Ashram children starved, drugged, tortured, royal commission hears

By Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
December 3, 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/ashram-children-starved-drugged-tortured-royal-commission-hears-20141203-11z3mb.html

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

HIstory: Satyananda is Australia's oldest yoga ashram.

Children living at Australia's oldest yoga ashram were starved, tortured and drugged, according the evidence presented at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Families who brought their children to the Satyananda Yoga Ashram in the 1970s and 1980s thought they were giving them a better life but the commission heard the youngsters were subjected to horrific sexual and physical abuse.

A former child resident, given the pseudonym APK, told the commission she was forced to expose her genitals to ashram members and drugged with morphine for minor ailments.

She said she witnessed the torture of children as young as four after she moved to the ashram with her family when she was aged nine in 1978.

Her older sister, given the pseudonym APL, told the commission that sexual activity was banned at the ashram and those who disobeyed were punished by its leader Swami Akhandananda Saraswati.

Children went on what they called "f--- patrol" across the ashram's grounds at Mangrove Mountain on the central coast to see if any adults were being intimate.

"If Akhandananda found out that any of the swamis were having sex with each other he would publicly shame them and sometimes beat them," she said.

The commission heard that Akhandananda, who established the ashram in 1974, was a serial sex abuser who forced child residents into depraved acts for his own gratification.

The swami began assaulting APL when she was 15, explaining that the pain she experienced was her "kundalini energy rising", the commission heard.

Akhandananda's partner, known as Shishy, would often watch the abuse take place, the commission heard.

Another former child resident, APA, told the commission children were under-fed and she was so hungry she stole food from the visitor's accommodation and ate unripened oranges.

APL said the abuse she suffered at the ashram has left her severely traumatised with ongoing mental health problems.

"Akhandananda threatened to kill me if I told anyone (about the abuse)," she said. "Sometimes I wish he did kill me. I hated my life back then."

APK said she was so traumatised by her experience  she would rather get cervical cancer than undergo a pap smear.

She was deeply offended to receive an invitation to a healing ceremony to be held at the ashram as part of its 40th birthday celebrations in Easter this year.

"I don't think that they can just light a fire and say, 'Hari om' and think that everything will be forgiven and forgotten," she said.

In a statement read out to the commission, former child resident Bhakti Manning recalled sexual abuse committed by Akhandananda, as well as the movement's influential founder, Swami Satyananda Saraswati, at the Munger ashram in India. The commission also heard she had a sexual relationship with Satyananda's successor, Swami Niranjan.

The commission heard that when she raised concerns via email with the ashram about its history in the lead up to its 40th birthday celebrations, she was threatened with legal action. 

Akhandananda was convicted of sexual offences against young girls in 1989 but his conviction was overturned in 1991. He died from alcoholism in Cairns in 1997.

Eleven of his victims have contacted the commission and nine will give evidence during the two-week inquiry before Justice Jennifer Coate. The hearing continues.