28 Aug 2010 Vrindavan, India
Category: Ashram
Today in the newspaper I read a heading that attracted my attention:
When I read on, I got to know that yesterday Vrindavan’s police received information by an unknown source, a hot lead that they immediately followed. They headed to the Raman Reti area of Vrindavan, an area with many Ashrams and big temples, where allegedly prostitution was happening this very moment.
They raided the Ashram and arrested five people, two women and three men. They turned to be out two prostitutes, two customers and a pimp. The newspaper even gave a picture of them. When the police came into the room they were in the middle of having intercourse.
The women admitted in a statement that for a year they had been using the rooms of Ashrams in this neighbourhood for meeting their clients and having sex there. They explained that they believed an Ashram to be a very safe place for their work.
The police stated that they had known about this prostitution for quite a while but now they caught them red-handed and could arrest them. They added that they had information about many more Ashrams and many more women but until now they do not have any way to prove it. This time they had enough proof, they had seen it with their own eyes and found many condoms with the women.
We have heard this kind of stories, too, of course. There are even stories that women from out of India come here on a tourist visa, rent a room somewhere in the spiritual environment of Vrindavan and earn some money here by having sex. In the rest of their time they follow religious activities, go to temples and thus can keep an image of being pious, spiritual and religious. Nobody would suspect them to do prostitution. Men here are also usually fascinated by foreigners; it is exotic and thus exciting for them and thus it may be quite easy for them to get customers. I have written before, too, about spiritual sex tourism but in this case the tourists are the ones earning money.
Unfortunately many Ashrams are nowadays misused. Managers take money for rooms and pretend not to know what these women do in their rooms where different men keep on coming and going. It is not right. An Ashram is a place for sharing, but not in this way.
Tags:: Ashram, Money, Religion, Sex, Sharing, Vrindavan, Prostitution, Spiritual, Tourism
13 Comments
Posted By Swami Balendu
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I never heard about something ike this. It's a pity that ashrams are misused for prostitution. they aren't supposed to be places for this dirty business. I can understand that these women feel better in an ashram than somewhere else. But isn't it also disrespectful in terms of what an ashram should be?
Reply By Mirela on August 23, 2012 04:24
It is quite sad that people take advantage of the space offered at ashrams for these purposes. I wonder if the owners of the ashrams are just happy to make the money and don't really question what goes on in their rooms. Apparently some of them would be quite unhappy about it. But others may be struggling to make enough money and would let it happen. Theodore brought up an interesting point... what if we grew up in a society in which prostitution was a highly venerated and respected profession? Rather than glorifying those in the military who kill for a profession, we would honor those who create beautiful intimacy with another person... Hmmm interesting thought.
Reply By Emily on October 08, 2011 02:00
This is disturbing. It is sad that people have started to twist the idea of a sacred space into trashy, illegal businesses. It is also sad that women think this is a "safe" place to go about their business.
Reply By Rachel on April 24, 2011 04:31
Well said swami Ji. I usually feel angry when lay conservatives in all parts of the world feel so disgusted by prostitution and so sure of its wickedness, not because it is not disgusting but because so many of those marriages are forms of prostitution. They marry a women who does not really love them. They coerce her into marriage telling her she has no other options and then she has to sleep with them, has no rights or choices (even if the law permits her rights the social pressure is too much to allow her any. Mentally, she cannot conceive of freedom. That is not a choice.) They feed her in exchange for being a work and sex slave. But it isn't called slavery. It is called marriage. And this infuriates me.
Reply By Laura V. on November 08, 2010 11:02
I also feel that there is something not "right" about this. I feel that everyone, ESPECIALLY women suffer from prostitution but I cannot speak for every woman and I try to resist imposing my opinion on others. I wonder what it is that I do not feel is right? Ive grown up being told that this is wrong. If I had never heard that, if I had in fact been told that this was very healthy and good, if I had been told that prostitution was a preventative of rape or a noble profession and form of healing what would I feel. Would prostitution even hurt women if they were highly praised with this lifestyle choice? If prostitutes were treated with the utmost respect by men. If a customer thought of a woman's body as sacred would their be anything unhealthy about prostitution? I really don't know.
Reply By Theodore Ravenel on November 08, 2010 10:55
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