Word: vrindaban
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...Dial Om for Murder" was the catchy title in Rolling Stone. The 1987 article told of drugs, sexual abuse and bodies buried helter-skelter at New Vrindaban, the 3,000-acre community built in West Virginia by members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, better known as Hare Krishnas. The journalist-authors, John Hubner of the San Jose Mercury News and Lindsey Gruson of the New York Times, who teamed up for the piece, have apparently found the association rewarding. Monkey on a Stick is their expanded, though not necessarily deepened, account of the Hindu religious movement that started...
...convinced that drug smuggling was another major source of income. One of the dealers was Charles St. Denis, who, the authors say, was killed for, among other things, withholding money from Kirtanananda. The guru has repeatedly denied involvement in either the dope business or the homicides. A New Vrindaban fringe member named Dan Reid (Daruka) and a commune enforcer, Thomas Drescher (Tirtha), are currently serving prison sentences in West Virginia for the St. Denis murder. Drescher is also awaiting a California trial for the execution of a devotee who was trying to get Kirtanananda thrown out of the movement. Kirtanananda...
...authors are frank about their methodology. They are also quick to insert disclaimers that their expose of New Vrindaban is meant to discredit the whole Hare Krishna movement. But it does, mainly because their approach focuses almost exclusively on bizarre and scandalous events. Following the 1977 death of founder A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, each of his closest disciples split off to establish his own turf. For example, Hans Kary of Hoboken, N.J., headed for Berkeley, where, as Hansadutta, he became a Krishna guru who financed rock-'n'-roll albums and amassed an arsenal of firearms...
...dark star of the book is Keith Ham, a former doctoral student of religious history at Columbia University, known as Kirtanananda. He established New Vrindaban, whose temple dome and walls were sheathed in gold leaf. From there he controlled the lives of his 300 subjects, stripping them of personal assets and arranging their marriages...
Inquiries by the FBI and the state police are under way in West Virginia. William Kolibash, U.S. Attorney for northern West Virginia, will impanel a grand jury Sept. 15 to probe possible murder conspiracy and drug dealing at New Vrindaban. Said Kolibash: "The Bryant homicide triggered the inquiry...