c. 1998 Religion News Service
MOSCOW _ While the world follows the twists and turns of the Bill and Monica story, the Hare Krishna community has a high-level sex scandal of its own _ complete with a woman named Monica.
Harikesa Swami Sri Vishnupad _ former chairman of the Hare Krishna movement’s international governing body _ prompted the scandal by announcing plans to marry the woman who nursed him through what has been alternately described as a coma and a breakdown.
As a priest who took vows of celibacy, his recent announcement challenged fundamental Hare Krishna principles and prompted at least 200 of his followers to break with the main 100,000-member Russian Hare Krishna community.
Vishnupad, 49, an American living in Germany whose secular name is Robert Compagnola, was suspended from his post as chairman of the Governing Body Commission (GBC) _ the 35-member panel that governs the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the formal name of the Hare Krishna movement, a Hindu offshoot. The GBC also revoked his authority to initiate new disciples.
In response, Vishnupad quit ISKCON and denounced it as a corrupt”communist”organization interested only in”money, power, buildings and fruitless institutionalization.” While the international Hare Krishna community has generally taken the developments in stride, Vishnupad’s Russian devotees have been deeply divided. He is one of about a dozen Hare Krishna gurus _ or spiritual leaders _ worldwide, but is by far the most influential in Russia.
At least 200 of his devotees, concentrated around a temple in St. Petersburg, have joined him in splitting with the movement.”We are disappointed in ISKCON. They are a bunch of scribes and pharisees,”said Karen Saakyan, president of the St. Petersburg temple and leader of the splinter group.”(The movement) doesn’t have any future. Vishnupad used to be its heart. Without him it is doomed.” The guru’s change of heart came after he fell into what some described as a coma in early June. Former colleagues said Vishnupad’s problem stemmed from medication he was taking for chronic fatigue, saying it made him emotionally and mentally unstable.
Anuttama Dasa, a Hare Krishna spokesman in Washington, D.C., said Vishnupad’s health problem”was actually a nervous breakdown.” Whatever his problem, Vishnupad recovered with help from a woman known as”Monica,”described as a healer. After his recovery, he told disciples celibacy was no longer right for him.
He also challenged the movement’s overall sexual mores, which strictly limit sex even among lay married couples.”I wish to change this rule of no illicit sex, which means no sex except for having children,”Vishnupad said in an August video address to Russian devotees.”It should be changed to no sex outside of marriage so that married couples can have normal and loving relationships.” Vishnupad said Hare Krishnas have to”constantly repress their various desires,”causing”unlimited problems to their minds.” He acknowledged that the movement was not ready for the change,”although everybody knows that something’s wrong,”and said he no longer wanted to be part of it.”I consider it a sect,”Vishnupad said.”Do not be dependent on some communist society. ISKCON is a communist society. Everyone knows that communism does not work.” Echoing his guru, Saakyan called ISKCON”a kind of a young pioneer camp”whose leaders have discredited themselves by”being jealous of their more advanced peer … I’m sure within a couple years 90 percent of ISKCON members will join us.” Sergei Zuyev, president of the Russian Krishna community, played down the importance of the split.”There is no schism going on. We’ve got 120 temples (around Russia) and only one of them has stepped aside,”he said.”It’s a healthy development process.” Saakyan said Vishnupad’s proposed reform is vital.”The Hare Krishna society is based on abstinence, but it’s not the crucial factor of spiritual growth,”he said.”People should be able to create families, but if they are allowed to have sex only once in their lives, why live together? Why torture each other? It turns into some sort of perversion.”
IRA END SOLOVYOVA