The Journey Home Is the Worst Form of Guru Aparadha

IMAGES: (L) The Journey Home by Radhanatha Swami (R) Portrait of Muktananda by Richard Rappaport

I have read through The Journey Home: Autobiography of an American Swami which is celebrated as some sort of revelation throughout the Hare Krishna Movement (https://iskconnews.org/iskcon-swamis-book-launched-by-mumbai-celebrities,1418/). In my opinion honoring this book of pseudo-yoga only reveals what neophytes ISKCON leaders are.

As far as I am concerned, I just can’t imagine why any so-called “devotee” would so proudly show off a book that openly contradicts his spiritual master. On page after page the reader finds nothing but pretentiously hip-sounding “yoga drivel.” To date none of the dozens of GBC members appears to have objected to The Journey Home; in fact the author is also on the GBC. Rather, this fantabulous yoga drivel has been hailed by so-called leaders of the society to the extent that they approve of its sales at ISKCON centers all over the world. Rather than being “a journey home” this book is an infestation of mayavada into the ranks of a once-Vaishnava organization.

The author Radhanatha Swami is supposedly a disciple of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Shrila Prabhupada’s avowed mission was to supplant mayavada—impersonalism—with the purest and highest form of Shri Krishna-bhakti, exactly as taught by Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Shrila Prabhupada condemned with the strongest words the storefront “yogis” who invaded America and Europe for material profit and who taught atheism in the form of nirvishesha and shunyavada. Shrila Prabhupada wanted his disciples to do the same—to defeat materialistic swindlers posing as gurus with the sword of shastric wisdom—or even to just “kick them on their faces.” 

Shrila Prabhupada would never have tolerated for an eleventh of a second—a lava—any sort of praise from the ISKCON camp for exploiters from India who pose in the dresses of yogis and swamis. But The Journey Home is full of such praise for persons who Prabhupada aptly identified as cheaters and nonsense rascals.

Here is just one of many shocking examples of the author’s praise for one such bogus swami. It is taken from page 171 of The Journey Home (we’ll look at other instances in coming parts of this essay). From the book:

“… I was led to a disciple of Nityananda Baba who was building an ashram nearby. Small but rapidly growing, the ashram was located just off the roadside. As the door opened, the mantra to Shiva, Om Namo Shivaya reverberated in a slow hypnotic chant. Inside a dozen disciples, both from India and the West, were chanting in unison … As the chanting faded into silence, everyone spilled out into a courtyard. I watched and waited. Then, as his disciples bowed down, their guru entered. He was sixty-three years old with dark complexion and deep brown eyes, short untrimmed hair and beard, and clothed in saffron robes. In his presence his followers lit up with joy. I asked who he was. ‘Swami Muktananda,’ I was told.”

Next Radhanath goes into the supposed spiritual journey of Swami Muktananda from the time he supposedly left home at the age of fifteen. How much of the story is true and how much this liar invented to attract followers is anybody’s guess.

Then we get another episode in the life of Radhanath, which (again) could possibly be just as dubious as Swami Muktananda’s version of his own life. After all, birds of a feather flock together. Cheaters and Mayavadis enjoy the company of one another and naturally gravitate to fellow association.

“On one occasion as I stood with Swami Muktananda on the roadside, a vicious dog howling insanely and bearing its threatening fangs came charging towards us. People shrieked and scattered. With a mere stare Swami tamed the creature and it meekly bowed its head. Blessing the dog he turned and spoke to me through a translator, ‘I have noted you to be a sincere sadhu. If you wish, I will initiate you…’”

Who was Muktananda really? Well, according to William Rodarmor’s article “The Secret Life of Muktananda” this Swami who Radhanath is all praise for was a serial rapist who had thug disciples intimidate and threaten anyone who spoke out against his continuous defiling of young ladies. These same accusations were also echoed in one of America’s most established and respected magazines, The New Yorker. It can be read here by subscribers only:

(https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/11/14/o-guru-guru-guru)
But you can read Rodarmor’s description of the depravity and exploitation of this so-called Swami here. http://www.leavingsiddhayoga.net/secret.htm. If you are not yet convinced that The Journey Home is the most offensive piece of crap to ever pose as some sort of spiritual journey, then you’ll be convinced once you have compared Radhanath’s schmooze of “Swami” Muktananda with Rodarmor’s more knowledgeable explanation of what really went on in his “ashrams.”

According to Rodarmor, Mukatananda had it made. He would charge exorbitant fees for his lessons in “shakti pat” and thus became very rich overnight. In the evening he would summon very young lady disciples to his room and reward them with a small token, a gold bracelet (which they had paid for with their yoga fees), after he seduced them with his “initiations into tantric yoga techniques.”

Muktananda’s picture is sitting right there between pages 110 and 111 of The Journey Home along with Shrila Prabhupada’s and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati’s likenesses in the same book. To date there has not been even the slightest whimper from the GBC—a body of supposed devotees who are entrusted to represent the wishes, the teachings and philosophy of the Founder-Acharya, the pure devotee of Lord Shri Krishna, Who (as a reminder in case they have forgotten) is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As Prabhupada used to remind his students, “Be very careful, you are dealing with Krishna.” Are you listening, GBC? Who is more important to you, Lord Krishna or some pretender in your midst?

And this is just one reason why I cannot adequately describe in words my horror, shock and disgust that such a horribly offensive book receives tacit promotion from inept and incapable personalities within the Hare Krishna Movement. Each one of the GBC compro-misers will have to answer to Lord Krishna very, very soon—sooner than they would care to admit!