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Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness, and the Hare Krishnas
John Hubner and Lindsey Gruson
Harcourt,
Brace, Jovanovich, 1989. 362 pages.
Reviewed by
Sandy
Andron, Ed. D.
There are parts
of Monkey on a Stick that read remarkably like a breaking news story on the
front page of your local daily newspaper. Like many tragic stories of this
nature, the names, places, methods, locations, and victims are identified with
the horrific circumstances detailed for the reader. The authors, newsmen by
profession, are far more charitable than this reviewer when they ask at the
conclusion of the book, ‘How had people who set out to make peace and love end
up molesting children, running drugs, committing murder?”
Early in the text,
and throughout the pages of this book is a litany of quotations that suggest
that there were multiple agendas early on as the Krishna organization was
gaining impetus. If "absolute power corrupts absolutely," as Lord Acton
suggested so long ago, then the leadership of the movement might well be
worshipping at that altar rather than at Kirishna's. Hubner and Gruson
rightly point out that the Krishna movement degenerated into a number of
competing cults that have known murder, the abuse of women and children, drug
dealing, and swindles that would impress a mafia don.” Judge Howard Munson,
cited in the notes (p. 387), in a 1980 case, expresses similar concern about the
duplicity of the Krishnas.
The title of the
book comes from an Indian parable. It explains that when a monkey steals
bananas from a plantation in India, the farmers kill and impale the monkey on a
stick as an example to other monkeys to stay away. Leaving it thus on display,
the message to others is plain and obvious. One is reminded of the old
stocks in Salem, of the witch trials, of branding, and of equally barbaric and
merciless customs. Thus understood, however, we see the message as the caveat
to members of the group not to defect, nay, not even to question the orders
of the hierarchy. Some did. Some died.
Examples in the
book are myriad. Beneath the dhotis (Indian robes) and the shikhas
(pony tails) were lurking minds which directed their devotees to steal even from
one another. In response to accusations that stolen property was found in a
member’s van, the remarkable response is, ‘And why were you snooping around our
vans?”, and further, that the theft was perpetrated out of “Love for Krishna.
They were simply taking what they had to have to use in his service.” And
finally, “Krishna smiles on every endeavor, as long as it is done in his
service.” Convoluted thinking. No?
Airport solicitors
were told- ‘I don’t care what you do, as long as you make your quotas.” Devotees
who recoiled from questionable Krishna solicitation methods were told that they
were simply exercising their First Amendment religious expression rights, and
those who were still reticent were kicked out of the movement. Justifying
stealing by calling it ‘liberating it [money and goods] for Krishna" just
doesn’t wash. Nor does the rationalization of drug smuggling: the leaders told
followers that the drug money went to build temples, and the more temples there
were the more converts there would be, and this would mean fewer drug addicts.
One day, bingo, no more drug users. Such reasoning wouldn’t acquit in Logic
101!
When arms caches
which would equip a small army are found, when hate literature, larceny, and
political totalism are discovered among the Krishna, when children are raped in
front of other children and devotees are instructed that "three things are
better when you beat them: your drum, your dog, and your wife," it is not
surprising that deaths also occurred in the groups and that the seeds of
destruction were planted just as surely as the corpses of recalcitrant
followers.
What motivated one
woman to say she had played so many parts in so many scams that she felt like an
actress in a second-string repertory company is not explained in this book any
more than what prompted others to commit murder and still others to direct them
to do so. But that is not for journalists to decipher. They are chronicling the
degeneration of a would-be religious organization mired in what the Krishna
themselves call maya (illusion). Far from their stated goal and ideal of
egolessness, Krishna leaders sought power, even divinity. They failed.
The vignettes on
leaders and devotees throughout Monkey on a Stick - which connect the
stories of many people by the ongoing investigation of a policeman - are at
times confusing, since individuals’ Krishna names and former names are used
interchangeably. But the book nonetheless reads well, and is often riveting, and
the whole is certainly greater than the sum of its parts. For those interested
or involved in cult-related work, the book is a must for your reading list. It
is the definitive work to date exposing the inner workings of the Hare
Krishna movement.
This book review appeared in The
Cult Observer, 6(4), July/August, 1989, p.
18.
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