stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

THE SIXTH BEATLE 53
The Beatles ... parted with Maharishi in 1969 with the public
comment that he was “addicted to cash” (Klein and Klein,
1979).
John and Yoko, interestingly, later came to believe that they
were the reincarnations of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
respectively. (One of Yoko’s songs on their joint album Milk and
Honey is titled, “Let Me Count the Ways.”)
No word on who Ringo might have been.
George soon became heavily involved with the Hare Krishnas
—as one might have gathered from the chorus to his “My Sweet
Lord” single—although ultimately leaving them completely out of
his will. Indeed, at one point members of Hare Krishna were
signed to Apple Records as the “Radha Krishna Temple.” They released
at least one chanted single on that label, which made it into
the “Top 20” in September of 1969. The Krishnas’ Bhaktivedanta
Manor headquarters in London, too, was actually a gift from Harrison—which
he at one point threatened to transfer to Yogananda’s
Self-Realization Fellowship instead, when the Krishnas were not
maintaining the grounds to his satisfaction (Giuliano, 1989).
The devotional/mantra yoga-based Hare Krishna movement
itself is rooted in the extremely patriarchal Vedic culture (c. 7000
BC India). It was brought to the United States in the mid-1960s by
the now-late Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada—who soon
starred in a San Francisco rock concert featuring the Grateful
Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin. Prabhupada’s own guru
was claimed to be an avatar. (George, John and Yoko participated
in an extended interview with Prabhupada in 1969, which was
kept in print in booklet form by the Krishna organization for many
years afterwards. Harrison also wrote the foreword for Prabhupada’s
book, Krishna: The Supreme Personality of Godhead.)
Details along the following lines as to the alleged horrendous
goings-on within the Hare Krishna community, including widespread
claims of child sexual abuse, drug dealing and weapons
stockpiling, have long existed:
The founder of the institution, the late Prabhupada, was allegedly
told about the physical and sexual abuse of minors in
1972, a time when he totally controlled the institution. The
victims allege he and others conspired to suppress the alleged
crimes, fearful that the public exposure would threaten
the viability of the movement (S. Das, 2003).