深空彼岸辰东
ISKCON turmoil: Its icon ""falls for a woman""Ashis ChakrabartiMayapur (West Bengal), Nov 12: A religious cult guru, a woman, a tantrik, ``slow-poisoning’’ drugs and a network of conspirators spread across the globe at least, that’s how ISKCON chief Harikesh Swami’s affair with a woman in Germany, his subsequent fall and the current turmoil in the cult are being presented by his disciples at its spiritual headquarters here.Not that visitors to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) ashram here can feel this turmoil. It remains serene as ever: The grand temple ringed by manicured lawns, rows of beautiful buildings overlooking the Ganges; saffron-clad sanyasis and white-clothed brahmacharis quietly filing past streams of devotees chanting their prayers.Yet, all’s not well ever since members and devotees were jolted by the news that the chairman of the ISKCON’s governing body commission (GBC), Harikesh Swami, who is of German origin, had ``fallen for a woman’’ in the temple at Arbentur, a small town near Cologne in Germany, and left theorder.This wasn’t just another setback. For, not only was Harikesh Swami the elected chief of the rich and powerful global cult founded by Srila Prabhupad, a Bengali from Calcutta, in 1965 he had also become something of an icon. There are stories of his risking his life spreading ``Krishna consciousness’’ in the former Soviet Union and the Communist bloc countries in East Europe for the past 30 years. The founder himself called him ``my greatest grandson.’’So this was no ordinary fall. The chief guru was ``involved with a woman’’ in a place where sanyasis aren’t allowed to sit with women in private. And what shocked the entire order was that Harikesh Swami, when he left, criticised disowned ISKCON and its founder, Prabhupad.All this shook us,’’ says Jananivas Das, a British sanyasi who became the founder’s disciple in 1971 and is now the head pujari (priest) of the Chandrodaya Temple here. He’s quick to add: ``Individuals may fall but the organisation remains.’’Says Hari Sauri Das, anotherBritish sanyasi who was the founder’s ``personal servant’’ and GBC member: ``Prabhupad created ISKCON in such a way that no one person can run it, ruin it or run away with it.’’Still, when the GBC suspended Harikesh Swami in July, many of his disciples, particularly in Russia and east Europe, revolted. The temple in St Petersburg broke away from ISKCON. ``But we stuck to our decision. Which shows we deal firmly with deviants, no matter how important they may be,’’ says Dayarama Das, chief executive officer at the ashram here.But how did this all happen? The answer, according to some like Advaita Das and Jagatartiha Das, two of Harikesh Swami’s disciples, lies in a ``murky conspiracy’’ that involved not only the woman but a tantrik from Orissa who administered some drugs to the Swami for many years.Also part of this ``ring’’ were ``some people within ISKCON who were jealous of him. And ``maybe even the KGB which wanted to kill him for his role in spreading ISKCON in Communist countries.’’Thisconspiracy theory says that the drugs affected Swami. ``It was like slow poison,’’ says Advaita Das. Dayarama Das claims the drug’s dangerous effect had been ``proved’’ in a German laboratory. The Swami’s two disciples also suspect that the woman, who was supposed to be a New Age faith healer, was sent to their guru in a ``pre-planned manner to lead him astray.’’The problem is that news of the Harikesh Swami affair has come along with other disturbing reports like the allegations of sexual harassment of a disciple’s daughter by a sanyasi of the ISKCON’s New Delhi temple and of child abuse by cult members in the US.Following (such) reports, our members were attacked in places like Howrah, Durgapur, Bankura and even in Assam,’’ complains Dayarama Das.He adds, ``The media has presented things with a slant as if we are a bunch of homosexuals or sex maniacs. Even some of our devotees have starting wondering if it’s safe to send their daughters to our ashram.’’But there is a growing voice of dissentwithin ISKCON which dismisses the conspiracy theory. The ``deviations’’ of Harikesh Swami, according to the dissenters who have formed the ISKCON Reform Group, are a direct fallout of ``guruvad’’ or the guru system. The founder, they say, is the ``only guru’’ and he never wanted ``gurus’’ in succession after his death, only ritwiks (priests) to initiate disciples. Guruvad, in their opinion, is at the root of the cult’s evils.Rubbish from some over-intelligent people,’’ reacts Hari Sauri Das. ``The guru-disciple tradition is as old as Vaisnavism. Besides, I can vouch that Prabhupad left no scope for ambiguity on the question.’’Both sides swear by letters and taped conversations of the founder shortly before his death in 1977. But then each camp is accusing the other of ``tampering’’ with evidence. It’s a cloak-and-dagger debate, quite like the mystery over Harikesh Swami’s fall from grace.Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.我说的是我个人的情况：自己用多了电脑肩膀和背痛，练两次瑜伽就能舒服下来.. 感觉应该么什么害的，除非学的是不正宗的吧（？）感觉练下来除了身体外，还能让人心境平静下来，增强忍耐力
