'Nitya Ananda' : Sex, Lies and Videotape
by M R Venkatesh for DHNS
Chennai, Mar 4: The ‘sex to super-consciousness’ idea that Osho Rajneesh sought to popularise and subtly legitimize since the early 1970s’ first from his Pune ‘ashram’, seems to be an unbundling train on its tracks.
The latest ‘sex scandal’ involving a Tamil Nadu born self-styled Godman, Rajasekharan, a handsome youth with a winsome smile who turned into Swami Paramahams Nityananda, and a Tamil film-star Ranjitha, is not uncommon here, where sex and spirituality have had a dubious run.
Though born in Thiruvannamalai, known for its shrine of Arunachala Shiva and the world-renowned centre of spiritualism, founded by Ramana Maharshi, whose spiritual journey had marked him out in the true Indian tradition of self-enquiry, Nityananda, analysts say, was the manifest of a libertine side of a self-made ‘Guru’, whose out-of-the box, syrupy spirituality won him a large following.
Nityananda’s captivating smile and attractive demeanor in his ochre robes, is easily marketable in an age when an upwardly mobile Indian middle class looks to refreshing interpretations of India’s spiritual tradition, laced with catchy tips for self-improvement, analysts add. A large number of women looked up to him as an “icon of positive energy”.
He has a large fan-following in the US too, the Tamil diaspora in particular. Nityananda tried to build a ‘grand ashram’ at his native Tiruvannamalai, but could not as the Supreme Court had banned construction of any permanent structure along the ‘Giri valam’ (path-way around the sacred mountain), a source there said. But the Godman’s large fan following ensured a bigger ‘Ashram’ in Bangalore, where the sting operation of his sexual intimacies probably took place, the source added.
Tamil Nadu has witnessed a couple of big spiritual anti-climaxes in the recent past. Premkumar, a Sri Lankan Tamil who styled himself as Swami Premananda and set up an ‘Ashram’ in Tiruchirappalli, managed to lure many girls, some of them minor, into his ‘free consciousness’ style of thinking. The ‘Ashram’ had allegedly degenerated into unqualified hedonism and drug-running amid a foreign currency racket.
After several girls fled the ‘Ashram’ leveling rape charges against Premananda, he was convicted in 1997 of raping girls inside the ‘Ashram’ and being involved in a murder and is now serving a double life term.
It was nitya ananda at swami’s ashram
The video flicks showing a saffron-clad man with flowing, dark manes spread-eagled on a bed canoodling with women is bad karma for the swamiji alleged to be the 33-year-old Paramahansa Nityananda.
In his sprawling 25-acre ashram, 35 kilometres south-west of Bangalore in Kalluguppahalli in Bidadi taluk of Ramanagara district, off Mysore Road, Nityananda's press coordinator Nitya Sachidananda does not see hedonism and spirituality militate against each other. At the Nityananda Dhyanapeetam, Indian ascetism has been clearly, cleverly and conveniently redefined.
“The Swamiji has permitted his disciples at Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam to pursue both hedonism and spiritualism because he believes they should live intensely,” the 45-year-old Sachidananda, who claims to have lived and worked as a scientist in the United States, told Deccan Herald.
Sachidananda, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, met Nityananda in Chicago in 2003 when the self-proclaimed swamiji established his order at the age of 26. He was instantly taken in by what he described as Nityananda’s “quantum spirituality”, a concept which Sachidananda thinks he understood and grasped well, but could not shed much light on. The “truth” and “enlightenment” Sachidananda experienced were passed on to him by Nityananda whose educational attainments are as obscure as his origins in Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu.
Some of Nityananda’s disciples, attired in white kurta and dhoti, with saffron “angavastram” wrapped around their necks, milled around the ashram’s dusty, rocky and ragged terrain, fear and confusion writ large on their faces.
One of these disciples, who was clearly uncomfortable in disclosing his identity, said such was the power of Nityananda’s teachings over him that he had not just discovered “truth” but had even felt and experienced it. “Truth is something that cannot be defined. I cannot express it in words,” the disciple said fumbling for the right words, searching for the right expression.
There were scores of women, some of them attired in cream sarees with golden borders, identical to the one a woman is draped in one of the videos.
The very sight of newsmen entering the main complex of the ashram where the living quarters, an apology for a “charitable dispensary”, the library, the Nityananda Gurukula and some other half-constructed buildings are located, made them scamper inside two rooms.
It appeared they were under express instructions not to venture out in the open.
Only the young men hung out in groups.
Some clutched their laptops to their chests, others worked on their machines, or perhaps made a show of it, and yet others whispered into their cell phones. Like their spiritual guru, most of the young men sported long hair, some let the rebounded hair down and others had their locks tied in ponytails.
One disciple, Deepak, who had close cropped hair, claimed he was 21-years-old and had a law degree from Bangalore University. But Deepak could not explain how he finished a five-year degree course in three. All he did say was he was an “ashramite” before he was asked to shut up.
Like Deepak there are others, including young women from affluent families, who have given up education and quit well-paid jobs to find peace at Nityananda Dhyanapeetam where local village folks’ entry is barred.
Others have left their wives and children behind. They have believed — hook, line and sinker — every word Nityananda wanted them to believe. Ramanagara deputy superintendent of police D Devaraj told Deccan Herald that Nityananda told his flock that the banyan tree in the asharam was 600 years old. “And they believe it,” the officer said.
In a Buddha-like act, it is that banyan tree under which Nityananda sits to meditate and “awakens” his minions for whom initiation to the order follows three simple steps: “listen” to the Paramahansa Nityananda, hear his “awakening talks everyday” and wear ‘mala’ “energised by the Master”. They also pray and worship the Shiva phallus.
Disciples frustrated
While fear of the unknown stalks the disciples, especially because their beloved swamiji was absent since he was at the Kumbh mela, as Sachidananda claimed, some visitors from Chennai felt frustrated with the fuss over the sex videos allegedly featuring Nityananda.
“Indian history is replete with instances of many holymen having had to go through the same process,” said a defensive N Balasubramanian, who first met Nityananda in Chicago and was attracted by his discourses.
Devotees ransack ashram in TN
Enraged devotees of Swami Paramahansa Nityananda, caught on tape making love to a Tamil film actress on Wednesday, broke loose in different parts of Tamil Nadu ransacking his ashram, reports DHNS from Chennai.
Earlier News
Bangalore : Swami Nithyananda Lands in Sex Scandal, Goes Missing
Bangalore, Mar 3 (IANS): Within hours of news channels telecasting video footage of a self-styled godman Paramhamsa Nityananda allegedly indulging in sexual acts with two women, enraged mobs ransacked his ashrams in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
A mob of infuriated men attacked the sprawling 29-acre ashram in Bidadi in Karnataka, smashing the 32-year-old godman's portraits, banners, billboards and the reception office. Police deployed additional forces to protect the devotees, including about 100 foreigners staying within the complex.
"We have deployed two platoons of the state reserve police numbering about 100 men to guard the Nityananda Mission and protect the devotees, as the people from the town wanted to lay a siege," Ramanagara district police superintendent S.B. Bhisanhalli told IANS.
Bidadi is about 30 km from Bangalore.
The sensational video footage showed the godman, who originally hails from neighbouring Tamil Nadu, fondling and kissing the women and in a compromising position with them in turns.
While the video clipping shows that the man in action is Nithyananda, one of the women is allegedly a Tamil actress who has played leading role in many films and TV serials.
In Tamil Nadu, members of outfits like Periyar Dravida Kazhagham, VCK and Hindu Makkal Katchi held protests in different places and demanded Nithyananda's arrest.
Nithyananda's banners were burnt and many centres of his shram Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam in the state and in Pudducherry were ransacked and damaged by protesters.
While the whereabouts of Nithyananda is not known, a message posted on the ashram's website terms the video footage aired by the news channel as a mix of conspiracy, graphics and rumour and added that legal course of action is being worked out.
The Nithayananda Mission is part of a worldwide movement for meditation and peace. It claims to have about 1,000 branches across 33 countries and about two million followers the world over.
"The goal of Paramahamsa Nithyananda's advent on planet earth is to spread the inner science of enlightenment by delivering physical health, mental wellness and spiritual awakening to all beings irrespective of their race, gender or nationality," a mission spokesman told reporters when accosted to know the whereabouts of the godman and about the expose.
"The video footage shown by news channels was not shot here. It must have been taken in Tamil Nadu or elsewhere. Our priority is to first maintain law and order and prevent the situation going out of control," Bhisanhalli said.
Denying knowledge of the godman's sexual acts and his misconduct, the mission spokesman alleged that the video footage was fabricated and aired to defame their 'guru' as non-believers were jealous of his growing popularity.
"We feel a deep-rooted conspiracy behind the so-called expose. It is for the authorities to investigate the video footage to ascertain the truth. We know nothing about the incident," the spokesman said but declined to be named.
Lamenting that the sleaze had hurt the feelings of devotees, the spokesman said enemies of the mission hatched a conspiracy to malign and blackmail the pontiff for vested interests.
"Our guru's mission is to enlighten the people through yoga and meditation. His character is above suspicion," the spokesman asserted.