International Journal of Cultic Studies Vol. 4, 2013 71
India in a Mind’s Eye: Travels and Ruminations of an Ambivalent Pilgrim
By Steven J. Gelberg
Reviewed by Marcia R. Rudin
Richmond, CA: Spiraleye Press. 2012. No ISBN
number (paperback), $16.95 (hardcover,
$31.95). Available from Amazon Kindle, Barnes
&Noble, Apple itunes, and Kobo. 189 pages.
Shortly after Prison or Paradise? The New
Religious Cults was published in 1980, my co-
author, husband Rabbi James Rudin, and I were
guests on a late-night, live, radio talk show in
Manhattan. I think it was The Barry Farber
Show, but I could be wrong. On the program
with us with us was a brilliant and personable
young man named Subhananda, who was at that
time Director of Interreligious Affairs for the
International Society of Krishna Consciousness,
aka Hare Krishnas (ISKCON) and liaison to the
international academic community. His job that
night obviously was to refute our charges that
cults are harmful and that cult members are
brainwashed. Apparently in order to soften us
up, or perhaps just to be gracious, the devotee
appeared with his lovely, quiet, and submissive
wife, who dispensed to all of us a large amount
of ISKCON vegetarian food. The host of the
show thought Jim, Subhananda, and I were so
terrific he asked us to continue on the air for
another hour, at that time well past midnight, as
I recall. I struggled to keep awake for the
additional time, knowing I’d have to get up early
with my two young daughters the next morning.
Imagine my surprise when several years later
this young man, now using his birth name
Steven Gelberg, approached me at an ICSA
conference and reminded me of our long-ago
late-evening radio encounter. He had left
ISKCON.
Gelberg has written an extremely interesting
book based on journals he kept during a 6-week
trip to India in 1986, his last trip of several to the
homeland of Hinduism. At that time, he had
been a Hare Krishna devotee since 1970, just 4
years after its founding in the United States.
Although Gelberg didn’t leave the group until
the following year, his observations in this
memoir are already tinged with the “mind’s eye”
of a skeptic, albeit one laced with dry wit and
humor. By then he had been in the group long
enough to witness its growing problems and
contradictions, and to begin to question his own
journey.
The book is part travelogue and part memoir of
his pilgrimage in, as Gelberg terms it, “Spiritual
India” as opposed to modern India. As a
travelogue detailing that vast fascinating
country, Gelberg’s vivid descriptions reminded
me of Paul Theroux’s observations in his classic
first travel book written in 1975, The Great
Railway Bazaar. (When I followed Theroux’s
journey through Europe and Asia via train, I
vowed never again to leave the safety of the four
walls of my home.) Gelberg also describes
ISKCON temples and headquarters, especially
Vrindaban, and details ISKCON activities in
India. He talks about the strange position in
which Western devotees of Hinduism such as he
and his then-wife found themselves. Hindus in
India didn’t entirely accept them or ISKCON
and yet, at the same time, many Indians admired
the couple because they had renounced Western
materialism. He summarizes other trips to India
he had made by 1986, including visits with
prominent ISKCON leaders from throughout the
world, and his bedside presence at the death of
ISKCON founder Swami Prabhupada, an
especially vivid scene.
Those of us in the counter-cult movement, who
focus primarily on the harm done by these
groups to their members and outside loved ones
and families, and on the mind manipulation and
pressure that gets adherents to join and stay in,
often forget to factor in the power of the
individual personal spiritual quest in the process.
Gelberg’s own search for answers reminds the
reader of the potency of the quest, and of the
impact of mystical experiences.
I found especially interesting Gelberg’s detailed
encounters with and portraits of three near-
India in a Mind’s Eye: Travels and Ruminations of an Ambivalent Pilgrim
By Steven J. Gelberg
Reviewed by Marcia R. Rudin
Richmond, CA: Spiraleye Press. 2012. No ISBN
number (paperback), $16.95 (hardcover,
$31.95). Available from Amazon Kindle, Barnes
&Noble, Apple itunes, and Kobo. 189 pages.
Shortly after Prison or Paradise? The New
Religious Cults was published in 1980, my co-
author, husband Rabbi James Rudin, and I were
guests on a late-night, live, radio talk show in
Manhattan. I think it was The Barry Farber
Show, but I could be wrong. On the program
with us with us was a brilliant and personable
young man named Subhananda, who was at that
time Director of Interreligious Affairs for the
International Society of Krishna Consciousness,
aka Hare Krishnas (ISKCON) and liaison to the
international academic community. His job that
night obviously was to refute our charges that
cults are harmful and that cult members are
brainwashed. Apparently in order to soften us
up, or perhaps just to be gracious, the devotee
appeared with his lovely, quiet, and submissive
wife, who dispensed to all of us a large amount
of ISKCON vegetarian food. The host of the
show thought Jim, Subhananda, and I were so
terrific he asked us to continue on the air for
another hour, at that time well past midnight, as
I recall. I struggled to keep awake for the
additional time, knowing I’d have to get up early
with my two young daughters the next morning.
Imagine my surprise when several years later
this young man, now using his birth name
Steven Gelberg, approached me at an ICSA
conference and reminded me of our long-ago
late-evening radio encounter. He had left
ISKCON.
Gelberg has written an extremely interesting
book based on journals he kept during a 6-week
trip to India in 1986, his last trip of several to the
homeland of Hinduism. At that time, he had
been a Hare Krishna devotee since 1970, just 4
years after its founding in the United States.
Although Gelberg didn’t leave the group until
the following year, his observations in this
memoir are already tinged with the “mind’s eye”
of a skeptic, albeit one laced with dry wit and
humor. By then he had been in the group long
enough to witness its growing problems and
contradictions, and to begin to question his own
journey.
The book is part travelogue and part memoir of
his pilgrimage in, as Gelberg terms it, “Spiritual
India” as opposed to modern India. As a
travelogue detailing that vast fascinating
country, Gelberg’s vivid descriptions reminded
me of Paul Theroux’s observations in his classic
first travel book written in 1975, The Great
Railway Bazaar. (When I followed Theroux’s
journey through Europe and Asia via train, I
vowed never again to leave the safety of the four
walls of my home.) Gelberg also describes
ISKCON temples and headquarters, especially
Vrindaban, and details ISKCON activities in
India. He talks about the strange position in
which Western devotees of Hinduism such as he
and his then-wife found themselves. Hindus in
India didn’t entirely accept them or ISKCON
and yet, at the same time, many Indians admired
the couple because they had renounced Western
materialism. He summarizes other trips to India
he had made by 1986, including visits with
prominent ISKCON leaders from throughout the
world, and his bedside presence at the death of
ISKCON founder Swami Prabhupada, an
especially vivid scene.
Those of us in the counter-cult movement, who
focus primarily on the harm done by these
groups to their members and outside loved ones
and families, and on the mind manipulation and
pressure that gets adherents to join and stay in,
often forget to factor in the power of the
individual personal spiritual quest in the process.
Gelberg’s own search for answers reminds the
reader of the potency of the quest, and of the
impact of mystical experiences.
I found especially interesting Gelberg’s detailed
encounters with and portraits of three near-
