It wasn't hashish to my knowledge. It was marijuana. As far as the source the information comes from, it is a reliable source who was themselves involved in the whole affair.
But the information that Patrick bowler was giving Drug Money The Fund Butler, his lifestyle and projects was well-known in the cult even to us boys when we were young and obviously to many of butlers close servants. One can say at the time it was somewhat common knowledge. The fact is, we have nothing to gain to make such things up. At the end of the day there's enough evidence that has been shown on this site as well as Christine Gralows research and numerous other first hand and secondhand accounts on this forum.
Well, all of the boys that I went to school with will share a similar story. Some of them were born into it, others were introduced to the cult at a young age by their parents.
Give or take, between the school in the Philippines of which there were several for both boys and girls, as well as the early attempts of the schools in Hawaii and Australia, you have yourself a good 60 to 80 young man and 50 to 60 young women worldwide who grew up in Butler's group and or subject to essentially the same format of indoctrination and ideology as I was.
It is actually pretty amazing what information has been recorded and stored online about this group, its predecessor group and the various groups in this lineage. Some of the information is less jarring than others. Some of it is based on faith. Obviously, I come from an atheistic standpoint so I am not mincing any words in my disdain for what I consider delusional fanaticism.
As I stated before, I am not concerned about those for whom this cult or similar Krishna groups have worked. If it works for you, power to you and Godspeed. But, if you are here, and you are questioning and wondering what it is about these groups that rubs you the wrong way, well I am more than happy to tell you what rubs me the wrong way and what I consider to be a rational, dysfunctional and regressive thinking of absolutely zero use to an individuals life and functional well-being.
As a personality cult, It Takes the Cake in its assertion that the spiritual Master is essentially the same as God. That the spiritual Master is perfect, and cannot be questioned. That the spiritual Master is a transparent medium and representative of God's will on Earth. That the only way to approach God is to surrender to such a personality. That surrender to such a personality can mean an assortment of things ranging from following rules, some of them completely idiotic and useless, to various pointless rituals and allegiance to scriptural rhetoric that is archaic, scientifically wrong and in most cases reprehensible or downright childish and it's moral and ethical offerings.
Many religious movements flourished for any number of reasons. Many God's gained popularity over the course of history and then fall to the Wayside. This is simply a natural cycle of society, the evolution of language, politics, Commerce and assorted social religious Arrangements. The psychology of the people changes over time and is more susceptible and receptive to different types of influences. The fact that the Hari Krishna movement florist in the 60s in America is not some kind of a surprising event. At the time there were many such Easter and religious movements that had taken hold of the American imagination starting in the 1930s. Prior to the British Invasion of India, there was actually almost no verifiable written record of any Vedic or post Vedic texts. It is actually because of the British and their push to try to understand the Indian religious mindset that such religious works and even revivalist movements started to come to light and try to be documented properly.
India's religious and pluralistic faith systems I've always been an amalgamation of invading Outsiders and slowly evolving sects. Perhaps due to the ideal climate for animal husbandry and agriculture, as well as the temperate climate, it was and ideal place to sit comfortably and start to philosophize about life and the universe. The Greeks also had such luck in their landscape. As civilization flourished and economies developed in city-states, various ways of using religion to control the masses proved to be extremely useful (an extension of tribalism). That there is insight and philosophical depth in scriptures that are thousands of years old is natural. One would hope that some interesting observations on life were there thousands of years ago—people certainly had a ton of time on their hands. Naturally, over a vast amount of time, man gathers an assortment of Knowledge from his environment and thought. As language evolved and allows us to use metaphors to describe more complex ideas and Concepts, so did philosophy and religion developed in its complexity.
It is less about whether god exists or not or about faith in general for me. If one can have a "personal relationship" with a "personal god", that god should make the first move in a personal way. I have nothing explicitly dictating my role in life as being a "lover" of a god. I was not born into this world believing in a god. God is a concept that was forced into my brain. The things I say about this cult are things I realized that did not add up. The burden of proof is on the person making the bold claims. All I can do is deconstruct it and say, "hey, this right here—does not make sense and fit into any rational framework". The fact is there are too many ifs ands or buts in this cult. It's not that some small thing is questionable or odd. The whole package reeks to me. Again, if it works for you or aspects of it do, that is great. Faith is a private affair. I have faith in things that provide plausible answers, not things that sound interesting on the surface but fall apart upon closer questioning.
When I challenge the idea that Saraswati thakur was claiming he would "fall down" by being left in the room with his own mother or sister and blaming his disciple for putting him in some position where he may become secually aroused by his own mother, I am not challenging that he was an intelligent man or a viable religious authority on his faith. I am challenging what type of mentality that is. Why, if he is a self-realized, perfected pure devotee is he even suggesting or expressing such a despicable notion and idea??? If even he, who is presumably a topmost Vaishnava is somehow susceptible to base animal instincts, one has to question, what type of potency and power and effect does his spiritual system, mantras and other beliefs have that are positive and progressive and rewarding in any way? When you look at pictures of such a person and see that they never smile and you read lectures and transcripts of his words/talks/lectures and see that he is constantly critical of other vaishnava groups, always suggesting only his approach is right and that he gave himself diksha and sanyas initiations and introduced the brahman threat ritual, one has to rationally ask what this is all about. One has to ask how it is rational or functional to propose a philosophy that suggests that the top-most realization a person can have of their experience with the "divine" is to become some sort of 12 year old farm girl (https://www.mahanidhiswami.com/siddha-pranali-the-truth/) who assist in helping an otherwise fairly recent goddess addition of even the Krishna lexicon, Radha, get off? If one does not question this and see how it is all rather sloppy and silly in its conception then we have a problem. When a few babjis in India believe this crap, that is one thing. When you have a movement that essentially promotes a process of fantasy derealization and delusional ideation of "spiritual forms" and alternate universes, you have a cult and a ball buster one at that.
Listen to this clown: for example and watch his channel [
www.youtube.com]. This is a first-class delusional nut job. No way to say it otherwise. He is on social media explaining how one can realize their manjari body or jerk off to god. It's madness and it is firmly rooted in some way shape and form in the ideation of so-called manjari bhava, and raghanuga. And a TON of devotees are into this stuff not as a conscious role play thing or some form of entertainment—they literally think it's real. That's fucking scary. If you already suffer from mental illness it's dangerous.
The point here is this: There are many more rational places to extract good, practical and applicable wisdom in life than texts and personalities that are asking you to give up your critical thinking and subscribe wholesale to an ideology that can make an utter mess of your perception of reality.