by Karen Jonson
Also, the JKP preachers will live on to help recruit new warm bodies to provide the cash they crave and the women that others have been groomed to “grace.” JKP’s preachers are located in many countries around the world, and have started new organizations with different names, such as JKP Yog, Divine Club Worldwide, and Radha Madhav Society. They’ve all been well trained by a master conman, Kripalu, and will most probably work to continue propogating the con game for themselves. There are many stories leaking out about sexual abuse among various JKP preachers, as well as the financial abuses. So please keep yourself and your family members safe.
In May 2014, one of JKP’s followers was arrested while he attempted to travel from Nepal to India with almost $80,000 in cash. Transporting cash between countries is presumed to be one of JKP's methods for transporting cash donations into India from around the world.
As of January 2015, although his whereabouts is well known, Prakash had not been caught—and likely never will be, unless the citizens of India complain that a convicted child molestor is free in their country—because JKP and devotees are probably paying off government officials to keep Prakash a free man. The devotees who aided and abetted his escape have not yet been held accountable for helping a convicted felon flee and hide. The U.S. Marshals have not given up on capturing Prakash. They know where he is hiding in India, but they need the cooperation of the India government to arrest him. At the publication of this book, the India government had not yet assisted in Prakash’s capture. As long as the organization exists and I am alive, I will continue to provide updates about this cult to the public at large, and advise people to steer clear.
You can follow the ongoing story on in the following locations:
Website:
www.sexliesandtwohindugurus.com
Blogs:
www.theinnerwisdomproject.com
www.rishikaxcult.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/theinnerwisdomproject
www.facebook.com/rishikaxcult
Twitter:
@InnerWisdomDevi
AFTERWORD
The Authentic Guru-Disciple
Tradition in Hinduism
Commentary by
Dr. Madhu P. Godsay
Austin, Texas
Author’s Note: Prior to the publication of my book in 2012, I asked my friends, Sushma and Deepak Burman, if they could recommend someone to provide me with insight into Hinduism’s long history of the guru-disciple relationship. While telling the story of a warped twist on this tradition, I also wanted to provide a view of the actual tradition of this relationship. They immediately said, “Dr. Madhu Godsey,” a respected businessman and Hinduism teacher. I spoke with Dr. Godsay and he graciously agreed to write this chapter of my book. I’m so happy to be able to share his insight.
* * *
In the preceding pages, you read the story of the Barsana Dham ashram and the experiences of the author of this book. It is natural to feel disappointed, angry, and frustrated when we meet people possessing demonic dispositions. It is our misfortune when we fatefully get involved with such people, who will stop at nothing when it comes to lust, power, insatiable desires, and money. These types of people strive to amass, by unfair means, hoards of money and other things for the enjoyment of their sensual pleasures.
All religious traditions suffer from these types of guileless people, who constantly deceive people and prey on the innocent and gullible believers. The exploitation goes on, whether it is a religion or any other organization. These people, posing as “gurus,” are beyond any conscious ethics and morals. In most cases, therefore, it is not the tradition that is at fault. It is the fault of these deceptive personalities, who are exploiting the people who come to them and the traditions in which they faithfully believe.
It is my intention to describe, briefly, the authentic guru-shishya parampara (guru-disciple tradition), which dates back to literally thousands of years in India. It is still alive and well in India to this day. However, this tradition is not monopolized by India. The Western world has also seen the epoch of teacher-student relationships, which existed in Greece in the fourth century B.C., such as the famous triad of Socrates-Plato-Aristotle.
Although the word “guru” is used loosely today to denote an expert in any particular field, it is mainly related to spirituality. In Sanskrit, the letter “gu” stands for darkness (in other words, ignorance) and the letter “ru” means that which removes the darkness. Thus, a guru is a teacher who removes the ignorance (darkness) from his disciple and helps him evolve into a person with appropriate spiritual knowledge.
“Shishya” means disciple. The root of this Sanskrit word is “shas” meaning to teach, instruct, or provide discipline. Traditionally, the student is seeking knowledge, particularly spiritual knowledge. He or she desires knowledge, and is ready and willing to follow a teacher’s instructions and discipline. The teacher, as the disciple’s wellwisher, is capable of imparting the knowledge, and is of clean character and above worldly affairs. The place where teaching takes place is called an ashram, which should be a quiet, simple place, away from the city environment, and conducive for spiritual development. Typically, the teacher and student are celibates. No material exchanges and transactions of any kind take place between them. This fact is a very important aspect of this relationship in Hindu tradition. Otherwise, it opens the door for exploitation of the student by the teacher.
This lack of a business-type relationship between the student and guru is essential. The student should never put his trust and devotion in a teacher who requests anything, either money, possessions, or anything physical. Once the student has found such a desire-less, non-self-serving teacher, only then can the student have confidence in the teacher’s capability and show respect for his knowledge. This relationship must remain pure for the entire duration of the relationship.
It is important that this relationship remains pure. The student should be seeking nothing else but knowledge, and the guru should be taking nothing from the student. The student’s “surrender” to a guru should be based on the secure knowledge that he or she is not being taken advantage of or exploited by the guru.
What’s more, it’s important to understand that the student’s trust and devotion are not supposed to be based on blind faith or an expectation of miracles from the guru. Trust in the guru is supposed to be verifiable. In other words, there must be clear proof that the teacher actually possesses spiritual knowledge and is capable of imparting it. Without veracity, a person posing as a guru can say or do anything.
There are various famous pairs of guru-shishya in Hindu scriptures. In the Upanishads, one finds many philosophical dialogues between teachers and students. For instance, in the Mundakopanishad, the creator teaches his son Atharva, and Atharva teaches his disciple Angiva, and so on and so forth. Another famous scriptural pair is Lord Krishna and his disciple Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. In modern India, various saints such as Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Chinmayananda, Swami Dayananad, etc., have imparted knowledge to hundreds of their disciples.
In India, Hindu children learn that their mothers and fathers are their first gurus. Then other gurus follow throughout their lives, including a spiritual guru. The highest guru is the one who teaches and gives the experience of “tat twam asi,” meaning, “You are Bhrahman (God).” Guru Dattatreya was once asked by King Yadhu the secret of his happiness and the name of his guru. He said, “Atman (self) is my guru, yet I learned wisdom from nature.”
Gurus can be roughly divided into two main classes:
1. Bhakti (devotion) tradition, which is related to loving a form of god.
2. Gyan (knowledge) tradition, which is related to impersonal devotion.
The bhakti form of the guru-shishya relationship generally incorporates:
* Devotion to the guru as a divine figure.
* The belief that such a guru will eventually impart moksha (liberation), peace, or divine power to the
shishya.
* The belief that the shishya, with strong devotion and preparedness, will gain the merit.
The danger in the bhakti tradition lies in the choice of a guru. There is real danger that ignorance and blind faith can mislead a shishya from what he or she is really seeking. In the gyan-based relationship, there is less danger of deceit, because the student does not worship the guru as God. Some learned and God-realized people, like J. Krishnamurti and Lahiri Mahasaya, refused to allow their followers to organize any kind of organization or sampraday around them. Their relationship was strictly based on the exchange of knowledge. The guru’s only goal is to help the shishya accomplish his or her spiritual advancement via his or her own ability to look within from a healthy, unattached perspective.
In the annals of guru-shishya tradition there are various types of sampradayas (organizations). There are the demonic types—like the Bernie-Maddox-type (the infamous U.S. investment conman), who prey on people’s innocence, beliefs, and gullibility. This is what we witnessed with the Barsana Dham episode, and its fake gurus, who were clearly only interested in exploiting people.
However, despite the people with ulterior motives acting as gurus, having wrong intentions, and no true knowledge to impart, the tradition of the teacher-student relationship in spiritual advancement has endured over thousands of years—and will continue to endure long into the future. With so many calling themselves “guru” today, it is more important than ever before for every student seeking a guru to hold that guru up to the standards that have endured throughout the ages. True knowledge, right motivation, and pure intentions
Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
Peace, Peace, Peace
For more information or if you have questions about Dr. Godsay’s commentary, please contact him here: [email protected].
BIOGRAPHY
Karen Jonson
Author of
Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus
NOTHING IN MY PRE-GURU YEARS HINTED AT the direction my life would ultimately take.
I had no clue I would one day become a renounced Hindu nun living in an ashram, worshipping two “gurus,” who called themselves saints. Nor did I imagine I would eventually reveal the two men as nothing more than conmen clad in orange clothing. I certainly never imagined I would play an instrumental role in exposing their lies and secrets to the world.
As a life-long introvert and comfortable wallflower, I had never taken on a cause before—nor did I plan to. But then, I had never before been faced with such a horrible reality. With no pre-planning on my part, I woke up one day with a burning need to publically promote the truth about my former “gurus.” I was driven by a powerful force within me to become a spokesperson, advocating for all the victims and potential victims of this cult—and to hopefully save people from this fate.
The new direction of my life began the day I learned the truth about the organization I had joined fourteen years earlier. In the beginning, I believed I had found the one true spiritual path to God. But one fateful day, the truth came spilling out online in dozens of articles and hundreds of comments, mostly from anonymous writers with dark secrets to tell. While the revelations devastated me, the fact that no one had warned me sooner unsettled me to the core. I decided in that moment that I would not be one of the silent ex-members to leave this cult and never speak out. I decided that I would not keep their secrets!
My commitment to this cause led me in several directions—including revealing secrets of the cult to an investigative newspaper journalist, talking to an FBI agent, working with a group of ex-devotees to support the gurus’ victims, sharing insider information with the attorneys prosecuting one of the gurus, starting a blog and a Facebook page to get the word out to the public, and answering questions from people who contacted me to find out who these men really are.
The culmination of my efforts to get this important information out to people who have been conned or who might one day be conned by this organization is my book: Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus.
My hope is that Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus will give readers a rare inside look at how one cult con game operates, how it has ruined hundreds of people’s lives, what the gurus were actually doing behind closed doors, and why no one has stopped this organization and its fake gurus from raping underage girls, taking people’s money, and ruining people’s lives. If my book helps keep people out of the clutches of these two madmen and their wicked organization, then it will have been a success. However, I hope this book helps uncountable people steer clear of JKP—and all other self-serving and destructive spiritual con games operating in the world today.
My prayer is that everyone will realize they are already divine, and are here to experience God’s material creation, realize their innate divine inner selves, and live a beautiful life.
GLOSSARY OF HINDI TERMS
Arti
A traditional Hindu ceremony that includes waving a small decorated tray with oil candles in a circular motion in front of an image or statue of God while singing a prayer. At the end of the ceremony, people pass their hands over the flame to receive a blessing.
Besan Flour
Chickpea flour, commonly used in Indian cooking.
Bhakti
A form of devotion in Hinduism that expresses love for God and guru.
Bhao
A devotional state of mind where a person is deeply focused on his or her love for God, and during which the devotee has intense feelings and physical manifestations, such as crying, moaning, or swaying.
Charan
Literally, feet. This word was used as a euphemism in JKP: charan seva meant pressing the guru’s body.
Crore
Denomination of money in India, ten million rupees—about $250,000 U.S.
Dal
A soup made of any kind of split legume or bean, such as one of the most popular made from split yellow lentils, called toor dal.
Darshan
An auspicious viewing of the guru or image of God.
Davat
Feast.
Dharma.
The moral force that orders the universe, and a person’s duty to live a responsible life.
Didi
Literally, sister, but also a respectful title of an older woman.
Dosa
Crispy, thin pancake, sometimes with savory stuffing, such as potatoes.
Dhoti
A men’s garment in India, which is a rectangular piece of unstitched cloth, usually around five yards long, wrapped around the waist and the legs, and knotted at the waist.
Gopis
Refers to the group of divine cow-herding girls, who are famous within Hinduism’s Vaishnava theology for their unconditional devotion (bhakti) to Krishna.
Halva
A traditional eastern sweet typically made with a variety of flours, sugar, butter, and water.
Holi
A Hindu festival held in spring, which is celebrated by throwing colored powder or water on each other. It is sometimes called the festival of colors.
Kirtan
Chanting or singing, usually in a group.
Lakh
Denomination of money in India: 100,000 rupees—about $2,200 U.S.
Leelas
The divine activities of gods and gurus; the activities could be anything at all.
Maya
The earthly material world.
Mandala
Circle. It can be artwork or a circle-shaped place for devotional activities.
Mela
An Indian fair.
Pakora
A deep-fried snack, made using vegetables and batter.
Paneer
A type of homemade cheese made by boiling milk and splitting the solids from the whey with an acid like lemon juice (aka, cottage cheese).
Parikrama
Often refers to a pilgrimage (either a long or short walk) for religious purposes.
Pau Bhaji
An Indian spiced vegetable �
��sloppy joe” type of meal served on a bun.
Pranam
Bowing to someone out of respect.
Prashad
Food that is blessed after it is offered to God or a guru.
Ras
Literally means “juice” or “nectar,” and often refers to the essence of some spiritual teaching.
Rakhi
A string bracelet tied on the wrist as a symbol of love and protection.
Rakshasa
Demon.
Roti
Flat, round Indian bread shaped like a tortilla.
Sadhu
A renounced holy person.
Samadhi
It has been described as a non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object.
Samosa
A fried vegetable dumpling.
Sanskar
Refers to the effect from past-life experiences, either good or bad, that impact a person’s present life (similar to karma).
Sanyas
The act of giving up worldly pursuits and dedicating one’s life to God.
Sanyasi
A person who has given up worldly pursuits and dedicated his or her life to God.
Satsang
A gathering of people for prayer, chanting, and worship.
Sattvic
Pure.
Seva
Service (such as cleaning or cooking) done in the name of God, usually to receive blessings.
Shakti
Power, usually meaning divine power.
Shloka
Passages from scriptures that are typically sung.
Sooji
Course semolina flour.
Tamsi
Impure.
Tan-man-dhan.
Body, mind, and wealth.
Tilak
An auspicious painted mark, usually on the forehead, commonly designating a person’s sect within Hinduism.
