Child abuse royal commission: Mindset of NSW yoga retreat 'as dangerous as ever', witness tells hearing

By Nicole Chettle
ABC News
December 3, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-03/child-abuse-royal-commission-nsw-yoga-retreat/5938936

The royal commission is examining child abuse allegations involving the Satyananda Yoga Ashram.

A former resident of Australia's oldest yoga ashram has received applause after delivering a passionate call for justice at the child sexual abuse royal commission in Sydney.

The commission has been looking at the handling of 11 complaints made against former spiritual leader Swami Akhandananda Saraswati over the past 40 years, relating to abuse that happened in the 1970s and '80s.

The issue came to a head around Easter this year when the Satyananda Yoga Ashram in New South Wales sent an email to former members detailing a "healing ceremony" that formed part of its 40th anniversary commemorations.

One woman known as APK, who, along with her sister, endured years of physical and sexual abuse.

"It didn't resolve it for me, and I know it didn't resolve it for my family," she said.

She wrote to the organisation and said "to suggest healing has occurred when those whose lives were affected weren't even there is ridiculous".

"How nice for you that you feel healed. But your little fire ceremony does nothing for me or my family," she said.

"This is not something to be wrapped up in a pretty ribbon and healed by singing Kirtan around a fire pit ... frankly this fluff you have written is an insult to the people who truly suffered."

APK said the victims were still scarred by the abuse.

"It is also particularly insulting that you would spout off this rubbish about ego and embracing your darkness - all the same Samsara bulls**t that Swami Akhandananda spouted while f***ing little girls and stealing people's lives," she said.

"The mindset of the ashram hasn't changed and it is as dangerous as it ever was."

Akhandananda was convicted on charges of indecency and jailed in 1989, but his conviction was overturned in 1991. He died in 1997.

"I know financial compensation won't make any of the trauma go away, but I want to hit the ashram where it hurts," APK said.

"I think the only way to make them understand their failure is to make them pay compensation."

Earlier, the commission heard that Akhandananda's partner, Shishy, witnessed girls being raped and was responsible for beating children.

APK's sister, known as APL, said Shishy had a violent temper and bashed her from the age of seven.

"She would say, 'This is part of your teaching, I am hitting you out of love'," APL said.

APL told the commission that it was impossible to run away because the spiritual leader said he would track her down and shoot her dead.

When she was 15 and tried to resist his advances, Akhandananda said publicly that APL was "too dignified" to enjoy his love, and plied her with alcohol and gave her marijuana to "loosen her frigidity".

APL told the commission Akhandananda recalled meeting her as a terrified seven-year-old.

"He said, 'The moment I laid eyes on you, I knew one day that you would be mine. It was destiny that we had met'," she said.

She said Shishy was sometimes in the same room when she was being abused, and at one point asked if she would like her to leave.

On one occasion, APL said Shishy flew into a rage when she was ill and unable to meet Akhandananda's sexual demands, and said "it's your job to take care of his every need no matter what you're feeling".

Shishy left the ashram in 1985 and wrote a letter instructing the girls to take care of their leader.

"She wanted Akhandananda to abuse me as much as he needed so it would make it easier for her to get away," APL said.

She said Shishy only gave evidence at the subsequent criminal trial to save herself.

"I would like Shishy to finally be made accountable for her role in the abuse," she said.

"I would like to see her prosecuted for child abuse."

In 1987 APL returned to visit the ashram and was told she was not welcome and should leave the property.

"I remember saying to this mother that her daughter was at risk of being abused," she said.

"She responded in words to the effect of, 'I would consider it a privilege if my daughter was chosen by Akhandananda'."

Another witness, known as APH, said teenage girls were called to attend their leader over a PA system, and that the receptionist and others must have known about the abuse and considered it a "spiritual privilege".

"Those who allowed abuse to occur must be held to account," she said.

"Those who pretend the past is in the past must face their past in this present.

"And those hiding behind the guise of spirituality must realise they are not above the law."

The commission is expected to hear from Shishy and other adults who were at the ashram when the abuse happened.