Editing Ma Jaya (section)

== Criticism ==
Ma Jaya faced accusations of emotional and physical assaults, substance abuse, and the promotion of [[cult]]-like practices. The Kashi Church Foundation has denied these allegations.

American spiritual teacher [[Ram Dass]] wrote a 1976 ''[[Yoga Journal]]'' article entitled "Egg on My Beard" in which he which criticized Ma Jaya's teaching style as "disquieting" and referred to her as "Ms. Big" and an embodiment of the Hindu goddess [[Kali]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD_cijEkJXM&t=98s&ab_channel=BabaRamDass | title=Ram Dass on the Pull to God (1975) | website=[[YouTube]] }}</ref> Dass asserted that Jaya asked him and other followers to purchase costly gold bracelets and semiprecious gemstones for her personal use in [[Grounding (metaphysics)|grounding]] practices during and after meditation. He went on to narrate an alleged incident in which Jaya, accompanied by a group of her followers, climbed an eighteen-story apartment building in [[New York City]] to gain access to his residence without his permission.

[[Rick Alan Ross]], a self-styled cult specialist, referred to Ma Jaya as a "charismatic leader of a potentially destructive cult."{{cn|date=September 2025}}

[[Paul R. Martin]], clinical psychologist and founder of [[Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center]], described Kashi Ashram as "having all the markings of a cult."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Hustead|first=Jayne|date=15 June 2002|title=Psychologist: Kashi has all the makings of a cult|work=Palm Beach Post}}</ref>

A 1993 ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'' magazine article entitled "It's not just Waco—Cults rule by paranoia flourish under America" criticized Kashi Ashram.<ref name="wwrn 134572">{{Cite web|url=https://wwrn.org/articles/13457/|title = Ex-members rip enclave &#124; WWRN - World-wide Religious News}}</ref>

In 2013, Ma Jaya's youngest daughter sued the Kashi Church Foundation in Miami court, claiming that in 1981 she was sexually assaulted by a church member after being married to him against her will. Jaya's daughter claimed that on December 10, 1981, she was married to 25-year-old Kevin Brannon so that she could be impregnated to allegedly provide more church members for Ma Jaya. The Kashi Ashram and Brannon deny that the sexual assault ever happened.

According to follower Lyn Deadmore in her journal in 1981, Ma Jaya is said to have ordered marriages between devotees who "barely knew each other," although most seemed to consent. A spokesperson for Kashi Ashram denies that these arranged marriages occurred.

1989 and 2001 court filings alleged that Jaya manipulated followers into giving her custody of their children.

In 2025, former winner of the reality show Survivor Parvati Shallow detailed her experiences growing up at Kashi Ashram in her book titled "Nice Girls Don't Win." Shallow and her family were affiliated with Kashi Ashram until breaking ties with the group when she was nine years old. During her affiliation, Shallow recalls FBI agents collecting one of her friends and reuniting her with her birth parents after Ma Jaya allegedly gained custody of the child under false pretenses and refused to return her to her birth parents. She also detailed her parents' experience initially leaving the group when she was two months old, then returning shortly after. Ma Jaya allegedly punished her parents for leaving by forcing her father to live separately from her and her mother for approximately six months upon their return.