This page includes testimony from people who were closely involved with the Integral Yoga sangha at the time abuse was occurring, and who wish to share their support for the women survivors. Direct testimony from the women themselves is located here: Testimony
From David Vijay Hassin
In January 2022, I wrote an email to the [Yogaville] Ashram Board addressing the rumors of Swamiji’s behavior. An excerpt from that letter follows. I never heard back from the ashram board:
In 1971 when I was the President of the Integral Yoga Institute of California and heading up Yogaville West, I was requested to come back to the east coast for an emergency meeting with a small group of senior teachers and Gurudev [Swami Satchidananda]. A meeting was set up with Gurudev at his home in Danbury, CT. At the meeting, besides Gurudev and myself, there was Sheila (Gurudev’s secretary/personal assistant) as well as Hari Zupan and Bhaskar Gleich – the leadership of the NY Integral Yoga Institute. The meeting was called because Sheila was alleging that Gurudev propositioned her for sex. She had refused the proposition and in the meeting Gurudev was denying that he had ever propositioned her. Gurudev said that Sheila must have been confused, and with tears in his eyes asked her why she was making these accusations. Sheila became distraught and broke down and repeated, “ Swamiji, why are you lying.” It was a heart breaking moment that I will never forget. I had known Sheila for a number of months; she was a bright, responsible, sweet and loving member of our sangha. She was seen as dependable, competent and devoted to Gurudev.
After the meeting, Bhaskar, Hari and myself drove to my ex wife’s parents summer home in Lake Carmel, NY. Bhaskar pressed for Gurudev’s immediate resignation. I said that I would need to think about what I had just witnessed and get back to Bhaskar and Hari. I drove to my parent’s house in Queens, not knowing what decision I would make. My mother immediately saw that something serious had happened and I told her the details of the meeting. She took a moment and then said that when I had gotten involved with Gurudev my father and her were not happy but they immediately saw the positive changes in me. They had been worried about me and my involvement with drugs before I met Gurudev. My mother smiled and said, “You know when I met him I saw how charismatic and attractive he was…I always suspected that he was not celibate…even that being the case you cannot deny the effect that he has had on you”. I told her that some of the leadership were asking for Gurudev’s resignation and I was uncertain as to what I should do. She said that just as I have been changed, others have been changed and that I needed to think about the greater good. I subsequently decided not to ask for Gurudev’s resignation. I lost the respect and friendship of some of my closest friends. When I returned to the Bay Area, I recounted the allegations to the sangha here saying that Gurudev denies it and I was choosing to believe the denial.
I am recounting this story because I believe that my participation in this initial denial set into motion a process in which subsequent allegations were met with subsequent denials and those denials were made a litmus test for loyalty to Gurudev and by extension, the organization. Gurudev is no longer in his body but the organization that is a vehicle for his teachings lives on. If my story were to happen today I believe the outcome might be different. I would act differently, and Gurudev might not have remained as the leader of this organization. But context and karma is everything and the 1970s were a very different time than today.
Additionally I think this story is a reflection of stories of sexual abuse that I’ve heard from my patients as a clinician. There is the hurt of the initial abuse to the victim but there is greater pain done to the victim when individuals who know the truth do not acknowledge the abuse. The family system becomes warped, stagnant and brittle in its attempt to maintain a lie. As an organization we have historically perpetuated a greater pain on the victims by obfuscating the truth. The organization has also done that at great peril to its integrity. For me this is the heart of the matter.
For some time, I have lived by the maxim that (the) Truth will set you free. I have worked large and small organizations in my professional life. I have no illusions that unraveling the strategy of denial around these allegations will not have some cost. Most mature organizations deal with these types of crises in a strategic and plan full manner. They pull in resources where they are needed. What I found in my clinical work is, whether it is a family system or an organizational system, the initial pain of correcting false beliefs or toxic policies is more than rewarded by the long term gain of an aligned system.
My sole intention by writing to you today has been to lay out the historic roots as I see them, of the organizational denial of the sexual allegations of our teacher. I sincerely hope and pray that you will seriously consider the damage that has been done, personally and organizationally, and begin the process of publicly acknowledging that the allegations were and are true.
I believe the time has come to set the record straight.
Why I Left the Integral Yoga Institute
By Tom Mix, formerly Swami Amarananda
January 2023
Just a few days ago, I heard from a mutual friend of Hari Goodman about Shanti’s recent disclosure. I have not directly read or heard exactly what Shanti said, but I would like to know. Thank you, Shanti, for summoning the courage. Thanks also, to Susan Cohen (Sita Roosevelt) who was the first to alert me to this issue in the fall of 1990. Thanks also to Sheila Shapiro who shared her story publicly many years prior to Susan, and with Madhuri and me in 1991. There were others, too. When a woman shares her experience of abuse, people often attack her. “She’s not telling the truth!” Or, “Why didn’t she say something sooner?” I ask, how was Susan Cohen treated? Kindly or harshly? How was Anita Hill treated? How was Christine Blasey Ford treated? Unfortunately, there are so many more examples. I have been afraid of things far less daunting than what these women faced.
In the fall of 1990, Susan Cohen called and informed me that she had been sexually abused by Swami Satchidananda. At the time, my wife, Madhuri, and our son, Hari, and I were living near the Buckingham, Virginia ashram. Susan was living in New England. She had been a long-time IYI member who served in several capacities including as a secretary who traveled with Swamiji. Her phone call came as a shock to me. I listened and asked questions. She told me about an incident that happened while she was in Hawaii with Swamiji. Based on how Susan answered my questions, I thought she was telling the truth.
Of course, I immediately told Madhuri about the conversation. We decided to request a meeting with Swamiji as soon as possible. So I called him. Although I had had many conversations with Swamiji both on the phone and face-to-face, I had never asked to meet with him. When he got on the phone, I requested if Madhuri and I could meet with him in person. He asked what we wanted to talk about. I explained that it was a sensitive matter, and therefore something I thought would be better if done face-to-face. I tried a few times to meet in person, but he wouldn’t agree. It became apparent to me that we would either discuss the matter right then on the phone or not at all. So I told him what Susan had told me.
He said, “Rather than asking me if it’s true, you should be telling her that it isn’t.”
I said, “Well, if it isn’t true, why won’t you just say so?”
He said, “I am above all these things.”
As the conversation ended, I thanked him for the teachings.
Swamiji’s words landed on my psyche like a thousand trumpets blasting in my ears. At that point, I had been in the IYI for about 17 years, and had served in several capacities including ashram manager at Yogaville East, president at Yogaville Virginia, and executive secretary in both New York and Detroit. Regardless of the various roles that ashramites assumed, we performed them with an attitude of humble service to the best of our abilities. I mention the duration and some of my roles only to indicate that being in the IYI was a huge part of my life. Leaving it was the most difficult emotional upheaval that both Madhuri and I ever endured.
Susan had provided me with the names and numbers of three other women who she said would be willing to talk with us. Madhuri called these women and took copious notes. I listened as she spoke. Madhuri particularly suffered a sense of betrayal regarding this issue. So in the early 2000s, she decided to dispose of the many notes in the hope that it would help to relieve her of the hurt. In 1991, many IYI members from around the country called us. These eventually included conversations with at least six different women who described acts ranging from impropriety to rape. All the women that Madhuri and I spoke with expressed deep hurt. Although we initiated calls to the women Susan suggested and a few others; in almost all cases, other people called us. When asked, we answered with the information that we had. Sometimes people asked me for advice. I explained that I was not going to tell other people what to do. However, I described our process. We talked with women and with Swamiji. I told callers that the women were willing to talk and I had the phone numbers. They already knew how to contact Swamiji. When I suggested that they speak with the women and Swamiji, they almost invariably said they wouldn’t do that. In fact, I recall only one other couple who spoke with at least one woman and with Swamiji; Jai and Lakshmi Luster, who lived in the Chicago area at that time. They, in fact, had conducted their research prior to Madhuri and me.
Some people ask, can I prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Swamiji abused these women? No. However, there are very few things (maybe none!) in life that I can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. Conversely, can anybody prove beyond a shadow of doubt that he didn’t do these things?
I left because I lost trust in Swamiji. His responses rang false with me. Some may argue that my faith was weak. It was a test and I failed. Others may argue that it was honorable and courageous of me to believe the women. I don’t feel weak or courageous about this. It’s just that what he said did not ring true and what the women said did. My trust and therefore my relationship with him was fractured, and I could not proceed along that path. It’s like driving a car. You spot danger and take a different route based on that perception. Did you have perfect perception? There’s seldom a way to prove such a thing. You make a decision based on the information you have at the time, and keep alert to new situations as you proceed down life’s road. Every moment in life is an act of faith. In this sense, every moment and each situation is our guru if we allow it to bring us more into the present.
I am sure that the controversy surrounding Swamiji is traumatic for many of my friends in the ashram, too. When we left, Madhuri and I lost practically our entire friend group and they lost us. There was a time when we’d see ashramites in Charlottesville, many would avoid us. After a few years, the shunning stopped. Now, we usually exchange pleasantries, but very rarely do we ever talk about the elephant in the room. Perhaps, now we are entering a new phase of honest conversation.
On January 17,1991, we held a meeting at the Howard Johnson’s (now called, The Draftsman) on the Corner in Charlottesville. I remember the date because it was the first day of Desert Storm and it was my 42nd birthday. We invited the folks who lived at the ashram, local sangha members and Swami Satchidananda. There were perhaps a few dozen people who attended. They included mostly local sangha members and only one or two ashramites. Swamiji did not come. Susan Cohen came and told her story. Sylvia Shapiro, a former secretary to Swamiji, wrote an affidavit in which she described her experience many years prior as rape. She was 19 at the time of the incident. By 1991, she was an attorney in New York. She asked me to read her affidavit. I did.
In the months and years after leaving Yogaville, I did a lot of introspection. How had I not noticed this? Did I have any inklings that something wrong was going on? What might I do differently going forward?
Did I have inklings? Yes. Probably my first inkling was not about sex but money. When wealthy people visited the ashram, it seemed many ashramites were doing backflips to serve them, to make special meals late at night. It struck me as odd but I did not think much of it at the time. Also, Swamiji had two or three very nice cars and a really nice house. Of course, ministers from other religious traditions often become quite wealthy. Then again, I am suspicious of wealthy clergy. Are we not supposed to lay our treasures where “moth and rust doth not corrupt?” This kind of corruption has infected practically every religious group at various times throughout history.
I never met Sylvia Shapiro. Her story first hit the Village Voice in 1971 and she left the IYI then. I did not join the IYI until March of 1973. I do recall one summer evening after a satsang in either 1973 or 1974, when I overheard some ashramites talking about Sylvia. I asked what they were talking about, and they said it was just some crazy woman. I didn’t think too much about it. But it stuck in my mind. However, decades later I remember it!
During this period of reflection, I read, “Sex in the Forbidden Zone.” This book described how men (mostly) in power took advantage of women (mostly). Remember this is 30 or so years before the “Me Too” movement. During those 30 years, we’ve had tragic revelations about the Catholic Church, Penn State University, the US Women’s Gymnastics Team, Harvey Weinstein and numerous other institutions and individuals. Almost invariably, institutions try to cover up these embarrassing behaviors. They love their institutions, just as many of us love Yogaville. They try to protect their beloved institutions from embarrassment, just as many have tried to protect Yogaville. This strategy does not work. Eventually, the stories come out. In the meantime, the abuse typically continues. Then of course, it’s much worse. How many more people were abused during the cover up? Why hadn’t people in power investigated and taken appropriate action? When we allow abuse to continue, we of course are most importantly hurting the victims, but ironically also the very institutions we seek to protect. Cover-ups don’t work. Honesty works. Difficult conversations work. Careful investigations work.
Like most other organizations, the Yogaville community never investigated the allegations made against Swamiji. Will the ashram leaders do something different this time? The women were called “liars.” Consider that. So, why are women reluctant to come forward?
Let me offer a alternative example. Kripalu is a retreat center in Massachusetts. Amrit Desai is the main person who got that center going and growing. In 1994, the members investigated and determined he had committed sexual and financial improprieties. They ousted him and re-organized their leadership structure.
Yes, I learned a lot from Swami Satchidananda. In many ways, he was a gifted teacher. I learned a lot at the various IYI locations where I lived and worked and have many fond memories. I am grateful for those opportunities and have no regrets about choosing to become an IYI member. Nor do I regret leaving the ashram. I make no claim of infallibility. I made a decision based on what seemed right at the time. I’d make the same decision today.
Kind regards to everyone.
From Radha Vignola, March 2023
Hari OM!!
Swami Satchidananda had been my guru for many years and I had lived and served at the SFIYI [San Francisco], the Santa Cruz IYI, and at Yogaville for several years, as a pre-sannyasi and as a householder full-time worker. I had just moved out of the ashram in Virginia and the SFIYI to find a place in Santa Cruz to live when I got a call from my old friend Madhuri Mix, asking if she could stay with me in Santa Cruz because she had an urgent question to ask Baba Hari Das, whom she had known years before. He was the silent guru of the Hanuman Fellowship here at their ashram on Mt. Madonna.
Of course I welcomed her to come for a visit. When she arrived, she asked me to drive her to her appointment with Hari Das, and I waited in the car while she had her private consultation with him. When she got back in the car, she told me of their conversation.
Madhuri had been gathering information from many female Integral Yogis who were reporting that Swami Satchidananda had been sexually abusing them. When she asked Hari Das about this, he had written on his chalk board that he had heard from many women that same accusation against Swami Satchidananda.
Both Madhuri and I were aghast and horrified to learn that Hari Das had been told these stories by many women. This was the first moment that I knew anything about this problem, and I just could not believe it. It was not possible to comprehend that my guru would behave sexually with anyone.
Madhuri and I didn’t know what to do, but she had been interviewing women and had heard their stories. I was shocked and denied the possibility that any of this was true. I told Madhuri to wait before jumping to any conclusions. I told her that I would attend a retreat that Swami Chidananda of the Divine Life Society of Rishikesh was offering in San Diego, and I would personally speak with him.
I wrote to Chidananda and explained the situation and asked to see him privately at the retreat. When he invited me into his room, he immediately told me:
“If your physician has been healing you, and then he is caught embezzling, he is still your physician.” I quickly figured out the metaphor as he was escorting me to the door, and just before I left, bowing and thanking him, I asked, “What should we do?” and he said, “Pray for him.”
I immediately sat down outside the door and wrote down what I had heard from this holy man of Rishikesh. I was stunned by his words. I had been expecting Chidananda to tell me that I was silly, that of course all this was nonsense, but instead he had said that the physician had been caught embezzling!
I phoned Madhuri and told her of this meeting, and I suggested that we continue to wait until after I had spoken with Brother David [Steindl-Rast], who was at the Hermitage monastery in Big Sur. I phoned and spoke with him. He told me he was close friends with Swami Satchidananda and that he would write Satchidananda a letter, asking him to explain these accusations.
Brother David returned my phone call about a week later, telling me that he had received a letter in answer, and read it to me. Swami Satchidananda had written that he would never do anything that would hurt Integral Yoga. Brother David told me that he was surprised that the letter had been so short, and that he
believed that Satchidananda was definitely guilty of these accusations. Brother David told me that Madhuri and I must tell all the Integral Yogis this truth; that it would be wrong not to let the devotees know.
Madhuri and I decided that there was no one else that we needed to ask. There was so much evidence that we could no longer deny that the stories these women were telling were true. Madhuri in Charlottesville and I in San Francisco broke the news to our fellow Integral Yoga devotees.
Meetings followed in which she and I spoke our truth. Some women spoke up about their sexual experiences with Swami Satchidananda. Some swamis stopped being swamis, some absolutely denied these stories, some were non-committal and showed no outer reaction. Many devotees left the IYI, many were angry with Madhuri, me, and the women who spoke up, calling us liars or attention seeking.
I had been in charge of an Integral Yoga Teaching Center here in Santa Cruz. Rev.
Jaganath, who had been my friend and co-worker at the ashram, phoned me to tell me the Ashram Board had voted to deny my right to be an IYTC because I was speaking negatively about Swami Satchidananda.
When Swami Vimalananda was in charge of the SFIYI, she told me that I was not welcome there, and that I should stay away and never come back. Until then, I had been supportive of the IYI, having made the decision that even though Swami Satchidananda had been caught as a hypocrite and liar, he was still my teacher, and I was still grateful for his teachings. Even today, I am still an Integral Yoga teacher, and I still give credit to Swami Satchidananda for his teachings.
Swami Ramananda has always welcomed me, and I know that my resentment is based on incidents from long ago. But, I no longer support the Institute and Ashram, because the Ashram Board kicked me out because I told the truth, and because I had been warned never to return to the SF Institute. It has been a deep hurt, and a great lesson in non-attachment. I still get tears in my eyes when I think of how I was treated, and of how there has never been an honest discussion but just denial from those in charge.
Not only do I have the original letter that Swami Satchidananda sent to Brother David, but I also possess some of the letters that women wrote telling of their sexual abuse, and more details that were written during that time.
Please feel free to contact me or to use what I have written in the context of serving our fellow Integral Yogis in facing the truth of our guru’s wrong actions.
I still live in gratitude for his teachings,
OM SHANTHI SHANTHI SHANTHI
From Grant Soorya Tyler, July 2023
Swami Satchidananda [SS] was a great “teacher” of Integral Yoga, and in my view now, these were not ‘his teachings.’ Real teachings do not belong to an any individual. He is not the teachings any more than any of the rest of us in the truest sense. He did not embody these teachings as he represented. Therein lies the issue.
I also wonder at times about people who have been in the organization for decades, and have been in personal relationships in a ‘variety’ of ways with SS. For some, where would they go now? What do they need to uphold for some aspects of their own well-being, ‘survival’ of their personal stories; some no doubt having decided to conceal the truth of things they know otherwise that are dishonest? Very heartbreaking and not really my business what they think or do.
Personally, I have mourned this as a loss, like a death of a loved one, since the mid 1990’s I guess, when some of this crossed my screen. I believed Susan Cohen and reports from others who had come forward. I know Susan well enough to know her to be a person of integrity. There was no doubt in my mind that what she said was true. None whatsoever. Abuse is obviously what it is on the face of it. Tragic and traumatic. What I find completely despicable is blaming the victims, which SS did, over and over again. To me that is perhaps more tragic, heaping pain upon pain, until of course people are able to find some peace and healing on their own, and often with the support of people who believe them and love them. I commend with the highest regard, Susan Cohen and others, like Shanti Norris, who were brave enough to come forward and tell their stories, both for their own healing, and I think to offer others something more true, more real, more grounded than the perpetuation of a dream, that we all participated in, in our own ways, innocently looking to know ourselves more deeply.
In the mid to late 90s, I had a phone conversation directly with Swami Satchidananda. In that conversation, after a fairly light conversation back-and-forth, about Yogaville VA, and chat about my family, I brought up the entire issue of accusations that had been going on very directly and blatantly with SS. I asked him what was going on in the community, and with him about the accusations. The conversation (immediately upon my bringing it up), turned completely explosive, with SS yelling angrily at me in a tirade for probably two minutes straight. (I know, just taking anger out of his pocket, right?) His words were exactly and close to, “How dare you bring this up? How dare you question the guru? This is not for you to question. What are your motives in bringing this up? You should question yourself why you are asking me these things that are falsehoods!!” I said, “I am bringing this up because I want to understand what has happened. I find it very upsetting, and the accusations seem to be true in my best understanding. I believe them.” He railed some more, similarly to what he had already said. The surprising thing for me was that the more he yelled and questioned me, the calmer I felt. For me, I knew I had done what felt right to me. His tirade just reinforced the understanding that I believed to be true about the accusations. Towards the end, he again said, “You should not have brought this up,” and that I was wrong for doing so. So, on a dime, I immediately and calmly just said to him, “OK, so I guess we’re not talking about this. So what else is new down there?” His tone actually calmed down. We had perhaps a half minute at best, mostly meaningless winding-down chat. I then said something to the effect of, “Well I guess that’s it. I’m going to go now. Be well. Good bye.” He said “Good bye, Om” and hung up. That was my last contact with him.
I wish everyone peace in all of this. I am glad to share this little bit of testimony. I believe those who have come forward with their experiences, and the impact it has had in their lives.
Stay tuned for more testimony….
Home - Satchidananda, the Complex Truth 
You must be logged in to post a comment.