Site of shocking sexual and physical abuse: Mangrove Yoga Ashram. Source: Facebook
IN the foothills of Mangrove Mountain, some went in search of peace at a yoga ashram, instead their children were drugged, raped and beaten.
Disturbing details have been revealed of the abuse suffered by children in the 1970s and 80s at a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse at the Mangrove Yoga Ashram on the NSW Central Coast.
The ashram north of Sydney was founded by a disciple of the Indian guru who established the Satyananda Yoga movement, which helped spread the practice around the world.
The commission has heard from nine witnesses, including an account last week from one victim who was stripped naked when she was seven years old and held down while the skin between her breasts was cut by a swami. He then licked the blood and had intercourse with her during an initiation ceremony.
Some of the most shocking testimony has come from the "handmaiden" of the abusive yoga master and spiritual leader Swami Akhandananda.
Shishy, who had legal guardianship of children at the retreat in the 1980s, was completely controlled by Swami Akhandananda, bringing young girls to the swami for sexual initiation, which she believed was for their "spiritual growth".
Former child residents claimed that Shishy, who was second-in-charge at the ashram, slapped them so hard it affected their hearing and eyesight and on one occasion the force slammed their heads against a wall.
On Monday she denied this but admitted she did slap children and brought young girls to the swami for sexual initiation, which she believed was for their "spiritual growth".
However, Shishy said she was also the victim of shocking abuse. She told the commission that she had to drink Akhandananda's urine as part of a traditional contraceptive method and her vagina was slashed with nail scissors. The yoga master also sexually assaulted her with a double-barrelled shotgun.
Photographs from inside the Mangrove Mountain ashram, which were tendered to the Royal Commission. Source: Supplied
"Violent discipline was an acceptable part of ashram discipline meted out by the gurus. It was represented as an 'honour' to receive slaps from the teacher/guru," she said.
Shishy was 14 when she met Akhandananda and went to live at the Mangrove when she was 18. She began a sexual relationship with Akhandananda when she was 16, at an ashram in Bondi in 1974. She never questioned why the supposedly celibate guru had sex with her.
He told her that she was "a very advanced being" and "a chosen one" and she believed him, she said, but he forbade her from mentioning it to other people at the ashram.
Shishy lived at the ashram until 1985 and during that time had two abortions — one self administered. She said Akhandananda would punish her by digging out moles with a sharp pen knife. Two of the moles were quite deep and he wouldn't let her get medical treatment so "I stitched them myself with thin fishing wire", she said.
Shishy, who is now 57, told the commission that when she was 25, she had sex with a 14-year-old boy, codenamed APQ, because her guru ordered her to. She described it as "the most shameful thing in my life".
An image of Swami Akhandananda Saraswati from his book Tantra, Yoga and Everyday Life. Source: Supplied
"It's one of the things I really resent Akhandananda for," Shishy said. She denied that she had started a relationship with the boy for comfort because the swami was physically abusing her.
However, the commission heard Shishy continued a sexual relationship with the boy after she left the ashram in 1985. The pair later had a child together and the boy lived in her house. She said she realised she was in love with him.
Shishy also admitted she was present when Akhandananda had sex with two underaged girls at the yoga centre, but said she didn't fully appreciate his actions were wrong at the time.
She said she couldn't recall an event one witness told of, where she allegedly lined children up from youngest to oldest and slapped them. She also said she couldn't recall other alleged abuses.
However, she accepted she slapped children "very hard" and her physical discipline became more extreme as the children grew into teenagers.
"There were more slaps, more hits," Shishy said.
At one stage Shishy had guardianship of about seven children but said the papers were only signed to make sure child endowment payments came to the ashram.
She also alleged the ashram created a directorship to fulfil requirements to become a charitable entity — "there were no meetings or anything like that".
The yoga devotee, who produces chanting CDs, said she had no power at the ashram, despite accepting she was the second-in-charge.
She broke down as she said she accepted she had caused significant trauma to children who worshipped her.
"I deeply, deeply regret and feel quite desperately sorry for anything that I did or that I didn't do," she said. She has apologised for not being aware at the time that the swami's behaviour was wrong, "I am not the monster as portrayed".
Life inside the ashram. This photo was submitted to the royal commission. Source: Supplied
After nine years, Shishy left the ashram in 1985 and gave evidence against Akhandananda, who was jailed in 1989 for indecent dealing with four girls.
The conviction was overturned by the High Court in 1991 and Akhandananda was released. He died from the effects of alcohol abuse in 1998.
After going public with abuse allegations, Shishy says she was vilified by ashram residents and received death threats. "For many years I used to sleep with a stout stick beside me," she said. "I was constantly afraid of repercussions.
"Even then, after everything, I still felt I was betraying the gurus, but also knew that the girls were more important." In her statement, tendered on Friday she said she went to India to report the abuse to then ashram global leader Swami Satyananda. She claimed she overheard Satyananda and current leader Swami Niranjan Saraswati discuss getting rid of her.
RAPED DURING INITIATION
Last week a woman told the commission about her initiation in a hut across the river from the ashram when she was seven years old. She was stripped naked and held down while a swami cut the skin between her breast, licked the blood and raped her.
"The ashram was the kind of place that if you scream, no one comes," she said. The woman, known by the pseudonym APR, told the inquiry that five or six male swamis were present during her initiation in the 1970s in which the head of the ashram, Akhandananda, raped her.
APR and another woman have also told the inquiry they were abused by the founder of the Satyananda Yoga movement Guru Satyananda Saraswati, who is also deceased.
Satyananda, who died in 2009, was revered around the world and preached celibacy as a way of life for Yoga swamis in his ashrams.
"I have impressions of him being on top of me," APR told the commission. "It makes me nauseous, but for years I have swatted away the thought that he raped me as my entire childhood I was raised to believe he was like a god."
Swami Satyananda Saraswati died in 2009 Source: Supplied
She told the commission that she moved into the ashram with her mother and sister in the 1970s.
When Satyananda visited Australia, she felt he chose her as his favourite and at times, he would say she was the only child allowed to touch him or sit with him on his special seat.
APR is the second witness to recount sexual abuse by Satyananda, whose yoga movement had millions of followers and thousands of ashrams across the world.
He was looked on as an enlightened godlike figure on his annual visits to Australia in the 1970s and 80s and preached abstinence from sex as a path to enlightenment. He died in 2009 at the age of 85.
On Thursday, Bhakti Manning who lived at his ashram in India told the hearing she was just 17 when he had "violent, aggressive sex" with her. Other women were in the room when this happened and she understood he had sex with them too.
Ms Manning, now 55, also told the inquiry she was 15 when she was sexually abused in Australia on three separate occasions by two senior swamis.
One abuser was Swami Akhandananda. Another swami, who is still alive, also abused her at a yoga camp in March and April 1975.
Ms Manning didn't reveal herself as a victim of abuse until earlier this year, but had written a letter to members of the Satyananda Yoga Teachers Association saying the issue must be addressed. The ashram sent her "a cease and desist letter".
She has only spoken out this year because in ashram society, if she spoke out, she would be considered the criminal "for being a bad disciple for not accepting that what the guru had chosen to do to me for my own good".
A woman inside the Mangrove Yoga Ashram. This photo was submitted to the royal commission. Source: News Corp Australia
Asked about contraception in ashrams, especially in India, she said: "It's quite an interesting thing. I personally think that Satyananda must have been firing blanks".
In many cases in India, girls were sent to Calcutta for abortions.
Other abuse victims have told the commission they were sent for pregnancy tests by Akhandananda.
Tim Clark, who was a child at the ashram in the 80s, said he was also violently beaten.
Another woman using the pseudonym APK said she fended off Akhandananda's advances by telling him she was involved with a boy and she saw the boy subjected to severe physical, emotional and psychological torture by the swami as a result.
APK claimed she clearly recalled the violence and witnessed Shishy hitting children so hard their heads slammed into a brick wall. "That is something you never forget," she said.
She allegedly witnessed children, including her sister APL, being viciously beaten and humiliated.
"I still hear the sound of (another victim's) head hitting that wall." She claimed Shishy made her strip naked in front of everyone when she was 13 to inspect her.
PAP smears were now a nightmare for her, and APK said although a recent one showed some irregularity she would prefer to get cervical cancer than undergo invasive medical treatment.
She said an email sent earlier this year by the Mangrove Yoga Ashram heaped insult upon deep injury. The ashram held a healing ceremony and sent victims an email through Facebook saying how successful it had been. She told the ashram it was particularly insulting to spout the rubbish about "ego and embracing the darkness", because it was what Swami Akhandananda said when he was "f***ing little girls and stealing people's lives".
APK said she did not think the mentality had changed or would change until there was an end to guru worship.
DRUGGED WITH MORPHINE
Henry Sztulman, a GP who lived at the ashram for 10 years, also denied allegations by witnesses that he prescribed morphine regularly for minor ailments like an infected toe.
"Absolutely not," Dr Sztulman said.
Dr Sztulman denied administering morphine at the ashram except on two occasions when people were in excruciating pain — once to a swami who had been poisoned by a stone fish.
Dr Sztulman said he slowly came to accept there had been abuse at the ashram although he never saw any "overt behaviour" indicating abuse of the children.
He denied witnessing public beatings of adults and children. "I didn't actually see it, but one of the guys ... said something happened and Swami Akhandananda slapped his face," he said.
In 2002 The Medical Tribunal of NSW prohibited Dr Sztulman from prescribing addictive pain killers.
Dr Sztulman said the drug the medical tribunal reprimand him over was codeine phosphate drugs and never "morphine by injection". The tribunal report, based on complaints made in 1997, noted that "Dr Sztulman presents as a rather unworldly, naive practitioner".
It said "his insulation from general practice while at the ashram contributed to his limited understanding of the issues of manipulative drug addicted patients".
The report also said Dr Sztulman was counselled over inappropriate prescription of narcotic drugs in 1995. He supported Akhandananda when he was tried in 1989 for sex offences against four girls.
ASHRAM SHOULD NOT BE BLAMED
Muktimurti, a longtime resident of the Mangrove Yoga Ashram, said on Tuesday she did not know if physical and sexual abuse as alleged by former child residents had taken place.
Muktimurti said she did not really believe the allegations against Swami Akhandananda when he was brought to trial. She said in her statement to the commission she found it "morally questionable" for victims to now seek financial compensation.
"I don't agree with the ashram being held to ransom for something that none of us in the ashram community have anything to do with," she said.
Muktimurti said she believed compensation would imply the ashram had done something wrong. She lived at the ashram from 1978 to 1996 and is back there in an administrative position.
Muktimurti was Shishy's assistant and denies she ever brought girls to Akhandananda's bedroom for sex on Shishy's instructions. "All I know is that my experience, my own experience of living in the ashram has had nothing to do with anything like that," she said.
Tearfully, she said she found the hearing distressing because if the acts were true, it was dreadful and if they weren't, those making the allegations were being "venal".
She was unhappy at Mangrove and wanted to return to India after having her own problems with Akhandananda, who propositioned her. She said the ashram could not be blamed. "It must be remembered that they (Akhandananda and Shishy) were responsible for their mistake," she said.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse inquiry continues in Sydney. It began probing the Mangrove Mountain ashram last week, after earlier hearings into abuse within the Catholic Church, Salvation Army and other organisations.
