexual Abuse Allegations

"He placed his hands on my crotch," Lokanath's victim Satya stated. She was 11 in 1990 when this occurred. "He several times, rubbed his hand up and down my leg, inner leg, and out, as I was seated there next to him...he patted me on my butt. I ran into my mother’s room, and into her walk in closet and hid, and he came in after me. He pulled me out, saying 'why are you hiding' and again touched me on my butt, held my hands and put his arms around me."

"It did NOT just happen one time in the living room, on the sofa, but rather throughout the week that he stayed he touched me various times inappropriately," Satya stated, 20 years after she was molested. She was responding to the ISKCON GBC’s efforts over decades to downplay and minimize the abuse perpetrated by Lokanath.

Other ISKCON members and leaders who have faced punishment for their abuses include Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami who was given a lifelong ban after sexually abusing a minor girl. This had been the eighth investigation over 40 years of him physically and emotionally abusing children at the boarding school in Mayapur, India. The CPO said in their most recent decision on him, “It should be noted that in 2000, despite BVPS taking responsibility as principal of the boys’ school for the horrendous and prolific physical, sexual, and psychological abuse that took place during the 1980s through to 1991, and admitting to imposing excessive punishment on the boys himself, BVPS was allowed to continue training teachers. This decision was made at a meeting with BVPS, the ICOCP, and senior devotees. If he had been restricted from working with children in any capacity, and in ISKCON education, directly or indirectly, it is unlikely that he would have had the opportunity to commit the acts of abuse stated above.”

Senior ISKCON leader Sivarama Swami argued against the CPO’s decision to ban Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami, stating that he should be “considered saintly” and set up with a “financial package.”

The Child Protection Office criticized the GBC in Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami’s decision in 2022, “This panel recommends the GBC examine the culture of enabling child abusers that is prevalent amongst some senior ISKCON leadership and management.” 

ISKCON member Satadhanya was given a lifetime ban on leadership for child sexual abuse but was later appointed as one of the top officers at ISKCON’s Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, the “largest religious monument in the world after completion of construction.” He was also introduced as an "ISKCON leader" when he spoke in a video shared by the ISKCON GBC Strategic Planning Team. Ex-ISKCON guru Bhavananda was found to have physically and sexually abused children, and he also holds a leadership role with the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

"If there were cases with high profile people or people that were friends with high profile people though, it got into dark, ugly, twisted, political manipulations."

In 1999 the New York Times reported that "severe sexual and physical abuse was common at the Krishna boarding schools, known as gurukulas, in India." In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of children, many of whom were sent from America, were subjected to abuses. In 2001 over 500 former students were part of a class action $400 million lawsuit for child abuse perpetrated at ISKCON’s boarding schools. It was settled for $15 million after ISKCON filed for bankruptcy.

In 2018 the CPO reported on child abuse at ISKCON’s Vrindavana Gurukula in India. The team spent 73 days documenting over 60 cases of child abuse, ranging from physical, emotional and sexual. This led only to minimal changes. The school’s management stayed in power and the school moved to a more remote location.

ISKCON’s India leadership prefers to focus on child abuse through prevention instead of a more wholistic approach involving both prevention through training and consequences for the abuser in the form of leadership restrictions. They have resisted the CPO’s practice of placing restrictions on confirmed child abusers, instead allowing them to continue holding leadership positions in ISKCON.

The Child Protection Office was established in 1998 with a $160,000 annual budget. By 2022 the ISKCON GBC had dropped the CPO’s funding to $10,000.

To this day, Lokanath’s child abuse case is the only known child abuse case that the ISKCON GBC has blocked their own Child Protection Office from handling. Former Director of ISKCON’s Child Protection Office, David Wolf, said, "If there were cases with high profile people or people that were friends with high profile people though, it got into dark, ugly, twisted, political manipulations. As years went on, it got less about helping the children themselves and more about dealing with politics."