Children of Krishna 60 Minutes 1993

13 years ago we met the Krishna kids, a bold experiment to bring up Aussie children in an alien culture. What are the things that Krishna teaches you? If you want to be a Krishna culture. What does that mean? Chanting and dancing and going on a flying war, a war. And you, all your life, you want to serve Krishna.

So what happened to the Krishna class of 1980? What do the Hare Krishna think of you now, now that you've left them? Well basically it's the lost soul, lost cause at the moment. I don't consider it a religion, I consider it my life. It's definitely a strong part of me that will never change. It's not so exciting wearing a bikini on the beach.

Who cares? I'd much rather keep myself, my husband to see than everybody else in the world. Those stories with Jennifer Byrne, Richard Carlton, Jeff McMullan and Charles Woolley tonight on 60 Minutes. Hare Krishna's with the shaved heads in the arrhythmic chanting in the streets. They were all the rage back in the 70s and a very curious lot they were. Like most small religious groups at the time, the Hare Krishnas were the focus of dark rumours and charges that they brainwashed their followers.

13 years ago, amid all this fear and innuendo, we went to a Hare Krishna commune in northern New South Wales. And there told the story of nine young Australians being raised in an alien culture. All these years later, here's how things have turned out. It's 4.30 in the morning and already the Hare Krishna children are chanting their homage to the deity. These were the first generation of Krishna kids. Australian children born and raised in an Indian culture.

A culture 5,000 years old. Translated here to the lush green hills of a Willemba on the far north coast of New South Wales. They're Aussie kids and as much as they've got two arms, two legs, they're the normal Aussie kids. I see them as unique and as much as already these children are making tangible spiritual advancement. Whereas the rest of the young population within Australia are actually becoming more and more immersed in material life.

Turning their eye towards their Hare Krishna vision of God meant shutting themselves off from the Australian lifestyle. Their teacher Peter Jones taught his pupils as much about Krishna as he did about the alphabet. What are the things that Krishna teaches you? It's the things that are Krishna conscious. What does that mean? Chanting and dancing and going on a flying war, a lord.

And you, all your life, you want to serve Krishna. That's what you want to do, isn't it? Yes. Nothing else. People could say that you're isolating these children, you're programming them. Worse still, you're brainwashing them into following the Hare Krishna lifestyle.

Some people say we're isolating these children. I like to think more in terms of we're insulating these children. So what happened to the Class of 1980? Those nine little Australians who are being taught to love Lord Krishna. Well of the nine, only three have remained committed to spiritual life. Calavati, Chandra and Prahlada.

We tracked them down the spiritual path which led us to India. All three of them were on a pilgrimage to Brindavan, the birthplace of Krishna. Prahlada is only 18, yet he's decided to take the lifelong vow of celibacy. The fact that we are still in the Hare Krishna movement and doing these, engaging in the practice of Krishna consciousness is great success to the Hare Krishna school and system. This was Prahlada when he was five, a little boy singing the praises of Lord Krishna, early beginnings to what would become a life of devotion.

I wouldn't describe myself as the success story as yet, because I still got a long life to go. But I hope to be. Who can tell me who Krishna is? The Supreme Personality of Godhead. Chandra too was a model pupil. What she learned on the farm as a little Krishna girl, she took very seriously.

Those were happy years? Yeah, as a child I loved it. Come on, who else gets to wear beautiful saris and wear jewellery and be encouraged to wear flowers in our hair and have fun all the time. Of course, it was great. It felt very special actually, when I see other children coming from outside and I always wanted to share it with them. For this Aussie girl, fun times on the farm has become a life of total commitment.

To serve Lord Krishna here means serving the poor of India. I don't consider it a religion, I consider it my life. It's definitely a strong part of me that will never change. And I loved it. What can I say from the first time I ever came to the temple, I didn't want to leave and that's the truth. There is nothing very spiritual about this place.

It's about as far away from the Hare Krishna farm as you can get, especially in spirit. Oh, not another drink. Not the sort of place to find a Hare Krishna girl. They were just a little bit too strict I think, and they made us rebel. Marindy Bateman was only six years old when we first met her. She was born into the movement.

I hated this, the strictness of, you know, so like walking around in a concentration camp in a way at some certain stages. At 18, Marindy is on a personal pilgrimage, a fast track into the material world of good times. All the things the Hare Krishna's tried to protect her from. Before this, Marindy had never been to a cinema, a disco or even worn a swimsuit on a beach. What's life like for you outside the Hare Krishna church? It's good, you know, as long as I can go out with my boyfriend and not feel guilty about it.

Not having any hang-ups of what I'm going to wear or what I'm going to do and what am I going to say and can I have a drink or worry about, you know, having a drink. I don't need a glass of something and I'm off my nut anyway. But, yeah, I don't have to worry about it. It's all about controlling the senses, that's what Krishna consciousness means. You control your tongue, your genital, you touch, if you can control all the senses then you can control anything. She feels free now, she loves her new life.

That's good, but I don't think she can be that content. She's experiencing something new, but I think she'll end up getting bored with it. Can't be that exciting compared to what we have. Well, she has a boyfriend, she goes to night clubs, she wears a bikini on a beach. That's so exciting wearing a bikini on the beach. Who cares?

I'd much rather keep myself and my husband to see than everybody else in the world. Marini, what do the Hari Krishna think of you now, now that you've left them? Very poor person out here and naughty, very sinful. Then we're definitely doing the wrong thing. So the Hari's you've been lured away by this bad influence? Yeah.

This material influence? But I'm so deep into it that basically it's the lost soul, lost cause at the moment. But it's not true. Jai Scott doesn't give the appearance of being a lost soul either. In fact, these days there's little to distinguish him from other final year students at Mawilamba High. Was it difficult when you left the farm to come out into the outside world to mix with other Aussie kids?

It was a little bit weird, yeah, when I first started public school. I had to keep quiet for a while and just work it out for myself. What did the other kids say? Well, they, a lot of them ridiculed the Hari's and all, but they didn't worry me at all. The little boy who grew up in peace, harmony and brotherly love now wants to pilot war planes. He's already taking flying lessons and studying to gain entry into the Defence Academy.

Jai, would you ever want to go back to that spiritual life and rejoin the Hari Krishnas? Maybe at a later stage, at the moment I'm not thinking that way, but I wouldn't totally close it out of my options later in life. Chandra, why do you think so many of you are classed? The class that we filmed, why do you think so many left? Only three stayed? Because their parents left when they were very young, they didn't have a chance to exploit Krishna consciousness like I did.

You have a look in that class, most of them, their parents left, the very few stayed. Well, here's one parent who left, but you might not recognise him like this. Peter Jones, he's gone back to his career in computers. 13 years ago, he was the teacher of that special class. Why did you finally walk away from the Hari Krishnas? Well, my role in the Hari Krishnas, as you'd well recall, was headmaster of the school.

And part of my mission there was to encourage those children to have a great deal of respect for the spiritual master. But when the school teacher himself lost respect for the Hari Krishna leadership, teaching Krishna consciousness to his pupils became impossible. You've heard the adage that power corrupts, absolutely, power corrupts, absolutely. Well, that's exactly what transpired in the Hari Krishna society. The leaders were, in a sense, somewhat analogous to what happened with the business tycoons or entrepreneurs of the 80s.

They really did become victims of their own excesses. These guys were people that were meant to be preaching the philosophy and chanting Hari Krishna. They weren't preaching and chanting, they were going shopping and swimming. So he swapped the spiritual world for the corporate world and took his daughter with him. Skye, do you remember this little girl? Yes, I do, that's me.

Skye Jones was five then. She has happy memories of the farm. It was relaxing, never had any problems up there, no stress, no problems at all. Everyone was nice, it's like a family atmosphere. Do you think your dad made the right decision in leaving the Hari Krishnas and taking his family with him? Yes, I do, because of the Guru, he's up there, I do.

If the Guru didn't take their power to their heads, I would have rather stayed there and come out into this world. It was a difficult Peter to finally walk away. There was no denying that that existence and that philosophy and that lifestyle was an absolute joy to participate in. So in a sense, walking away from that was awkward, but walking away from the hypocrisy that was surrounding us at the time was not difficult at all. But what happened to the rest of the class of 1980? Jay Rama is a shop assistant in Brisbane.

Dan works on a banana farm and no one knows what happened to this little boy. It must be very hard to keep children here, within the faith, within the farm. Well, you know, just like if you're, you know, you've got a river flowing and then the current's flowing very hard and you're trying to swim against it. That's more or less what we're trying to do, especially in countries like Australia. The Gurus from the bad old days have long since gone. Today, Ramay Swami is the spiritual guide for the farm.

You think you've lost children like Marindy for good? I don't think anyone's lost for good. Would you like Marindy to come back to the farm? Most certainly, most certainly. I think so, yeah. We would like all our kids to come back and participate in our movement.

We think it's a great movement and we'd like to help others on the spiritual path. So most definitely if Marindy wanted to come back, we'd accept it tomorrow. They may have lost most of that original class, but to the Hari Krishnas, three out of nine is not a bad report card. And from small beginnings, 13 years ago, that little class has turned into a school of 63. So in the hills and valleys around the Willember, the children of Krishna can be heard louder than ever. Is it forever this spiritual existence will you stay with the Hari Krishnas?

I pray that I will. I pray that nothing happens to change my mind because I definitely want to always. If you have children, will you want them to become Hari Krishnas? Definitely, of course. Don't you want what's best for your children? Beginnings, this path, your path to your instructions at our peril.

Marindy, what do the Hari Krishnas think of you now, now that you've left them? Very poor person out here and naughty, very sinful. Basically it's the lost soul, lost cause at the moment. Then there was our story that contrasted the lives of nine students from a New South Wales Hari Krishnas school. Of the nine, we found only three still involved with the movement. That's so exciting wearing a bikini on the beach.

Who cares? I'd much rather keep myself and my husband to see than everybody else in the world. Hey, your prejudice is showing. Do 33% of Catholic kids become priests and nuns? And that's your say for this week. I'll be back with more of 60 Minutes in a moment.