Sex, tantra and video tapes - chronicles of a ‘cool dude’ swamy

The “dude” that Vivek Oberoi once called “cool” doesn’t look cool any more.

For the second time in the last two years, he went into hiding to evade the police for alleged sex-related offences before finally landing up in jail.

The man in question is not a petty serial offender in one’s neighbourhood, but a young self-proclaimed spiritual guru in south India - Swamy Nithyananda of the Bangalore based Dhyanapeedam.

On 8 July, Nithyananda suddenly disappeared from his sprawling ashram on the outskirts of Bangalore when the police went looking for him on complaints from some journalists that they were assaulted by his people at a press conference.

However, the bigger issue was not the assault, but the circumstances that led to the assault - the complaint by an NRI women who alleged on national TV that Nithyananda had sexually abused her for five years and ruined her life.

Stating that many other women also had been sexually abused, she demanded action against him. The press conference, where the journalists were reportedly roughed up, was convened to counter these allegations.

The NRI woman said that the self-styled spiritual guru, who has built a sizable meditation-healing-discourse empire in the south and other parts of the world such as the US and Malaysia, had drafted her into his personal service, which turned out to be sexually abusive. The victim, once a devotee of the “guru” said when she resisted, she was threatened.

Personal service was an euphemism for sexual abuse. “I am not the only one who fell prey to his guiles and lust-driven habits, he played with many girls and ruined their lives,” she said.

In fact, more than his “spiritual” endeavours confined to his followers, it was his alleged sex offences that shot him into public prominence two years ago. In March 2010, a sleaze video aired on a prominent Tamil channel, that subsequently went viral on the internet, showed intimate bedroom scenes allegedly featuring him and a south Indian actress who was once an A-lister.

Both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka police went after him with criminal charges under various sections including rape, cheating and unnatural offences but the godman disappeared from his ashram for several days and was finally located and arrested in a village in Himachal Pradesh.

Painting a spiritual reason for his disappearance, it was stated that he was in a “life of spiritual seclusion for an indefinite time”. He subsequently spent more than seven weeks in jail before coming out on bail. The trial against him on the case is still not completed and he has been on bail since then.

The bedroom video, allegedly recorded by a staff of the godman using a stealth camera, had impacted the actress very badly. A respectable face in the south Indian industry, she also went into a shell, even forgoing some mainstream film roles.

The change of government in Tamil Nadu in May 2011 was a relief for Nithyananda and the actress. Both suddenly surfaced in the state, sufficiently empowered to take on the allegations, and filed a case against the TV channel that aired the video, and nonchalantly addressed the media.

The video was fabricated and had maligned the reputation of the ashram, he said, besides leading to attacks on many of his disciples. The actress also appeared in public, boldly taking on the media, even while admitting that the scandal had damaged her immensely.

Surprisingly, even with sex-related cases pending against him, Nithyananda struck it big recently when he was announced the 293rd pontiff of the oldest Shaivite mutt in south India, an asset-rich “Madurai Adheenam”.

When this announcement was made, the Sankaracharya of the Kanchi Mutt made some disparaging remarks linking the actress and him for which the actress promptly filed a case of defamation . Sankaracharya, already facing murder charges, doesn’t have much political support in the state.

The new controversy makes it doubly difficult for Nithyananda. This time around, a local outfit, Karnataka Nava Nirmana Sene, is after him and the state chief minister Sadananda Gowda has ordered the seizure of the ashram.

“I have asked the district administration to seize the Dhyanapeetha ashram of Nithyananda and recover all documents from there and arrest him immediately.” He also said that he has asked the police to file strong objections against his bail petition.

Local TV channels also showed CDs and condoms burned at the ashram while it was under siege. There were also reports of people deserting the ashram, some rooms sporting boards prohibiting entry, and parents looking for their children who had joined the group.

Nithyananda, whose claims to fame also involved his alleged link with another south Indian actress and a flop levitation show is in serious trouble now. Reportedly there are illegal constructions within the ashram. The Congress and the Janata Dal also have asked for closure of the ashram.

The last big sex scandal that rocked a spiritual enterprise was in Tamil Nadu when a politically influential Sri Lankan Tamil, swamy Premananda was sentenced to double life for several counts of rape and a murder. The swamy died in jail while his supporters campaigned to secure his release.

No wonder, internet search for some of the spiritual gurus often returns “sex” and “video”.