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Nithyananda (born Arunachalam Rajasekaran; 1 January 1978), is an Indian spiritual leader and a self-styled godman. He has been described by several media outlets, including The Daily Telegraph, as a controversial figure and cult leader. He is the founder of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, a trust that owns Hindu temple, , and in many countries. He is also the founding head of the micronation of Kailaasa.
Following charges of rape and abduction filed in Indian courts, Nithyananda fled India and has remained in hiding since 2019. He is the subject of a court-issued non- warrant relating to the allegations. Nithyananda is also wanted since 2019 for unrelated fraud charges in France. In 2020, he announced the founding of his own self-proclaimed island nation called Kailaasa, though some evidence suggests he had been promoting the idea for around 20 years.
A number of mainstream news outlets, inside and outside India, and a TV documentary series on Disney+ have referred to the organisation as a cult, its leader as a conman, and his micronation of Kailaasa a scam; although his organization has denied any wrongdoing.
He was first noticed at the age of three by Yogiraj Yogananda Puri. He claims to have had powerful spiritual experiences from age 12 and to have experienced full enlightenment at 22.
In 2002 (age 24), he began his public life under the name Nithyananda. He says that this name was given to him by Mahavatar Babaji in a mystical experience during his monastic wandering days in the Himalayas.Paramahamsa Nithyananda (2025). 9781934364307, Nithyananda Vedic Sciences University Press. ISBN 9781934364307 In 2003, he started his ashram Dhyanapeetam in Bidadi near Bangalore.
Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, a religious organisation founded by Nithyananda, hosts cultural events in United States as well as India. They hold two Guinness World Records: one for the largest rope yoga class, and one for the largest pole yoga ( mallakhamba) class.
Nithyananda has given discourses on various scriptures like Brahma Sutras, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Shiva Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita.
He has claimed to have discovered over 400 , or paranormal abilities, expressible by humans and alleges having Diksha his disciples into 60 such powers including kundalini and Third eye awakening. He has since asserted he would open the third eye, for anyone, free of charge by 2021, claiming that the person would be able to see through smog and walls. Disciples of Nithyananda claim that he gave through "third eye" to a class of 82 blind children, thus curing them of blindness. Skeptic Narendra Nayak challenged Nithyananda to prove his claims.
Nithyananda has also claimed that he and his followers were able to perform activities like extrasensory perception, materialisation, X-ray vision, increasing height, and remote viewing, and that they had the ability to find lost objects.
Nithananda has also claimed to be a human avatar of the Hindu divinity Paramashiva (the meaning of his epithet Nithyananda Paramashivam).
In 2010, a United States citizen who was a disciple of Nithyananda accused him of raping her in the US and in India repeatedly over the course of five years. She filed a complaint with the police department of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who did not commence any formal investigation. She also filed a complaint with the Karnataka Police in India. On 19 February 2018, the Third Additional District and Sessions Court in Ramanagara ordered the framing of charges against Nithyananda and five others in relation to the case. Criminal revision petitions by the accused were dismissed in the Karnataka High Court on 16 May 2018. An appeal against the High Court decision in the Supreme Court of India, in which all of the accused pleaded not guilty (except for one who was absent from court), was dismissed on 1 June 2018, following which charges were framed in the Ramanagara court on 4 June. In August 2022, the Third Additional District and Sessions Court in Ramanagara issued a non-bailable warrant against Nithyananda following multiple orders to appear in court.
In 2019, a couple from Tamil Nadu approached the High Court of Gujarat claiming that three of their four children were taken to Nithyananda's ashram in Ahmedabad from Bangalore without their knowledge; the couple sought return of their children to their custody. A first information report (FIR) for alleged abduction was filed by the Gujarat Police in relation to the case on 17 November 2019. In affidavits filed in the Gujarat High Court from various locations in Americas, two of the missing children, who were by that time adults, rejected their father's claim that they have been detained forcibly. In a joint live video statement, the two girls further claimed that their father had plotted the abduction controversy after his name cropped up in an embezzlement case. On 2 February 2024, the High Court of Gujrat dismissed the habeas corpus filed by the daughter's father. The court reached this conclusion after interviewing the daughters via video conference. The court noted that the daughters are adults and mature and are consciously residing at a place (Jamaica) and following a spiritual path.
Nithyananda was the subject of the 2022 Discovery+ docu-series My Daughter Joined a Cult, streamed internationally.
The Gujarat Police suspected that he could be shuffling between Ecuador and Trinidad and Tobago, while news reports said that he may have gone to Ecuador because the country does not have an extradition treaty with India. The same month, 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", but has confirmed Nithyananda had reached Ecuador after he left India, then left soon after his request for international personal protection (refuge) was denied.
The French government also has been seeking Nithyananda's whereabouts since 2019, to answer for fraud charges brought by a former devotee in France who claimed he was cheated by the guru out of an amount around US$400,000.
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