Paramhansa Yogananda
      Swami Kriyananda

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The Eight Women

“When they wanted to stone the woman taken in adultery, Jesus cast out of her the spirit of evil, then he said, ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,’ and they all slunk away. Those who love to talk about the sexuality of others, I ask them to tell about all the sexual errors in their own life. And these sanctimonious people who persecute others—they are the worst sexual cases themselves.”
—Paramhansa Yogananda
Patanjali Class #21, Transmuting the Sex Force
Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945

Summary

Internet postings by a small group of critics seem to imply that Kriyananda has been abusing women for years.

What is the truth?

Kriyananda was involved briefly with one woman in 1968.

More than a decade later, in 1981, he renounced his vow of celibacy to have what turned out to be a short-lived relationship with Kimberly Moore.

In the difficult year that followed the sudden end of that relationship, Kriyananda became involved briefly with three different women: Kamala Wiley and Denise Petersen, and Deborah Donie-Seligson.

Kriyananda testified that these were consensual relationships. There was no hint from any of the women that the relationships were anything but consensual. In fact, all of the women maintained friendly contact with Ananda and Kriyananda for years after.

Only when Anne-Marie Bertolucci filed her lawsuit did their stories change.

Why?

Most of the women were now involved with SRF.

Seven anonymous declarations by women made as part of the Bertolucci lawsuit

There are seven declarations filed under oath as part of the Bertolucci lawsuit by women who claim to have direct experience of Swami’s “abusive” sexuality. On the anti-Ananda website, these declarations are all anonymous. But the women are known to many of us at Ananda. At the time of trial, their names were publicized, so we name them here in order to give context to their accusations.

All the main accusers have strong ties to SRF.

When Bertolucci first filed her lawsuit in 1994, she already had the cooperation of these women.

For the next three years, Bertolucci’s attorneys, several of the declarants, and a few other of Ananda’s detractors put forth a great effort to gather more women who would testify against Swami, urging them to come forward, promising them they would be “safe.”

Letters were sent to residents of many of the Ananda communities. Several women who planned to testify called other women at Ananda who they (mistakenly) thought might want to speak out. (One woman, when called, said, “I am outraged that you would assume I had such a relationship with Swamiji!”) Bertolucci’s attorney, Michael Flynn came to Nevada City to hold a meeting for people who might be willing to come forward.

They felt this still wasn’t enough to reach the people in the “compound,” as they always called it. So Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn, Jr., rented a small plane, flew it dangerously low over Ananda Village and dropped leaflets out the window.

The results: Bertolucci went to trial with the same handful of women she started with. Ananda’s detractors say it is because the women of Ananda are afraid. The actual explanation is that there were, and are, no other women to come forward. The picture presented by Ananda’s detractors of Ananda as a hotbed of abusive sexual activity, with Kriyananda as the ringleader, is simply untrue.

Grueling deposition with purpose in mind

Flynn questioned Swami Kriyananda for eight days prior to the trial-under oath, with a court reporter and a video camera to record every word. It was more like an interrogation than a deposition.

Dr. Peter Van Houten, who runs a family clinic near Ananda Village, was present as Swami’s personal physician. Swami was still recovering from open-heart surgery so Dr. Peter monitored his condition, calling for breaks, or an end to the day’s questioning, when he felt Swamiji’s health required it. Later Dr. Peter wrote, “I’ve spent days watching Flynn in action as an attorney and it was an opportunity to observe him very closely. After watching him conduct several days of deposition, I remember thinking, ‘This man is one of the most verbally violent and consciously cruel people I’ve ever seen in my life. How could someone who so obviously enjoys hurting people be allowed to be a lawyer?’”

Repeatedly, Flynn asked Kriyananda questions about his personal sexual life since 1948 to that present time. Repeatedly, Swami Kriyananda answered, never varying his testimony, no matter how Flynn phrased the question. If the charge was true, Kriyananda admitted it. If it was false, he denied it. He answered questions fully and honestly. He said over and over again that these relationships were consensual, and that he never, ever imposed his will on anyone-whether sexually or otherwise.

Hundreds of long-time Ananda members who have worked closely with Kriyananda testified about this unusual characteristic-that he never imposes his will or ideas on others. It is simply not in his nature.

How accusations take on a life of their own

Flynn conducted Kriyananda’s deposition with an eye to the propaganda value of the transcript he was creating. Accusations were repeated again and again, as luridly as possible, often overstated to increase the shock value. New, unsubstantiated charges were presented in the form of questions as if Flynn had some factual basis for them. It was in this deposition that Flynn announced that he had “thirty women willing to testify.” Even though the “thirty women” never materialized, Ananda’s critics keep the “Big Lie” going in the internet by simply repeating it: “We know of thirty women, but they are afraid to come forward.”

The transcript of Kriyananda’s deposition contains many pages of lurid accusations made by Flynn. The effect on all but the most astute reader is to leave the impression that Kriyananda is a very perverse person and must be guilty of something! It is a sobering example of how easy it is to create the “Big Lie.”

Years earlier, Flynn filed a lawsuit against another group unrelated to Ananda. It went on for years, and gradually Flynn collected a lot of clients, all ex-members of that group. Eventually he got a big settlement for all of them, and a big fee for himself. Clearly, Flynn was hoping for another such windfall from Ananda. But the facts did not support his ambition. There simply is no “years-long pattern and practice of sexual abuse” for Flynn to uncover and capitalize on.

Consensual relationships

In a letter dated September 24, 1995, mailed to Ananda friends around the world, Swami Kriyananda said about the declarations filed against him: “They are almost entirely false. And where there is truth in them, the facts are so greatly distorted as to be almost unrecognizable.”

Kriyananda admits in his testimony that he did have sexual relations with some of the women who filed declarations against him. But not in the way they describe. They were consensual. In fact, the women remained in friendly correspondence and contact for years after the relationships ended. Coercion was never even hinted at, until nearly 15 years later when these women-interestingly, nearly all now active SRF members-were invited to testify in the Bertolucci case. The kind of crudity described by these recently declared “victims” is not a reflection of Swami’s consciousness, it is a projection onto him of someone else’s state of mind. Swami categorically denies that he ever coerced or abused anyone, sexually, or in any other way. It comes down to a matter of “he said, she said.”

Or does it?

Decide for yourself

Swami Kriyananda’s life has been acted out on the world stage. He has been a public figure for over 50 years. Thousands of people, probably hundreds of thousands, all over the world, have met him or heard him speak. Hundreds of people have lived and worked closely with him for many years, even decades by now. This website is filled with their stories.

You can also see the living proof of his life’s work in the Ananda communities and places of worship he founded, in response to direct instruction from his guru, Yogananda.

Every organization in history has critics. Spiritual organizations are no different. Sometimes the greatest saints have had the most terrible critics. Did that make their work less true? Anyone new to an organization must make his own assessment of whether the teaching is true and the teachers honorable.

Come visit Ananda, feel the vibrations, meet the people who have been guided and inspired by Swami. Ask them any questions you like.

Then there is Swami’s own prodigious creative output--books, music, audio and video tapes. Read his writings. Listen to his music. Swami lives near New Delhi, India now helping to establish a center for the teachings of Yogananda. He is intensely active in writing, and has recorded several hundred television shows that are broadcast throughout the Indian region. These talks are posted and updated regularly at www.ananda.org. All these are expressions of his over 50 years of discipleship to Yogananda, and convey his character. And there is more: the people he has taught. You can easily meet more than a hundred people living in various Ananda centers throughout the world who have lived and worked closely with Kriyananda for twenty or thirty years—some even longer. Read their letters and testimonials from direct, personal experience. Hundreds of thousands more have been inspired by him, or by one of his students. Through all these expressions, or through your own intuition, you will be able to know for yourself what kind of man Swami Kriyananda is.

Measure this against the claims of a handful of people—all of whom are known to us—who won’t give you their names, and post their criticisms anonymously.