Thousands of these documents and emails from the covert Science of Identity political operation have been independently examined by the Washington Post. The content on this website is attributed solely to the site's author.
Chris Butler sends his operatives to cry "Hinduphobia" whenever anyone questions him or his protege, Tulsi Gabbard. Yet in his own recorded lectures, Butler attacks revered Hindu and yoga teachers 163 times, calling them "dogs," "charlatans," "fools," and "demoniac." His own words expose his outrageous and hateful Hinduphobic hypocrisy.
Chris Butler is the founder of the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), a small, secretive religious organization. He is Tulsi Gabbard's guru, and he controlled her political life from the beginning. He claims to represent Vaishnava Hinduism, and his operatives, including Sunil Khemaney, have enlisted Hindu organizations to defend Tulsi and Butler by branding critics "Hinduphobic." What those organizations may not realize is how Butler talks about the most revered figures in their own traditions.
First-person account
I do not enjoy publishing this. Butler's words are cruel, and some of them are genuinely shocking. I went back and forth about whether to share them at all.
But I think people deserve to see who he really is, especially Hindus. His operation hides behind the Hindu faith for political cover while, in his own lectures, he insults the teachers millions of Hindus hold sacred. People should be able to judge that for themselves.
The hypocrisy
A forensic review of Butler's recorded lectures found 163 verbatim quotes in which he attacks other Hindu and yoga teachers and traditions by name. 1
He calls revered figures "dogs," "charlatans," "fools," "bogus," "rascals," and "demoniac." Then his political operation turned around and recruited leaders from those same traditions to sign coalition letters and issue statements defending him, casting anyone who questioned his hold over Tulsi Gabbard as an anti-Hindu bigot. 2
163 documented attacks, by target
- Generic "false gurus" (25)
- ISKCON, the movement Butler came from (25)
- Mayavadi / impersonalist teachers (25)
- Osho (Bhagwan Rajneesh) (24)
- Sai Baba (23)
- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi / Transcendental Meditation (13)
- The Gaudiya Math (11)
- Swami Vivekananda (11)
- Paramahansa Yogananda (4)
- Ramakrishna / the Ramakrishna Mission (2)
A representative sample is below. Every quote is a verbatim transcription from Butler's own recorded lectures, with the lecture date and internal SIF catalog code. 1
The appointed leaders of ISKCON and the Gaudiya Math
36 quotes
"For them to be in disciplic succession, they must go to the Gaudiya Matha and surrender to their so-called appointed acharyas who are simply dogs in disguise, that's all."
May 17, 1981 · Lecture A01A3-B 1
"We want to wreck it, their whole fake, cheating scams. All these fake so-called gurus, going around telling people, 'I am God!'"
March 17, 1995 · Lecture A45A2-A 1
Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna
13 quotes
"Both of these fellows are nonsense."
Butler on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda · November 9, 1997 · Lecture G18A2 1
"There's this Ramakrishna nonsense fool playing as 'avatar' some time back in India."
Undated lecture · Lecture M28A2 1
Sai Baba
23 quotes
"You have, you know, 20,000 people there, worshipping this bogus, nonsense fellow as God, and they are all there doing it together."
May 15, 2005 · Lecture M136A2 1
"Or, 'I could speak the Bhagavad-gita.' Like this Satya Sai Baba fool."
March 17, 1995 · Lecture A45A2-A 1
Paramahansa Yogananda
4 quotes
Butler dismissed the author of Autobiography of a Yogi
as an impersonalist running a "personality cult."
"Even though somebody is teaching nonsense, a total bogey yogi, they still find it very difficult to get over their attachment to serving that person."
July 14, 1991 · Lecture S49A2-B, "Parampara Versus Personality Cults" 1
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Transcendental Meditation
13 quotes
Butler mocked the founder of the worldwide TM movement and his meditation practice.
"You can criticise people all you want for sitting around silently meditating upon a meaningless so-called mantra like the Maharishis."
March 14, 1987 · Lecture A07A3 1
Osho (Bhagwan Rajneesh)
24 quotes
"A person may have the title swami and he may be a dog in consciousness, just like Rajneesh."
Undated lecture · Lecture G06A2 1
Mayavadi and impersonalist teachers
25 quotes
"The impersonalists are really the most demoniac, in a sense, because they want to kill God. They want to kill God."
Undated lecture · Lecture M28A2 1
"They are always speaking nonsense and thus inviting death to catch them."
1978 · Lecture S36A2-A 1
"False gurus" generally
25 quotes
"Cheating gurus, phony so-called gurus. It's a method, a technique."
December 10, 1982 · Lecture C07V1-B 1
"YOU are nonsense, not him, you fool."
February 25, 1996 · Lecture G13A2-B 1
Why this matters
This is the same man who, through Sunil Khemaney, helped organize a 2017 coalition letter that put the Hindu American Foundation, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, and Butler's own Science of Identity Foundation on the same page defending Tulsi Gabbard. 2
The organizations enlisted to cry "anti-Hindu bigotry" on his behalf belong to the very world he privately ridicules.
Butler's disciples accuse others of Hinduphobia to shield him. In his own recorded lectures, he calls the most beloved teachers in Hinduism "dogs" and "fools." That is the hypocrisy, in his own words.
