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New Vrindaban was originally an ISKCON intentional community located in Moundsville, West Virginia^[1]. Its main function is now pilgrimage center, mainly because of economical necessity. The community was expelled from ISKCON in 1987, because of the scandals, but later became again affiliated with ISKCON in 1998. New Vrindaban is named after the Indian city of Vrindavan, which is where Krishna was born.

[edit] History

New Vrindaban was established in 1968 by two of the early disciples of Swami Prabhupada, the founding guru of ISKCON. Kirtanananda Swami responded to an advertisement in The San Francisco Oracle for people to help establish a religious community in the hills near Wheeling, West Virginia. With his friend Hayagriva he visited the owner of the property to assess the possibility of establishing ISKCON’s first farm community. Initially they met with stiff resistance from the owner who was determined to develop a community, as he said, that was available “for everybody wanting to learn the Truth.”7 After several failed attempts to secure a lease on a portion of the property, the owner finally relented after he encountered legal problems. The 99-year lease on 130 acres of land was the beginning of what Prabhupada called New Vrindaban. In time the community was able to purchase the property as well as a number of other adjacent ones. Thereafter, Kirtanananda Swami, later known as the guru Bhaktipada, held a firm grip on the leadership of the community.8

New Vrindaban’s early days were difficult. Under the motto of “Plain Living and High Thinking,” Kirtanananda and a handful of other devotees carved fields and pasture out of the wilderness to grow crops and provide grazing areas for cows. The goal from the start was to build a self-sufficient community based on spiritual principles. But there was more. Prabhupada envisioned New Vrindaban much like its namesake in India. He had a vision of seven temples built on the surrounding hilltops. The first “temple” the community built was meant as a residence for Prabhupada. Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold was dedicated on September 2, 1979, nearly two years after Prabhupada’s death. The New York Times declared the palace “America’s Taj Mahal” and the Washington Post called it “Almost Heaven.”

Kirtanananda saw Prabhupada’s Palace as one piece of what he called a “Land of Krishna” theme park, or a spiritual Disneyland, capable of attracting large numbers of visitors. In fact, New Vrindaban did become a major tourist attraction. Busloads of tourists descended on New Vrindaban in the early and mid-1980s and Prabhupada’s Palace became a major tourist attraction in the state of West Virginia. The Wall Street Journal reported: “The flow of traffic into this coal and manufacturing outpost [Moundsville] on the banks of the Ohio used to be as slow as the river on a dusty summer day. But now, a daily confluence of buses packed with gawking tourists is a common sight.”9 The palace attracted over 100,000 visitors in 1982 and climbed to nearly 500,000 between 1983 and 1985.10 One of ISKCON’s gurus who visited New Vrindaban in 1985 stated, “When I was Prabhupada’s personal secretary in 1977, he introduced the phrase ‘cultural conquest.’ He told me dozens of times during this period that this is the way to preach in Americ. . . .. I’ve always been convinced that the project—and especially after seeing the master plan that Bhaktipada [Kirtanananda] inspired—will make America the first Krishna conscious country.”11

After humble beginnings, New Vrindaban grew to approximately 600 residents in the mid-1980s. Many devotees were drawn to the community because of the palace project and Kirtanananda’s vision for New Vrindaban. Others came to live in what they thought would be a self-sufficient farm community focused on realizing Krishna Consciousness. Funds for the palace and related projects, as well as to support the community generally, came largely from traveling sankirtan teams comprised of devotees selling various products in public locations (e.g., candles, hats, records, stickers supporting sports teams), or who solicited funds for fictitious charities. Distributing Prabhupada’s books was largely discontinued when it became obvious that selling products in public—a practice known as “picking,” could raise larger sums of money.12 New Vrindaban devotees solicited funds throughout North America and ultimately the world, generating millions of dollars each year in support of the community’s ambitious building projects.13

Things changed dramatically for Kirtanananda and New Vrindaban after May 22, 1986 when a former resident of the community was murdered near the Los Angeles ISKCON temple. Steven Bryant (Sulochana das) had been on a crusade of sorts after Kirtanananda allegedly initiated his wife without his consent. He ultimately blamed Kirtanananda for ruining his marriage. To those at New Vrindaban, Bryant was a disgruntled devotee out to get Kirtanananda. In fact he had gone to local authorities with allegations of drug smuggling, child abuse and fraud at New Vrindaban.14 Thereafter Bryant became one of the early challengers to the legitimacy of Kirtanananda and the other gurus who succeeded Prabhupada. His manuscript, The Guru Business, exposed the corrupt activities of ISKCON’s successor gurus and argued forcefully that the latter had usurped their positions of power, rather than being appointed by Prabhupada. Following his murder, law enforcement and ISKCON’s leadership began to take more seriously Bryant’s accusations against Kirtanananda. This only intensified a few months later when Bryant’s killer Thomas Drescher (Tirtha) was found guilty of a 1983 murder of another New Vrindaban resident Charles St. Denis (Chakradhari) and was sentenced to life in prison. By now many within ISKCON, as well as local law enforcement officials began to wonder if Kirtanananda had himself been behind the two murders.

Bryant’s murder set off an extensive government investigation by the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, and the police in Los Angeles and in West Virginia. As the Marshall County (West Virginia) Sheriff proclaimed, “This is the beginning of the end of New Vrindaban as we now know it.”15 The end certainly did seem near after FBI and Internal Revenue agents, in conjunction with local police, raided the community on January 5th 1987. Moreover, several months earlier, on September 15, 1986, a federal grand jury met to investigate a possible connection between members of New Vrindaban and the deaths of Bryant and St. Denis. In April of 1987, John Hubner and Lindsey Gruson published an article in Rolling Stone magazine titled “Dial Om for Murder” wherein they presented evidence suggesting that Kirtanananda was behind the murders of both devotees. A year later the two authors published the book, Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness, and the Hare Krishnas.

In the midst of his legal troubles, Kirtanananda undertook a radical change at New Vrindaban: the de-Indianization of Krishna Consciousness. Kirtanananda had believed for some time that the cultural elements of Krishna Consciousness made it difficult to appeal to Americans and other Westerners. Kirtanananda said, “We’re not interested in Indian culture as such. We’re interested in what is productive for Krishna consciousness—whatever is useful.”16 Some of the changes Kirtanananda instituted included: devotees wearing Franciscan type robes, men wearing beards, interfaith preaching and conferences, silent chanting, Western music including the use of a pipe organ and other western instruments, and English in temple worship in place of traditional Bengali and Sanskrit. Moreover, life-sized images (murtis) of both ISKCON’s founder Prabhupada and Jesus Christ were placed side-by-side in the temple.17 Although many community members accepted these innovations, others did not and left the community. Thirteen interfaith conferences held at New Vrindaban brought some new recruits to the community yet, in the end, nearly all them left with bitter feelings toward Kirtanananda. Two protest demonstrations occurred at New Vrindaban in 1991, and 1993, by interfaith members claiming that Kirtanananda had defrauded them.18

On March 16, 1987 at ISKCON’s annual leadership meetings in Mayapur, India, Kirtanananda was excommunicated from ISKCON.19 A year later New Vrindaban and its satellite temples and centers were expelled from ISKCON.20 Freed from ISKCON interference, Kirtanananda continued to add elements of Western and Christian culture to Krishna Consciousness. The community reorganized itself under the name the Eternal Order of the Holy Name, League of Devotees International.21

In May 1990, a federal grand jury indicted Kirtanananda on three counts of violating the RICO statute for illegally using copyrighted and trademark logos during fundraising, six counts of mail fraud, and two counts of conspiring to murder. The government also sought forfeiture of all properties owned by New Vrindaban. After a three-week trial, Kirtanananda was convicted on the RICO and mail fraud counts but the jury failed to reach a verdict on the murder charges. While in jail, Kirtanananda made a motion to appeal the case and awaited a bail hearing. He subsequently hired Allen Dershowitz to represent him in the Court of Appeals. In July of 1993, his 1991 conviction was overturned when the Appeals Court ruled that the District Court had wrongly allowed evidence of child molestation and other irrelevant matters to be presented, unduly prejudicing the jury.

Despite the court proceedings, many of Kirtanananda’s disciples remained loyal to their guru, interpreting the legal proceedings as just further evidence of persecution on the part of local, state, and federal authorities.22 This changed dramatically in September 1993 however when Kirtanananda was caught in an inappropriate sexual encounter with a young adult devotee male while driving back to West Virginia after attending the Parliament of the World’s Religions centennial celebration in Chicago. When confronted by two senior Godbrothers, Kirtanananda confessed to his sexual indiscretions. Later that day however he denied the charges when a group of distraught disciples came to see him. The following day at an open community meeting Kirtanananda emphatically stated his innocence. At this point many left the community, their faith in Kirtanananda shattered. Others left in fear, as a portion of Kirtanananda’s disciples were irate toward those they saw as spreading lies about their spiritual master. Many of those who chose to remain at New Vrindaban lost trust in Kirtanananda’s authority. As a consequence, a growing number of residents openly rejected Kirtanananda’s interfaith experiment and returned to strictly following Prabhupada’s practices of Krishna Consciousness. Because some residents remained committed to Kirtanananda, New Vrindaban essentially split into two camps. Under pressure, Kirtanananda finally terminated his six-year interfaith experiment in July 1994 and New Vrindaban returned to the traditional Indian-style of dress, worship, and religious practices advocated by Prabhupada.23

Kirtanananda’s second trial took place in 1996 after he refused a plea bargain by the government. This time however Thomas Drescher, who was serving a life sentence for murdering Bryant and St. Denis, decided to provide incriminating evidence against his former guru. At the trial Drescher admitted that he had carried out both murders under Kirtanananda’s order. Following Drescher’s testimony, Kirtanananda agreed to plead guilty to one count of federal racketeering and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In 1997 the sentence was reduced to 12 years because of Kirtanananda’s failing health. Kirtanananda’s few remaining interfaith followers left New Vrindaban and relocated to his New York City temple, called the “Interfaith Sanctuary.” Eight years later, on June 16, 2004 Kirtanananda was released from federal prison in North Carolina. He now resides with a handful of committed disciples and followers at the Sri Sri Radha Murlidara temple in New York City. The Executive Officers of ISKCON’s North American governing board issued a warning prohibiting Kirtanananda from visiting any of ISKCON’s temples or communities.

[edit] References and footnotes

All information is sourced to the following article unless stated otherwise

Rochford, Burke E. Jr. and Kendra Bailey Almost Heaven: Leadership, Decline and the Transformation of New Vrindaban in Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions Vol. 9 nr. 3 February 2006