num_pages: 660
description: The 1986 murder of Hare Krishna devotee Steven Bryant (Sulochan dasa) was arguably the darkest moment in the fifty-one year history of the International Society for Krishna Consciousnessa new branch of the Chaitanya-Bengali-Vaishnava religion founded in New York City in 1966 by an Indian spiritual teacher and guru His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977). A mere nine years after the disappearance of this beloved spiritual father one of their own was hunted down and assassinated. This brutal killing was achieved through a cooperative effort by spiritual leaders senior managers and hit men enforcers from West Virginia Ohio and Southern California ISKCON temples. The murdered whistle-blower had discovered many secrets and threatened to reveal to the world the immoral acts and criminal dealings of a set of self-appointed illegitimate successors to Swami a corrupt oligarchy of new ISKCON gurus. He had also perhaps foolishly advocated using violence against the gurus to evict them from their posts. ISKCON leaders took his threats seriously and they hunted down and assassinated the passionate reformer. How did the peaceful shaven-headed saffron-clad Hare Krishna devotees regress from their blissful activities of chanting dancing and selling incense in the streets to this? The author himself a former ISKCON devotee probes deeply into the disturbing direction of a new religious movement. In this book he exposes the danger of philosophical errors and deranged devotion that practically ensured that bloody tragedy would eventually occur. The author has engaged in years of painstaking research by poring over tens of thousands of pages of trial transcripts newspaper and magazine articles ISKCON publications and confidential ISKCON documents while also interviewing dozens of eyewitnesses. His effort culminates in a thoroughly-engaging and extremely well-documented thesis exposing the hidden inside story of the conspiracy to murder Steven Bryant including its genesis development blunders involved in it execution cover up as well as a stunning aftermath after the deed was done.
language: English
title: Killing for Krishna: The Danger of Deranged Devotion
publisher: None