In 2023, I heard from three young people
with first-hand, personal experience about the Three Greedy Didis and the
ashrams now. Here is what I heard — basically, Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat is a
24/7 moneymaking scam that no longer wants old people — they want your kids though apparently.
The JKP Three-Ring Circus
The first person told me that the JKP ashrams are more like a circus now than a holy place. There is a big push in Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat to attract youth — both young kids and teenagers. To do that they have put a huge emphasis on “fun” thing that kids like, like playing games and eating delicious food. (I have heard that the U.S. JKP ashram in Texas also has a huge push to attract more youth, too.)
They know kids won’t stick around if they get bored. So they have daily games for kids and sell tasty food in a canteen, like pizza, burgers, fries, and dumplings.
If you’d ever been to the India JKP ashrams in the past, you would know that you are basically starving all the time. The food served three times a day was very bland and there’s not a lot of it. If you didn’t bring your own snacks from home, you would really go hungry. That’s all changed now because they want young people. However, it all comes at a price!
In all that fun, they slip in a little bit of sadhana. I guess to just continue pretending that they are running a spiritual organization. But it was just a sex cult in the past and now it’s a circus with daily fun, games, and parties for the kids.
Youth Beware of the JKP Moneymaking Con Game
The second person I talked to allowed me to ask several questions. Here are my questions and their answers.
1—How often are they trying to get money from devotees?
They try to get money pretty much 24/7 from the devotees from when the day starts to the evening. There are multiple ways that the didis try to get money from the devotees, such as making the devotees pay money for the food or prasad that they give out and paying money to get pictures with them.
2—In what ways to they try to get money?
In the mornings, they have their zoom session where they hand out food, like sandwiches, which you have to pay around 1000 rupees for ($12). Choti didi also makes coffee that you pay around 5000 rupees for ($60). Basically every interaction with them, such as the food that they give out, comes at a price of either 1000, 2000, or 5000 rupees.
You can also pay money to bow to them before the morning sadhna. Doing aarti also comes with a price tag, which is increased on holidays, like Mother's Day. You can do pranam in Kripalu's room, but you have to pay 1000 rupees for it. There is also an opportunity to watch them sit and eat their lunch for the price of 10,000 rupees ($120).
After that they have a gassa, which is where they mix food together and hand it out to the devotees, which you have to pay money for.
They also have 2 picnics during a day — one in the morning and another in the afternoon, where there is a price to get in as well as a price for the food that the didis give out, such as bananas and chocolate sticks.
During the evening they play a ball game where they hit a ball around an area while saying radhey. If you hit one of the pictures of Kripalu or Krishna with the ball, you have to pay a fine of 1000 rupees. And if you get the ball outside of the area, then you pay a fee of 5000 rupees. It's celebrated whenever someone gets it out of the field because apparently the didis are "mahapurush," or god-realized. So anything they touch becomes prasad, which is how they justify the prices.
Paying money for the "prasad" or the food they give out helps you get closer to Golok too, apparently, as said by the seva collectors, who are the people who keep tabs on how much people owe.
The price tag of almost all the activities listed above increases whenever there is a special holiday. They also add new activities, such as paying for a davat during the holidays, too. During Mother's day, they had devotees pay to pour water on some padukas for a price. The didis were also selling the towels used to wipe the padukas for 5000 rupees. The didis also do birthday cake cutting ceremonies, where you have to pay a grand total of 1 lakh rupees ($2000) to cut a cake with the didis and take some photos with them.
Fun fact: they actually have an entire new app that has the names of all the devotees and their pictures that they use to track the amount of money that devotees owe.
3—How often did you see the 3 didis?
I saw the didis throughout the day kind of often. They pretty much spend most of their time with their assistants who cater to their needs such as bringing them food. The devotees watch the didis eat while they go on zoom where they say radhey radhey to people. Apparently they get mad if people skip or miss out on a session.
They also appear in the morning satsang to watch a lecture of Kripalu, which plays every morning and evening. Then do aarti before leaving. After that, they appear at the picnics in the morning and afternoon.
Every time they spend time with the devotees, there's always a chance at paying money, whether it's for the food that they give out, or items such as clothes and mugs that they give out.
4—What do they spend their time doing?
In the mornings after they wake up, at around 2:40 am to 3:45 am they basically spend their time on zoom talking to devotees and handing out food.
After that they appear in the satsang hall to watch a video of Kripalu giving a lecture before doing the daily prayer and aarti.
After that they go back to their rooms until around 6:30 am where Bhadi didi (Vishaka) sits in on the satsang.
After that they lead the devotees in some weird yoga thing for like 10 minutes before going to the morning picnic.
After that they sometimes go to the store where they get devotees to buy things such as shirts and cups from them.
After they head to their rooms for a bit before having lunch and then doing their gassa thing.
After that they go back to their rooms and I guess rest or do something else.
In the afternoon they come out for the birthday cake cutting ceremonies and then they go to the afternoon picnic, where they sell stuff there too, such as cups and shawls.
After that they have their dinner before coming out for the ball game with the devotees.
After dinner they usually sit in the satsang hall for around 15 to 30 minutes before leaving to their rooms for the night.
They don't really do much other than that.
5—Are kripalu’s grandsons there?
Kripalu's grandsons weren't there, but I do know that they (and the didis) request clothes and other things from devotees. They basically get devotees to buy large amounts of clothes and anything else they want. They make them take pictures of it before sending the pictures to them on Whatsapp. Then they'll pick which clothes they like and don't like from there.
I know this because my mom always goes on a huge clothes shopping spree before leaving for the ashrams.
Other than that, the grandsons and the brothers of the didis don't usually come to the ashrams unless it's for a special holiday, like guru poornima or Kripalu's birthday.
6—What is the main message about Kripalu these days?
The main message about Kripalu is pretty much the same as it's always been, that he's the ultimate jagadguru and that he's the personification of Radha and Krishna. They always play multiple lectures and videos of him a day and the didis always talk about him in front of the devotees.
7—What is your general impression of everything?
My general impression is that it's pretty much been the same since I was there a few years ago. Not much has changed from my experience in being at the past ashrams. There are definitely a lot of creepy vibes though, and you get the sense that the people there aren't truly happy being there.
During one of my past experiences at the ashram, I overheard one of the seva collectors telling my mom that she took at least one painkiller a day. I also overheard one of the other devotees mention how they barely get enough sleep.
8—What about photos?
They actually discourage people from taking pictures of the didis.
9—Any other news?
They got the government to officially rename the village of Mangarh, where Kripalu was born, into Kripalu Dham Mangarh for whatever reason. Speaking of mangarh, it apparently now costs 1 crore rupees to get your own room in Mangarh, which is around $160,000 US.
Also, there was a fever going around the ashram where people were getting sick and had to be quarantined in their rooms (probably COVID again).
Despite that however, basically no one in the ashram was wearing a mask, not even the didis themselves.
Tripling their Money Collection
A third person told me that the Three Greedy Didis do not only make money from the people visiting in the ashrams. They also broadcast nearly everything they do over Zoom and make those remote devotees pay too, like in the photo below, taken in the Austin, Texas ashram.
Also, they encourage people from around the world to pay to tune in every day for their talks and meals.
This youth told me: “This is not a good organization. It feels as if money is their main concern. They regularly harassed me to send them more and more money. If they consider their organization to be a real one why isn’t their focus on leading people to God?
"At the time, I didn't even realize that I was slowly going deeper and deeper in JKP.I finally woke up and realized what bad I am doing to myself by being associated with JKP. I got so close that I was giving them money whenever they asked. I was giving them money for so many things:
- 8000 rupees for what they said was Kripalu last bhajan
- 5000 rupees for cds in their shop
- 500 rupees a month for their their app
Now I know they saw me as a child who's parents will give him money whenever he asks. But that is their hard-earned money.
I was hypnotized. But then I finally woke up. I realized the harm that I'm doing to myself by being associated with JKP. I finally got out. They harassed me to try and get me back in. But I knew they were all frauds."
Here is a photo from the Austin, Texas JKP ashram where devotees are gathered for a zoom to watch the Three Greedy Didis eat. Everyone present in the room has to pay for the privilege of attending from around the world. (Shared for educational purposes.)
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