Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus — Telling Their Secrets and Finding My Truth

by Karen Jonson

  “I’d like to talk to her,” I said. Amazingly, I left Carol’s apartment with Suzy’s phone number—and called her right away.

  Her story was more seedy than I could have imagined.

  “Remember when we went out to lunch one day and you started to tell me about an intimate encounter you’d had with Prakash?” I asked.

  “Of course, I remember,” she said.

  “I’d like to know now what you were going to tell me then.”

  “Sure. I had very intimate experiences with him. I’d get called to his bedroom by Ranjana [aka, Vishi], usually after evening satsang. He’d pull me into his bed. We’d French kiss, and he would touch and kiss my breasts. Not every time, but sometimes he would put his hands down my pants and slide his fingers between my legs and inside of me.”

  My ear was pressed against the phone as she confessed her sexual experiences with my ex-guru. I think I nearly stopped breathing.

  “How many times were you with him?”

  “Several. Maybe eight or ten times.”

  Hearing Suzy’s story was painful, even now. It reminded me how naïve I had been while I lived in the ashram. While Prakash was rolling around in bed with Suzy—and no doubt many other women, including, of course, his preachers—I was struggling to be a better devotee, constantly berating myself for being a flawed soul and having sexual thoughts about worldly men. Yet again, I found myself wishing I could have heard this kind of information sooner and gotten the hell out of there years sooner.

  Then she added the kicker: “One time I was lying on his bed with him and Carol. He started kissing her and they were getting pretty hot and heavy. So I just slid down the bed, pressed his feet, and waited for my turn.”

  Oh my God, I thought. So he was into threesomes—and who knows what else. I was not the least surprised about Carol. I once saw the two of them coming down the stairs outside of his bedroom together. They were holding hands and she was acting like his lover. At the time, I wondered what they had been doing in his bedroom, but I never let myself think they were actually engaged in sexual activities, at least not in the worldly sense.

  Over the years, I chalked up the occasional uncomfortable scene of Prakash and miscellaneous female devotees as innocent. But mostly I just didn’t think about it, pushing any uncomfortable thoughts, like so many other thoughts about the gurus, to the far back corners of my mind—which eventually became a very crowded place.

  Suzy said her experiences with Prakash never reached the blissful heights she had experienced with the other man. “But I felt special.”

  Then one day, Prakash abruptly ended their encounters, telling her: “We need to let some time pass, and just be friends now.”

  “I was broken hearted,” she said. “I wondered what I had done wrong. I started working really hard around the ashram, cleaning and gardening, hoping I could regain his attention.”

  Now I understood why Suzy had been one of the hardest workers in the ashram, spending hours at a time doing hard manual labor. I always wondered why she was killing herself at all hours of the day and night.

  She told me that one day after he had rejected her, she was walking down a hallway and Prakash was walking toward her. She smiled at him. But he gave her a disgusted look, turned around, and walked in the other direction.

  “I almost died in that moment. I felt so dirty and so far from God,” she said, sadly.

  When I explained to her about the article Eric was researching and told her he needed women to share their experiences, she hesitated. She didn’t want to embarrass her son, who still lived in Austin. I assured her all the women would remain anonymous.

  “You know,” Suzy said, “it would be easy to say no to this. But now that I know Prakash was touching underaged girls, I feel the only moral thing to do is to speak out about something that is not right.

  “I’ll do it,” she said.

  83

  Kripalu’s Secret Lust

  Underage Virgins

  ONE OF THE MOST SHOCKING DETAILS that came out after the Trinidad incident was the news that this was not Kripalu’s first arrest on rape charges.

  He had been arrested in the early 1990s for raping two underaged girls in his. An article published in an Indian newspaper on 27 September 1991, detailed his arrest. The article used his real name: Ram Tripathi and was titled “Rangee Mizaaj Sadhu,” which can be roughly translated as: “the hedonistic sadhu who prefers worldly pleasures like money and women.” The following was translated from Hindi:

  “It was morning at Nagpur airport. Ten (10) police from Delhi went to the airport at 11:00. Inspector Takhur went to the airport for Tripathi. When the plane landed they were looking for one passenger whose name is Ram Tripathi. The police identified him as soon as he came out from the airport. He was apprehended and taken to the police station. People were saying that he was an ‘all-rounder’ saint, meaning the one who says he ‘knows everything.’ Yet Tripathi (aka, Kripalu) he didn’t know that police were waiting for him.

  “After arresting him at the police station, he was taken to the Nagpur court before First Grade Magistrate, Kureshi. They stated his crimes and said they had been looking for him for the past five months. He was being accused of raping and abducting two underage girls named Meera and Hema, and keeping them in his ashram. He is not a saint; he is a shame on humanity. An investigation had found that he was arrogant, fake, and a womanizer. He had touched many ladies and many young girls. Many people in and out of the courthouse were shouting that this Kripalu was fake and arrogant. They said: Give him the death penalty.

  “In his life, he had access to a lot of young devotee ladies. He gained their faith and trust, so they will do anything he asks. So whenever he wanted to indulge in his desire for sex, he found a way. He could get his sexual desire satisfied at any time. An organization gave him the title of jagadguru. One time he gave a lecture sitting on a silver throne. He announced himself that he is the descension of Bhagwan Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He said: ‘Whoever is present here I am your guru. I am already above everything. You accept guru as a higher position; sometimes more than even God. I am every man’s father and every woman’s husband. Whatever I order, you have to accept. Otherwise it will be meaningless.’ Devotees accepted whatever he said.

  “While giving this lecture he saw a beautiful girl in the lecture hall and told his servant to take that girl to his bedroom. When she was in his room, Kripalu closed the door. He ordered the girl to take off all her clothes. She got scared and asked why. Kripalu said, ‘I am giving you prem dhan.’ (This means ‘gift of love,’ and is used here as a euphemism for sex.) All your disease, misery, and pain will be gone. She said: ‘No I will not do that.’ Kripalu said: ‘If you don’t do it, something bad will happen to you. Think about it. Whatever I’m ordering, you do it.’ Then she got scared and took off all of her clothes. He raped her. This was in 1970.

  “In this way, Kripalu gave prem dhan (divine love) to many young girls. Educated young girls were also getting caught in the trap to get the prem dhan. There was a line to get the prem dhan. He made Mangarh the main center for prem dhan. At the time of his arrest, 84 girls were gathered over there to get the prem dhan. Also, in Vrindavan where he built an ashram, other girls were waiting for his prem dhan. The manager of his Vrindavan ashram was his elder daughter. He was not able to give all the prem dhan to all the women who wanted it. So he got some of the devotees to do some of the prem dhan. He gave them the opportunity to do, such as Priya Sharan. In July of 1984, in a small village near Phat Poor, there was a young man name Priya Sharan, who became his devotee. Kripalu selected him to help do the prem dhan, and he did it four years. He then left Kripalu, went to his own village, Sarovari, and opened his own ashram.

  “Kripalu has many devotees in many cities. But very important ones in Bombay included: Jai Shankar Maphur, Kantibai Patel, Bhagwan Shaw, and Videsh Jain. They were in the clothing and diamond businesses. He had devotees who gave lots of money. Some devo
tees were actresses and politicians. Kripalu’s fame was going to the ditch by February 1991 when he went to Nagpur where one of his devotee’s requested him to give a lecture on 16 February 1991. While giving the lecture, he noticed two very beautiful girls, Meera and Hema. They came with their father to listen to the lecture. Once he saw them, one of his devotees escorted them to his bedroom and Kripalu convinced them both to participate in prem dhan. But one devotee created trouble.

  “One young man named Niteen Pandey was a trusted devotee servant and very faithful. He thought of Kripalu as God. Kripalu changed his name to Swami Nityanand. One of his duties was taking care of a cooler outside one corner of Kripalu’s bedroom. Nityanand didn’t know about prem dhan. After the two girls had passed many hours alone with Kripalu, Nityanand thought, let me see what this prem dhan is and why it takes so long. He climbed on the cooler and from the window crack he saw things that shocked him. Kripalu and the two girls were all naked. He saw Hema and Kripalu naked on the bed and Meera naked on floor. He ran away from that place. He later found out that Kripalu went to Mangarh and at the same time the two girls disappeared. Then he learned that the girls were in Mangarh with Kripalu. He went and told their father the whole thing. Once he found out exactly what kind of person Kripalu really was, he got very very angry.”

  Unfortunately the rest of this article is missing from the copy I was given. But the presumption is that this man spoke out about Kripalu’s criminal behavior.

  Two other articles published in India in the early 1990s also spoke to the same issues. One reported: “Kripalu took very expensive sex-enhancing medication all the time so he could have sex at any time. All the devotee preachers have to be ready to satisfy his sexual desires at any time. He had a habit of seeing new movies with the new girls. Everyday, he likes to see a new movie with a new young girl.”

  One of the articles also speaks to his legal troubles: “With the help of a politician he got out on bond after his arrest for rape.”

  Presumably, he paid off even more officials, because eventually the case just went away. Here is a description of his rape of these girls from official legal documents filed in India:

  “On 10 May, 1994, Shri Purushottam Wasudeo Deshpande lodged report with the Police Station, Dhantoli, Nagpur, alleging that his two young daughters, namely Hema and Meera were kidnapped by the applicant No. 1 Priya Sharan Maharaj in connivance with one Sharvaridevi and Suhasini Narkhede. He further stated that his two daughters were attached for the last two years with the movements of Sanatan Dharma Shri Krishna Bhakti, under the auspicious of the applicant No. 1 i.e. Kripaluji Maharaj of Sadhna Bhawan Trust at village Managarh, District Pratapagarh (U.P.). On the basis of the report lodged by Shri Purushottam Deshpande, P.S.O., P.S. Dhantoli, Nagpur, registered an offence on 11-5-1991, punishable under Sections 363 and 366 of the Indian Penal Code, against the applicant No. 1 Shri Priya Sharan Maharaj, vide Crime No. 149/91.

  “During the investigation, the statements of Hema and Meera came to be recorded. From the statements of these two girls, it is revealed that the applicant No. 2 Kripaluji Maharaj is a highly immoral man and also greedy of money. Those who attended the discourses, used to be persuaded and prompted to bring their wives and daughters to attend the discourse of Kripaluji Maharaj. The applicant No. 2 has two female disciples or agents viz. Neelu Chourasia and Sarasvati Yadao, who used to entice the women and girls to attend the discourses as well as pursuing the women and girls to appear in a lonely place before the applicant No. 2. These two agents used to impress on the girls that the Maharaj is the incarnation of God.

  “In the lonely place, according to Hema and Meera, Maharaj was a most immoral and vulgar person who perforced (by physical coersion) used to commit sexual intercourse with the women and girls. Maharaj committed intercourse with them perforce. It was also impressed on their mind that it is nothing but a ‘Prasad’ of God and they have been blessed accordingly. In spite of this, the girls continued to stay in the vicinity of the Ashram and thereby they had no other choice than to succumb to the desire of the applicant No. 2. Therefore, according to these two girls named above, the applicant No. 2 Kripaluji Maharaj exploited the religious sentiments of the innocent girls in the name of God.”

  Like this daily secret sex factory with willing adult women, Kripalu had an established system for raping virgins.

  84

  Feeding the Beast

  Offering Virgins to the Guru

  AS I LEARNED MORE ABOUT THE REGULAR delivery of underaged girls to Kripalu by adult female devotees and preachers, I viewed him as a voracious rakshasa (demon).

  He reminded me of one of the stories I’d read in the Mahabharata about Bakasura, a cannibalistic, forest-dwelling rakshasa (demon) who terrorized the nearby human population. This demon demanded that local villagers take turns bringing him regular deliveries of food and human sacrifices. Like Bakasura, Kripalu demanded a steady diet of women. But what he craved most was the flesh of virgins. These were unwilling participants in his gopi-Krishna charade, were forced to comply by adults who sacrificed them, who wished to garner Kripalu’s good graces via their daughters, granddaughters, and random virgins.

  After I left Barsana Dham, a woman told me that one day she saw a fifty-five-year-old female devotee sitting despondent outside of Kripalu’s bedroom.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m sad because Maharaji no longer wants me. He only wants young girls now.”

  I eventually learned the stories of seven of the girls he had raped. But I am convinced this is a small percentage of the underage girls he has raped in his half-century career as a “guru.”

  My 2000 trip to India included a sixteen-year-old Indian girl with her mother. I later learned Kripalu had taken the girl’s virginity that summer with her mother’s full knowledge and consent. The girl had also been forced to dance for Kripalu every night during the “entertainment part” of satsang, during which many devotees performed dances and songs for his amusement. Prakash once said Kripalu likes it best when females “shake a lot” while dancing in front of him. Later we were told that older women should not perform for him, as he preferred the dancing of the younger girls.

  Years later this young woman would not publicly speak out about her abuse, except to one woman, whom I knew. She told the woman that Kripalu was not the only one who had molested her. She said Prakash too had touched her, starting when she was eight years old. Now she just wanted to be able to marry and have a decent life, and forget everything the gurus had done to her. She would not talk to anyone else.

  I also heard the story of a sixteen-year-old girl from Ireland who was brought to Barsana Dham in 2005 and taken to Kripalu by the woman who was her “chaperone.” I was told when the child returned home and her father heard about her sexual activities with Kripalu, he beat his daughter.

  There was an eleven-year-old girl in Barsana Dham who was taken to Kripalu’s bedroom by an “experienced” sixteen-year-old girl from Australia, who demonstrated in front of the young girl what to do when alone with Kripalu by engaging in sexual activities with him. The Australian girl, whose single mother had been taking her to Kripalu since she was three, had a long-running, unsually close relationship with him. The mother once told me her daughter would sit in his lap and hug him for hours. He nicknamed her “the leech.” I saw her clinging to him myself on my first trip to India. At that time, the pre-teenage girl was obviously his favorite. But it was years before I knew just what that meant.

  On the day that this teenager “performed” with Kripalu, the younger girl was so shocked at what she had witnessed that she ran to her grandmother’s room and told her what happened while in tears. Initially upset, the grandmother took her to Prakash and told him the story. He apparently said to them: “Don’t you trust me?”

  Apparently the grandmother did, because, during Kripalu’s second trip to Barsana Dham in 2007, the now thirteen-year-old girl was offered to him on a platter. She immediately became his favorite a
nd a regular fixture at his side. By this time, she was beautiful and nubile, with thick dark hair and white skin. From the minute Kripalu landed in Barsana Dham, she was a regular fixture at his side. She was frequently in his bedroom and often accompanied him on his outings from the ashram, such as shopping at the mall.

  The day I went to Vishi’s room to talk to her about private time with Kripalu, she used this teenage girl as an example of someone who had surrendered completely to Kripalu. “She sees nothing but Maharaji. She cares only about him. She has been his for many lifetimes. Now she is just one step away from the divine world.”

  I realized with this kind of psychology coming from the adults in her life, the girl didn’t stand a chance at a normal life. One day I asked the girl about spending so much time at the ashram and missing so much time from school. She said brazenly: “I lied to them and told them I have mononucleosis. They told me I’m not even allowed to go to school. Isn’t that funny?” Then she turned and walked away with a swing of her hips.

  During that trip, I couldn’t help but notice that the young girl changed from a bright, eager-to-please child into a prima donna—all within the span of a few weeks. One day I happened to overhear a conversation between the girl, her grandmother, and another woman. The two older women were telling the girl she had to learn to lie to her parents.

  “You have to be able to look them in the eyes and lie,” said the grandmother.

  “I know. Don’t worry, I will,” said the child with utmost confidence.