Cover of The Disastrous Decade

Henry Doktorski’s 13^th book about Hare Krishna history will be published soon (November 14, 2025). In the dedication, the author explains:

This book is a condensed version of my 2020 book: Eleven Naked Emperors: The Crisis of Charismatic Succession in the Hare Krishna Movement (1977-1987). That 545-page treatise is a veritable encyclopedia of information about a disastrous decade when all hell broke loose in the Hare Krishna movement after the Founder/Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness passed away. I included many details, references, and 935 endnotes to make sure my book was well documented.

However some people, I have heard, are too busy or too intimidated to read a 545-page book about the zonal acharya era of ISKCON, therefore on the recommendation of several Krishna devotee friends—most notably His Grace Sriman Ram Parashar—I have condensed that book to only 160 pages: a 66% reduction. I hope that those who read The Disastrous Decade will continue their journey by reading Eleven Naked Emperors, which tells the same story, but in much more detail and subtlety.

The story I tell here is controversial. It represents the lens through which I personally see and understand the zonal-acharya era and not the way that all scholars, historians and Vaishnavas understand it. This is for the simple reason that there is no story that all scholars, historians and Vaishnavas unanimously accept as gospel truth. If you ask ten scholars to write an essay on the zonal-acharya era in ISKCON, you will undoubtedly get ten very different accounts with varying perspectives and conclusions.

Regarding my qualifications to write about the Hare Krishna movement: for fifteen years (1978-1993) I served as a faithful disciple of one of the zonal acharyas and I lived through many of the events described in this book. More recently, during the last ten or so years, I have interviewed major players in this drama, who have contributed important inside information to help us more fully understand this unfortunate and little-documented chapter in the history of a new religious movement.

I do not claim to be a “pure devotee.” I do not even claim to be a devotee. I am not a disciple. I am not a follower. But I am a friend to the disciples and followers. I claim only to be a historian. A historian researches the past and writes about it. In my opinion, historians are very important. How can one understand the present if one does not understand the past?

Despite the faults of this book, such as the fact that “every endeavor is covered by some fault, just as fire is covered by smoke” (as Lord Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gita), I nevertheless hope that you, dear reader, after scrutinizing these pages, will have a fairly complete picture of the history of the zonal-acharya era, even though that picture may not be perfect.

In addition, as you read this book, I trust that you will not blindly accept as gospel truth my particular version regarding the zonal-acharya era in ISKCON. I invite you to see this effort as an invitation to further explore ISKCON history and ponder Gaudiya-Vaishnava doctrine, in order to more deeply investigate these fascinating topics for yourself.

My books, Killing For Krishna, Eleven Naked Emperors, Gold Guns and God, and now The Disastrous Decade, were written for thoughtful readers who may be curious to discover an alternative (and possibly more accurate) viewpoint about what happened in the Hare Krishna movement after the passing of its Founder. I think those readers will learn something and benefit, as I have learned and benefited from my research. Om Tat Sat.

The Author
Temecula, California

Table of Contents

Dedication
Chapter 1: Gaudiya Vaishnavism Comes West
Chapter 2: Krishna Gave Me Only Second- and Third-Class Men
Chapter 3: Senior Disciples Question Their Master
Chapter 4: Eleven Ritvik Priests
Chapter 5: The Rise of the Zonal Acharyas
Chapter 6: Two Architects of Evil
Chapter 7: Crushing the Opposition
Chapter 8: ISKCON Gurus Begin to Deviate
Chapter 9: Exposed by a Woman
Chapter 10: The Guru Reform Movement
Chapter 11: Preparing for Battle
Chapter 12: The Fall of the Zonal Acharyas
Chapter 13: The Neo-Gaudiya Math
Chapter 14: The Ritvik Question
Chapter 15: The Buck Stops Here
About the Author
End Notes

For more about Ram Parashar, see Ram Parashar.