Quotejust-googlingQuoteRama Das (slave name) Chris Butler, if you are reading, please just take it back to the old school... Get those booklets back out there, get back on the road spreading the message... maybee a new album or two? :D GOOD THINKING! The new album could be called: SIDDHA: A GENTLE FARCE Track 1: I'm the King of the Castle - you're the dirty rascals
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Here is Tulasi Dasi's website^ It seems to be dead with no connected links. I do not think it was ever finished. The only thing you can click on is where to send money. I wonder how much she is collecting still. I read Mike spent 4 times his opponent in order to win a seat on the City council. I hope Tulasi did not come back from the war with psychological problems like so man
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I am not trying to preach here, just give some balance. I never heard of sending women off to war in the Vaishnava tradition. There is no such case in the hundreds of books written on the history of the Vaishnava religion. By Vedic law women and children are never to be killed in war and no Vaisnava women would want to cultivate the mentality of a warrior or soldier and go about killing peopl
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotejust-googlingQuoteWorried ...The kids do live with me for that i am thankful so at least they are not exposed to it 24/7 so i can keep them level headed but it is still a worry to have them exposed to it at all.....In small doses do you think this would be harmful??? In small doses, things will probably work out okay ... it sounds like you have full custody ... don't worry!!!
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteRama Das (slave name)It is funny, though. I find it so interesting to actually listen to what he says, it is such a shame that his message will never reach those who would truly appreciate it. Like a museum exhibit, I think it is truly educational... at least infinitely amusing. Anyone out there got any lectures laying around? Please, digitize them and throw them up on youtube or goo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteRama Das (slave name)QuotedevadasiHey Rama, Did you read the part about Krishna Katha das's daughter going off to war in Iraq? Then our kirtan leader Mike G. glorifies it? What do you think about that? Wow, yeah, that's a good one. I heard someone saying it could be a political move on this guys part. Disgusting. Just what we need, another completely insincere politicia
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Jagged Guru does not represent mainstream Vaishnavism, there may be perhaps more inside the Krishna Consciousness movement that do not like his escapades as there are outside the movement. The life of any spiritual leader should be an open book not a closely held secret. When making money and politics become the priority something has gone afoul. If a guru is always hiding, they must
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hey Rama, Did you read the part about Krishna Katha das's daughter going off to war in Iraq? Then our kirtan leader Mike G. glorifies it? What do you think about that?
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Rama says, <<<<<You think that spending a whole lifetime indulging your ego in superficial sacrifices, austerities and forced devotion while suspending your independence and blindly, ignorantly accepting every aspect of a hatefull pathetic and truly ignorant little man's ideology as you find comfort in mutual agreement amongst your peers in such spiritual
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

... gone were the carefree days of playing drums in the jungles of Kauai and Maui with a chorus of rare bird-song and surrounded by beautiful trees! THE WAREHOUSE was now our reality! The "warehouse" was a large concrete building with no daylight and very high ceilings that was somehow cold and had a somewhat spooky feeling... Yes I remember the warehouse, it was a cold and ster
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotegulagwww.wwoofhawaii.org and where does all the money go? Do they run programs for the poor or homeless or a hospice for aids sufferers? It is a Vaishnava tenet to do welfare activity. Srila Prabhupada actually said no one within a 12 mile radius of any HARE KRISHNA temple should go hungry. That was his desire, that every temple should try maintain that standard. . I know of one Vai
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hey just googling, at least you got to stay in the warehouse. I came to Honolulu to surrender and help out. But I was so fallen siddha would not allow me to stay in the warehouse so I had to sleep in my car outside. I didn't deserve even the hole in the attic. Sudama thought it was a good idea to drive a cab at night to make enough money to LIVE SIMPLY so I could engage in devotional servic
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I was not going to post again but after reading initiates last post I will make one more. As a former follower of Chris Butler I want to say initiates reporting is about as accurate as it gets. I also want to reiterate that most of the people within Chris's group are actually very very 'good hearted' people with high ideals who really want/wanted to make this world a better p
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A sadhu owns nothing. Prabhupada once said, 'If Iskcon gets in the way it should be left." So that really said it all. If I appear to be an apologist so be it. Sadhus do not fight over property. Who threw the first punch whether it was the pseudo sannyasi's in Iskcon or the pseudo sannyasi Siddha is insignificant. Siddha fought for property, presitige and his coveted position as gu
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteinitiateQuotejust-googling I also found it odd when the cook in Honolulu said she wanted to commit suicide, and I thought why was she not experiencing any spiritual bliss for serving so dearly the one and only representative of god on this planet? Ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous. I remember the cook very well. I hope she is doing okay in her life now. she was a beautiful human bein
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Initiate is right about Siddha actually believing himself to be a saint, (pure devotee). So do most of his followers. I did too or would not have been a follower for so long. But initiate is not clear on who is pulling Mike's strings. Maui got it pretty on the money except the GBC thing. As he pointed out the satraps can't keep up the illusion forever. Katyayani had enough and de
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Ok one more. I am not sure Siddha was a GBC. My understanding is that Srila Prabhupada wanted him to be GBC in Honolulu but Siddha didn't want to be. There was much trouble due to SIddha having his own following and Srila Prabhpada tried to reconcile it by giving Siddha the Hawaii temple. But just like Siddha didn't want to go to India with his guru he also did not want to manage one
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I would say what maui posted was pretty right on. Glories to the simple hearted servants of God. This is my last post here.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotejust-googlingMore reflections on the post-Siddha experience: however, we were all thinking that Siddha was god's rep so he was above all these rules! This is a big red flag. If that is the mentality you know you are in a cult. The spiritual leaders of the Vaishnava religion have always taught and shown by their example that one should never feel above the rules. Example after
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hey just-googling, Yea I saw where Krishna Katha das's (Mike Gabbard) daughter went off to war. That made my heart fall to my stomach. I remember our Goswami was so much against war. He once told the story of how in High School he made a poster with two pictures on it. One was President Johnson holding up a barbequed chicken leg and the other was a napalmed innocent child in Vietnam.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotebarabaraInitiate writes: Quotebarbara, I can't answer your questions. I can see you are trying to make a case and eqauate the group with Jim Jones or something. It really was not dangerous in that way. I don't want to stretch the truth, it's weird enough as it is. Isn't it rather presumptuous and rude of you to accuse me of trying to "make a case" because
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

<<<What you say about Bhaktivedanta’s letters may or may not be true. The editors have plenty of reason and ability to delete or concoct information. But your point that he is basically a fraud to Vaishnavism is true.>>> When I left I did my own research. I can tell you any unbiased researcher would come up with the same conclusion. If you read a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Yea things just got more and more bizarre as time went by. I wonder how many of his followers actually know all this stuff. I remember the policy was always, 'if you don't know something, you are not supposed to know.' It was always a great offense to say anything about his personal life. I guess Yamaraja the lord of death, will be waiting for me due to my great offense here.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Initiate, Thank you for sharing and being brave enough to speak your mind. I remember the pipe incident with Vaishnava dasi, it was a simple accident. But Siddha was so angry he said it was a conspiracy and the result would be she would have to die 10 years early!!!! This is so outrageous I kick my self in the butt for not leaving immediately after this incident!!! Then he said because she wou
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Devadasi, Did you experience any guilt or fears after you left? When I finally decided to leave I felt much guilt I had been carrying go away. The guilt of continually rejecting my intuition (paramatma). I did not like his harsh manner, the way he used humiliation as a way of correcting his followers or his irrational behavior. Put it simply, my karma there was over. As far as I am concerne
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotegulagWhat was the "spiritual" practice called the "dreaming" that Butler and others indulged in during early years? What did this practice have to do with the Krishna precepts? It was called 'mystic sleep' , a type of meditation that was supposed to give you the benifit of many hours of sleep condensed into a few minutes of meditation. It had nothing to do
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Initiate, My only regrets are I did not move on out of the group sooner. I also regret the necessity for websites like this. I regret so many people move in and out of cultish groups and end up thinking they represent the religion said cults have deviated away from. At least you did not give up religion altogether. But it is sad you have such a bad taste towards Vaishnavism in general. I am sor
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Initiate, I am curious if you know what all the homophobia was about? Was there something hidden there? Also you were there earlier than me by at least a few years. I did go to the Kauai farm a couple of times but by the time I came it was closing down. I never heard of the LSD stuff till years after I left the group nor did anyone tell me that Siddha had actually started giving initiations
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Initiate, Yea it started off sweet and he appeared to be a real holy man, the chanting had a lot of potency and things were really down to earth and simple, but then when he started to build his empire, (on the backs of his followers who came for spiritual enlightenment), and it just started looking more and more mundane and 'unspiritual' as time went by. Even the terminology changed
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Yea I remember all broken marriages and remarriages. Although I know many people who followed Siddha were really sincere, I began to see most were not really following what was written in the books and when Siddha himself married a disciple who was divorced from another one of his disciples that was a little too much and hard to accept. Especially considering he had so strongly preached that on
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"