Devotees Complained : Monk Loses Position After Sex Allegations

An Indian monk accused of sexual misconduct by some of his former devotees has been ordered back to India by the religious organization he serves.

The action came last week after more than 40 residents living near the Jain Meditation Center on Ocean Boulevard held an emotional meeting to discuss the allegations against the center’s former director, Yogeesh Muni. In addition, some said they were concerned about possible zoning violations at the center, located in a four-bedroom house overlooking the ocean in the city’s historic Bluff Park area.

“We are concerned about protecting the integrity of the neighborhood,” said Luanne Pryor, who convened the meeting as president of Beach Area Concerned Citizens, a homeowners’ group.

Also present was Mahendra S. Jain, lay president of the Los Angeles chapter of the International Mahaviv Jain Mission, which the monk represented. “If the people don’t like him (Muni),” Jain said, “he cannot stay. We have put him out (of the meditation center).” Muni, 32, maintains that he did nothing wrong.

The allegations were first publicized in a Sept. 1 Los Angeles Times story in which an unidentified former devotee said she had been impregnated by the monk through the practice of Tantric yoga, an ancient form of yoga that often involves sexual intercourse without male ejaculation. Although the devotee filed a complaint with the Long Beach Police Department, investigators eventually determined that no crime had been committed.

Other former devotees also said they had been the objects of unwanted sexual advances by the monk.

While admitting that he had engaged in Tantra--which is not a tenet of Jainism--Muni later denied that it had involved intercourse. He described the experience as spiritual rather than sexual. The alleged sexual advances, he said, had been simple attempts at showing affection that had been misunderstood.

Monks of Jainism--an ancient Indian religion whose adherents sometimes pursue nonviolence to the point of wearing masks to avoid inhaling microscopic organisms and carrying brooms to sweep unwary insects from their paths--traditionally take vows of celibacy.

Barbara Ohm, 45, a spiritual counselor, said she moved out of the center after experiencing what she described as several aggressive advances by the monk. Because followers put their trust in him as they would a priest, she said, devotees were vulnerable. And because they were uncertain regarding the ways of gurus, she said, the devotees were even more vulnerable. “Some people’s consciousness about gurus is that they’re gods,” she said.

At last week’s meeting, which Muni did not attend, Long Beach Police Lt. Mike Kunst reported that in addition to the complaint from the former devotee who said she was pregnant, the department had received a complaint from a man alleging that Muni defrauded a mentally incompetent female follower of $200. The monk has denied the charge. Kunst said the matter was still under investigation.

Yet several people at the meeting defended the Jain center’s residents and visitors as good neighbors.

“The people I’ve met there have been high-quality, educated people,” Jack Rabin said. “They’re the best neighbors I’ve had since 1973.”

Said Karin Obannan, a former resident yoga teacher who moved out of the center after receiving several complaints from students regarding unwanted sexual advances by the monk: “It is not a cult. It is a religion like any other religion. Obviously there has been a man there who did not represent his religion.”

Zoning Investigation

Others, however, said they were concerned that the Jains may be violating local zoning ordinances by using the Ocean Boulevard house for organized religious purposes in a neighborhood zoned for family residential use.

“The undercurrent is protection of the area,” Pryor said.

Dennis Eschen, the city’s zoning administrator, said he had referred for investigation two complaints regarding possible illegal use of the house. Under current zoning, he said, a single- or two-family residence cannot be used for institutional or commercial purposes such as providing religious services or instruction. Pryor said that her group plans to meet again tonight to develop a plan to distribute information about local zoning ordinances throughout the neighborhood.

Life at the meditation center, meanwhile, is temporarily on hold. Meditation and yoga classes, which used to be held regularly, have been canceled indefinitely. And earlier this week Muni was staying with friends in Burbank before departing for India. He was viewing his fall from favor with philosophical detachment.

“I love everybody,” he said in a telephone interview. “Even the people who are trying to hurt me. I think they are really my friends; if they (hadn’t said) anything, I (couldn’t have checked) my weaknesses.”

Among Jains, however, the monk’s perceived weaknesses were being viewed with somewhat less forgiveness. “He will not return,” Mahendra S. Jain promised. “He will not be allowed to live in this house anymore. We are very hurt by this.”