Prakashanand Saraswati

Prakashanand Saraswati, also known as Swamiji, (born 15 January 1929; disappeared 7 March 2011) is a Hindu monk, guru, convicted child molester, and internationally wanted fugitive from Ayodhya, India. Previously, he founded the Hindu religious organisation the International Society of Divine Love and the Radha Madhav Dham temple in the United States. In 2011, a jury found Swami Prakashanand Saraswati guilty on 20 counts of indecency with a child. He remains a fugitive and appeared on the Fox TV show America's Most Wanted.

History Swami Prakashanand Saraswati was born in a Brahmin family in 1929 In 1952, he was offered to become the Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath, but he declined.

He spent the next 20 years

He founded the International Society of Divine Love in India in 1975.

In 1999 he wrote The True History and the Religion of India: A Concise Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduis, a "monumental dissertation" on the history of Indian civilization and religion. The encyclopaedia won an award at the World Religious Parliament in New Delhi in 1999.

A simplified and abridged version of the book for college students, entitled Amazing Facts about Hinduism, was released at the Global Dharma Conference in 2003. in India for his efforts in "reestablishing authentic Hinduism".

His writings in the scientific and spiritual fields have been acclaimed by well known scientists, social and religious leaders including P. S. Veeraraghavan, Tarun Vijay, Om Prakash Pande, E. C. George Sudarshan, Jayendra Saraswathi and Swaroopanand Saraswati.

Research with Maxwell Cade Saraswati's state of "conscious ecstasy", and the effects of his Divine Love Meditation, was studied by Maxwell Cade in the 1970s. Cade, a leading physicist of London, had been doing psycho-biological research during the 1970s on meditation and the altered states of the consciousness of the mind. Cade co-developed the "Mind Mirror", a portable EEG machine that could monitor the alpha, beta, delta and theta rhythms from each brain hemisphere simultaneously. Furthermore, he measured brainwave patterns, only previously measured in a few rare individuals, that Cade characterizes as the "State beyond the Awakened Mind". On one occasion, Cade says that Saraswati "produced the most beautiful fifth-state pattern on the Mind Mirror for more than an hour while engaging in an intense debate with Professor John Hasted, a noted physicist". The Awakened Mind. and Peake (2013). told Hays County, Texas police that they had been abused at the ashram when they were as young as 12 by Saraswati, who was then arrested on 25 April 2008.

A 12-person jury declared Saraswati guilty of 20 counts of child molestation, after 50 minutes deliberation, on Friday 4 March 2011. After being convicted, he was released on a $10 million bond provided by TV infomercial entrepreneur Peter Spiegel.

Prosecutors were criticized for losing evidence required for his defense. The evidence included missing video of the testimony of one of the accusers, damaged DVD backup discs and computers. Saraswati's lawyers said the video tape was important because “There’s no physical evidence of any kind”

Radha Madhav Dham has distanced itself from Saraswati. One month after the trial, then "Barsana Dham" leaders "changed the organization's name and erased the once-omnipresent images and mentions of the former guru from the premises."

In 2012, on the one year anniversary of the trial, Vrinda Devi, Radha Madhav Dham spokeswoman, stated that "What we've been trying to do since then is moving forward." The jury sentenced him in absentia to 280 years and a US$200,000 fine. At the penalty hearing, Spiegel said he hadn't understood the terms of the original bond agreement. On 4 November 2011, Texas Watchdog reported that he had been required to pay only $200,000 of the $10 million bond, plus the previously disclosed $1 million.

As of December 2025, Interpol has issued a red notice for Saraswati's extradition.