Guilty Times 20! — Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, Founder of Barsana Dham, is Found Guilty on All Charges of Indency with Children

I put this blog on the back burner while waiting for the criminal trial of Swami Prakashanand Saraswati on 20 counts of indecency with children for sexual contact.

He was convicted on all 20 counts by a jury of his peers on Friday, March 11th, 2011. He never showed up for his sentencing hearing on Monday, March 14th, 20011. He is presumed to be on the run somewhere in the world.

I do not know where he is, but I know about life in the U.S. ashram in Austin, Texas, he created — JKP Barsana Dham. And I will tell you all about it now.

Prakashanand Land USA (aka Barsana Dham) is Not Open to its Founding Overlord

Accused felon Prakashanand Saraswati is free to wander anywhere in the world — except for on a 200-acre patch of land in the Texas Hill Country.

As part of the stipulation of his $10 million bond agreement issued on May 15, 2008, he cannot enter the ashram over which he ruled with unquestioned authority for 18 years.

It has really got to chap his hide not to be allowed to step one slippered foot inside the eight-foot-high fence separating his property from the rest of the United States of America. Like all autocrats, Prakashanand made all the rules in his kingdom, called all the shots, and was the sole judge and jury of those on the inside.

Before the ink was even dry on the property deed in 1990, he christened the land “Barsana Dham” and wasted no time refashioning the natural rolling hill country property into a simulated holy land that suited his every desire. Before long he renamed a prominent hill on the property from Friday Mountain to Barsana Hill, and renamed the property’s stretch of a winding stream from Onion Creek to the Kalindi River. And that was just the beginning of the manufacturing of his particular reality.

Prakashanand tells people that he has been “recreating” Braj India on his 200-plus acres. But this is like the Epcot Center claiming it has recreated France, Spain, and Venice in Orlando, Florida. The resemblance is childish, commercial, and unfulfilling.

One of the first orders he decreed upon taking possession of his new property was installing a chain-link fence to separate his land from his surrounding neighbors — including the Transcendental Meditation (TM) community, called Radiance, located directly to the south.

This enclosure not only physically separates his province from the rest of the country, but it also psychologically creates a barrier that has made many devotees feel alternatively cosseted and imprisoned. Prakashanand has reinforced these feelings by telling followers that his creation offers the only hope for people seeking God and warning them that the world outside of the gates is “hell.”

Among Prakashanand’s many rules within his kingdom are simple, modest, and renounced living for all residents (including anywhere from 40 to 70 people). Unfortunately, he has not been an exemplary role model for the austere lifestyle he verbally imposed over the years. It has been more a case of “do what I say, not what I do.” For example, his personal quarters on the second floor of the ashram’s large temple include a whirlpool bathtub, sauna, steam room, marble-counter kitchen, fine china in the cupboards, multi-count sheets on his plush mattress, and a balcony overlooking the most ornate section of the property.

Nothing is too small to ensure his maximum comfort. A cadre of devotees are devoted to ensuring that his very whim is swiftly and unerringly catered to. Anything could be cause for a life-or-death style crisis — such as the less-than-perfect shape of a pillow or the undesired degree of light emitting through his bedroom curtains.

Over the years, many people have been curious about this peculiar place. Occasionally, inquiring minds attempted to peek inside of the abnormal world — thinking they could actually know the inner workings simply from a superficial view of the showy exterior. Of course, their lack of discovery of the underbelly of Prakashanand Land wasn’t their fault. From my multiple years of experience, I now know that the reality of Barsana Dham is a murky otherworld hidden by a carefully crafted hard, glossy exterior finish.

While I do not agree with the judge’s decision to let Prakashanand free to roam the world, I applaud his decision to keep him out of his ashram located on RR 1826, 15 miles southwest of Austin, Texas. Perhaps the judge realized that the greater punishment than not letting this professed swami — who is accused of 20 counts of indecency with a child — back to India, was not giving him the keys back into his insular, protected kingdom.

UPDATE (Aug. 20th, 2008) — http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/21/0821swamiji.html

My Life was Interrupted by the Far-from-Wonderful Wicked Wizard of JKP Barsana Dham

It’s too bad I usually fell asleep before the end of “The Wizard of Oz.”

When I was a child, the annual airing of this epic movie was a highlight of my young life. However, typically I would fall sound asleep before Dorothy returned to Oz with the witch’s broomstick and before she realized that the “great and wonderful wizard of Oz” was just a short, fat, old, pathetic man frantically pushing buttons and pulling levers behind a curtain — all in a frenzied attempt to keep the secret of his grand façade from being revealed to the hoodwinked, brainwashed, robotic citizens of Oz.

Perhaps if I had watched the ending of the movie multiple times, the truth of the wizard’s con game would have been indelibly etched in my mind. Then maybe I would have been smarter about falling for conmen who sell fantastical illusions, tell bold-faced lies, and deliver nothing but shams.

I was reminded of this movie and its central message while listening to the director’s comments on another movie, “Girl, Interrupted.” He said: “In ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ the lead character, Dorothy, is continuously looking for a concrete answer: ‘I want to go home again.’ ‘Okay, go find the wizard.’ She finds the wizard. (The wizard) says, ‘Go get a broomstick.’ She goes and kills the witch and gets a broomstick. But the broomstick means nothing. The wizard is a fake. The fact is that she had the power to go home from the very beginning of the film.”

This correlates exactly with my experience on my spiritual journey.

Somewhere along the way someone told me that I needed a guru. Then the guru said I needed to live a renounced life, including spending hours a day in satsang, doing endless hours of physical seva, and giving uncountable amounts of money. I gave up my life and devoted it to God. And what did I find at the end of the road? I found out that the guru is a complete fraud — that he is an all-too mortal human being, who never had the power to give anyone anything.

It’s a sad fact of life that there is no end to the number of charlatans willing to pretend that they have the secret. Most of these swindlers are narcissists.

Eleanor Payson wrote a book on the subject, called, interestingly, “The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists.” These are people who care only for themselves, who will do and say anything necessary to take everything they can from others, and who will not be the least bit concerned about those whom they hurt along their paths of destruction.

Here is an excerpt: “Every day headlines are filled with examples of narcissistic individuals in positions of power who are nothing more than impostors plundering and wrecking havoc on the lives of others … we daily encounter narcissists and the self-serving systems that enable them. Using simple metaphors from the American classic, ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ Payson illustrates how Dorothy’s journey captures all the seductive illusions and challenges that occur when we encounter the narcissist.”

Narcissists fall into the same psychological category as sociopaths, psychopaths, masochists, and sadomasochists. All of these demented personality types prey on the innocent in their selfish missions of self-adulation.

Before you fall for the underhanded and cruel tactics of any of these tricksters posing as spiritual guides, please, I implore you — wake up.

Knowledge is Freedom — How to Know a Cult When You See One

“Dear Mom and Dad, I no longer fear hell.”

Lisa Simpson wrote this poignant line in a letter home to her parents from a summer camp, which turned out to be a wicked scam. In this episode of “The Simpsons,” Lisa, Bart, and other children thought they were going to experience the time of their lives at a delightful kids’ camp. Instead they were deceptively lured into an evil con game, where the devilish camp leaders abused them in uncountable ways.

I know just how little Lisa felt. I also no longer fear hell — because I have already experienced it at a place called JKP-Barsana Dham. Like Lisa, I was duped into thinking I was entering an upstanding organization, only to learn I was involved in a cult headed by people with unwholesome ulterior motives.

When I finally learned many, many of the JKP’s unholy secrets, I also learned the definition of a cult. According to the 15th edition of “The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy” (the revered medical encyclopedia used by doctors and nurses since 1899), cults offer “father or god figures” to people needing such identification. Throughout history “each self-appointed messiah claimed a simple solution for the complex problems of life and called for commitment, sacrifice, and zeal.”

There is a high price to pay for joining any cult — including sacrificing your time, money, innocence, and self-respect. One of the reasons people are lured into cults is that cults use extremely deceptive recruiting practices. Their sneaky methods ensure that “prospective members have no accurate knowledge of the cult and almost no understanding of what eventually will be expected of them as long-term members.”

My advice to you is to question everything you’re told and listen to your gut instincts: If something feels or seems wrong, it probably is. Ask the leadership the hard questions — and don’t take nonsense for answers.

If you’ve read this far in this blog post, then you are already ahead of the JKP con game — because I am giving you critical information that can save you from entering a cult and being sorry later.

If you need more proof, the “The Merck Manual” provides this handy checklist for identifying a cult:

1. A cult controls an individual’s social and psychological environment, especially the person’s time.

2. A cult places an individual in a position of powerlessness within a high-control, authoritarian system.

3. A cult relies on a closed system of logic, which permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by executive order.

4. A cult lures each person into the environment over time in increments that are sufficiently minor and, therefore, difficult to perceive.

5. A cult erodes a person’s confidence in his or her own opinions and perceptions.

6. A cult creates a system of rewards and punishments that promotes desired behavior and inhibits undesirable behavior.

While it took me several years to realize I was being scammed by a cult, it feels great now to finally be out of hell. However, I would highly advise my fellow spiritual seekers not to go there in the first place.

If You Have Blind Faith, Watch Your Step at JKP-Barsana Dham

There are countless stories about the power of blind faith in every religion. But sometimes you just have to open your eyes, take a good hard look at the facts, and decide if you are witnessing a test of your faith or just a scam.

In the weeks following the arrest of “Jagadguru” Kripalu Maharaj last year in Trinidad for rape — during which so many secrets came flooding through the cracks in the façade — I talked with several devotees in JKP-Barsana Dham about the unsettling news. I found that they fell into three basic categories:

1. The Blind Faithers. This group was comprised of people who seemed to ascribe to a “see no evil, hear no evil” philosophy. In other words, they appeared to believe that if they pretended nothing had happened, it would all just go away. Their point-of-view was bolstered by the gurus’ direct orders to “keep quiet” and “not read anything” about the arrest on the Internet. They did as they were told. Most likely, the Blind Faithers were afraid of angering their guru and purportedly losing the chance to receive his grace. My personal feeling is that the Blind Faithers actually feared looking too closely at reality. They feared seeing anything other than what they wanted to believe. They were afraid that if they looked too closely at the house of cards it would all collapse.

2. The Defenders. These people were comprised largely of “inner circle” JKP devotes. It appeared to be their job to see and hear all the evil: Then work as hard as they could to keep the truth hidden from the rest of us. You can recognize these people by the wide variety of custom-tailored defenses they spout such as: “This is all a leela.” “This is a smear campaign.” “This a test of devotees’ faith.” The problem with all of their excuses is that none of them fit reality — and they certainly don’t explain away the gurus’ bad behavior for members of the third group.

3. The Truth Seekers. From what I could tell this was the smallest group of devotees. After all, not too many followers have the guts to face the fact that their spiritual group is a cult. Admittedly, taking the road-less-traveled was, at times, a difficult journey. In those dark days, it was a breath of fresh air to find other seekers of truth.

I’ll never forget one conversation I had with a fellow Truth Seeker at Barsana Dham. That devotee said: “Think about this: Have you ever seen one single devotee of these two men achieve anything even close to God realization in all of our years on this path?” I had to admit that I had not.

How could it be that after years on this path I had not personally witnessed anyone who seemed to evolve beyond the person they already were in key areas that exemplify a higher state of consciousness — such as humbleness, kindness, simplicity, genuineness, fairness, and purity? Has anyone on this path ever actually been graced to enter the Divine world?

This is not a judgment on the sincere seekers of God who have involved themselves with JKP-Barsana Dham. This is a statement about the leaders that head up the organization. If people are not achieving their spiritual goals there — where the gurus say it is ALL based on their grace — there is a good reason: Namely, the leaders are not who they profess themselves to be.

A big problem for JKP-Barsana Dham’s leadership is that the three categories of devotees are not absolute. After all, any member of the Blind Faithers or even the Defenders today, could easily become a Truth Seeker tomorrow.

Thank God for the People Who are Speaking the Truth About JKP

The truth hurts — but being lied to and abused in a spiritual con game hurts worse.

Last year at this time I was in the throws learning so many dark truths about the organization I had joined several years before — Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat (JKP). After Kripalu Maharaj’s arrest in Trinidad in May 2007 people around the world exposed secrets about this organization in blog after blog and comment after comment. I read them all, becoming more shocked with every word.

The people speaking out must have held their secrets for a long time, apparently not knowing who to tell or how to tell them. Finally, they had a platform for sharing what they knew with the world — the Internet. Here are just a few of the many websites for which I am grateful, because they posted articles about JKP and allowed people to post their comments:

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/india/news/article_1309152.php/Rapist_Trinidad_swami_has_a_Nagpur_past?compage=0&comcount=316&comlimit=10

http://guruphiliac.blogspot.com/2007/05/85-year-old-swami-up-on-rape-charges.html

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9415

Of course, not everyone believes the stories about Kripalu’s and Prakashanand Saraswati’s abuse of power, sex, and money. Many people want to cling to their dream that this organization has the sole claim to God’s grace — and they will seemingly do anything to prevent their dream from turning into a nightmare. Such is the power of the mind to live in denial.

Despite having been well indoctrinated into this cult, the minute I started reading the stories online I knew they were true. How did I know? I knew because I could read between the lines and hear the sincerity and honesty of each person. I could tell they were not writing for any purpose other than the knowledge that they could possibly help expose a spiritual fraud and help save others from wasting their lives, money, and spiritual innocence.

I also knew they were speaking the truth, because I had stories of my own. Over the years I had experienced, heard, and seen many unsettling things. My gut instinct told me these things were not right and were in direct opposition to a pure path to God.

But my desire for God was so great that it usurped my judgment. This was exacerbated by the fact that the organization’s gurus and preachers repeatedly reminded followers that if we were not advancing spiritual toward union with Radha-Krishn it was due to our lack of surrender to the gurus. That’s a cruel message to tell a person who has given his or her life for God realization. But, as I learned firsthand, cruelty comes easy to JKP’s leaders.

I now know that I should have listened to my gut many years ago and saved myself from this cult. But at least I finally listened to the voices of people telling the truth about JKP — and I took action before I spent any more time serving conmen.

To every brave and honest person who has shared the truth about JKP — and to those who continue to speak out— I would like to say Thank You! The truth really does set you free.

Guru Poornima is a Sacred Hindu Holiday — Not an Opportunity for Propaganda

How do you explain to the world that one of your gurus has been arrested for “indecency with a child”?

If you are JKP-Barsana Dham you seemingly make an attempt to compare him to great historical Saints. In Barsana Dham’s recent promotion for an upcoming Guru Poornima celebration, the organization appears to be trying to draw a parallel between legendary spiritual beings and its own questionable gurus: Prakashanand Saraswati and Kripalu Maharaj. It’s not the first time.

The problem for discerning readers is that the comparison just does not correlate — whatsoever. Here is the key line from its promotion:

“History tells us that Tulsidas was robbed and harassed because he showed a simple way of God realization and condemned religious imposters, Meera was nicknamed and defamed because she sang the glory of Krishn, and Haridas was nearly killed because he openly distributed the Bliss of the Divine name of Krishn.”

Imagine a scale. On one side are acts of being persecuted for showing a simple path to God and singing the glory of Krishn. On the other side of the scale is being arrested for illegal sex acts. There is NO comparison.

I can’t help but believe that JKP-Barsana Dham is attempting to use Hindu scripture and devotional stories as a shield to cover up the questionable actions of its “gurus.” What’s more, the organization seems to be arrogantly assuming the public is gullible enough to believe this scheme. The sad thing is that the tactics will likely trick many unsuspecting and innocent lovers of God. It will not be the first time.

While it is customary for Hindu organizations to spend some time paying respect to gurus, in my personal experience in JKP the exaltation of the gurus is nearly to the exclusion of worshiping God. Kripalu often speaks for hours on the greatness of guru (in other words, the greatness of himself). And he cites dozens of scriptures to prove his point.

In fact, at Barsana Dham last summer (2007), just 43 days after he was arrested in Trinidad for rape, Kripalu gave a talk on the occasion of Guru Poornima that included the recitation of about 60 scriptures. This greatly impressed people. They believe that his ability to cite so many scriptural passages is one of the things that proves he is God. I don’t know about you, but I have known many people who can recite extensive volumes of poetry, legal passages, biblical chapters, or other text. Many people have great memories — that does not make them God.

But his speech did not end there. He spent several minutes telling us not to question him or his actions. His exact words were: “Just keep quiet.” It’s not the first time devotees were told some form of shut up.

No doubt it would be very convenient for him if people who doubted him did just keep quiet; if they didn’t use their God-given minds to question his questionable actions; and if God-loving people worshiped him instead of God. These are all key elements of any cult.

It’s my fate that I had to learn the lesson of false gurus the hard way. Now, I can hopefully help others learn this lesson the easy way.

The important lesson is simply this: There is only one true guru and He is God.

Happy Guru Poornima to our gracious, loving, and truly pure Radha-Krishn

The Weather was Cooler, But the Heat was on Last Summer at JKP-Barsana Dham

This summer in Austin is extremely hot. We are stuck under a ridge of high pressure that is keeping the place like an oven. It’s the kind of heat in which the shade offers little relief.

Last summer in Austin the weather was much different. It was rainy and wet, with temperatures cooler than normal. But that doesn’t mean that life was anymore bearable at JKP-Barsana Dham. The ashram was under its own “ridge of high pressure” of a different sort: Kripalu Maharaj (aka Ram Tripathi) was staying there for several weeks.

He had arrived in Barsana Dham on April 1st, 2007, a few weeks ahead of schedule for reasons never explained to most of us — but which would become clear later. The minute he stepped out of the Mercedes and his sneakered foot hit the pavement under the temple’s porte-cochere, the world became his and we just lived in it. And he likes his world to run a particular way down to the kind of milk he’ll drink (only fresh squeezed) and the television access he expects (all possible channels).

The devotees and guests had to work like demons to keep him, his family members, and hundreds of guests fed and housed. They also had to spend countless hours in the prayer hall each day from 5:00 AM until 10:00 PM chanting songs written by Kripalu in Hindi. And they were encouraged to spend their money everyday on everything from shawls ($50 each) to photos taken with him (up to $2,500 a pop).

We were told we had one year to pay off whatever debt (called “seva”) we accumulated. Then he left on May 14th for Trinidad.

Upon his departure, there was a palpable sigh of relief after a long and tiring month-and-a-half long whirlwind of activity and demands. But that respite was short-lived when we learned on May 25th that he had been arrested for rape. The arrest resulted in a significant change in his “world tour” plans, including canceling his visit to Canada (another unexplained mystery). Instead, he returned to Barsana Dham for two-and-a-half weeks from June 18th until the early morning of July 4th.

Despite the fact that serving Kripalu is supposed to be “the gift of a lifetime for a soul,” I don’t remember anybody seeming to be particularly happy about his return. By that time most people seemed to be out of energy and enthusiasm. But it wasn’t as if we had a choice — the chaos resumed whether we liked it or not.

One of the most notable aspects of his return was the sudden pressure to collect the money devotees owed him, despite the original 12-month payment plan. Everyday, at nearly every satsang session someone was standing up and announcing that devotees should pay as much as they could of the money they owed — in cash. For their convenience, an ATM machine was available just outside the temple doors.

I, for one, found it suspicious that the money collection had heated up to such a level. But mostly I just felt sorry for all of the people who were still willing to believe that such a person was anything other than just another human being with a scheme to keep himself and his family members living in the lap of luxury.

It may be hotter than Hades here in Austin this summer, but I am happy to be independent again and free from a fraudulent spiritual pressure cooker.

I’m counting my blessings this Fourth of July for the independence afforded me as a citizen of the U.S.A. and as a lover of God who is free from the stifling choke hold of a cult.

Happy Fourth of July to all lovers of freedom

Is the Pen Mightier than a Double-Edged Sword? I Wrote and JKP-Barsana Dham Listened.

Last week, I learned that pointing out the possible fallacies in JKP-Barsana Dham’s self-promotion is a double-edged sword.

On one hand, the information helps give unsuspecting spiritual seekers a reality check regarding the organization’s excessively hyped image: But on the other hand, my thoughts give Barsana Dham information it can use to clean up its act — which is exactly what the organization did last week almost the minute I published my post about the Barsana Dham Wikipedia page’s multiple problems with content being “factual, notable, verifiable with external sources, and neutrally presented, with external sources cited.”

Actually, to be completely accurate, I should say, Barsana Dham almost cleaned up the Wikipedia article. While it did make some changes based on the specific information I wrote about and it did get Wikipedia to remove the disclaimer at the top of the page, which stated that the page may not meet the online encyclopedia’s content guidelines, I’m still not convinced that the Barsana Dham page meets the encyclopedia’s high standards.

What I find particularly unsettling is how Barsana Dham may still be stretching the verifiability of many of its citations. Wikipedia demands citations to help ensure that the content on its pages is not merely just published by some self-aggrandizing organization or person using the open medium for its own self-promotion.

While many of the citations on the Barsana Dham page appear to be generated either directly or indirectly via self-promotional materials and information taken out of context, here are a few of the more questionable citations in my opinion:

• Citation #2 — Barsana Dham added a new line of text related to this citation: “According to an article in the ‘International Journal of Humanities and Peace,’ Barsana Dham is one of the largest Hindu Temple complexes in North America.” It seems highly suspicious to me that this journal would make this claim. I will be contacting the publication to see if this is true. What’s more, as I mentioned last week, this citation is from the review of a book written by Prakashanand Saraswati, and as such is most likely indirectly from Barsana Dham’s own promotional material.

• Citation #3 — As hard as I searched, I could not find this article cited on the Internet.

• Citation #11 — Barsana Dham pulled one line out of context from a rather negative article published in the Austin American-Statesman in 1992, entitled “Swami’s planned Hindu temple is center of speculation.” Among other things, the article cited comments by ex-members who’d had negative experiences with Prakashanand and his organization.

• Citation #13 — Barsana Dham cites a book written by Prakashanand Saraswati.

• Citation #19 — This citation is questionable, because Barsana Dham makes this claim in the body of the Wikipedia article: “Barsana Dham opened its doors to Hurricane Katrina evacuees, and executed a fundraising drive in its wake.” Not only could I not find the India Abroad article cited on the Internet, but also the article’s title infers that it’s about Hurricane Rita victims (“Community rallies to help Rita victims,” October 7, 2005). What’s more, I for one would like proof that Barsana Dham actually did open its doors to Hurricane Katrina victims and that it did actually raise any money at all for them.

Now let’s watch and see if JKP-Barsana Dham starts slicing and dicing the Wikipedia page again based on my efforts to shine the light of truth on information that I feel might be skewed. If you are interested, you can track edits made on the Barsana Dham Wikipedia article on this Web page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barsana_Dham&action=history

Let’s be clear about one thing — this is not JKP-Barsana Dham’s own personal Wikipedia page. Wikipedia is open for anyone to write and edit any page on its encyclopedia. This means that anyone with knowledge of the organization has every right to contribute factual content on this page according to the content guidelines, which include being able to back up what you say with verifiable citations — hopefully citations less debatable than several of the ones currently posted there.

And you can quote me on that.

Best to all lovers of truth,
FreedomWriter

UPDATE — June 23, 2008, 10 AM — A few hours after I published this post, the edits had begun. Already Citation #11 listed above has been removed. Darn that double-edged sword! Note that Citation #13 is now #12 and Citation #19 is now #18 on the current Wikipedia page. Stand by for more changes.

Is JKP-Barsana Dham All Hype? Wikipedia Wants to Know.

There’s a saying in Texas about fake cowboys that could just as easily describe JKP-Barsana Dham: He’s all hat and no cattle.

The colloquialism refers to a cowboy who has the outward appearance of a cattle rancher (right down to an authentic cowboy hat), but in actuality has no cattle to back up his swagger.

I’m reminded of this adage when I read any of JKP-Barsana Dham’s copious amounts of self-promotion — which it seems to be self-generating on a daily basis these days (could this be to bury some particularly unsavory news on the Internet?).

It seems that I’m not alone in my skepticism regarding Barsana Dham’s claims to fame. These days even Wikipedia is wondering how much of Barsana Dham’s spiel is real and how much is sheer PR puffery.

I found what I consider to be a couple of very revealing behind-the-scenes Wikipedia Web pages this week. One of them cites that in early June 2008 Barsana Dham’s Wikipedia article was one of the Top 25 most edited articles on the Web site. In fact, since Prakashanand’s arrest on April 24, 2008, there have been over 50 edits to the Barsana Dham Wiki article by multiple sources.

Top 25! Wow — that’s huge considering there are currently 10 million articles posted on the online free encyclopedia. I’ll bet that’s one accolade Barsana Dham won’t be promoting.

Barsana Dham seems to exist in an insular world of its own making and may not be used to other entities telling it that it’s over the top. Perhaps it finds Wikipedia’s content rules to be too confining.

Wikipedia’s content guidelines are fairly simple: “content is intended to be factual, notable, verifiable with external sources, and neutrally presented, with external sources cited.” Since March 2006, a number of independent contributors and Wiki editors have been editing or proposing edits to the Barsana Dham Wiki article along these guidelines.

However, even with all the edits in the past two months, I’m still concerned that Barsana Dham may not be posting content within Wikipedia’s guidelines. Here are just three points (out of many) regarding citations that have me wondering about their neutrality:

• “It is one of the largest Hindu Temple complexes in North America” (Barsana Dham cites a person who wrote a review of one of Prakashanand’s book and who is a holistic health researcher)
• “Barsana Dham has become a place of pilgrimage for millions of Hindus living in North America” (Barsana Dham cites an article from “Hinduism Today,” even though the content appears to be from Barsana Dham’s own press release)
• “Shree Radha Rani has many names” (Barsana Dham cites one of Prakashanand’s books as the source)

Due to its questionable content, Barsana Dham’s Wiki article was almost deleted all together in April 2008. Now Wikipedia notes at the top of the page that the article has multiple issues including:

• Its tone or style may not be appropriate for Wikipedia.
• It reads like an advertisement and needs to be rewritten from a neutral point of view.
• It may need copyediting for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling.

Barsana Dham will have to clean up its act soon — or go the way of three other Wikipedia articles that where recently deleted:

1. Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat
2. Jagadguru Kripalu Maharaj
3. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati

I can only guess that on these three pages JKP-Barsana Dham either didn’t even try to ratchet back the blatant self-promotion or it had no way to describe these entities without using hyperbole.

If we cannot even trust the JKP organization to post Wikipedia content that meets the online encyclopedia’s egalitarian rules for truth, notability, and neutrality, what information can we trust from JKP-Barsana Dham?