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 demands that Hindu organizations rally to defend him and his protege, Tulsi Gabbard. Behind their backs, he smears even the worldwide Hare Krishna movement he claims to descend from.
When any journalist questions Tulsi Gabbard or her guru, "Jagad Guru" Chris Butler, he demands that his network call it "Hinduphobia." Tulsi Gabbard's guru Chris Butler lines up Hindu groups to publicly defend him and Tulsi, using operatives including Sunil Khemaney, Tulsi herself, and the Hindu American Foundation. He even named ISKCON's Hawaii temple among the institutions to enlist. 1
Meanwhile, Butler attacks those same ISKCON Hindus behind their backs. This is the second in a series on the Hindu paths his network targets. This one is personal: he attacks the Hare Krishna movement he himself came out of.
Butler tells his followers to line up Hindu groups to defend him
In the transcripts, Butler's operation is explicit about wanting respected Hindus and Hindu institutions out front as a shield, including, by name, "Hindus… ISKCON Hawaii, HAF," and others, and Hindu individuals "like Suhag or HAF or whatever." 1
Publicly, Butler's people insist that any scrutiny of him is an attack on all Hindus.
One highly respected Hindu group Butler and his followers attacked: ISKCON, the Hare Krishna movement
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the Hare Krishna movement, was founded in New York City in 1966 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. From a single storefront, it grew into a worldwide tradition with hundreds of temples, farms, schools, and restaurants across the globe. 2
Its contributions are enormous and widely admired. Prabhupada's English translation of the Bhagavad-gita carried that scripture to millions of readers, the same sacred text on which Tulsi Gabbard took her oath of office. ISKCON brought the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra and kirtan music to the West, an influence that reached the Beatles and George Harrison. And through its Food for Life program, begun in 1974, ISKCON runs what is widely described as the world's largest free vegetarian-meal relief effort, distributing on the order of a million meals a day across more than 60 countries, alongside disaster relief and its joyful Ratha-yatra festivals. 3
Here is the twist. Chris Butler came out of this very tradition and claims Prabhupada's lineage as his own spiritual pedigree. He quotes Prabhupada constantly and styles himself "Siddhaswarupananda." Yet he has attacked the world's largest Krishna movement with open contempt, both across decades of his recorded religious lectures and, more recently, in the political project-office transcripts produced during Tulsi Gabbard's rise.
In 2015, Butler privately accused ISKCON gurus of "cheating people and robbing banks"
These are recent, from the same project office that ran Tulsi's politics. In 2015, Butler cast ISKCON's spiritual teachers as crooks who need watching, while positioning himself as the only authentic one:
"I'm not one of the Iskcon gurus… they want to be able to oversee their Iskcon gurus to make sure they're not cheating people and robbing banks and things like that."
Chris Butler, SIF political transcript, March 23, 2015 4
In 2016, he dismissed ISKCON's leaders as "so-called" acharyas and tied the whole institution to abuse, while crowning himself keeper of the "bona fide teachings":
"the so-called Iskcon appointed acharyas, including child abuse, sexual molestation, etc., etc. Where are all those 'gurus' now…? While Siddhaswarupananda has spent the last 40 years spreading the bona fide teachings of Lord Krishna…"
Chris Butler, SIF transcript (a drafted reply to an ISKCON critic), June 2016 5
In Butler's religious lectures, he described ISKCON as running "fake, cheating scams"
The contempt goes back decades, captured in his own recorded lectures. He has called ISKCON's leaders frauds running "cheating scams" he wants to "wreck," and even claimed they want him dead:
"We want to ruin their business. We want to wreck it, their whole fake, cheating scams… The so-called Iskcon appointed acaryas…"
Chris Butler lecture, "Lord Chaitanya's Appearance Day," 1995 6
"It's the so-called religionists, the Iskcon society, the so-called acaryas, who want to assassinate us."
Chris Butler lecture, "Lord Chaitanya's Appearance Day," 1995 6
"Look at the ISKCON situation. These guys are a bunch of jerks."
Chris Butler lecture, "Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami's Appearance Day," 2001 6
"You said the other Hare Krishnas were corrupt"
The contempt was not just for public consumption. It was drilled into Butler's own followers. The sworn affidavit of Robyn Ranson, a former follower, records how his people were taught to see every other Hare Krishna as crooked, and were walled off from the wider movement:
"You guys told us to not even dress like Hare Krishnas when we were young. You said the other Hare Krishnas were corrupt… not even allowed to associate with other people that chant."
From the sworn affidavit of Robyn Ranson, a former follower of Chris Butler 7
Butler's sickening hypocrisy
One movement feeds a million people a day, brought the Bhagavad-gita and the Hare Krishna mantra to the world, and gets branded a den of crooks and abusers by Tulsi Gabbard's guru. The other, Butler's own, scripts a congresswoman from the shadows and cries "Hinduphobia" the moment a reporter notices.
The accusation is also a mirror. Butler tars ISKCON with "child abuse, sexual molestation," after his own network covered up child sexual abuse within its ranks for decades. He accuses other gurus of "cheating people and robbing banks," while he lived in luxury in Kailua, Hawaii, exploiting free labor from hundreds of followers told it was their "spiritual duty" to render "devotional service" to him and his wife, Huilan Zhang (aka Wai Lana).
"Hinduphobia" is simply a calculated attack weapon that Butler and Tulsi Gabbard aim at critics. This is an extreme case of the pot calling the kettle black.
