Nithyananda’s American devotees issued notices

Media reports say that Swami Nithyananda’s American devotees have been issued notices by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Karnataka, seeking their cooperation in the investigations against the self-appointed godman, who is now in judicial custody facing alleged cases of rape, unnatural sex, fraud, criminal intimidation, hurting of religious sentiments and financial irregularities, after he was caught on hidden cameras in a compromising position with a film and television actress and broadcast by television channels.

The American citizens, believed to be the followers or devotees of the alleged sex-scandal hit Swami Paramahamsa Nithyananda, were tracked down through their e-mail ID, according to sources. The two American citizens, now being summoned stayed in Swami Nithyananda’s Bidadi ashram, have agreed to cooperate with the investigation, though no specific date has been fixed for their return to India, according to Deccan Herald.

The controversial godman Swami Nityananda’s bail plea is to come up for hearing on May 26 before the Karnataka High Court, and the CID is expected to include an updated list of notices issued to American nationals in the statement of objections to Swami Nithyananda’s bail plea before the Karnataka High Court. The bail plea was earlier dismissed by a lower court.

Also, the Karnataka High Court, through an order of Justice B.S. Patil, adjourned petitions filed by four trusts run by Nithyananda challenging the freezing of his bank accounts as part of the CID investigation into the alleged sex scam. Earlier, Nithyananda’s Trust’s bank accounts were frozen as the CID had communicated to ICICI Bank, Corporation Bank and Canara Bank to freeze the accounts in the names of Dhyanapeetam Charitable Trust, Nithyananda Foundation, Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, and Nithyanandeshwara Devasthana.

The CID sleuths have informed the High Court that they have collected evidence from at least 35 witnesses on cases against Swami Nithyananda. Acting upon a search warrant issued by a lower court in Ramanagara, the police have also seized 23 computer hard disks from Bidadi Ashram of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam.

The bail plea of Nithya Bhaktananda, a disciple of Swami Nithyananda, has also been adjourned to May 26, along with Nithyananda’s petition.

Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, Hyderabad: According to reports, on Wednesday, May 12, Nithyananda’s ashram was attacked and the ashram inmates chased away by locals of Satamrai in Shamshabad, near Hyderabad. It was the second such attack on the ashram in the last three months. The ashram is built on a 4.5 acre property donated by Sujatha Reddy, a former devotee of Swami Nithyananda. Recently, the locals, who were annoyed by the poor maintenance of the temple and the attitude of Nithyananda’s staff, approached the donor and explained the situation to her.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sujatha Reddy, along with the locals, went to the ashram and asked the Nithyananda’s disciples, who were working as priests and caretakers of the temple, to leave the ashram. Consequently, alleging that they were manhandled by Sujatha Reddy and the local people, the ashram staff approached the RGI Airport police. On the case, inspector R Sanjay Kumar said, "We are talking to both groups and so far no cases have been registered".

Earlier on March 3, after the alleged sex scandal of Swami Nithyananda broke out on television, internet, etc. the local people evicted some of the inmates of Nithyananda’s Ashram here.

Swami Nithyananda - Actress Ranjitha Love Story

Swami Nithyananda is rarest of the rare enlightened masters, if what he tells his disciples is taken seriously. A description of himself in one of the webpages of Life Bliss Foundation is summarized below.

“On 1st January 1978, past midnight in Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, India, Nithyananda was born, with the birth name Rajasekaran. When Nithyananda was about three years, he met Yogiraj Raghupati Maharaj (Raghupati Yogi). Raghupati Yogi was a friend and Guru to young Nithyananda. Raghupati Yogi arranged for Nithyananda to deliver his first public lecture on the Patanjali Yoga Sutra at the age of ten in Thiruvannamalai to an audience of over 1000 people.”

“Right from his early childhood Nithyananda has been drawn to spirituality. He spent as much time as he could with idols of gods. These were his only joys. He rarely participated in sports and games like normal boys of his age.”

You won’t get much to understand about his days in school, the polytechnic institute where he studied for a diploma, his childhood friends, or about five years he spent in Ramakrishna Mission in his biographies or other places. These are things that he tried to hide in his ghost-written biographies.

His date of birth “1st January 1978” has been challenged by the Newspaper Deccan Herald by producing copy of his visa cancelled by the authorities at the Canadian border while he was trying to cross to the United States.

The Kannada TV channel TV9 interviewed Shivakumar, Nithyananda's classmate in the school, class 6 to 10. Shivakumar tells about Nithyananda's crush with Actress Ranjitha when he was in the school.

Ranjitha made her debut in Tamil films when director Bharatiraja cast her in his movie ‘Nadodi Thendral' (1992). When the movie was released in his native Thiruvannamalai, it was watched by Rajasekaran (Nithyananda) who was in his 10th class. It was ‘love at first sight’ (on the movie screen) for him, says Shivakumar. After watching that movie, he tells Rajasekaran always carried Ranjitha's photo in his school bag. Now, Shivakumar is surprised that after many years of waiting, he made his dream love, infatuation come true.

Ranjitha, born Sri Valli, has acted in a number of Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. Her first film was a Telugu film Kadapa Reddemma. She played lead roles in Tamil films till 1999, and she briefly retired from acting after marrying Rakesh Menon, an Army Major. Since her comeback in 2001 she has acted in supporting roles and special appearances in films and in television shows.

According to news reports, Ranjitha, who has been eluding the police after the scandal involving Nithyananda Swami was telecast, has been summoned by the Karnataka CID to record her statement.

Meanwhile the CID officials said one victim of Nithyananda's Tantric practices has come forward willingly to testify against Nithyananda, but the person's identity is being kept a secret. They said the person was a former devotee of Nithyananda Swami.

It may be noted that Nithyananda had told the CID to conduct a potency test on him, saying "I’m not a man. There’s no way I could have indulged in sexual activities with women". But the CID is convinced of his gender as his passport clearly identifies him as a male and not as a transgender.

Nithyananda: Himachal Pradesh to Bangalore

nityanandastorynewgrid, originally uploaded by newszilla.in.

Nithyananda being interrogated by CID

Singapore Life Bliss Foundation Site Down

As was expected the Singapore Life Bliss Foundation site shows an announcement that says: “Yoga - Meditation - Spirituality - Life Bliss Foundation, Singapore. This site is down for maintenance. Please check back again soon”.

Earlier, after Paramahamsa Nithyananda went into hiding after he was allegedly caught on tape in a secret romp with a Tamil actress and his ashram at Bidadi near Bangalore, was raided by police, there were news reports that the Malaysian Ashram of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam/ Life Bliss Foundation will be cooperating with the Indian authorities on investigations against Swami Nithyananda. Their website http://nithyanandam.net was closed down and the domain name is now on sale.

Similar news reports alleged that the Singapore Branch of Life Bliss Foundation is also distancing itself from Swami Nithyananda. So, possibly, the Singapore site is either being redone by removing the controversial texts and photos of the persons who are either now under judicial custody in India or wanted by police for interrogation. Or, they may put up the new site with their own new content promoting spirituality, yoga, meditation, etc. by totally avoiding any connection with Swami Nithyananda, as some of the organizations abroad, including in USA, have done.

Nithyananda Vedic Temple in USA was closed down and a similar notice appeared in their website, www.nithyanandavedictemple.org, saying: “Beginning on Saturday, April 17 the Nithyananda Vedic Temple will be closed to the public. Our deepest thanks for your patronage over the years. We look forward to seeing you again when the temple re-opens.” The site continues to remain so even today, i.e., May 9, 2010.

There are other sites that distanced themselves from Swami Nithyananda, whose own site has several pages that are either blank, or being redone. For example, the page containing photos and details of the fourth Acharya training in the US at Camp Buckhorn near Los Angeles, CA, when Swami Nithyananda ‘blessed Los Angeles Ashramites with new spiritual names’, www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/WorldTourJuly2006.asp, is removed/deleted. Incidentally, it contained the details/photos of Sri Nithya Bhaktananda (Gopal Reddy/ Sri Anand Roop), Ma Nithya Dayananda Mayi (Jyothi/ Ma Nithya Roop), Sri Nithya Medhananda (Krishna/ Sri Nithya Omkaar), Ma Nithya Medhananda Mayi (Kavita/ Ma Ananda Maatrusri), Sri Nithya Sevakananda (Raj/ Sri Nithya Shaaleen), Ma Nithyananda Gopika (Vidya/ Ma Ananda Satyaprakashini), Ma Nithya Shaantananda (Suman/ Ma Nithya Premanjali), Sri Nithya Sahajananda (Sreraman/ Sri Nithya Saadhak) and Sri Nithya Vimalananda (Vinay/ Sri Nithya Satyajyothi)”.

As per reports, Sri Nithya Bhaktananda was arrested by Bangalore police and he is now in a sub-jail near Bangalore, and news reports say that the Karnataka CID wants Ma Nithyananda Gopika (Vidya/ Ma Ananda Satyaprakashini/ Nithya Gopika) for interrogation.

When Swami Nithyananda visited Singapore in Aug 2008, I happened to read the news and saw the photos and details on a site. Now, after the alleged sex scandal broke out, I rechecked the site and found the photos and details in tact. They include photos and details of his welcome by trustees of Thandayuthapani Temple; reception with Poornakumbha by the temple priests; invocation by children welcoming him; the temple trustee honoring him with garland; shawl and presenting him with a memento; his discourse on Murugan; the one-day program covering Yoga for Body, Verbalization and Being; his arrival in Singapore Polytechnic for the one-day program - Guaranteed Solutions of Bliss; the swami serving dinner to the participants; Ananda Darshan at the end of NSP, etc. Need these photos? Send a message to me!

Now, possibly, after they (or Nithyananda’s own staff) see this post, they may remove/ delete these photos and details with the hope that it will cut of any contact with Swami Nithyananda. This is often viewed as being done to destroy evidence. But, it is the worst thing that can be done for disassociation, because those who want these sites/ photos/ pages might have already saved the details, taken screen shots, etc., and it will only increase the suspicion on the site owners.

What normally happens is that people interested in spiritualism, meditation, cultural programs, etc. get associated with the organizations/ persons who promote such activities. At that point of time, there was nothing like a scandal that broke out now. Possibly, no one in that particular site/ photos/ organization was involved in the alleged cases. So, unless they want to turn the needle of suspicion towards them, they should not shut down the sites, remove pages, etc. Necessary changes can be made by amending the pages with new details and announcements that naturally are required in such circumstances so that people are not misled.

Most Popular Nithyananda SMS jokes

While Swami Nithyananda is busy spending his divine energies to tackle the mundane or the most ordinary worldly matters like answering the interrogators/CID in police lock-up, shuttling between the sub-jail where he has his current abode and the court to move bail applications or to face inconvenient questions, SMS jokes and short tweets on Twitter return to amuse the younger generation, especially students. As the Hindustan Times, and other news sites reported, texting about the ‘Kaami Swami’ is again a campus pastime and over ‘50 SMS jokes are doing the rounds’.

The Nityananda jokes that resurfaced this week show more and more people are now getting new Nithyananda jokes on their mobile phones and they are a huge hit among the youth. The young and enterprising people, who shared their favourite SMS jokes on the self-styled godman Paramahamsa Nithyananda of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam and Life Bliss Foundation, include students, graduates and postgraduates in disciplines as varied as IT (information technology, software solutions, etc.) business management, engineering and technology, humanities, journalism, medical sciences, etc.

The purported aphorisms such as, “Science destroyed humans’ peace the day the camera was invented” and “It’s easier to find God than a hidden camera,” are a direct pun at the claims made by the swami, like, he has 360 degree vision, and his divine powers to see the future, past, the unknown, etc.

Surf the Net to find out how inventive and clever people can be at devising puns and rhymes. The command of multiple languages and cultures make the possibilities seemingly endless, observes a news reporter, to poke fun at the twin lives of the Swami.

Some of the most popular Nithyananda SMS jokes collected from various sources are below:

Bangalore by day, bang galore by night
Discourse by day, intercourse by night
Divine message by day, divine massage by night
Incense by day, incest by night
Chamatkar by day, Balatkar by night
Sri Sri by day, Stri Stri by night
Saffron by day, blue by night
Mahadev by day, Kamdev by night
Shivlinga by day, cunnilingus by night
Moral by day, oral by night
Pray by day and prey by night
Preach her by day, breach her by night
Ram by day, ram by night
Renounce by day, pounce by night
Sandalwood by day, Tiger Woods by night
Seer by day, leer by night
Spiritual by day, spirited by night
Swahaa by day, Aaah aaaaaha by night
Dear God by day, Thank God by night
Do-gooder by day, Good-doer by night
God-man by day, lay-man by night
Hari Om Shanthi by day, hurry home Shanthi by night
He is a Swami who is also a Kaami
Swami by day, show me by night
Holy by day, Holi hai by night
It’s easier to find God than a hidden camera
Missionary by day, missionary by night
Monk by day, bonk by night
Monk by day, Old Monk by night
Shiva’s disciple by day, Chivas’ disciple by night
Baba by day, black sheep by night

Swami Nithyananda denied bail by Court

The Times of India has reported from Bangalore on May 7, 2010 that ‘the Ramanagaram district sessions court on Thursday dismissed the bail petition filed by controversial godman Swami Nityananda’. The news was reported by other sources too.

On Monday, the CID investigating numerous criminal cases against Swami Nithyananda, the former head of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam and Life Bliss Foundation, filed objections for granting bail to Nithyananda. In their objection the Karnataka CID officials mentioned about the non-disclosure agreement he signed with his disciples and argued that it may hold back some of the witnesses to come forward and testify against the swami.

Public Prosecutor Srirama Reddy, in his arguments opposing the bail plea of the sex-scandal hit Swami Nityananda, argued that the swami’s victims were scared of deposing before the investigating agency. Reddy said that several of the godman’s affluent disciples have been preventing the victims from coming forward to testify against him. He further submitted before the court that Nithyananda was likely to tamper with evidence if he were to be let out on bail.

The ‘self-styled enlightened godman’ Paramahamsa Nithyananda, now lodged in the Ramanagara sub-jail, is facing several criminal cases slapped against him before the Ramanagara sessions court near Bangalore, including sexual abuse of his disciples, after Nithyananda had gone into hiding after TV channels aired video clippings allegedly featuring the swami in a compromising position with an actress.

The arguments in the bail application filed by Nithyananda concluded on Monday and ruling was reserved for Thursday, and Sessions Judge Hunugund observed that Nityananda is facing serious charges and the investigations are on.

Nithyananda was arrested on April 21 in Himachal Pradesh where he was hiding and brought to Bangalore as the cases against him were transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Earlier, the Puducherry police who reached Ramanagara to take custody of Nithyananda in connection with cheating cases were denied custody of the accused Paramahamsa Nithyananda on the ground that the criminal cases being investigated by the Karnataka CID are currently in progress, as Judge CG Hungund of the Ramanagara sessions court turned down the Puducherry Police’s plea.

On March 5, the Orleanpet police in Puducherry registered a case against Swami Nithyananda for cheating several of his devotees and injuring religious sentiments of the people there, based on a complaint filed by a group of lawyers.

Are Swami Nithyananda’s interrogators mesmerized?

The investigators interrogating Swami Nithyananda are seemingly mesmerized by the godman, because either they complete a session of interrogation under CCTV and record the entire proceedings only to find that it does not have any sound, but only pictures like the movies of the silent era.

There was even a report saying that one of the sleuths who went to arrest the Swami from Himachal Pradesh was cured of some mysterious ailments by the Swami.

Then there were reports that the swami uses delaying tactics and it is very difficult to make him speak. He frequently goes on a trance or is meditating so that the sleuths could make hardly any significant headway in the interrogation process. On this ground, they have to get his custody extended till May 12, 2010.

Yet another report that sounded funny is that they are searching for one Nithya Gopika, who has been the Swami’s ‘intimate friend’ and used to travel with the swami on his foreign trips, and take care of his personal belongings. Reports say the interrogators are unable to fix the identity of her, or locate her.

Quite funny! The name Nithya Gopika is possibly the same woman who is known as Ma Nithyananda Gopika. If it is so, she was initiated into Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam or his other organizations along with Nithyananda’s associate Gopal Sheelum Reddy alias Sri Nithya Bhaktananda, who is already under custody of the police. The interrogators can easily find out her details from Nithya Bhaktananda, who is already in their custody. Also, I remember to have seen some other names on the list below in some reports on the case.

As per some unconfirmed reports her husband Sri Nithya Sevakananda (Raj) was also an Ashramite and they are now back in the US. Here is a list of people who were ‘blessed’ by the swami on May 11, 2006.

Avisit to Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam’s website will give the following info:

“Swamiji commences the fourth Acharya training in the US at picturesque Camp Buckhorn near Los Angeles, CA… May 11 - Swamiji blesses Los Angeles Ashramites with new spiritual names. The ashramites who received new names are -

Sri Nithya Bhaktananda (Gopal [Sri Anand Roop])

Ma Nithya Dayananda Mayi (Jyothi [Ma Nithya Roop])

Sri Nithya Medhananda (Krishna [Sri Nithya Omkaar])

Ma Nithya Medhananda Mayi (Kavita [Ma Ananda Maatrusri])

Sri Nithya Sevakananda (Raj [Sri Nithya Shaaleen])

Ma Nithyananda Gopika (Vidya [Ma Ananda Satyaprakashini])

Ma Nithya Shaantananda (Suman [Ma Nithya Premanjali]

sri Nithya Sahajananda (Sreraman [Sri Nithya Saadhak])

Sri Nithya Vimalananda (Vinay [Sri Nithya Satyajyothi])”.

Interestingly, there are a number of photos on the page of the ceremony, which may have the photos of the above persons (I do not recognize them). It may be noted that the photos may be removed or the entire page may be removed, because many pages of the websites related to/owned by Swami Nityananda are being either re-done or deleted, or the entire websites made uninformative or surrendered as in the case of his Los Angeles Vedic temple and the Singapore and Malaysia Ashrams, the sites of which was simply not renewed and now being offered for sale.

Go for the photo of Ma Nithyananda Gopika at http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/WorldTourJuly2006.asp. The other persons in the photo are, the description above the last photo says, “Swamiji is seen along with Swamis and Swaminis of the Nithyananda Order of Los Angeles. Seated from left to right are Ma Nithya Sachitananda, Ma Nithyananda Gopika, Ma Nithya Dayananda Mayi, Ma Nithya Mitraananda. Kneeling from left to right are Sri Nithya Sachitananda, Sri Nithya Sahajananda, Sri Nithya Bhaktananda, Swamiji, Ma Nithya Medhananda Mayi and Sri Nithya Sevakananda”.

Nithyananda on moleskine

moleskine, originally uploaded by Duncan Creamer.

This caricature was uploaded by Duncan Creamer on 30 Mar 07, 12.46AM PDT on Flickr. The author says, the Swamiji does not allow photography, so he had to draw the caricatures.