Nithyananda

Some Lesser Known Facts About Nithyananda

• Nithyananda is an Indian Hindu guru, godman, and cult leader who is known for being a controversial guru. He is alleged of various rape and abduction cases.

• When he was three years old, he was first noticed by Yogiraj Yogananda Puri. He claimed that he had spiritual experiences from age 12. He received enlightenment at the age of 22.

• He left his village at the age of 17 and wandered for eight years before settling in Bangalore.

  

• At the age of 24, he started his public life under the name Nithyananda, given by Mahavatar Babaji during his monastic days in the Himalayas. In 2003, he started his own ashram Dhyanapeetam in Bidadi near Bangalore.

• In 2012, Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine listed him in the “100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People.” Later in 2012, he was appointed as the 293rd pontiff of Madurai Adheenam.

• In February 2013, he received the title of Mahamandaleshwar in a ceremony by the Panchayati Mahanirvani Akhara.

• According to various reports, he was a chairman of the Florida-based Hindu University of America.

• He is the founder of the trust Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, which runs temples, gurukuls, and ashrams in many countries. The religious organisation founded by Nithyananda hosts cultural events in the United States and India. The organization won Guinness World Records, one for the largest rope yoga class, and one for the largest pole yoga class.

• Nithyananda talks about various scriptures like Brahma Sutras, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Shiva Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita.

• He claimed that he delayed sunrise by 40 minutes, could make cattle speak in Tamil and Sanskrit and that he could prove the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2 wrong.

• He has claimed to have Diksha in 60 powers including kundalini and third-eye awakening. He also claimed to have discovered over 400 paranormal abilities. He also stated that he would open the third eye for any person without taking any charge by 2021 so that they would be able to see through walls and smog. Many followers of Nithyananda claimed that he gave the option of a third eye to a class of 82 blind children to set them free from their blindness. Therefore, sceptic Narendra Nayak challenged him to prove his third eye claim.

• Nithyananda said that he and his followers had the ability to perform activities like extrasensory perception, materialisation, body scanning, increasing height, remote viewing, and finding lost objects.

• On 20 November 2019, the Gujarat Police accused him of fleeing India so that he would not have to appear in court hearings. In 2021, it was reported that he approached the United Nations for recognition of his new country Kailaasa. He claimed that he fled India because he was mob lynched and assassinated in India. The Gujarat Police claimed that he went to Ecuador because the country does not have an extradition treaty with India. After the allegations, the Embassy of Ecuador said that it “categorically denies the statement wherever published that Nithyananda was given asylum by Ecuador or has been helped by the Government of Ecuador in purchasing any land or island in South America.” The Embassy also said that he visited Ecuador, but left because his international personal protection (refuge) request was denied.

• In December 2019, he declared that he had created a new “Hindu nation” called Kailaasa and it required passports and had its own currency. In his announcement he said,
  

  Kailaasa is a nation without borders created by dispossessed Hindus around the world who lost the right to practice Hinduism authentically in their own countries.”

• He claimed that Kailaasa is the world’s only sovereign Hindu nation with a network of non-governmental organisations on three continents. In August 2020, he released his own currency Kailashian dollar after launching the Reserve Bank of Kailaasa. According to him, the design of the coins was based on the currency of the ancient 56 Hindu nations. The bank was to be run under the Vatican Bank. In December 2020, he announced that a three-day tourist visa had begun for Kailaasa. In the announcement, he mentioned that people who will be issued the visa would have to come to Australia and then take a private flight  According to his announcement, visa-holders will have to travel from Australia, take a private plane, and will be provided with food and accommodation during their stay in Kailaasa.

  

• On 19 April 2021, he stated that travel from India, Brazil, the European Union, and Malaysia was banned to Kailaasa because of the rising Covid-19 cases. On 7 June 2021, according to various media reports, he stated that if he is respectfully received by India and visited various pilgrims, Covid would disappear in the nation.

• In 2021, he announced that he was chosen as the 293rd Pontiff Of Madurai Adheenam after Madurai Adheenam Arungirinatha Desika Paramacharya Swamigal died in August. He took to social media to announce this and said,
  

  All the spiritual, dharmic, traditional rituals as per the cosmic laws of Kailasa and official formalities of succession as the 293rd pontiff of the Madurai Aadheenam are completed.”

• After he made the announcement of being chosen as Pontiff Of Madurai Adheenam, the Madras High Court ordered to restrain him from being appointed as the pontiff. Later, Nithyananda approached the Supreme Court stating that the order by the High court had affected his fundamental right to worship and religion.

• In August 2022, Nithyananda fell ill after which one of his representatives wrote a letter to the President of Sri Lankan Ranil Wickremesinghe and requested political asylum in the country. In the letter, he offered that they would invest in Sri Lanka if they gave him asylum and the medical equipment required for treatment. He also demanded a political tie with Kailaasa so that an air ambulance would transport Nithyananda as a Head of State.

• In October 2022, Atmadaya, the British representative of Nityananda attended a function at the Houses of Parliament as a guest of the Hindu Forum of Britain after receiving an invitation from Tory MP Bob Blackman. A full-page advertisement about the same was given to the attendees by Nithyananda’s organisation, ‘Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam’ or ‘Nithyananda Meditation Academy.’ Some of the attendees were upset over the invitation of Atmadya because of the cases against Nityananda.

• In 2022, he received an Interpol blue notice from the International Criminal Police Organization and a non-bailable warrant from the court on rape allegations.

• In January 2011, it was reported that Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla visited Nithyananda’s ashram in Banglore and stayed there for 4 days. She went there to seek blessings for her brother who was in a coma at that time.

• He has published around 500 books in 27 languages that are based on his teachings.

• He claims that he got a genetic mutation that occurred in his body when he was 12. In an interview, he said that he is neither male nor female. In the interview, he further added,
  

  But I am neither a male nor a female. My body underwent psychological and physiological mutation. I am not capable of doing the acts I’ve been charged with. I am ready for any kind of tests on my body.”

• In 2022, a web series ‘My Daughter Joined A Cult’ on Discovery+was based on Nityananda and was telecasted internationally.

  

• In 2022, in an interview, Priya Anand, a south Indian actress said that she wanted to marry Nityananda. She further added that if they got married, there was no need for her to change her last name.