Betrayal of the Spirit: My Life behind the Headlines of the Hare Krishna Movement

by Nori J. Muster, Larry D. Shinn (Foreword)

Combining behind-the-scenes coverage of an often besieged religious group with a personal account of one woman's struggle to find meaning in it, Betrayal of the Spirit takes readers to the center of life in the Hare Krishna movement. Nori J. Muster joined the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)--the Hare Krishnas--in 1978, shortly after the death of the movement's spiritual master, and worked for ten years as a public relations secretary and editor of the organization's newspaper, the ISKCON World Review. In this candid and critical account, Muster follows the inner workings of the movement and the Hare Krishnas' progressive decline. Combining personal reminiscences, published articles, and internal documents, Betrayal of the Spirit details the scandals that beset the Krishnas--drug dealing, weapons stockpiling, deceptive fundraising, child abuse, and murder within ISKCON–as well as the dynamics of schisms that forced some 95 percent of the group's original members to leave. In the midst of this institutional disarray, Muster continued her personal search for truth and religious meaning as an ISKCON member until, disillusioned at last with the movement's internal divisions, she quit her job and left the organization. In a new preface to the paperback edition, Muster discusses the personal circumstances that led her to ISKCON and kept her there as the movement's image worsened. She also talks about "the darkest secret"–child abuse in the ISKCON parochial schools--that was covered up by the public relations office where she worked.

Genres: Religion, Cults, Memoir, Nonfiction, Cult Classics

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1996

Reviews

[Rama Rao]

The spiritual odyssey of a Krishna follower

The author was looking for a spiritual direction in her life, and she found that in the Hare Krishna movement. In the beginning, she found ISKCON was filled with joy, happiness, and peace, but when she left the organization after a decade; she found it scarred with scandals, enmity, and descended in disgrace. The death of the founder Prabhupada brought changes and years of confusion which was tumultuous. No one in the organization comprehended what would be the fate of the organization at this critical period of its life. Many followers left in disgust or disappointment. The Governing body council (GBC) made of 11 men enforced its rules, but for believers, the rigid patriarchal structure was too hard to bear and some henchmen including the gurus, and local temple leaders took advantage of their political might and subjected their followers, especially women and children to abuse. The taste of money and power corrupted many leaders.

Many people think that this book is similar to John Hubner's scandal filled book "Monkey on a Stick," but actually this is different from it in its narrative style and the story. This is partly an autobiography where the author discusses the spiritual joy of Krishna consciousness she experienced in the beginning and her father's positive influence in her personal, professional and spiritual life. This book in some way is similar to Mukunda Goswami's "Inside Hare Krishna Movement," which focused on ISKCON global communication strategies. Likewise this book also focuses mainly on issues surrounding the governing body and the dissemination of information through the organization's publicity wing, the "The ISKCON World Review." One of the responsibilities of the author was to disseminate the ISKCON news as it happened and also ensure that it creates positive image for the organization.

This book does not get into details of the scandals as John Hubner does in his book "Monkey on a stick," but discusses the issues and the steps the PR department has to take to minimize the damage and correct the erroneous ways of the individual or the group involved. Issues like women raising more money than men in sankirtan program but they never had any say in the managing the organization or sankirtan parties. The PR department urged temple leaders to change their ways of doing their business. The Los Angles temple took steps to change this practice and set an example for other temples. The 1973 attack on deities at New Vrindaban by a group of motor bikers discusses the bad media publicity on the organization and the subsequent investigations that lead to the detection of stockpiling of assault weapons. The Rishabdev of Laguna Beach temple was explosive news since his connection to drug dealers in Southern California to raise money for temple projects caused concern for the principles on which the organization was found. The biggest challenge to the PR department, the author recalls is the 1980 raid in San Francisco and the large cache of weapons found on the temple property. Guru Hansadatta strongly believed that the war between United States and Soviet Union was inevitable and he thought they had to defend ISKCON organization in an armed struggle. It was getting harder to keep the organization from media assault and the crippling effect it had on ISKCON. Other problems for PR department were GBC unity, guru reform, initiation by suspended guru's and stealing of devotes from another guru. Certain media coverage helped the organization such as Life magazine's cover page picture of Hare Krishna girls in saris and the gopi makeup provided a positive image of ISKCON. Chapter 9 entitled "The gurus start world war III" is an interesting account of the evolution of several splinter groups around the country by ex-ISKCON members.

Bill Muster, the author's father had experience as a PR person in the "Save the Delta Queen" campaign to win congressional exemptions from legislation. He guides the author in her publicity/marketing of the movement, and provides positive impact on her professional life. He is even positive about her joining the ISKCON movement and not pleased when she leaves it. One of the touching parts of her personal story involving her father is in the last few pages when he is dying of cancer. He finds peace in God and the faith that his soul would continue after death. His last wish was to be cremated after his death and ashes dispersed in the southeastern part of India amid chanting of sacred hymns by a Viashnava priest at a remote Hindu temple on the edge of Bay of Bengal.

Even though many have fallen and left Krishna life entirely, some are spiritually compelled to go back to the movement because of its metaphysics, the rituals and Krishna consciousness. Reincarnation, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, chanting, and meditation have become common to many in the West, partly because of the determination and courage of Prabhupada to come to United Sates to save thousands of souls which otherwise would have been lost to drugs, sex and alcohol.

[Paula]

I admire the intention of the author, who offers an honest, respectful, and balanced view of the Hare Krishna movement from the inside. Her account avoids sensationalism and provides intricate details of life inside ISKCON. Maybe this is unfair, but I would have appreciated knowing a bit more of her personal philosophy, maybe some more editorializing about what finally drove her to leave. She does occasionally address the sexism of the movement, and glances on the unwholesomeness of the group's treatment of children, but she sidesteps the topic of the horrific abuses that reportedly went on in the boarding schools. It's possible that the lawsuits brought on by the now-adult children who suffered abuse post-dated the publication of her book, but did she know about them before writing? These kids' stories have not been properly presented to the public, and I wish the author had discussed this. But, again, it's unfair to expect this book to cover everything.

[Jim Burns]

Interesting topic...
The book gives a specific view of ISKCON’s troubled history after the passing of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...
The author was part of ISKCON’s PR Dept and involved with publishing the ISKCON World Review.

The book does get a bit dry at times. I did feel like a was reading news reports but I would still recommend the book..

[Michael Nguyen]

This book was okay, it didn't exactly shed any further insight into my understanding of the Hare Krishna movement as a whole. I was hoping there would be more of an analysis on what had happened in the organisation and the managerial structure. I preferred Henry Doktorski's book Killing For Krishna, as I found it shed more light on what had happened in regards to the murder of Sulochana.

[Leigha]

Fantstic book that gives a wonderful outline, or inidication, of some of the things that troubled ISKCON after its founder passed away. I think everyone thinking of joining ISKCON should read this so the have an idea of its past 'teething' issues.

[Kin]

Definitely not what I was expecting. The author just sort of hand-waves the travesties that occurred as “scandals” and doesn’t seem to question the power structures that allowed them to happen outside of how they effected her PR job and the sorts of things she could report on.

[Carol]

The author was a member of the team that produced the newspaper that went out to Hare Krishna members worldwide and as such was privy to inside information not available to most members of the organization. The unique vantage point of the author is what makes this book worth reading if you want to understand how an organization like this under stress slowly falls apart.

What is so surprising is that even with murder, child abuse, and the corruption of many leaders of the organization the author still took many years to finally decide to leave this group. As a reader with little confidence in organized religion I found it a fascinating psychological read. What was it that made it so hard for Muster and others to leave this group? Many did finally decide to leave over time but it was very hard for most of them to psychologically break away. In fact many still maintained some contact with the group or formed splinter groups. It reminded me of the Reformation and how so many Protestant sects formed after breaking away from the Catholic church.

While the Hare Krishnas can seem bizarre with their Indian dress and chanting the internal disunion is a familiar theme and can be seen in many Protestant or Catholic splinter religious groups today that disagree with dogma or the personality of the group leader.

Muster quotes a psychological study that found that most members of this sect had an obsessive compulsive aspect to their personality. This is most evident in the requirement that each member spend hours each day chanting prayers (japa) over and over and counting the prayers on their prayer beads. Failure to do this was grounds for expulsion.

The book is well written, but I give it only three stars because it seems to me that it would have a very narrow readership. I don't think there are many who want to know the details of what happened to the movement in the 1980s, but for anyone who does this is a worthwhile read.

[Andy]

this was yet another great book about the corruption within the Hare Krishna movement. But it was written from an insiders view as far as her being a devotee yet also somewhat on the outside as a woman. Since this was written i know many in the movement have worked to remove the sexism which i think was made out of hand by the very gurus who were corrupt anyhow. But back to the review of the book, i really liked that it also had a personal spin regarding her relationship with her father. A great read!

[Mathias]

I find books on the "Hare Krishna" movement to be insightful, especially when trying to understand the misfortunes that have plagued ISKCON since the departure of Prabhupada.

[BRAIN_QUEEN]

i thought this was a very good personal recollection of a woman's time during the transition period of the hare krishna movement.

[Jane]

reread again...still an awesome book filled with joy pain commitment and dissolution