The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Organization is in crisis. On Dec 10, 2019 Julie Salter, former personal assistant of the organization's founder Swami Vishnu-devananda (SVD), has shared a testimony of sexual abuse with the community. She writes: "Swami Vishnu-devananda began to use/abuse me sexually, for a period of over 3 years"

https://www.facebook.com/julie.salter.777/posts/10159225076324358

Since then we have learned through community effort and a journalist investigation:

* that the organization was aware of such testimony since approx. 2007 and chose to threaten Julie Salter with legal action
* two other women came forward sharing their testimony of abuse by SVD
* a journalist has shared testimonies accusing a current member of the Executive Board, the organization's leadership committee, of workplace sexual harassment and assault
* the organization has appointed through their attorneys a lawyer to run an investigation, however, the lawyer refused to comment further making this an intransparent and potentially biased undertaking

https://gen.medium.com/how-a-metoo-facebook-post-toppled-a-yoga-icon-c25577185e40

We are concerned that the organization is not taking adequate measures to investigate the abuse within its own walls, nor to ensure the safety of current staff and students. The lawyer running the "investigation" on the organization's behalf confirmed that she will work on testimonies concerning SVD only (who died in 1993) and not the ones against a current director.

This is unacceptable. We need clarity and a clear statement from the organization on past and present abuse. 

Krishna Das, as a popular figure in the yoga & bhakti community and an inspiration to many of us, we urge you: hold the organization accountable, stand with survivors, cancel your program!