Nithyananda

Sources conflict as to his birth date – a 2003 United States visa gave a date of 13 March 1977, while a sworn affidavit in a 2010 Karnataka High Court case mentioned 1 January 1978.

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.

Nithyananda (born Arunachalam Rajasekaran; 1 January 1978), known among followers as Nithyananda Paramashivam or Paramahamsa Nithyananda, is an Indian Hindu guru and often called a "godman" (a charismatic religious figure who claims to perform the miraculous).

He is the founder of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, a trust that owns temples, gurukulas, and ashrams in many countries.

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; his organization has denied any wrongdoing.

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.

In 2003, he started his ashram Dhyanapeetam in Bidadi near Bangalore, Karnataka.

Nithyananda was formerly a chairman of Florida-based Hindu University of America.

In 2010, Sun TV telecast video recordings that claimed to show Nithyananda and an actress Ranjitha (who was one of his followers) in a bedroom.

The story became viral among news media in Tamil Nadu.

Nithyananda and Ranjitha claimed the video to be fabricated and accused Sun TV of extortion.

A forensic sciences laboratory in Bengaluru confirmed that the video appeared to be that of Nithyananda and Ranjitha.

Sun TV and other media channels since then were subject to various lawsuits.

Ranjitha filed a complaint with the High Court of Karnataka against news channels.

Channels were ordered to apologize to Ranjitha for violating the complainant’s privacy and dignity.

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.

In 2012, Nithyananda was recognized as one of the "100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People" by Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine.

Also in 2012, Nithyananda was appointed the 293rd pontiff of Madurai Adheenam.

In February 2013, the title of Mahamandaleshwar was conferred on Nithyananda in a closed ceremony by the Panchayati Mahanirvani Akhara.

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.

Nithyananda has made several pseudoscientific claims, including that he delayed the sunrise for 40 minutes, that he could make cattle speak in Tamil and Sanskrit, and that he could disprove the correctness of the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2.

He has claimed to have discovered over 400 siddhis, or paranormal abilities, expressible by humans and alleges having initiated 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 initiations 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, body scanning, 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).

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.

Following charges of rape and abduction filed in Indian courts, Nithyananda fled India and has remained in hiding since 2019, and his whereabout are unknown He is the subject of a court-issued non-bailable warrant relating to the allegations.

Nithyanada 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.

Nithyananda was born Arunachalam Rajasekaran in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, to father Arunachalam and mother Lokanayaki.

He belongs to the Saiva Vellala community.