Science of Identity Foundation

Last updated
Science of Identity Foundation
AbbreviationSIF
FounderChris Butler
Founded at Hawaii, United States
Type Religious organization; 501(c)3 organization
99-0177647
Purpose Educational, Philanthropic, Religious studies, Spirituality
Headquarters Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Region served
Worldwide
Services Yoga classes
Website scienceofidentity.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Formerly called
Hari Nama Society
Holy Name Society

The Science of Identity Foundation (SIF) is a new religious movement that professes to combine some teachings of yoga with aspects of Gaudiya Vaishnava theology. It was founded by Chris Butler in the 1970s, and is based out of Hawaii, United States. Its condemnation of homosexuality and hostility toward Islam have been heavily criticised.

Contents

History

Chris Butler, son of a communist anti-war activist, had entered the 1960s counterculture while enrolled at the University of Hawaiʻi. [1] [2] Soon, he joined the burgeoning Hare-Krishna movement as a guru , taking the name Sai Young, and amassed a group of ISKCON disciples. [1] [3]

However, after being publicly denounced by Swami Prabhupada, the leading exponent of the movement in U.S.A, Butler initiated under Prabhupada himself, joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and received the name Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa. [4] [2] [5] Within a few years, however, their relationship had soured as Butler deviated from ISKCON's ways, choosing to marry and allowing his disciples to keep their heads unshaved. [4] [2] After the death of Prabhupada in 1977, Butler broke away from ISKCON and founded SIF, then known as the Hari Nama (lit. Holy Name) Society. [6] Simultaneously, he began to deemphasize ISKCON's rigid adherence to Vaishnava texts and promoted a range of eclectic views. [1] [4]

In 1976, SIF's disciples launched a new political party — called the Independents for Godly Government — presenting themselves as a "multifaith coalition of conservative-minded reformers", and ran for the House of Representatives and Mayoral elections; the candidates did not disclose their links with SIF and explicitly claimed to have no affiliation with any religious organization including the Hare Krishna faith. [1] The party was funded by a variety of businesses, including two local newspapers and a health-food store chain, run by the disciples themselves. [7]

In the 1980s, he ran a late-night television show called "Chris Butler Speaks" on Channel 13. [8] Since the 90s, Butler has kept a low profile, rarely speaking in public; in 2017, The New Yorker reported that Butler presents himself less as a Hare Krishna dissident and more as a member of a worldwide Vaishnava movement. [1] Butler's wife Wai Lana has received acclaim for popularizing yoga through the Wai Lana Yoga show; in 2016, she was conferred with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India. [9]

Theology

The organization combines the teaching of yoga with aspects of Gaudiya Vaishnava theology. [10] Followers must practice vegetarianism and are not allowed to gamble, engage in any sexual contact outside marriage, or consume caffeine or intoxicants.

Criticism

Butler's teachings included condemnation of homosexuality, [1] [4] hostility towards Islam, and skepticism of science. [11]

The New Yorker notes that Butler's teachings from the 80s assert that engaging in bisexual relations would lead to pedophilia and bestiality. [1] Multiple ex-members of SIF have described it as a "cult"; Butler was "akin to a God" and not willing to be questioned. [4] [11] [12] They note Butler to have regularly engaged in mocking his devotees, publicly; it was said to be "a form of Krishna’s mercy". [2]

Response

Butler denies these allegations; [1] [4] he had threatened to sue the Honolulu Star-Advertiser when it planned to publish accounts of ex-followers in 2019. [13]

Tulsi Gabbard

SIF received renewed media coverage around 2020 when some columnists found that Tulsi Gabbard, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election was associated with the SIF during her childhood, and even mentioned Butler as her spiritual guide in her school years. [1] [11] Her father, Mike Gabbard, a Hawaii State Senator, has also been associated with SIF and well-known for his opposition to same-sex marriage, viewing spirituality as a weapon against sexual practices SIF perceives as "deviant." [1] [10] [14] [15] His wife, Carol Gabbard, was the treasurer of the SIF. [10]

Tulsi Gabbard has since clarified that she considered Mr. Butler "essentially like a Vaishnava Hindu pastor" during her school years [16] [17] As a teenager, Gabbard moved away from SIF and "fully embraced Hinduism", and "follows the Vaishnava branch that believes in the Supreme Lord". [18] [19] Gabbard identifies herself as Vaishnava Hindu, [20] [21] and often participates in Hindu festivals such as Diwali with Hindu-Americans [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada</span> Indian spiritual teacher (1896–1977)

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was a spiritual, philosophical, and religious teacher from India who spread the Hare Krishna mantra and the teachings of "Krishna consciousness" to the world. Born as Abhay Charan De and later legally named Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami, he is often referred to as "Bhaktivedanta Swami", "Srila Prabhupada", or simply "Prabhupada".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Society for Krishna Consciousness</span> Religious organisation

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly referred to as the Hare Krishna movement, Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu religious organization. It was founded by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. on July 13, 1966, in New York City. ISKCON's main headquarters is in Mayapur, West Bengal, India and it claims approximately 1 million members globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaudiya Vaishnavism</span> Hindu religious movement

Gaudiya Vaishnavism, also known as Chaitanya Vaishnavism, is a Vaishnava Hindu religious movement inspired by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) in India. "Gaudiya" refers to the Gaura or Gauḍa region of Bengal, with Vaishnavism meaning "the worship of Vishnu". Specifically, it is part of Krishnaism—Krishna-centric Vaishnavite traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satsvarupa dasa Goswami</span> American poet and disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami (born 1939)

Satsvarupa das Goswami is a senior disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), better known in the West as the Hare Krishna movement. Serving as a writer, poet, and artist, Satsvarupa dasa Goswami is the author of Bhaktivedanta Swami's authorized biography, Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta. After Prabhupada's death, Satsvarupa dasa Goswami was one of the eleven disciples selected to initiate future disciples. Satsvarupa dasa Goswami is one of the first few Westerners ordained by Bhaktivedanta Swami in September 1966. He is a Vaishnava writer, poet, and lecturer, who published over a hundred books including poems, memoirs, essays, novels, and studies based on the Vaishnava scriptures.

Ravindra Svarupa Dasa is a religious studies scholar and a Hare Krishna religious leader. He was initiated by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1971. He has been a member of ISKCON's Governing Body Commission since 1987, Chairman of that Commission's North American GBC Continental Committee, is the president of ISKCON of Philadelphia, and an ISKCON Guru. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University and a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. He has written extensively on Vaishnava philosophy and used his education to further the discourse of Gaudiya Vaishnava Theology within the context of ISKCON. He is the author of Encounter with the Lord of the Universe: Collected Essays 1978-1983. He also is featured on Shelter's Attaining the Supreme, where he gives a lecture on a hidden track.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mayapur</span> Neighborhood in Nadia, West Bengal, India

Mayapur is a neighbourhood of Bamanpukur, in the Nabadwip CD block in the Krishnanagar Sadar subdivision of the Nadia district, West Bengal, India. It's situated at the confluence of the Jalangi River and the Bhagirathi, a tributary of the Ganges. The area is considered spiritually significant by followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhakti Charu Swami</span> Indian ISKCON spiritual leader (1945–2020)

Bhakti Charu Swami was an Indian spiritual leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). He was also a disciple of ISKCON's founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaudiya Math</span> Hindu organisation

The Gaudiya Math is a Gaudiya Vaishnava matha formed on 6 September 1920, about 30 months after Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati took sannyasa, the renounced order of life. On 7 March 1918, the same day he took sannyasa, he established the Sri Chaitanya Math in Mayapura in West Bengal, later recognised as the parent body of all the Gaudiya Math branches. Its purpose was to spread Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the philosophy of the medieval Vaisnava saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, through preaching and publishing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirtanananda Swami</span> American Hindu guru and convicted criminal (1937–2011)

Kirtanananda Swami, also known as Swami Bhaktipada, was a Gaudiya Vaishnava guru, the co-founder of New Vrindaban, a Hare Krishna community in Marshall County, West Virginia, where he served as spiritual leader from 1968 until 1994, and a convicted criminal.

The Kali-Santarana Upanishad, also called Kalisantaraṇopaniṣad, is a Sanskrit text. It is a minor Upanishad of Hinduism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jayatirtha Dasa</span> Guru of ISKCON

Jayatirtha Das, formerly Jayatirtha Goswami, was one of the leading disciples of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and a guru within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Born James Edward Immel and also known as Tirthapada, Bhakti Vijaya Tirtha and Vijaya Acharya, Jayatirtha was appointed a life trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust by his guru, Prabhupada, who also placed him in the managerial post of the fledgling Spiritual Sky company. Under Jayatirtha's able management the company became a multimillion-dollar concern and the Wall Street Journal covered the company's success with a front-page article.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tulsi Gabbard</span> American politician and Army reserve officer (born 1981)

Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician and military officer serving as Lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve since 2021, having previously served in Hawaii Army National Guard from 2003 to 2020. In November 2024, President-elect Trump selected Gabbard for the position of Director of national intelligence in his second term, starting January 2025. A former Congresswoman, Gabbard served as U.S. Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. She was the first Samoan-American member of Congress. She was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries. She left the Democratic Party in 2022 to become an independent. In 2024, she joined the Republican Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ISKCON guru system</span>

An ISKCON guru is a person who is permitted to initiate disciples into the International Society for Krishna Consciousness system. The guru system has undergone several changes and reform since its beginnings in the 1960s. Upanayana as a traditional "sacred thread ceremony" of the Gayatri Mantra, commonly known Hindu Samskara, is complemented by Pancaratric mantras of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya and follows the principal initial nama initiation ceremony, referred to respectively as brahmana diksa and Hari nama diksa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satyanarayana Dasa</span>

Dr. Satyanarayana Dasa is an Indian Gaudiya Vaisnava scholar and practitioner. Dasa is a polymath, holding a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Agra University, a degree in Indian law from Agra University, a Bachelors of Technology in Mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and a Masters of Technology in Industrial Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. Currently based in India at the Jiva Institute, which he founded, Dasa has published numerous books and original papers in the field of Gaudiya Vaisnavism including translations and commentaries on the Sat Sandarbhas. His honors include an award from the President of India in 2012. Dasa has been called a leading living practitioner-scholar of Jīva Gosvāmin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kailasa Candra Dasa</span> American astrologer

Kailasa Candra Dasa, also known as J. K. Goodwin, is an American Gaudiya Vaishnava teacher, sidereal astrologer and author with a small number of students. In 1972, he joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Madison, Wisconsin. After the passing of ISKCON founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, he opposed ISKCON's "zonal acharyas", beginning in 1978 and 1979. He is co-founder of the Vaishnava Foundation, a nonprofit organization incorporated under the name Metamorphosis League for Monastic Studies. He works out of the United States. He continues to oppose what he sees as the deviations that emerged within ISKCON after the demise of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhakti Vijnana Goswami</span> Uzbek-born religious official (born 1956)

Bhakti Vijnana Goswami is a Gaudiya Vaishnava guru and a leader for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar</span> Indian guru

Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar was an Indian guru, writer, sannyasi and spiritual leader in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, founder-president-acharya of the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ISKCON Revival Movement</span> Gaudiya Vaishnavite movement

The ISKCON Revival Movement (IRM) was formed as a pressure group in 2000 to revive and reform ISKCON on the basis of the directives for succession given by Srila Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON. IRM opposes both the zonal guru system and its replacement multiple-guru system as unauthorized innovations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hridayananda das Goswami</span> American Hare Krishna leader

Hridayananda das(a) Goswami is an American Vaishnava leader and preacher, one of the leading spiritual leaders of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and one of the most distinguished disciples and close friend of ISKCON founder Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who appointed him as preacher. H.D. Goswami is a guru and member of the ISKCON Governing Body Commission since 1974.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sanneh, Kelefa (October 30, 2017). "What Does Tulsi Gabbard Believe?". New Yorker. Archived from the original on June 7, 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Howley, Kerry (2019-06-11). "Tulsi Gabbard Had a Very Strange Childhood". New York . Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  3. ↑ Wright, Walter (August 22, 1977). "Rebel against power trips. Chris Butler, maverick --with 1,000 followers. Hawaii's other Krishnas". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. p. 1. Retrieved November 17, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Han, Yoonji. "Tulsi Gabbard's ties to the Science of Identity Foundation, a controversial religious sect that some call an abusive 'cult'". Insider. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  5. ↑ McMaster University; Lagace, Marc Lodge Andrew (May 2024). ""Mother of Yoga": Zhang Huilan, Chris Butler, and the Popularization of Yoga in the People's Republic of China". Journal of Yoga Studies. 5: 39–67. doi: 10.34000/JoYS.2024.V5.002 .
  6. ↑ Jones, Constance A.; Ryan, James D. (2007). "Siddhaswarupananda, Jagad Guru". Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Encyclopedia of World Religions. J. Gordon Melton, Series Editor. New York: Facts On File. pp. 411–412. ISBN   978-0-8160-5458-9. [Butler] remained with ISKCON until after Prabhupada died in 1977. [...] He founded the Science of Identity Foundation as a vehicle to facilitate his teachings. [...] The Science of Identity Foundation (originally the Hari Nama or Holy Name Society) is located in Honolulu, Hawaii.
  7. ↑ "How the American Sangh built up Tulsi Gabbard". caravanmagazine.in. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
  8. ↑ Christensen, John (November 23, 1982). "Chris Butler: About this guru business". Honolulu Star-Bulletin . p. B-1.
  9. ↑ Sarbacker, Stuart Ray (2021). Tracing the Path of Yoga: The History and Philosophy of Indian Mind-Body Discipline. State University of New York Press. ISBN   9781438481210.
  10. 1 2 3 Bolante, Ronna (2004-08-01). "Who is Mike Gabbard?". Honolulu Magazine. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
  11. 1 2 3 Hurley, Bevan (2022-10-16). "Tulsi Gabbard's ties to secretive cult may explain her perplexing political journey". The Independent. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  12. ↑ "Whose side is Tulsi Gabbard on? | Oliver Wiseman". The Critic Magazine. 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
  13. ↑ Cocke, Sophie (2019-01-27). "Chris Butler and Science of Identity Foundation criticize media, decline interviews". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
  14. ↑ Issenberg, Sasha (2021). The Engagement: America's Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage. Knopf Doubleday. pp. 112–114. ISBN   9781984898517.
  15. ↑ Columnist, Lance CollinsKa Leo Staff (2002-04-04). "Politics hide real issues". Ka Leo O Hawaii. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
  16. ↑ Bowles, Nellie (August 2, 2019). "Tulsi Gabbard Thinks We're Doomed". The New York Times . Retrieved December 9, 2019. She was raised in part on the teachings of the guru Mr. Butler....'he's essentially like a Vaishnava Hindu pastor'
  17. ↑ McCarthy, Tom (March 19, 2019). "Who is Tulsi Gabbard? The progressive 2020 hopeful praised by Bannon and the right". TheGuardian.com . Archived from the original on May 20, 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  18. ↑ Sacirbey, Omar (November 2, 2012). "Hawaii Democrat poised to be elected first Hindu in Congress". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on May 8, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2019. Gabbard, whose first name refers to a tree sacred to Hindus, fully embraced Hinduism as a teenager, and follows the Vaishnava branch that believes in the Supreme Lord Vishnu, and his 10 primary incarnations. Her primary scripture is the centuries-old Bhagavad Gita, whose themes include selfless action, spirituality, war, and serving God and humanity.
  19. ↑ Kumar, Arvind (November 15, 2012). "The first Hindu in US Congress". Indian Weekender. Archived from the original on June 19, 2020. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  20. ↑ Bowles, Nellie (August 2, 2019). "Tulsi Gabbard Thinks We're Doomed". The New York Times . p. A1. Retrieved September 21, 2019. Ms. Gabbard … would be the first female president, the first American Samoan, the first from Hawaii, the first surfer, the first vegan.
  21. ↑ "US commemorates the inaugural International Yoga Day". economictimes. June 19, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard Launches Campaign For Diwali Stamp In US". July 1, 2016. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.