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CROSS-DRESSING GODS & ISKCON IDOLATRY

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In the pilgrimage town of  Vrindavan , you are apt to meet cross-dressing bicycle-rickshaw operators whose devotion to the  Krishna  legend is apparent both from the cloth bead bags dangling from their necks and the cheap, see-through saris they wrap about their dusty pajama kurtas. When I first caught sight of these creatures, I was still a teenager--and a very naïve one at that!--and thus can hardly be blamed for bursting into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.  For this innocent  faux pas , I got a cold, hostile stare. In that case, it came from a carefree bicycle rickshaw driver who, like most of the similarly-attired men in his line of work, appeared to be decent and deviant at the same time. After hearing the barely-smothered laughter coming from the passenger seats, they would occasionally snicker themselves as if they were as amused by us as we were by them.  Struck by the novelty of the place, it never occurred to me to wonder why these foot-peddling cabbies turned gopis got

THE HARE KRISHNA “ENLIGHTENMENT “ SCAM

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As part of his program to spread the Hare Krishna cult to the West, its founder/guru A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada did not hesitate to initiate disciples and declare as “Brahmins” ex-hippies who took to chanting with all the fervor that once characterized their drug-taking and sexual excesses. Knowledge of Vedanta was not required: all an interested party had to do was attend Bhagavad-Gita lectures, attest that he or she was chanting 16 “rounds” on their japa beads, and was also following the “four regulative principles.” The indoctrination process included sleep deprivation—the Swami regarded more than four to six hours as sense indulgence or “Maya”—and a program of idol worship beginning at 4 a.m., followed by a lecture on his Bhagavad Gita As It Is . The exhausted and hungry devotees were then fed a meagre breakfast consisting of porridge that was poured on a paper plate on the floor and then eaten with the fingers of the right hand. The rest of the day was spent hawk