AUTHOR’S NOTE
February 2022 Edition
Excerpt from Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus
In the ten years since I published the first edition of my memoir, I have faced an ongoing onslaught of attacks and threats from my ex-cult, Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat (JKP), and its affiliates and die-hard followers. The title of this section of my book is, in fact, one of the many threats I’ve received in the past several years.
“You speak. You die.”
And yet, I have spoken out — a lot. I truly “found my voice” again — the voice the gurus silenced during the fourteen years I lived in their US ashram. Now, the cult members think they can continue to silence me, it seems.
However, along with writing my book and telling the whole story about my experience getting into and out of their wicked cult, I’ve participated in a long list of other ways to warn the unsuspecting people.
Becoming a Warrior for Truth
I started a blog and launched social media platforms. I spoke out at gatherings of people interested in my story. I spoke to newspaper and television reporters. I spoke with lawyers, district attorneys, the FBI, and U.S. Marshals. I was the lead contributor to a segment of the television show The Hunt with John Walsh. The episode told the story of my corrupt ex-gurus, including the arrest, conviction, and escape of one of them.
I also spoke with dozens of ex-members and people considering joining. I commiserated with those hurt by the organization, often brutally so. I warned newcomers as best as I could. Yet, many people struggled to believe the truth, and to reconcile what they thought they saw in person, on videos, or read in the cult’s books.
They thought that the main guru, now dead, had been the fifth Jagadguru, Radha-Krishna incarnate, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu reincarnated — all in one. That is what the organization propagates, and what so many want to believe. Meanwhile, the truth is harsh, ugly, even repulsive. Admittedly, it’s hard to take.
Telling Their Secrets
Whenever I spoke out, no matter what questions I was asked, I answered them all to the best of my ability. I shared everything I had learned about JKP and its secret sex cult. The daily sex schedule. The adult women willingly having sex with the guru. The guru raping uncountable numbers of underage girls, all brought to him by the women—preachers, helpers, and devotees.
It was a secret world I did not know existed until I was fourteen years into their “religion.” I wasn’t a part of that world: I was a part of another world.
In hindsight, I realize that I lived in the organization, yet apart from it. I lived in the world I thought it was, not what it was. I was celibate, a vegetarian, and a dedicated, faithful follower. I was truly devoted to finding God.
But the one thing I wasn’t, the one thing that set me apart from those who supported the gurus and stayed after their sordid lifestyle was exposed to the world, was that I was not willing to become an apologist for and enabler of pedophiles.
Finding My Truth
I had bought a lot of their lie over the years, but I had a line — and they crossed it.
Today, years after Kripalu and Prakashanand have died, people ask me, “Is it safe now?”
I tell them unequivocally, “No, it’s not safe. Because everyone who runs it now was trained firsthand by one of the sickest, most twisted people to ever walk this planet. I would not trust a single person in that organization with my body, mind, soul, or bank account.”
I’m republishing my book now, ten years after the first edition, to update the story — and to help keep my cautionary tale alive for seekers of truth.
My message is look behind the curtain before you leap. Is there a true spiritual guide there or just a pathetic little man frantically pushing buttons and pulling levers?
Learn more about my memoir Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus.
