A Reminder for Proud Boys Who Are in Jail
Remember: No masturbating.
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Here's a song. Here's another. A Proud Boy might need some privacy from time-to-time. Though some Proud Boys brought their mamas along for the riot, most stayed behind, having tried. Maybe they should have tried harder. The Proud Boys might find a lot of their fellow-travelers in the jailhouse. If there are enough of them they could throw a party. If it turns into a riot they could find themselves having more privacy. Some might be motivated to leave early, but that would likely result in even more privacy. Which raises a question: What does a psycho killer to when overthrowing the government is no longer an option? It is likely that when they are in prison they will learn not to stand so close together.
Here's the story of the Proud Boys. Here's a quick rundown on their obsession with masturbation. Obseesion with bodily fluids in an old one, satirized in the movie Dr. Strangelove.
I was a proud boy many years ago. I won the 5th grade spelling bee, and was declared president of the class by "Mother Superior," the school principal. That was her real titular name. She kind of jumped the gun. She "asked" the class to approve her dictate by acclamation, which they did. We actually had no class president before, no student government, and I had no duties, except to hand out candy to my classmates. I was a politician by default. Not only was there no class president before, but none in the succeeding years, and no other class officers. This of course calls for a song.
posted by John Hamilton | 1:29 PM
19 Comments:
I thought this information could be interest to you.
There are probably no surprises in the recent expose of Russel Kruckman/Swami Shankarananda by a leading investigative journalist, Dan Oakes, who works with the ABC Radio National [ABC (Australia) - "Australian Broadcasting Corporation"].
It is due to be broadcast on Sunday 28 February 2021, but is now available online. Titled "The chilling secrets of a Melbourne guru", the investigative radio documentary runs for almost 45 minutes and contains interviews with a few of his victims, who vividly detail the sexual abuse they were subjected to, and also the distress they experienced taking legal action against Kruckman/Shankarananda after the Ashram brought in high profile criminal defence lawyers to defend him.
"The chilling secrets of a Melbourne guru" - by Dan Oakes on Background Briefing. ABC Radio National
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/chilling-secrets-melbourne-guru/13192774
PS:- the previous comment I posted is not at all relevant to your Proud Boys post, I just thought the information about Russel Kruckman/Shankarananda should be forwarded to you in comments of the most recent posting where it would most likely catch your attention.
Thanks for posting this. I listened to the radio program, and I was shocked. Though I am very familiar with Russell Kruckman/"Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda," I didn't expect that he would devolve into a violent rapist. It is one thing to take advantage of devotees faith in you to seduce them repeatedly. It is quite another to rape them using great violence.
I probably should have seen this coming. When he attacked me in 1977 he didn't throw any punches. He was trying to get control of my arms, in what seemed at the time to be wrestling moves. More likely it was an Aikido move. There was a guy in the Ann Arbor ashram who used Aikido moves to intimidate ashramites. I never saw him do it, but apparently it was some kind of wrist move that could hurt so intensely that the person receiving it would be incapacitated. He was used as a kind of usher/bouncer in the meditation hall, a total jerk who eventually tried his luck on the wrong person (Girija's brother) and ended up with a couple of black eyes. His wife divorced him and he left not long after that. And so it goes.
Shankarananda/Kruckman likely knows these moves, and uses them on unsuspecting women in the Melbourne ashram. I didn't see it coming when he attacked me, but my reflexes have always been good, and I was able to fend him off with relative ease.
I have a few suggestions. For the women he has victimized, and really anyone who has been under his sway, he has the power that you give him. The king hath no clothes - no pun intended. In the radio show the picture of him shows him in his gaze, as if he's a man of great psychic power. It's all bullshit. He practices that gaze in a mirror, has been doing it probably since before he met Muktananda. He didn't happen upon abuse of his position overnight. He had students for years in Gary (of all places), and Evanston (if he really did teach at NU).
If he still has evening programs at his ashram, I suggest random people showing up to ask him questions. Here's one someone asked him in Ann Arbor in 1976 or 77: Is it true that yogis in India can gain siddhis (psychic powers) from dipping their malas (a rosary of sorts) in the entrails of dead babies? His answer at the time: Yes. It is true, but engaging in acts of perversion carry a great price. He might have mentioned Karma, but if I remember right he said it would result in great suffering.
For the authorities in Australia I suggest pulling his passport, putting him in a jail cell and freezing his assets (bank account, property, etc.) If he is in trouble with the law he will likely attempt to flee. I gave this some thought. Where could he go? Israel is the most likely, because being of Jewish/Hebrew ancestry he would get automatic citizenship and likely impunity.
He is old, will be 79, in August if I remember right (Leo). If he is still attempting rape it is likely embarrassing for him, but who knows? In yogic terms, he self-trapped in the lower chakras (energy centers), having to do with sex, power and money. People involved in Siddha Yoga were amazingly obsessed with all three. There was a lot of money involved in Siddha Yoga, a lot of hustling celebrities, movie stars, corporate CEOs, politicians. Rich people. Russell Kruckman has likely done this on a smaller scale in Australia. Siddha Yoga minions were also adept at bribery of government officials, especially in India, but likely in the U.S. as well. He has kept himself free in Australia in spite of his years of abuse. He couldn't have done this without help.
This is a huge lesson for everyone who has known Russell Kruckman. He is far from the only person to use power over others to make his life more enjoyable. Here in the U.S. we recently got rid of Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein. The governor of Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda's home state of New York is now facing impeachment for repeatedly harassing women who worked for him.
I have a question for Shankarananda. Where is the love? If you are such an enlightened being, would you need to rape women, just for a little pleasure? Love is so much better, and you don't even need to be in intimate contact with anyone.
I will post about this more in a few days.
I don't do much, write a few things here and there, try to keep up with this blog, but don't feel the need as much. Something I wrote for the Madison Cap Times recently has some relevance here, about the misuse of power on a state, national and world scale.You can find it here.
I was wrong about Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji's birthday. Google says his birthday is March 14, 1942, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. De Nada. I remember a celebration of some kind the summer of 1977, but it could have been any number of Indian Holidays, guru holidays or local exalted leader holidays.
So Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji is now 79. His raping days are pretty much over, though he might still be willing. In this image, though, he doesn't look like his previous self - instead we see his old self, as in old, 79, maybe in early stage dementia. That would be ironic. A man who says he is God, demented, less than omniscient. Maybe not omnipotent either, but, hmm, impotent. So sad. How will the planet survive?
As for Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji saying he is God, that comes from Muktananda, who told us we all were God, but in practice some were more God than others. For being above the law, that comes from Muktananda's teachings about certain God-realized beings - such as himself - who were above human laws and norms. The term used for such beings is avadhut (pr. ah-vod-hoot). One way to emphasize your godliness is to behave like an avadhut. It is also an easy way to get away with all kinds of terrible behavior - like rape.
His aide-de-evil Devi was the co-manager of the Ann Arbor ashram, along with her husband Das (Dan Greenberg, who also became a renunciate [swami], then renounced renunciation - and her - and returned to his family's printing business in Detroit. She was one nasty piece of work, pure venom most of the time, gratuitously snotty, but with an occasional soft touch. The word on her is that she came from a very abusive upbringing in Canada. If she has to leave Australia it will likely be back to Canada.
Muktananda is still revered by most who knew him. I saw him a few times when he was in less-than-exalted states, so it was easier for me to believe the reports that came out after he died, or in Siddha Yoga parlance, took Mahasamadhi.
Someone might want to remind Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji of the Sheikh Nasrudin story about when he was lying disheveled and drunk in the street, and a great king or some such came up to him and cursed him, saying something to the effect of "Look at you, supposed holy man, lying in the gutter, filthy, smelly, not much of a renunciate." To which Nasrudin said "Oh great one, it is you who are the great renunciate, renouncing the kingdom of God for a few simple pleasures." I have this story wrong in the details, but Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji would remember it, even with dementia. It is he who is the great renunciate, renouncing all real understanding, enlightenment and wisdom for a few successful sexual assaults. He may also be renouncing his freedom.
Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji would be surprised to know that I drove his parents back to their retirement community in Lakewood, New Jersey, in about 1981 or 82. It is a Jewish retirement home (and town), and he may still own it. If he keeps his freedom he may end up there. I suspect he is in Australia to the end.
Something else worth mentioning is that in the previous time that Kruckman/MSS-ji got caught having sex with devotees he claimed it was all consensual and was in the sacred practice of Tantra, supposedly an ancient and sacred practice of attaining "God" or an enlightened state through sex. There are pickup lines, and then there are pickup lines. "Hey, baby, want to become one with 'God?' Come up to my room." Tantra, or at least the pop culture American version of it is a perversion of the ancient practices, which don't include sex at all. The closest thing to ancient wisdom about sex practices is the Kama Sutra, which is really just about having the most fun. Enlightenment, not likely.
This actually exposes a fundamental flaw in the Siddha Yoga/Shiva Yoga cults. "God-realization" is offered as an attainment, something you arrive at in a narcissistic way, not caring about anyone else, or, as it turns out, who you hurt in the process. It is the perfect path for the times in which we live. Fuck everyone else. I'm in it for me. Meanwhile, as we are all seeing, and most painfully in Australia, the world is melting.
I failed to mention in the previous comments I posted that the women who came forward with their stories are heroes deserving of our gratitude and reverence. It is one thing to suffer great abuse, but quite another to speak publicly about it to the entire planet. Because of their courage, the "reign" of self-appointed holy man Russell Kruckman is at its well-deserved end. These women also serve as examples and inspiration to other women (and men) to come forward with their stories.
The hardest part of doing something courageous is the aftermath - not so much external, but internal. I call it entering the dragon's mouth, then going through a kind-of dark night of the soul. You go through it, then come out the other side. For these women, they have reclaimed their lives, and we can wish them the best. They have much to offer to others.
For more background on my experience with Siddha Yoga and Russell Kruckman, click here. I mentioned Sheikh Nasruddin in a previous comment. He was a "holy fool," or wise man, a Sufi in Turkey in the 13th Century. This link covers his background.
Hi John
A recent article about Russell Kruckman has appeared on the news.com.au internet site.
"Former devotees tell horror stories of life under sex-obsessed ‘guru’ at Victorian yoga retreat"
by Rohan Smith April 2 2021
Subtitle:-
"Women are being treated as sex objects by a man they believe is a direct link to God at a yoga retreat in one of Victoria’s richest suburbs"
https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/former-devotees-tell-horror-stories-of-life-under-sexobsessed-guru-at-victorian-yoga-retreat/news-story/837b2b8153a9751d8ca4804fc16c31ac
The article is accompanied by a short video clip titled "CULTS: THE MOST NOTORIOUS" that includes excerpts featuring Charles Manson, Jim Jones and Heaven's Gate. I feel a video clip referencing Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell may have been equally apt.
The article contains interviews with three ex-devotees - two brave women and one brave man - and outlines the grooming process that happened, and continued to happen after Russell Kruckman was opposed by a large number of his devotees in late 2014/early 2015. The male ex-devotee describes something he refers to as a "voodoo" experience occurring.
Your experiences with Kruckman really expand on the backstory that extends decades into the past. My guess is that Kruckman has been on this game of his for most of his life! And Devi has attached herself into the shenanigans very early on and she seems an almost equal player or enabler in the game. Could a succinct understanding of what has happened be reduced to the drastic and harmful consequences caused by a united couple of deluded and pathological narcissists motivated by Money, Sex and Power using, and operating under, a guise of 'spirituality'?
Your experiences and insights are really valuable and greatly appreciated by those of us who are attempting to get the even bigger picture on Kruckman.
Thanks John!
I'm glad to be of help. Russell Kruckman/Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji wasn't the worst person I encountered during my time of being involved in Siddha Yoga, but he is the only one who attacked me, hit me, and tried to shove a three-foot piece of bamboo up my rear. All because I was moving out of the Ann Arbor ashram. Or most. The hitting occurred in Honolulu, for no particular reason. Suppressed memory of a failed buggering.
Something I have been pondering lately is that most sexual abusers were themselves abused in childhood. Without getting specific, the neighborhood where he grew up is culturally closed-in, turned on itself in a cult-like fashion, paranoid of outsiders and internally abusive. I have much experience with the people of the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, without ever having been there. In my former job I took calls from customers from all over the U.S. and Canada, and almost invariably the calls from zipcode 11211 were the most difficult - intensely rude, demanding, trying to get something for nothing - and alternating with verbal abuse of whomever was nearby at home, especially children. The worst of course were the Hasids and other orthodox Jewish people, but that is one mean neighborhood. It isn't exclusive to Brooklyn. Monsey, New York and Montreal, of all places, are also areas of concentrated Jewish orthodoxy, and they interact with people in Brooklyn on a regular basis. I knew Russell Kruckman's parents from the time I drove them back to their retirement home in New Jersey. They were nice people, but my casual evidence of homosexual rape in these communities is that it tends to be done by relatives - uncles, most often. Then there are cousins, older boys (and girls) in the neighborhood, teachers, mentors of one kind or another. I'm no expert on this, but I know Russel Kruckman and the ferocity when he attacked me. I served three years in the U.S. Army during a very difficult and crazy war, but no one attacked me in all that time, though some would have liked to.
This isn't about him being Jewish, but about growing up in a closed-in, internecine subculture. My cultural background is mostly Irish Catholic, of the South side of Chicago variety. There was an extended family and a kind of loose identity with that, but no hesitancy to mix with others. One of my cousins married an African-American guy, and they lived on an Indian Reservation (This was after divorcing her abusive first husband.) I gave up being Catholic long ago, and Irish more recently. Scot too. I pursue the practice of having no identity. It's my version of Buddhism.
We are all in the same boat. I went to Siddha Yoga after an attempt on my life, likely Ku Klux Klansmen (a story for another day), and a year of floundering. It was a lifesaver for a while, and then it wasn't. I believed in the greatness of Swami Muktananda, and to some degree of Swami Shankarananda. I suppose I was a bit lucky that I never saw him as my guru, as some others in Ann Arbor did. I was so low on the totem pole of Siddha Yoga (electrician, plumber) that I didn't have much interaction with Muktananda. I went through the daily Darshan line like everyone else, got bapped with his wand of peacock feathers. It was great, but it didn't make me an enlightened being. I was lucky in that the awakening I received was at the heart level - but it may not have been from Muktananda at all. I was staying at a 3HO ashram at the time, right here in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1976. It was either the difficult Kundalini Yoga exercises I was doing, or reading about Muktananda.
Here's a song I go back to from time-to-time. It helps. Here's another. As Joseph Campbell put it, it's all metaphor. Be well.
I wonder if prisoners in Australia wear orange jumpsuits.
Something else worth mentioning is that when Russell Kruckman became a swami in 1977 he took vows of renunciation before the reigning mahamandaleshwar of the Saraswati order of Hinduism. These vows included an oath of celibacy - for life. Break the vow, "swami" means nothing. So, the current mahamandaleshwar of the Saraswati order of Hinduism - supposedly - disgraced Swami Shankarananda, can't even keep the vow he himself now administers. So much for promises. Here's a song.
Needless to say, "tantric sex" was never in the Siddha Yoga tradition. He made all that shit up.
Another myth of Siddha Yoga lore, and by extension of the Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji guru-surrender cult is the notion of lineage. We were told in Siddha Yoga that Swami Müktananda was the successor to Nityananda of Ganeshpuri in India, who was the successor of someone they claimed was Nityananda's guru, Ishwara Iyer. Shankarananda seems to be claiming that he is Müktananda's successor. There is no evidence of any of this. Nityananda was a stand-alone guru, recognized as a great holy man in India, but his followers in Ganeshpuri attribute no guru or successor to him.
There is a lineage, though. We all descend from the amoeba or archaea. No certificate needed.
I forgot to mention before that the ceremony of renunciation Shankarananda took is called Sannyas, and the renunciate is known as a sannyasin.
Here's a song for Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji/Russell Kruckman. For a picture of the ashram annex where Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji/Russell Kruckman attacked me, click here. At 1520 Hill St., Ann Arbor, Michigan, it is still the same yellow color. It is now known as Luther Coop.
News sometimes reaches me slowly. It seems Mahamandaleshwar Swami Shankarananda-ji/Russell Kruckman has retired. Just what he has retired from is an open question. Maybe he has retired from being the Mahamandaleshwar, and is now merely the average mandaleshwar. Or maybe no mandaleshwar at all. Maybe he is no longer a swami, and just "Shankar." Or Russell Kruckman, ordinary guy, formerly exalted, but now without omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, and, most significantly for Australians, no longer above the law.
This was kind of inevitable. The only concern now is that if he is withdrawn now from public presence, no one will know if he just slips away into the night, boarding a waiting boat for, hmm, Bali. He seems to have some support from another fake guru there.
De nada. As a former ashramite from Ann Arbor who was named "Roshi" by Russell Kruckman often said, no one ever gets away with anything. The real lesson from the Siddha Yoga/Shiva Yoga/Russell Kruckman saga is a clear warning that this could happen to any of us. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, as Lord Acton dictumed centuries ago.
In one of those strange ironies that happen from time-to-time, Novak Djokovic, world's greatest tennis player, indeed a maha tennis player, tried being above the law in Melbourne, Australia, where another self-exalted being tried his luck at being above the law. As with Russell Kruckman before him, Djokovic turned out not to be the avadhut he thought he was. Here's a song.
There are great beings on this planet, despite the many pretenders. We lost one of the greatest of all time last Saturday, Thich Nhat Hanh. I had the great fortune of being in his presence for a week, even worked to get the heat working in his living quarters. For all who have chosen a wrong teacher, a fake or a charlatan this is a lesson to keep trying. Or, don't have a teacher. Thich Nhat Hanh stressed living in the present moment and paying attention to your breath. The rest is embellishment. Some of us need embellishment, some don't.
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