In Memory of Ananda McClure
By Nori Muster (revised 01-04-24)

The full interview is now posted at this site: click here.

Nearly eighteen years have passed since Ananda took his own life May 18, 2006. It was a loss for everyone who knew him. People from his generation still grieve and miss him.

In 1997 he answered a list of interview questions for me and allowed me to record it. At first I wanted to collect interviews from a number of his cohort and extract statistics for research. However, he was the only one who would go on tape.

What Amanda went through shows the potential for coercive organizations to harm children and ruin their lives.

Ananda is remembered as a kind and strong survivor of the gurukula. The things he went through or witnessed would be difficult for anybody.

Ananda was born in 1968, in Maui, to a devotee mom. He attended Dallas gurukula from 1973 - 1975; L.A. gurukula from 1975 - 1977; and Vrindavana, India gurukula 1977 - 1982. He was among the most severely abused, made to stay in India for five years without being able to go home or see his mother.

After India, Ananda was sent to several temples, landing in Denver, where he witnessed a beating. As a result, he feared for his safety and went to the police to have himself removed from the organization. He lived in foster care until tenth grade, then a boys' home until the end of high school (approximately 1986), then he joined the Army in December 1988.

Ananda leaves behind a son and daughter, as well as a brother and sister.





In 2009 film student Erica Bardin made a video about Ananda, while at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Click here to watch the video.

Ananda's War





Click here for more ISKCON gurukula information.
Click here for an index of all child abuse information available through this site.

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