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The Making of a Teacher: Conversations with Eknath Easwaran
A biographical sketch that touches on many of the highlights of Eknath Easwaran's life. Based on a series of private conversations and public talks. 192 pages, 42 photographs.
192 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1989
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July 13, 2020
I am saddened by this biography.
Eknath Easwaran who claimed to offer spiritual salvation to thousands, was a bigamist and dead beat father in India. He perpetuated the feudalistic misogynistic attitude which has decimated the lives of many women in India.
My mother was sexually abused by Eknath Easwaran, as a young student at the Morris College (now Naik Government College) in Nagpur, India. It took more than 25 years for my mother to overcome the shame and humiliation, and summon the courage to speak to me about the incident. Eknath Easwaran was well known for demanding sexual favors from girl students. In the fifties and sixties a woman in India had no choice other than to be silent about abuse.
Eknath Easwaran came to the United States on a Fulbright fellowship to the University of Minnesota. His uncontrollable libido apparently led the Fulbright authorities to revoke his fellowship, forcing him to return to India.
A resourceful person, Easwaran then married his American wife Christine, his third wife, without even informing his second wife (with whom he had two children) leaving her in dire financial straits. This ensured that Easwaran got a visa to the United States, although he had to wait it out in his family home in Kotagiri (Niligiris). To circumvent a complaint that his Indian wife made to the United States Consulate in Mumbai, Easwaran applied for the visa from the US Embassy in New Delhi.For years after he left India, the very mention of his name would provoke derisive laughs among his colleagues and students at the Morris College.
In the US, Easwaran attempted to sexually molest his female disciples in the California ashram that he founded (San Jose Mercury News –April 30, 1989 ) One of his closest associates at the ashram and chief spiritual mentor, Steve Rupenthal has been arrested for soliciting child sex at a Chicago airport. This can be verified from the Point Reyes Light(May 2004) newspaper report. There are many other unreported cases of sexual abuse at the center.
Eknath Easwaran, left India in a hurry in 1958 specifically to evade an order of child support passed by the Sessions Court in Nagpur, and upheld by the Nagpur division bench of the Bombay High Court. The following web links will give some background of Eknath Easwaran:
Web links:
A split at the Razor’s edge by John Hubner (San Jose Mercury News, April 30, 1989)
https://www.ire.org/resource-center/s...
Stephen Ruppenthal arrested at Chicago O’Hare airport
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/il-court-...
As a backgrounder please do read “Holy Hell : a memoir of faith,devotion and pure madness” (Amazon) which recounts in minute detail the brutal sexual abuse at the ‘spiritual center’ run by an Indian Guru.
If this book is revised to include the predatory activities of Eknath Easwaran, it will be a small restitution to all the defenseless women whose lives he has savaged in India and the USA.
Thank you
Pratik Joshi
Eknath Easwaran who claimed to offer spiritual salvation to thousands, was a bigamist and dead beat father in India. He perpetuated the feudalistic misogynistic attitude which has decimated the lives of many women in India.
My mother was sexually abused by Eknath Easwaran, as a young student at the Morris College (now Naik Government College) in Nagpur, India. It took more than 25 years for my mother to overcome the shame and humiliation, and summon the courage to speak to me about the incident. Eknath Easwaran was well known for demanding sexual favors from girl students. In the fifties and sixties a woman in India had no choice other than to be silent about abuse.
Eknath Easwaran came to the United States on a Fulbright fellowship to the University of Minnesota. His uncontrollable libido apparently led the Fulbright authorities to revoke his fellowship, forcing him to return to India.
A resourceful person, Easwaran then married his American wife Christine, his third wife, without even informing his second wife (with whom he had two children) leaving her in dire financial straits. This ensured that Easwaran got a visa to the United States, although he had to wait it out in his family home in Kotagiri (Niligiris). To circumvent a complaint that his Indian wife made to the United States Consulate in Mumbai, Easwaran applied for the visa from the US Embassy in New Delhi.For years after he left India, the very mention of his name would provoke derisive laughs among his colleagues and students at the Morris College.
In the US, Easwaran attempted to sexually molest his female disciples in the California ashram that he founded (San Jose Mercury News –April 30, 1989 ) One of his closest associates at the ashram and chief spiritual mentor, Steve Rupenthal has been arrested for soliciting child sex at a Chicago airport. This can be verified from the Point Reyes Light(May 2004) newspaper report. There are many other unreported cases of sexual abuse at the center.
Eknath Easwaran, left India in a hurry in 1958 specifically to evade an order of child support passed by the Sessions Court in Nagpur, and upheld by the Nagpur division bench of the Bombay High Court. The following web links will give some background of Eknath Easwaran:
Web links:
A split at the Razor’s edge by John Hubner (San Jose Mercury News, April 30, 1989)
https://www.ire.org/resource-center/s...
Stephen Ruppenthal arrested at Chicago O’Hare airport
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/il-court-...
As a backgrounder please do read “Holy Hell : a memoir of faith,devotion and pure madness” (Amazon) which recounts in minute detail the brutal sexual abuse at the ‘spiritual center’ run by an Indian Guru.
If this book is revised to include the predatory activities of Eknath Easwaran, it will be a small restitution to all the defenseless women whose lives he has savaged in India and the USA.
Thank you
Pratik Joshi
March 24, 2021
I hate to give a rather negative review on someone whom I consider to be like my "spiritual grandfather," a spiritual mentor. But I am not going to blindly praise something just because he wrote it.
I "accidentally" discovered Eknath Easwaran in the 80s when I was a "wild child" living in Los Angeles. I was akin to a new wave punker who thought he was so cool. I hadn't explored spirituality nor did I care to. But Easwaran made himself known to me in a used book store, or maybe it was a yard sale.
I picked up his book "Meditation: An Eight Point Program." Something in his eyes, something in the photograph on the cover spoke to me. It was a deep connection, oddly, and I bought the book. I'd always thought meditation might be cool but I had no idea what it entailed.
I started reading that book, off and on, but his positive nods towards all religions really turned me off. I was raised Catholic and denounced it as a teen once I realized I had the power to do it. My mom was pissed off and said I would go to Hell but I didn't care.
I STILL have huge problems accepting Easwaran's use of religious stories to prove a point or to help drive home a tool about meditation that he is trying to teach us. I usually read those parts of the book with more than a grain of salt and just think, "There he goes again."
I will say that I now own quite a lot of Easwaran's book and I have read most of them! Ha! I have gotten quite a lot out of his instruction on dealing with stress and anger and other negative feelings. But I have never become a 100% "Believer" because of Easwaran's super-religious side.
Back to this book review: Having read so many of Easwaran's books and having got to know him well enough from his books, it was really great to read about The Man. What exactly made him who he became to be and how he views his teachings and so on. That part of this book was fascinating and moving and even scary at times. I never thought he would have endured torturous times but I guess that's a part of the human condition.
And that's what makes me give this book such a bad review is the realization that Easwaran is just like you and me. We all have faults. Even though I greatly admire him, I saw big holes in his story.
For instance, the story about his taking his relatives to a zoo in Berkeley. They saw a large tortoise who had a sign painted on its shell. He and his relatives thought it was great to see a tortoise like the kind they had back in India and the sign said, "I'm Free!" How can a tortoise in a zoo be considered free? That's why I won't go to zoos because I feel like the animals are trapped, often in actual cages. Also, having a tortoise myself, I know you should never paint their shells. It suffocates them.
Easwaran claims to be a lover of all humans and animals and is a vegetarian. So, how could he be OK with going to a zoo in the first place? Maybe he didn't know the paint was harmful to the tortoise but it seems like they were making a mockery of the animal to paint a sign on it.
This is just one of the many examples I found in this book that turned me off. On the flipside, I found many of the stories so enlightening and moving and uplifting. His grandmother was a hoot and I really enjoyed reading all of the stories about her, his spiritual teacher.
If you're a hardcore Eknath fan, then, yes -- read this book. It's a great insight to how he became who he was. But if you're looking for instruction and spiritual guidance, start with "Meditation: An Eight Point Program." Or, "Mantram Handbook." Those are great books!
I "accidentally" discovered Eknath Easwaran in the 80s when I was a "wild child" living in Los Angeles. I was akin to a new wave punker who thought he was so cool. I hadn't explored spirituality nor did I care to. But Easwaran made himself known to me in a used book store, or maybe it was a yard sale.
I picked up his book "Meditation: An Eight Point Program." Something in his eyes, something in the photograph on the cover spoke to me. It was a deep connection, oddly, and I bought the book. I'd always thought meditation might be cool but I had no idea what it entailed.
I started reading that book, off and on, but his positive nods towards all religions really turned me off. I was raised Catholic and denounced it as a teen once I realized I had the power to do it. My mom was pissed off and said I would go to Hell but I didn't care.
I STILL have huge problems accepting Easwaran's use of religious stories to prove a point or to help drive home a tool about meditation that he is trying to teach us. I usually read those parts of the book with more than a grain of salt and just think, "There he goes again."
I will say that I now own quite a lot of Easwaran's book and I have read most of them! Ha! I have gotten quite a lot out of his instruction on dealing with stress and anger and other negative feelings. But I have never become a 100% "Believer" because of Easwaran's super-religious side.
Back to this book review: Having read so many of Easwaran's books and having got to know him well enough from his books, it was really great to read about The Man. What exactly made him who he became to be and how he views his teachings and so on. That part of this book was fascinating and moving and even scary at times. I never thought he would have endured torturous times but I guess that's a part of the human condition.
And that's what makes me give this book such a bad review is the realization that Easwaran is just like you and me. We all have faults. Even though I greatly admire him, I saw big holes in his story.
For instance, the story about his taking his relatives to a zoo in Berkeley. They saw a large tortoise who had a sign painted on its shell. He and his relatives thought it was great to see a tortoise like the kind they had back in India and the sign said, "I'm Free!" How can a tortoise in a zoo be considered free? That's why I won't go to zoos because I feel like the animals are trapped, often in actual cages. Also, having a tortoise myself, I know you should never paint their shells. It suffocates them.
Easwaran claims to be a lover of all humans and animals and is a vegetarian. So, how could he be OK with going to a zoo in the first place? Maybe he didn't know the paint was harmful to the tortoise but it seems like they were making a mockery of the animal to paint a sign on it.
This is just one of the many examples I found in this book that turned me off. On the flipside, I found many of the stories so enlightening and moving and uplifting. His grandmother was a hoot and I really enjoyed reading all of the stories about her, his spiritual teacher.
If you're a hardcore Eknath fan, then, yes -- read this book. It's a great insight to how he became who he was. But if you're looking for instruction and spiritual guidance, start with "Meditation: An Eight Point Program." Or, "Mantram Handbook." Those are great books!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews