Yoga Master Allegedly Forced Handmaid To Drink His Urine For Contraceptive Purposes

A yoga master from the NSW Central Coast, who allegedly beat children in his Ashram on a regular basis, has now been accused by one of his handmaids of forcing her to drink his urine for “contraceptive purposes.”

A royal commission into child sexual abuse at Mangrove Yoga Ashram on the NSW Central Coast has heard that the woman, Shishy, was completely controlled by the “spiritual leader” Swami Akhandananda Saraswati, as were children at the retreat, who received slaps so hard that it affected their hearing.

Shishy, who was just 14 when she met Saraswati, gave testimony to the commission, alleging that back then, she believed that the harsh treatment inflicted by the swami was for her own good. She then went to live in the isolated Mangrove Ashram with him when she was 18.

“Violent discipline was an acceptable part of Ashram discipline meted out by the gurus. It was represented as an “honour” to receive slaps from the teacher/guru,” she said.

Now aged 57, Shishy left the Ashram in 1985 having had two abortions, one which was self-administered. As she explained to the commission, she was forced to drink the yoga master’s urine as a means not to get pregnant. She also claims that she was sexually assaulted by him with a double barreled shotgun, and that she was punished by being made to dig out moles with a sharp pen knife.

She said that two of the moles she was forced to extract were quite deep, but he would not allow her to seek medical attention.

“I stitched them myself with thin fishing wire,” Shishy told the commission.

Saraswati, who passed away in 1998, spent time in jail for molesting four girls and allegedly ran his Ashram like a dictatorship, with many of his alleged crimes going unpunished prior to his death.