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A court in Cartagena has rejected the request of a man who asked to keep full custody of his underage son on the grounds that the child’s mother is a devotee of the Hare Krishna religion, which he considered to be harmful to the child.

 

The father, in a report he submitted to the court, provided videos in which the child can be seen practising with his mother the rites of the Hare Krishna movement, which was founded in 1966 by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, which is based on Hinduism and involves devotional chanting of mantras as a means of prayer.

 

He accused the Hare Krishna movement – officially known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness or ISKCON – of being “a sect that leads devotees to a rigidity in customs and sexual relations, with a ban on thinking, as it is the guru or spiritual master who meditates for them”.

 

However, the judge in the Murcia case did not agree with the man, stating that “it is not possible to know or know how it will affect the child in the future if he accompanies his mother in her practice of the rites of the religion she practices”.

 

He went on: “All children are influenced by the religious thinking of their parents, whatever religion they practise, and in this case, precisely because custody is shared, the child will be influenced by the two religions practised by the parents and may, in due course, consider whether to choose one of them or neither.”

 

“The religious condition of one of the parents cannot be sufficient cause to limit the rights and obligations of custody, unless it is an extreme religious practice, which would be imposed on the child and the irreparable harm that this would produce is accredited.”

 

In turn, the mother had also asked to have sole custody of the child. The court, in a decision now confirmed by the Audiencia, also rejected this request, and both parents will have shared custody of the boy, as they had up until the moment of the court case.

 

In addition, a psychologist has been appointed to act as a “parenting coordinator”, whose function will be to “promote communication between the parents through tools that help them to reduce the level of conflict, making it possible to reach agreements for the benefit of their child; and to supervise the psycho-emotional development of the child and his or her possible inclusion in certain religious or spiritual practices”.

 

The Hare Krishna movement gained popularity in the west after it was adopted by The Beatles, most notably guitarist George Harrison. It has since grown into a successful international religion with millions of followers, who are best known for their public kirtans, or chanting of the holy name of Krishna and dancing on city streets around the world.

 

Image 1: Archive

Image 2: Wikimedia commons