Gurukula on Light of Dharma Publishing

Homeschooling in ISKCON Communities

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 20:25:45 +0200

The history of education in ISKCON represents one of the movement’s most painful chapters—a story of idealism corrupted by institutional failure, children traumatized by systemic abuse, and a decades-long struggle to reconcile Prabhupada’s spiritual vision with the practical realities of raising Krishna conscious children in the modern world. Today, as many ISKCON families turn to homeschooling and cooperative learning models, critical questions remain: Have we truly learned from the past? And are current educational approaches aligned with Prabhupada’s original instructions?

The Enabler's Playbook: A Case Study of Bhakti Vikasa Swami

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bhakti Vikasa Swami, an ISKCON guru with over 3,500 disciples worldwide, has delivered multiple lectures defending child abusers: a 2016 audio lecture in Brno, Czech Republic (“Regarding Child Abuse”), an April 2024 video lecture on YouTube (“Perspectives On Child Abuse,” later removed after pushback), and an August 2025 lecture in Croatia (“Response to Disturbances in Vaishnava Society”). These lectures demonstrate how institutional attitudes enable ongoing abuse. Most significantly, in January 2025, these attitudes translated into action when he facilitated a convicted child sex offender’s access to children. When criticized for this incident, his August 2025 lecture responded not by addressing child protection concerns but by attacking critics as engaged in “lifelong campaigns” who need to “just get over it.”

When God's Representative Endangers Children: The Guru Mentality That Makes Abuse Inevitable

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How does a religious leader with 3,500 disciples worldwide publicly defend child abusers for nine years, facilitate a convicted sex offender’s access to children during a 25-hour train journey, then respond to criticism by telling abuse survivors to “just get over it”—while thousands of followers continue their devotion without demanding accountability?

The answer isn’t mysterious. It’s the predictable result of specific psychological frameworks that make such conduct seem not only acceptable but spiritually justified. Understanding these mechanisms reveals why religious communities with histories of abuse continue endangering children despite overwhelming evidence, institutional reforms, and public outrage.