Dear Aleacia

I have seen the letters regarding my involvement in past and present actions and I understand the scepticism

of me being on the task force, because as you say, I was one of his most avid supporters during his arrest and

trial.

I am not writing to defend any of my actions, then or now. As they say, there are two sides to every story

and mine is pretty much the same as many adults living there at the time, except for my ,extra involvement.

I was never really close to any of the children at the ashram during the 80s, but you and I got on well, due

mainly to us sharing a birth date and also because we were both nice people. I also liked a number of the

kids,!Af5B _!PK . t'd1''j'r& and his ma~e 'i'1'1j''=r PH . r n.d Santosh. to name a few, but found

somh ri:ne others a bit too self indulged and disrespectful, so didn't interact with them very much at all. I

had grown up in a different era and environment where it wasn't acceptable for kids to act that way.

When I first came to live at MM in 1981 I quickly became aware of lSHISHY ~nd her swarm of young

followers and over a my first twelve months began to think it wasn't a part1cu~ealthy relationship (a bit

obsessive) and also wondered, how the kid's parents could leave their children for someone else to raise.

You would recall at the end of 82 my first son 1;'1•*'1iwas born. I never had any inclination to let someone

else raise him; I didn't have any ambition for him to become a swarm member, but was happy when the kids

gave him some attention.

1fl'11fLs now 32 and

himself and has straigh

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• • g g

that and I'm very pleased he has come out the other side; anyway that's another story.

is now a father

m through all of

For the average resident at MM in those days, the kids were a force to be reckoned with and were kept quite

separate. As a group, they weren't particularly popular with a lot of the adults; they cou ld be quite cruel and

would descend on some people with a pack mentality and be very bullying and abusive.

Let me say, I did not think you and the others I mentioned above were too much that way inclined, but there

was a lot of hurt caused to targeted adults and there was little that the average resident could do about it.

The kids were very much untouchable from our perspective, which I know has a despicable irony given what

was going on behind closed doors, but that was the perspective of 99% of the residents there.

Your perspective of what I am describing here may well be quite different, but I can only describe my

experience and observations.

Most of the adults were there for our own reasons and the kids were just part of the scene. I think it is

important for this perspective to be given and it was true for the vast majority of adults there.

Sure, we all had our own trips, but on the whole we were a hard working group and acted on and in good

faith. In saying this, there was also the odd crazy person as well. The bulk of the residents were good people

and along with the kids and a few crazy people, they made up the human landscape of MM in the 80s.

There were also Akhandananda andlSHISHY ~ Up to the point where everything started to be exposed;

I hadn't given much thought about their personal relationship at all, that wasn't what I was there for. I just

figured they were close disciples of Swami Satyananda and they were in charge and accepted that as being

the case.

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During that period, I never particularly like her, but had no reason to dislike her either. I did like Swami

Akhandananda and got on very well with him. He treated me well and I learnt a lot under his tutelage, that

was my reality at the time and we became quite close in many ways, but certainly not all.

A short while after ISHISHY J 1eft, he told me there was a power-struggle going on and she and her

family were trying to take over the ashram. I had always likedFQA l' didn't likef 00 f hat much

and definitely didn't like her brother's vibe. Anyway, I had no reason to doubt what he was telling me about

some coup because something was definitely going on. He also told me at the time that they were accusing

him of having sex with some of the teenage girls and swore it was not true.

I think there is a very important point to pause on and think about i.e. what was going on in the minds of just

about all the ashram adult residents at the time? The idea of this being in any way t rue was as foreign as it

could be. There was never any indication that anything like this was happening and if anyone outside of the

people and children involved knew, there was certa inly no mention of it. The ashram grapevine was very

much a part of the lifestyle there, but nothing like this had ever surfaced, certainly in my presence. So we

were all simply in disbelief and had no reason to doubt what he was telling us.

L HISHY I had gone and a lot of you kids were left there, JLJPQ look off soon after; I figured to find

her.

Akh t hen went through this process of dividing up the ashram's properties into trusts, "so they can't get

their hands on all of it", which only seemed to add credence to his story.

After most of the kids had left, there was no real communication with anyone coming back into the ashram,

except for the grapevine. So most of us went on for a while believing it was a power struggle.

Then the police got involved and things changed dramatically. Akh firstly tried to avoid them but they

eventually came face to face with him. It became obvious that they were going to pursue the matter and he

vehemently denied the allegations to all of us.

This is where my involvement stepped up. At t he time you may recall I had set up and was running the

Ashram's restaurant in Gosford. He said to sell the restaurant because I wou ld need to help him defend

himself. Like it or not, based on what I was told by him and what I had seen or heard in relation to the

allegations {which was nothing), I took the view of innocent until proven guilty.

What happened to me after that was I went on this investigation, talking to a lot of ashram people,

particularly out in the centres, to help prepare his defence. I started to discover this 'other ashram' that

some people had been living in. Mainly relating to female swamis that he had had sex wit h, but still nothing

at all about you kids; eveh so, I went through a difficult time trying to get my head around this other reality.

My nature is too hang in and this was one of those t imes in my life I felt compelled to do so. Perhaps from

your perspective at the time, it seemed stupid or naive, but I was just ignorant of the facts about you and the

others and was trying to support someone who had been a positive influence in my life. He continued to

fervently deny any wrongdoing towards any young ones and I continued to believe him.

When he was finally arrested and statements started to come in, one of the first conclusions I came to was

that if this was true, then SHISHY was just as guilty as him and that made me go on to think about her

relationship with PQ nd the whole thing became very murky.

I was also aware that Akh had money and property of his own, none of which sat particularly well with me.

Then there was the accusation by Vajrananda about murder plots and the whole thing just unravelled like

some movie plot, in front of us all that were left at the ashram.

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So over this period of time, more truth progressively came to the surface.

I finally got him to admit to me during his trial that he had had sex, but he said only with one girl and that

was in Queensland. I realised almost straightaway that he was only saying this much because Qld was

another jurisdiction. Obviously from that point on my personal relationship with him was changed forever.

He went to gaol and I stayed living at MM, trying to help salvage what was left for those who were trying to

keep the place going.

Another important perspective to think on here is that it was the 1980s, the perpetrator had gone to gaol

and the children were back with their families; for those of us remaining at MM, we felt the matter had been

dealt with.

Over the past 10 years or so, a lot more exposure, accountability and expertise has educated the general

community on how the ongoing affects on victims and their families can be better managed.

When Akh got out of gaol, he thought he could come back to MM, but Poornamurti and I made sure that this

didn't happen.

The last time I spoke to him was through 1990 after he had been trying to drive a wedge between me and an

ashram resident who was still having contact with him. We had a big argument over the phone and that's

the last time I ever spoke to him.

REDACTED I left MM in early 1990 and never went back for 16 years; accept once when wanted to see

it again. I have been involved with the ashram again since 2006. It is a very different place these days and I

like to go there from time to time.

Should I be on the taskforce?

I watched a lot of good people that I was close to get very hurt. I saw a lot of people who I was very close to

have their faith abused; Poornananda was my first yoga teacher.

Then there are all of you, who I never knew what you had suffered till after you left. So many victims that I

feel so sorry for and I know probably as much indirect detail as anyone, as to what went on back then; and

we keep finding out more about it.

I think it is also very important to recognise the damage done to a lot of younger women in the ashram

during that time. Although they were over the age of consent, they were very much victims and still carry

the scars to this day.

Back then, I was pulled into a quagmire I knew nothing about and had to come to terms with it all, but that's

my experience. I know this is nothing like what many of you had to and are still going through.

My wife didn't want me to get dragged into it again but I felt I could be of some assistance and I feel I have

been.

There are many victims and affected people in varied degrees and most of all I want as much healing to

happen as is possible.

I was pleased to see your Mum at MM on Easter Sunday and I hope she got something positive out of it.

I've just seen a letter that ~wrote, saying I spoke to a victim there, didn't ask how they were and asked

about their contact with other victims through FaceBook. I'm not sure who told her that, it's certainly not

true. I spoke to ~after the session on Sunday afternoon, as far as I know she was not a victim, she

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seemed her normal friendly and happy self. I asked about her family and what she was up to, there were a

couple of other people there at the time. I don't imagine she would say any different to this.

This is as much as I want to say about it all at t his time. Whether you accept what I am saying or not is up to

you . I am very sorry personally for what happened to you, I remember you well, and I always thought you

were a nice girl. I am happy to respond if there is any more you want to say or ask me.

If as~ays, none of you want me to be involved in the interactions directly relating to all of you, then I

have no issue with that, but I will remain involved with all the other healing activities.

I am mindful that you may want to share this with others and I have no issue with that. I am also mindful

that I can be seen as guilty by association, but I have never set about to harm anyone in my life, not saying

that I haven't, but that's just part of being human. Based on what I progressively knew back then, I did what I

felt was the right thing to do; I'm doing the same now.

I hope this has helped in some way ..... .

Kind regards

Haribodha

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