AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DECEMBER 08, 2014
Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney
AN AUSTRALIAN woman was sexually abused with a loaded shotgun by an Indian yoga guru who also forced her to drink his urine as a form of contraception, a royal commission has heard.
The woman, identified only as Shishy, said that she later heard the founder of the international Satyananda yoga movement, Guru Satyananda Saraswati, apparently plotting to kill her as she was “a great danger to … the organisation.”
Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Shishy said she was a “handmaiden” to another guru, Akhandananda, who was sent to Australia from India to found a yoga ashram north of Sydney in 1974.
Despite preaching abstinence himself, Akhandananda began having sex with Shishy at the age of 15 or 16, she told the commission. He would later use her to summon other women or girls from the ashram, with whom he would also have sex.
Over time, their relationship became more abusive, Shishy said. On a number of occasions, including after she had refused his orders, Shishy said she was told to fetch Akhandananda’s double-barrelled shotgun, which he loaded and used to rape her.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.