Many Are Being DeceivedAs of late, we still run into many people who are involved in cultic groups here in Edinburgh.
Photo from Bhaktivedanta freephoto
The 'religious' leaders of these spiritually abusive cult groups are either themselves deceived or they are willingly deceiving others. In both cases, the false religion is equivalent to what Jesus faced in His own days here on earth. He dealt with those who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. Men who turn the grace of God into a license for evil. Men who think they are holy but whom god says are defiled and reprobate. Men who pervert the right way and feed people lies, deceit, and every form of soul pollution know to man. In Jesus' case, He confronted the Pharisees, who perverted the right way of knowing God for a hypocritical false religious system, based more on outward appearance than on heartfelt love for God. For a whole chapter on this see Matthew 23 in the New Testament.
Just the other day, I was up on the Royal Mile, just down from Edinbrugh Castle. I was talking to a young Hare Krishna devotee [ See Scandal and Controversy ]. Many of you have probably run into them there. I was speaking to a young man who I have spoken to on several other occasions. He is Mexican and claims that at one time he was a 'Chistian'. Somewhere down the line he got hooked up with the ISKCON - International Society For Krishna Consciousness. He left Mexico and now lives in Scotland working for ISKCON. He spends his days slaving for this 'spiritual oganization'. His mind has been thoroughly ruined as his cognitive reasoning capacity to discern truth from error is gone. He is like a robot that just repeats the same thing that he has been led to believe. He is sent into Edinburgh day-by-day to make money off the tourists and then give the funds to the ISKCON organization. People gladly give him money as he pawns his [the organizations] CD's off to people. He has been taken captive in a spiritual trap.
Dancing, chanting and begging for money, ISKCON people are involved in a Vishnuite sect that makes the Hindu god Krishna the supreme deity. The Ankerberg Theological Research Institue [ http://www.ankerberg.com/ ] has done extensive reseach on ISKCON [ http://www.iskcon.com/ ] and has come up with some interesting things in their research. Although the following charges cannot be poven legally, the allegations come from sources that are very reliable.
These allegations have been made by eyewitnesses, the victims themselves, or their friends.
Allegations against ISKCON are: Drug trafficking, murder, wife beating, child abuse
Allegations against Other Eastern Guru's are:
Ram Dass - bisexuality
Sai Baba - homosexuality, possible child molestation
Swami Rama - rape, threats of murder
Yogi Bhajan - homosexuality, rape, murder, rumors of drug investments
Muktananda - rape, voyeurism, fornication, violence, child molesting
Da Free John - pornography,rape, adultery
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - fornication, violence
Rajneesh ashram - rape, violence, attempted murder, murder, drug abuse, adultery, fornication
The allegation sources below have been exerpted from the Bibliography of Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, John Ankerberg and John Weldon, Harvest House Publishers, 1996, p.646]:
Tal Brooke, Lord of the Air, Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1990
Ram Dass, Gist for the Mill, New York: Bantam, 1979
Ram Dass, "Egg on My Beard", The Yoga Journal, Nov-Dec 1976
The Yoga Journal, Jul-Aug, 1985
Peter Marin, "Spiritual Obediance", Harper's Magazine, Feb 1979
"The Secret Life of Swami Muktananda", Co-Evolution Quarterly, Winter 1983
The (Potland) Oregonian, Dec 30, 1985
Tal Brooke, Riders of the Cosmic Circuit, ref 249
Ma Bharti, Drunk on the Divine, New York: Grove Press, 1980
To research this on your own, type ISKCON abuses into a search engine such as google and see what you get... Click here to see the results.
What does ISKCON teach about Jesus Christ ?
Jesus Christ: ISKCON teaches that Jesus, rather than being the eternal God, is instead one of the demi-god manifestations of Krishna (Ibid., p. 261). In fact, "Jesus is the son, and Krishna the Father, and Jesus is Krishna's son" (Jesus Loves Krsna, p. 26). Contrary to Christian doctrine, ISKCON teaches that Jesus only intended to serve as a guide to 1st-century Palestine: God sent Jesus to be the spiritual master of particular people in a particular time and place…he did not claim (as others claim today) that He was the only Representative Agent of the Supreme Person ever to walk the earth in the past or future (Ibid., p. 44). Instead, because Jesus is merely the manifestation (son) of Krishna (the father), Jesus worshipped Krishna (The Deceivers, p. 195-96. The mediator between God (Krishna) and humanity is Prabhupada. Only Prabhupada is referred to as "His Divine Grace" (The Strange World of the Hare Krishnas, p. 45), and it is even said of him that "Prabhupada was a world-genius, greater than Jesus" (Ibid., p. 69). He "is the ultimate standard of Krishna consciousness…[people] must give him the honor due to God, because the guru is the transparent via media or representative of God and is distributing unalloyed love of God" ("The Hare Krishna Movement." Religious Movements in Contemporary America, p. 469). Prabhupada is thus worshipped by devotees; guru paja involves offering flower petals to a wax likeness of the master (new members offer petals to a picture of Prabhupada) (Hare Krishna in America, pp. 17–8)."
Sadly, there are multitudes of leaders who mislead people to the point of everlasting ruin. These type of people will not listen to the truth even when they know the truth. Jesus called the Pharisees 'children of the Devil'(John 8:44). Jesus, who is God manifest in human flesh, confronted these people...and they still would not turn from their false religion. These types of leaders delude people through a false profession of 'Christianity'. Even the eastern cults use Jesus' words and pervert the Bible, saying tyhey are 'Divine' or 'God', or that they are another 'Christ' for this age. They foist upon the people false teaching and the end result is that their victims (who may be sincere seekers but are horribly misled) are destoyed. Their conscience is corrupted in this life, and then they are assigned to hell after death. All because the 'religious leader' fed them lies that they believed.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ said,
"See to it that no one misleads you . For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many"..."Then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ', or 'There He is, 'do not believe him". "For false Christ's and false prophets will aise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. If therefore they say to you, 'Behold, He is in the wilderness,' do not go forth, or, 'Behold, He is in the inner rooms, ' do not believe them" (Matthew 24:4-5,24-26).
For a Profile on ISKCON
International Society for Krishna Consciousness / Hare Krishnas
For a Secular Source on ISKCON
