Hi all

I am just wonderring if there are any ex Hare Krishna's on this forum? i would be happy to tell my story as i would be anxious to know if i should get help or not but would rather do it safe in the knowledge that people won't think i'm over reacting
Thanks

Hi

I was involved for a few years in the 90's.Found it too authoritarian and fanatical.Members interfering in others business as well as self-righteous vegetarianism and sexual repression.Devotees are often obese because prasadam is their only sensual pleasure. And none of the devotees are enlightened, they just paraphrase Prabhupada. If you have left ,good, if not get out now!They are heavily criticised by mainstream Hinduism, which is fairly dubious itself. Tells you all you need to know.

Hi
Thanks for writing, I very much appreciate it. if you wouldn't mind telling your story I'd be really interested to hear it, but first I will share mine, if that's alright.
I decided to become a vegetarian in may of last year, and this lead me to govindas. Then for some reason that I can't think of apart from genuine interest I suppose, I decided to do a little research on the movement. before I knew where I was, I found myself emailing one of the munks, asking questions about the lifestyle and wanting to know more about the movement. a few weeks after this then, or it could have been a shorter time, I really don't remember, I went to a class in the temple where I'm from, a few of them actually. When I had gone a few times, I started to observe the fanaticism you talked of, and there were just some plain strange people hanging around, you can dress it up any way you like but that's what it was. I decided then, to distance myself from ISKCON. through someone I knew vaguely at the time, but who made himself familliar to me quite quickly when I disrespected ISKCON and wanted to know more about his line, I came to find out more and more about the Krishna lifestyle. He made it sound like his temple, guru, etc was not as strict as ISKCON, one only had to chant 4 rounds a day, his guru wasn't as strict on some things as were ISKCON. I became enthralled very quickly, and a few weeks after starting trying to chant in earnest, meaning 4 rounds a day, because this was all this guru expected, not the usual 16, a maharaj came over to Ireland where I'm from. I know I shouldn't have, but I took initiation while he was here, this was maybe less than 2 months after me starting to try and chant, I was just so captured by it all. I should say at this point, my family knew, and to this day, know nothing about it, when I was going to be initiated, I said I was going to stay with a friend, only my partner who I live with knew about the krishnas, and he wasn't pleased but was nervous to say anything in case that drove me further towards them, and looking back, I suppose he was probably right.
I'm sure, that in all knew devotees lives, everything goes swimmingly, they chant 16 rounds a day, never think about eggs, and cease all sexual contact with their partners, and if the partner should say anything, one should just say something about krishna and that's it all solved.... Well even in the very short time I was trying to practice KC, things were tough. I often craved things with eggs in, pastrys etc, and my relationship began to suffer, but in the early stages, I put it to the back of my head, and just thought to myself, I am not supposed to even think of intimacy related things if I want spiritual progress.....
then, about 2 weeks after I was initiated, I went to a temple in London for radhastami, I wanted to do some seva and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Now because I am totally blind, I know london was a risk but I wasn't thinking that way at the time. It was ridiculous anyway because most people wouldn't let me do anything because they were afraid of my disability, silly to me but they didn't think so...
It was while I was here, that I really started to question my committment to KC. could I really live like this for the rest of my life? the food we ate at the temple was bland and without taste, apart from the festival, when it was slightly better. I stayed in 2 temples, at the first one I got dreadfully run down and sick because there was no heating in the place. I was expected to get up for morning program which meant I got up even earlier than anyone else so I wouldn't be in the way which left me exhausted, and life in general there just seemed so austeer. When I came back then, I did some serious thinking, and decided finally, thankfully, that it wasn't for me. I am fine now, and am doing what I want because it's my decision, not because it's being forced on me by other people, which is how I like it. I think the movement should be avoided at all costs, but no telling devotees that I guess.
Thanks for reading if you do and sorry for the length of the post.

Is there any reason that any of us, including YOU, should think that you are so inherently mentally impaired that you can't react "normally" to situations?

Do you have, I don't know, autism or Asperger's or some sort of anxiety/panic disorder? Post-traumatic stress disorder, perhaps? Brain injury?

Because unless there is something known organically wrong with your brain, I see no reason to imagine that you would necessarily be "over reacting."

I think we can all trust your judgment, unless there is some physical condition that would impair it. Proceed.

I spent five years in this organization 1975 1980. I rose to be the head pujari or alter priest, in a very well known temple on the West Coast. It's been 40 years since I left and I still have nightmares of being locked in a cage. I can provide a very long post, but for my purposes here let me suffice it to say that I know much of the inner workings of this organization. For the purposes of this brief post, now know that anytime you give your authority to something else or anybody else, you have already missed the entire point of spirituality. In the case of this cult it is the most rigid dogmatic authoritarian hierarchical organization that I've ever encountered.