4 March 2010

Nithyananda Scandal

There is currently a large amount of information available online about the ongoing Nithyananda situation which is having substantial consequences at his campuses and ashrams throughout India.

Yesterday on my way to Adiannamalai, I passed the Tiruvannamalai Nithyananda Ashram and noticed film crews hanging around near the entrance gate. There was also a very large security personnel present guarding the ashram from agitation and unrest from locals.

The first I learnt of this affair was during yesterday morning's rickshaw drive on the girivalam roadway. And I sort of agree with my rickshaw driver who on our way passed the Ashram, commented: 'Well that's him finished in Tiruvannamalai.'

Below is the beginning of one of the more interesting articles currently available online:-


"Bangalore/Chennai March 3: 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 Paramahamsa Nithyananda.

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 Nithyananda whose educational attainments are as obscure as his origins in Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu."

To continue reading this article click on to this link here.

8 comments:

Arpan said...

What a shame! I was sure it was a money making racket, but never thought he'd be the star of a sex scandal. I just hope this episode does not deter the sincere seeker from Thiruvannamalai.

Meenakshi Ammal said...

NOTHING AND NO-ONE can undermine the power and grace of impeccable Arunachala.

It is my own belief that this could only happen to Nithyananda because he doesn't have the Grace of Arunachala. And if that is so, its best that people have been informed as to his out-of-public behaviour rather than 20 years down the road when he would have had ten times the devotees he had yesterday.

As to how many devotees he has today -- suspect that there has been a radical decrease in numbers!

Anonymous said...

Could it be that all the Shiva Lingas on his property was too much energy for him to bear.

The eight around Arunachala were revived and look how many people do girivalam these days. 108 directed at one individual who thought it would do him a lot of good. It did do him a lot of good because now he has to behave himself and live a pure life of Shiva.

Anonymous said...

All Hindu deities have spouses, some more than One. Are human beings underprivileged that they can’t have a partner if they want to sing God’s hymns? God cannot be a megalomaniac! Somewhere the truth got diluted in Scriptures and Society hangs on to it.
Life is Practical, if society wants to live from Scriptures and Old ideologies it will fail time and again until it understands what Life is practically.
100 years back a widow was kept in seclusion and her head was tonsured. 200 years back Widows were burnt alive in the pyre. Now even Orthodox people want their daughter to be remarried if she loses her Husband.
50 years from now, people will be laughing at the whole incident of Crucifying Nithyananda just because he had Sex and there is nothing unholy in having Sex which all deities have.
Only redeeming factor is in the last 10 years Eastern minds are becoming more open and receptive.

prakasam kannan said...

hello anonymous
its perfectly all right to have sex and preach.but donot live double lives.i hope you will understand.

Anonymous said...

hello prakasam
That's a Fair point.

Subu said...

Lost of questions have been raised AGAINST the so called video release by Sun and Company. My thoughts on similar lines are blogged here ...especially for the Tamil audience
http://manakkan.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post.html

I only hope that the Nityananda ashram / mutt / society does even more to answer the media messages / media questions sweeping the Tamil countryside
http://manakkan.blogspot.com/2010/03/to-devotees-of-swami-nithyananda.html


regards

Subu said...

Lost of questions have been raised AGAINST the so called video release by Sun and Company. My thoughts on similar lines are blogged here ...especially for the Tamil audience
http://manakkan.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post.html

I only hope that the Nityananda ashram / mutt / society does even more to answer the media messages / media questions sweeping the Tamil countryside
http://manakkan.blogspot.com/2010/03/to-devotees-of-swami-nithyananda.html


regards