Satyananda ashram sex abuse victims want $1 million in compensation

By Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
December 10, 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/satyananda-ashram-sex-abuse-victims-want-1-million-in-compensation-20141210-123zz2.html

Inquiry: Satyananda is Australia's oldest yoga ashram and has been dumped by the Indian head office as allegations are raised at the royal commission.

Victims of horrific assaults committed at a yoga ashram on the NSW central coast have asked for $1 million each in compensation, a sex abuse inquiry has heard.

Six of the nine victims who have given evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse about the trauma they suffered at the Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain in the 1970s and 1980s have formally requested financial redress throught their legal counsel.

Sarah Tetlow, chief executive of the ashram's parent body, the Satyananda Yoga Academy, indicated to the commission that the organisation was considering financial compensation for victims, who have previously told of ongoing mental and physical health problems as a result of the abuse they suffered at the hands of former leader Swami Akhandananda Saraswati.

She told the commission that the Satyananda Yoga Academy's net assets were worth $5.6 million. It owns three properties at Mangrove Mountain, Manly and rural Victoria. Three more properties on the NSW central coast are held in the name of two trusts associated with the academy.

The final day of the inquiry heard evidence about the ashram's efforts to help the victims, which included an invitation to attend a fire ceremony.

Ms Tetlow told the commission fire ceremonies were used for healing purposes in the yoga tradition.

Peter O'Brien, legal representative for the six victims seeking damages, questioned the effectiveness of the response.

"People chanting around a fire was never, ever going to go anywhere near a healing process for these people," he said.

Ms Tetlow said it was just one element of the response created by a hastily established taskforce, set up to liaise with victims. She told the commission she was not aware whether any taskforce members had experience in child abuse matters or responding to trauma.

Giving evidence, Ms Tetlow agreed that the ashram's apology to former child residents, who were abused in the 1970s and '80s, was inadequate.

The commission heard that the ashram's leaders initially sent a generic apology via Facebook and then blocked certain people from posting messages on its Facebook page.

Ashram leaders also threatened one woman with legal action for communicating about the abuse committed at the ashram, the commission heard.

"The way the organisation has responded has not been helpful to the victims," Ms Tetlow said.

The ashram's global parent, the Bihar School of Yoga, has angrily threatened to sever all ties with its Australian affiliate in the wake of the case.

In a scathing email read to the commission, Indian-based managers accused the Australian offshoot of taking no responsibility for multiple abuse claims.

The email, sent in October ahead of the public inquiry, charged Australian leaders of tainting the name of Satyananda yoga and its current head, Swami Niranjan Saraswati, and demanded an apology.

"From our perspective, there is no accountability or concern for yoga in Australia," it read. "No one is prepared to take responsibility for the situation. After a lifetime of support for Australia, Swami Niranjan and the Bihar School of Yoga in disgust withdraw their support."

The Bihar School of Yoga, which is the global centre of the late Swami Satyananda Saraswati's teachings, noted it would hire a lawyer in Australia to monitor the activities of the Satyananda Yoga Academy, the umbrella body of Australian ashrams.