4 Stars, with caveat.

In 2019, I first heard that Angela Burt was writing a book about the zonal acharya era of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and I have been anxiously awaiting her publication for over five years. The zonal acharya era of ISKCON was the period of nearly ten years immediately following the death of the Founder/Acharya of ISKCON: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977). I remember that period quite well, having been an initiated member of the Society during that time. Ms. Burt was/is also a member of ISKCON, and accepted diksa from Ravindra Svarupa dasa (William H. Deadwyler, III), who was a very important leader of the Society beginning in the mid-1970s, and especially in the mid-1980s.

As expected in her 232-page book published by Routledge, a company that claims to be “the world’s leading academic publisher in the Humanties and Social Sciences,” Dr. Burt examines issues of succession in ISKCON, and the leadership of the Society by a group of eleven gurus in a zonal system, until their authority was challenged (especially by her own guru who was a leader of the “Guru Reform Movement”) and reformed in 1987. Burt explores the developments, conflicts, and defining characteristics of leadership in ISKCON in this decade, and presents themes of hierarchy, status, power and authority, in addition to the routinization of charisma. She interviews 43 devotees, including key players in the drama such as six former zonal acharyas and six former GBC members, and she presents documentary evidence to help the reader understand the history of ISKCON.

I would have given her book five stars instead of four, but in the Introduction (p. 14) she states, “While numerous sociological studies of ISKCON have been conducted, few historical studies have been undertaken. E. Burke Rochford and Larry Shinn, amongst other scholars, have studied leadership in ISKCON. However, there has been no study devoted exclusively to the issue of succession that was precipitated by the death of the founder—a time that is known by scholars of religion to be crucial in the early development of any religious organisation. Thus there is a need for a detailed study of leadership in ISKCON in the the period after the death of the founder, and this study aims to fill that gap.” (bold mine)

On the previous page (13), Burt mentions about a dozen books (“the most relevant studies”) which reveal some of the principles of religious leadership, especially regarding Hindu New Religious Movements. However she neglects to mention an important 547-page book published in January 2020 titled Eleven Naked Emperors: The Crisis of Charismatic Succession in the Hare Krishna Movement (1977-1987). This is not an insignificant book to be glossed over. It presents a detailed study of the history of the zonal acharya era of ISKCON, and I am its author. Although I am not an academic author (despite the fact that E. Burke Rochford, Jr. and I co-authored a chapter in the book published by SUNY Press: Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism, 2013), many academics have appreciated my work.

Edwin Bryant, a Professor of Hindu Philosophy and Religion at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, wrote the Foreword to Eleven Naked Emperors and noted, “Eleven Naked Emperors is quite masterful, and extremely important. The story is a long and complicated one, but Doktorski has done an outstanding job putting the entire drama into a very well documented and highly readable account. His tone is remarkably non-partisan, non-polemical and he has tried sincerely to be fair and impartial.”

Another scholar, who Burt mentions in her book, wrote the following about my first Hare Krishna history book, Killing For Krishna, in the August 2019 issue of Nova Religio: the Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, a peer-reviewed academic journal of religious studies that focuses on New Religious Movements:

“Doktorski thoroughly researches the critical events that led to the murder of Steven Bryant. . . . New religion researchers will . . . find this a useful book given its focus on charismatic leadership, violence, and the development of one of the most controversial new religious communities from the 1960s era. It also represents the most comprehensive treatment to date of New Vrindaban’s history and this in itself makes Doktorski’s book a worthwhile contribution.”—E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Professor of Religion and Sociology, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont

Professor Rochford and I first met at the May 2003 New Vrindaban Festival of Inspiration. I greatly enjoyed talking with him about New Vrindaban history, and I presented him a copy of my 326-page New Vrindaban history manuscript-in-progress, at that time titled The Great Experiment: Sacred Music and the Christianization of the New Vrindaban Hare Krishna Temple Liturgies. Burke greatly appreciated my research, and cited passages from my unpublished manuscript eleven times (!) in the article titled “Almost Heaven: Leadership, Decline and the Transformation of New Vrindaban” published in the February 2006 issue of Nova Religio. He cited my work eleven times, and this a full twelve years before my first Hare Krishna history book was published!

On September 14, 2010, Rochford flew to Pittsburgh and met with me regarding a proposed project: collaborating together as co-authors on the first definitive history of New Vrindaban. Although this plan never materialized, the two of us worked together (as mentioned earlier) on a chapter—“Guru Authority, Religious Innovation, and the Decline of New Vrindaban”—in the 2013 book published by SUNY Press titled Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism. Our names are listed as co-authors. Since our first meeting in 2003, Burke has respected my research.

Angela Burt certainly knew about my book Eleven Naked Emperors, because we had corresponded by email in 2019 and I told her about my soon-to-be published history of the zonal acharya era of ISKCON. She even asked me in an email to change the subtitle of my forthcoming book, as she thought my subtitle was too similar to the subtitle of her forthcoming book. I declined her suggestion, and told her that no one will confuse our two books.

Why did she not mention Eleven Naked Emperors in her book? Perhaps because in some circles my book is not regarded as “scholarly.” Both professors, Bryant and Rochford, acknowledge that I am not an academic author (I do not have a Doctor of Philosophy degree; I have a Master degree), but they both admit that my work has great value to those who want to understand better the history of the Hare Krishna movement.

In the Preface to Eleven Naked Emperors I mention Angela Burt and her forthcoming book:

As an aside, I am looking forward to the publication of a book about the zonal-acharya era of ISKCON by Dr. Angela Ruth Burt (Arya devi dasi), a disciple of Ravindra Svarupa dasa. During her tenure as a doctoral student at the University of Leeds in England, she completed a thesis in 2014—“Leading the Hare Krishna Movement: The Crisis of Succession in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, 1977-1987.” The preliminary results of this work were presented at a July 2009 ISKCON Studies Conference in Florence, Italy.

As a member-in-good-standing of ISKCON, she had access to many sources which I did not. During her research, she interviewed many former zonal acharyas and concluded, “These people [the zonal acharyas] were trying to live up to impossibly high expectations. It takes an extraordinary and very rare person—such as Srila Prabhupada—to live up to expectations like that. Most cannot. They were only human. I feel that it’s important as an institution for us to have less finger pointing and blame, and more appreciation and understanding that everyone has their own experience and challenges in spiritual life.”

I personally look forward to reading Burt’s forthcoming book (which will be undoubtedly more sympathetic to the eleven than mine), and discovering another important side of ISKCON history which I am unfortunately unable to present in Eleven Naked Emperors. I believe both our books will be a complementary pair, and both will be necessary to better understand the zonal-acharya era of ISKCON in full.

Of course, Angela has every right to not mention my book in her book, although I (and many of my colleagues) think she should have. I still think that our two books are a complementary pair; both should be consulted to better understand the zonal acharya era of ISKCON.

Sincerely,

Henry Doktorski
Author of Killing For Krishna, Eleven Naked Emperors, and ten volumes of Gold, Guns and God.
Temecula, California
March 3, 2025

PS In September 2024, after I had purchased Leading the Hare Krishna Movement—the price was $156.60—I wrote to Angela to congratulate her, but I didn't mention my disappointment. When she heard I was lending my copy of her book out to devotees who could not afford to pay such a high price, she sent me a complimentary copy of her book. For this I am grateful.

Addendum

A few of my colleagues shared their thoughts regarding Burt’s book:

I have not read Leading the Hare Krishna Movement. You wrote in your review, “Of course, Angela has every right to not mention my book in her book...” I do not agree. Dr. Burt has a responsibility to examine relevant studies. She did not uphold proper standards of scholarship. Dr. Burt is not required to agree with Eleven Naked Emperors (ENE), but she is obligated to cite this book. Even if Dr. Burt feels that somehow ENE is deeply flawed, that is still no excuse for her failure to cite ENE. The academic author bears the burden of proving his or her knowledge of the relevant literature, especially recent works that draw upon “insider information.” If ENE or its author lack merit, then Dr. Burt can explain the alleged inaccuracies or deficiencies of ENE, but she cannot exclude ENE from her discussion of the literature.

Suresh Persaud (Chand Prasad), Ph. D.
Maryland, USA

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One must consider motivation as to why Dr. Burt did not mention Henry’s book, Eleven Naked Emperors, in her more-recently-published book, Leading the Hare Krishna Movement, although both books deal with the same topic: the zonal acharya era of ISKCON. Henry Doktorski has said that writing his books was something that he was doing for his godbrothers and godsisters, thusly his books are a offering of love to the members of a community and a movement that he loved.

“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.” (Bhagavad-gita 9:26)

“Those who say that they are My devotees are not My devotees, but those who are the devotees of My devotees, they are actually My devotees.” (Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 11.28)

Henry’s books are great history, but they are also something else, something more: they are offerings of love and devotion to Krishna’s devotees to help them make sense of the trauma which so many of them experienced, and with understanding of the causes of their trama to perhaps provide some help to begin healing from them.

Angela R. Burt’s book is not written with the same audience in mind. It is cold, it is clinical, and it is aimed at people who are not devotees, who in fact may have never even met a devotee. She writes in such a way as to encourage us to assume complete ignorance on the part of the reader as to the insides of this faith. She fills up the first part of her book explaining things that a devotee would already know, so the devotees are not her target audience. Her book isn’t written with them in mind, while in Henry’s books I am thinking that he never lost sight of the devotees he was writing for, even for a minute.

After reading the first 50 pages of Dr. Burt’s book, I feel like I have just been shown around an art museum by a tour guide who doesn’t like art.

George Smith
Overland Park, Kansas

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She is a disciple of Rabindra Svarupa. Any surprise?

Yasoda Nandana Dasa ACBSP (Yoland Joseph Langevin)
Stanislaus County, California

The author comments: It appears Yasoda Nandana Dasa has hit the nail on the head! Yes, we should not be surprised that an author who is a member of ISKCON would not mention the book Eleven Naked Emperors in her writing, as ENE reveals a good part of the hidden history of ISKCON. I have heard from a reliable source that ISKCON members were told not to read my books. One ISKCON guru, Bhakti Vikasa Swami, mentions ENE on a YouTube video, and says it is not important for devotees to even know the details about ISKCON history: “It’s not really necessary for everyone to know about it. It’s not really necessary for everyone in the movement today to even know of all the details of what went on in the zonal-acharya era. We can know that it was a very rough period in ISKCON’s history, just after the departure of Srila Prabhupada.”

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George Smith continued his comparison of Angela Burt’s book Leading the Hare Krishna Movement, and Henry’s book Eleven Naked Emperors, specifically noting how the two authors portray one of the leaders of the early 1980s guru reform movement: Jadurani devi dasi.

Jadurani devi dasi, of whom the author Angela R. Burt says: “Jadurani Devi Dasi was another disciple of Prabhupada who started criticising the 11 gurus, claiming that they had not been appointed by Prabhupada and that they were not qualified for their positions.”

Compare this to the introduction of Jadurani in Eleven Naked Emperors: “One of the devotees who recognized the zonal acaryas as grand pretenders was Jadurani devi dasi (Judy Koslovsky) an art and history student of Polish-Jewish heritage.”

In Dr. Burt’s intro of Jadurani, there is no indication as to whether any of the criticisms that Jadurani offers is legitimate or has any merit. This can be seen as just a good scholarly habit, but it can also mask the fact that the author is not being forthright or that the author is not objective. Jadurani could simply be just another critical and complaining disciple of Prabhupada, always grumbling about having to stand on ladders to fan the new gurus, because their vyasasans are so high. We all know this type of complainer, so why is the author writing about her if Jadurani is just another criticizing disciple of Prabhupada?

Apparently Burt felt that she had to mention Jadurani because: “Her protest was not insignificant as she was one of the earliest disciples of Prabhupada, having joined the movement in 1966 in New York, and letters reveal that they had a close relationship.” Revealing eh? Old man, young girl. How close? Who knew?

In respect to the question that Burt introduced as to how close the young woman and the old man were to each other, Burt teases but does not reveal. For a suggestion as to the answer of that question, we have to jump back to Eleven Naked Emperors. “She [Jadurani] joined ISKCON in New York City during the autumn of 1966 and soon after began painting pictures for the temple and Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-bhagavatam.”

How close were they? Look into any picture in Prabhupada’s books which Jadurani painted.

Burt continues her discussion of Jadurani: “Her case is unique in that she was the only female member of ISKCON at that time to publicly voice her oppositions to the gurus.”

See, Jadurani started it. Got all the other women upset. Her husband probably divorced her because he was tired of being hen pecked. Burt goes on to tell us that Jadurani was expressing her beliefs: “she believed that they [the ISKCON gurus] lacked the spiritual qualification,” etc.

A person can believe anything, but belief has no bearing on facts.

Burt is still not cluing us in on whether she agrees with Jadurani or doesn’t. If she wasn’t in ISKCON and still isn’t, then it doesn't much matter, but if you have a guru (as Burt does), you are slave to his least desire, butt of his jokes, spittoon in some cases, or assassin. Generally I don’t trust devotees, the first one I ever met tried to lie to me, and the last one tried to steal my car. I like Henry’s introduction of Jadurani in Eleven Naked Emperors. When Jadurani comes on to the field in Eleven Naked Emperors you want to get up and cheer her. Henry conveys such enthusiasm in just a few words. The author Dr. Angela Burt never does get around to expressing anything other than an ethical complaint about how Jadurani was not dealt with properly by ISKCON because of the use of force, e.g., violence is not covered under Paul-Michel Foucault’s definition.

Let’s look at more. Henry writes: “In March 1978, when her [Jadurani’s] former husband [Satsvarupa dasa Goswami] was appointed to the position of diksa guru, she believed, like so many others, that he and the other ten, by the inconceivable mercy of Prabhupada, had been promoted to the uttama-adhikari stage of perfection and were qualified to accept disciples and lead the movement.”

Angela Burt has left out the fact that Jadurani was married to one of the Zonal Acaryas of ISKCON, one of the exact same people she was criticizing, a detail Burt leaves out that would increase the credibility of Jadurani’s complaints in the minds of the readers of her book, increasing the odds of her opinions and complaints being seen as being founded upon close contact and keen observance of the person or persons she was complaining about and criticizing, as after all, what closer contact can there be to a husband than his wife?

From Henry’s book we get the impression that Jadurani was more than just a victim of the anger that her criticisms generated, that she was practically a honey badger, a one-woman army against the whole bunch of frauds and that almost single-handedly she knocked the crap out of them, which reveals how weak they were, having to gang up on her, having to gang up to violently expel her from the house she helped Prabhupada build for all the world to live in and from the service that Prabhupada had given her [painting pictures for Prabhupada’s books], perhaps in all of her wanderings from lifetime to lifetime her greatest love in all the three worlds.

In the minds of those reading about her in Henry’s Eleven Naked Emperors we meet a heroine, whilst in Angela Burt’s book we become acquainted with a rather two-dimensional character who appears to be a victim of her own complaints and criticisms. Burt offers no objection to Jadurani being thrown out of ISKCON, only opining that the physical abuse that ISKCON used to evict her was uncalled for.

Up until this point in her coverage of Jadurani, Burt has skipped any mention of Jadurani’s significant others entirely, reinforcing the illusion that she was a minor character and only had to be listened to because of her seniority in the movement and because she was the “only female member of ISKCON at that time to publicly voice her opposition to the gurus.”

Reading Burt’s book we can surmise that every other woman in ISKCON was happy and content until Jadurani came along and started started shaking things up? They were happy and content until Jadurani went to work on them. Reading Burt’s book we cannot be sure at this point whether or not Jadurani was just a trouble maker or that any of her complaints are valid.

George Smith
Overland Park, Kansas

To purchase Leading the Hare Krishna Movement, go to Routledge, or Amazon.

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