AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
December 4, 2014
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
Outwardly he preached “abstinence, chastity and austerity” but behind closed doors the international yoga master Swami Satyananda Saraswati groomed and violated a young follower, a royal commission has heard.
The founder of the globally renowned Satyananda yoga movement forced one of his followers into degrading sex acts while she was living at his ashram in India in the 1970s and ’80s, the commission heard.
Bhakti Manning told the the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse she was first abused by Satyananda’s disciple, Akhandananda, and another swami in Australia when she was 15.
She moved to Satyananda’s ashram in India, as a 16-year-old where she said he made her have sex with him while others were watching.
Ms Manning told the commission that when the guru became angry he would force her into “violent, aggressive sex”. He infected her with a sexually transmitted disease but she did not get pregnant, suspecting the leader was “firing blanks”.
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