The Backpedaling Swami: The Official Stories of Sri Nithyananda are Updated, But Still Do Not Add Up
Hi there, Sri Nithyananda. Have you been reading our blog? "I'm a Paramahamsa. I do not bother with such trivia." Oh, I see, there, Sri Nithyananda. But, just want to remind you that even Paramahamsas and so-called Paramahamsas still need to answer to the Truth. Why, you couldn't even answer our five, little chronological questions about your life-story. "The truth requires no embellishment". Yes, we saw that was your response in your Parallel Universe blog where everything gets turned up-side-down.
Well, Sri Nithyananda. Call it what you like, but we couldn't help but notice a slight revision or even a tiny embellishment, shall we say, of your 'Truths' that you wrote on your official Dhyanapeetam website? Do you, Sri Nithyananda, remember how you use to say that you wandered for nine to ten years the breadth of India and Nepal? "Ah, hmmm, oh, yeah." Yes, Sri Nithyananda, you should remember all of that, for you wrote it in all of your books and we heard it over and over again in your lectures. Let's take a look. Here, in my copy of Glimpses of My Master, Nithyananda (first 'first' edition) in December 2005, you mention on page 83 that you, Sri Nithyananda:
“traveled over 30,000 kilometers over 8 to 10 years.”In most lectures, we hear you usually just say that your wandered for nine years. So, we'll take nine years as the given default 'Truth' that has been accepted as your standard story.
But, wait, what's this here, Sri Nithyananda? On your website, www.dhyanapeetam.org, on this URL:
http://srianandeshwaratemple.dhyanapeetam.org/founder.htmlwe have this information:
(also available with an attractive wrapper at this URL:
http://srianandeshwaratemple.dhyanapeetam.org/
and then, click on 'founder' link to get the whole nested iframe experience)
Nithyananda would often meditate all night long in the cremation grounds of Tiruvannamalai, absorbed in the vibrant silence of Arunachala, and at the break of dawn, he would return home. During his teenage years, after a profound cognitive shift in his understanding through an encounter with a Siddha in Thiruvannamalai, the urge which he had since childhood, to leave home as a sannyasi, reached its peak. After completing his diploma in Mechanical Engineering at Gudiyattam, Nithyananda made the final resolve to set out on his spiritual journey as a wandering ascetic. He embarked on what was to be an arduous journey, stretching thousands of miles covered mostly by foot, over a period of 6 years, traversing the land of Bharat. From Tapovan in the Himalayas to Kanyakumari in the South, from Dwaraka in the West to Ganga Sagar in the East, Nithyananda wandered for several years in India and in Nepal, practicing intense austerities and studying with many sadhus.Sri Nithyananda, did you see that? You wrote a 6, as in six years. Not nine, eight or ten years as you have done in the past. Wow, Sri Nithyananda, you seem so blessed that you even found a shortcut to your shortcut formula for 'enlightenment'. Wow, that truly burnishes up your credentials. We bet the line to receive your energy darshan is getting longer by the minute now.
Not to get side tracked, Sri Nithyananda, but we also found it interesting that on the same web page, you mention about often meditating all night long in the 'cremation grounds' which is the same as graveyard or cemetery right? Wow, of all the places to pick to meditate, you had to choose the cremation grounds. There are caves, forest, temples, riverbanks, rooftops, etc. Some yogis even chose train stations to do meditations. But, your choice place of meditation, Sri Nithyananda, is the cremation grounds. [Readers, please see our post, "Nithyananda Spreads His Tantric Bliss - This is NOT Lord Shiva" and "Nithyananda & Graveyard Enlightenment".] We hope that you, Sri Nithyananda, made it to the temple now and then to balance out your spirituality.
Oh, Sri Nithyananda, maybe we're not being very culturally sensitive to this whole age concept of yours. We understand that in South India, Tamil Nadu to be exact, that when people turn a certain age, and then after a bit of time, they no longer consider themselves that age for they have past that milestone. So, if you had your sixteenth (16th) birthday in 1994, and after a few weeks, you could consider that you reached that age, and now you were 'reaching' the next milestone of your seventeenth (17th) birthday. In many western countries, they consider this 'going-on-17' just like in that song from the movie "The Sound of Music". So, if you started your wandering perhaps in mid January 1994, which was just a few weeks after your celebrated birthday of January 1, and then reached your 'enlightenment' on January 1, 2000, then voila! your revised years of wandering 'fit' your story. You Sri Nithyananda, are then able to fit six years of wandering into five years of living. Specifically, this means that you started wandering at 'age 17' and at age 22 in the year 2000, you achieved six (6) years of wandering. Amazing. Technically, you're off by a couple of weeks, but no one should really split hairs over that. And, best of all, your cash-donating-believers and cult-recruiting-acharyas (teachers) can go on believing in you, Sri Nithyananda, as being 'Truthful' after your revisions. Cognitive harmony has been restored.
But, wait, Sri Nithyananda, in your book, Nithyananda Vol. 1, (the second) first edition December 2006 (yes, Sri Nithyananda, as we sure your are able to remember, this is the revised first edition that you had to replace your recalled first first edition of December 2005) on page 177, you had placed a date, or more specifically, a year of 1995. Here is the sentence:
"Back in 1995, when he (Sri Nithyananda) was ready to leave home, no one knew who he was."Ah, shucks. Sri Nithyananda, you did a great job of leaving out dates in that revised self-autobiography, but looks like you let one slip. But, now we know that your revised wandering years happened sometime in 1995 until January 1, 2000. So, that is at most five (5) years of wandering, but most likely just four-and-a-half (4.5) years of that carefree living.
So, Sri Nithyananda, would you mind if we add to your exalted titled of 'Enlightened' Healing Master and Backpedaling Keeper of Revised 'Truths'? We think there's a nice ring to that.
Sri Nithyananda, to help our readers understand how ridiculous your timeline and all of your events that don't add up really are, our friends at nithyatales.com put together this handy graphic:
Source: nithyatales.com
Related Posts:- Guinness World Book of Record Holder: Nithyananda as Youngest Polytechnic Student
- Do the Math - Nithyananda's Enlightenment Timeline Doesn't Add Up
For all of Golden Boy's "super sharp awareness and super intelligence" - how could this moron miss on such simple math?
ReplyDeleteYes I also notice the wonderful "website scrubbing" that is going on. And that only goes to show how f**king low these morons can get. And just to ensure this history is saved for posterity, I have ensured I take screenshots of every little "factoid" of his life history from his websites.
So Bidadi morons - if you are reading this (of course you are reading this) - please note....I am making a copy of your websites, videos where your wonderful truths are expounded.
Nithy - this is directly to you. You are shameless thug who is only interested in going down in history as another Buddha/Jesus and so on at any cost.
Paramahamsa my ass! I am wiping my ass with your photographs and book now!
Let's take pictures of his site before it gets the key info changed. Lightscreen is a good tool for the purpose - free to download and use.
ReplyDeleteThe internet wayback machine has plenty of archived webpages up to 2008
ReplyDeleteI was amazed to see these lines on the founder Page..
ReplyDeleteWhat is Nithyananda’s mission and how is he different from other spiritual Gurus? What sets apart Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam from other such similar organizations?
LOL..this is not a TV ad..that one soup is better than the other...how foolish..why do they even want to mention this..how cheap Mr. NITHYANANDA...i did not expect such foolish remarks from you..
this is not a TV ad..that one soup is better than the other...
ReplyDeleteNithyananda gets a lot of his marketing ideas from watching late night American TV commercials which sell junk. Really.
Where do you think they got the crass idea for the big poster, selling his "Living Enlightenment" book, pasted on his podium, screaming in big bold font "Buy your copy NOW!!"
Reading Guruphilia and a blog by an Art of Living escapee, I realized that Nithy is indeed a big copycat. His business model is so similiar to Art of Living and the rest of them.
ReplyDeletehttp://artoflivingfree.blogspot.com
Nithy ex-acharyas ex-volunteers may well find that you have very similar experice to this ex-AoL teacher.
Wow nice work Nithy! What else are you going to change in your biography? Many of the past Gurus must have gotten away with such things without being noticed. You sir, have quite the "divine" balls to do this sort of thing in this day and age....where news spreads like wild fire.
ReplyDeleteYour books are in wide circulation and anyone who has spent any time with your or your organization, knows very well that you have claimed 9 years of wandering....and now you are happily changing that to 6 years. Wow Nithy - I guess when you are "so enlightened" you are "beyond time" and hence earthly time simply does not matter. Wow!
Not only he claims 9 years of wondering. He also claims that he tried to meet the great Lakshmanjoo during his wanderings when he heard the the saint was gravely ill. Nithy mentioned this several times during his Shiva Sutra talks at Monclair in Nov 2007. However, due to his vow not to touch money, Nithy was not able to take the train or bus. To his regret, Lakshmanjoo left his body when Nithy arrived.
ReplyDeleteLakshmanjoo left his body in 1991, before Nithy starts his 9 years of wandering. Or is it 6 years now? In any case, this didn't fit the old timeline or the revised timeline.
May be 6 and 9 isn't any different to the enlightened mind! Still it doesn't add up, I guess that doesn't matter either so long there are fools willing to slave away and paying megabucks for sham programs.
If you have time, please read the blog by an Art of Living escapee who was a full-time volunteer teacher. You may that you have to similar emotional space.
Om Namah Shivaya,
ReplyDeleteMore bad news for Sri Nithyananda's birth date and timeline. From a PDF file called “Yet to be Discovered/INVTFIN” created on October 30, 2003 and posted on the dhyanapeetam.org website, on the bottom of page 41, it sated:
"It was sometime in 1994, as he was bathing, Rajasekaran heard a knock on
the door. He heard the person say, “Are you aware that today is your 16th
birthday?” He froze at first in realization that he had not fulfilled his dream
of becoming enlightened by the age of 16. Then behind closed doors a river
of tears ran in spate for more than two hours."
It was sometime in 1994???? Wow, can't even the author of this PDF remember the alleged birthday of Sri Nithyananda is January 1st? That is not 'sometime', in the middle of the year. We could then conclude that either the author of this 'biography' was not very familiar with Sri Nithyananda and all of his legendary myths... or Sri Nithyananda hadn't nailed down January 1st as being both his 'enlightenment' date and his birthday. Regardless of which way this one falls, it does make it clear that Sri Nithyananda was allegedly only 16 'sometime' in 1994, which means that he had to be 17 'sometime' in 1995 which marked the start of his 'wandering' years. If we take the 'updated' years of wandering of six years (reduced from nine years) and add them to 1995, that would still make Sri Nithyananda wandering until 'sometime' into 2001, over one year past his 'ultimate' experience of his alleged 'enlightenment' of January 1, 2000.
Even with updates to Sri Nithyananda's timeline, someone gets the idea that this story is definitely comes from the era of B.G. (Before Google). Maybe, for that mater, B.C. (Before Calculators).
Jai Maa.
Expose Nithyananda - can you point a link to this pdf you mention, please?
ReplyDeleteWe can write a separate book "Factual Glimpses of my Master" :-)
Om Namah Shivaya,
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking an interest in the sources. Here is an old HTML page and the PDF reference from 2003 that is 'orphaned' (not linked) but able to be dug out from Nithyananda's dhyanapeetam.org site:
The 2003 PDF on Nithyananda's Life Story:
http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/pdf/Yet%20to%20be%20discovered.pdf
An old webpage on the Dhyanapeetam.org site about Sri Nithyananda:
http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/Journey.asp
And, yes, we have back-ups of both.
Hope this helps.
Jai Maa.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI came across your blog and read a lot of posts. Also I also went through the "parallel universe" blog. Also out of curiosity I met the Swami recently. While I did not feel anything, my wife and her friends did feel a presence. But coming back to your blog - I think the main issue/concerns you have are
1) The chronology or timeline of his enlightment(??). Based on facts I do see this as a concern.
2) I get the feeling that you agree that he has some mystical powers - which you think is based on something sinister rather than divine.
3) I believe the costs for his course is justified based on the current cost of living in India. BTW have been to India recently?
Om Namah Shivaya,
ReplyDeleteHi Anon,
Thanks for the post. Please allow me to indulge in some comments to them. Yes, the chronological 'history' of Sri Nithyananda is a major concern. Enlightened masters are supposed to be embedded in Truth. This seems to be very far from an objective perspective that should be seen in 'black' or 'white' terms (not in 'black' and 'white' crow terms). So, what would Sri Nithyananda try to get away with in subjective terms after being caught lying with objective matters? Big red flag.
Yes, Sri Nithyananda has mastered many siddhis (mystical powers), most of them are dark. He passes these on as 'Divine' power. Would any Divine master offer tours in the graveyard? That alone should be enough proof. Please read earlier posts:
Nithyananda Performs a Red Hot Chili Ritual; Fire Away!
Nithyananda Spreads His Tantric Bliss - This is NOT Lord Shiva
Nithyananda and Graveyard Enlightenment
As far as overcharging or not overcharging, frankly, we are not concerned how much Sri Nithyananda charges for his programs. We are very concerned, however, what Sri Nithyananda does with that money and what he does to his followers. Building big ego projects like stadiums is criminal. He says that he will build schools. Fine. But, practical education that encourages critical thinking will be thin, instead, he has labor 'feeders' to fuel his empire and brainwash children. Criminal. The treatment that Sri Nithyananda has done to his close devotees is a major concern. Sleep deprivation, robbing their savings, taking away their identity, breaking off families and social ties, divorces, etc. is not spirituality. Giving one penny for this cause creates bad karma. Sri Nithyananda seems to love gold and other indulgences. So, even if his programs were only $7.50, they still seem overpriced. If Sri Nithyananda really did good for the world, then charging $75,000 for the programs, we would not be concerned, although we probably wouldn't be attending.
The real 'prize' from running these courses for Sri Nithyananda is to either scoop up free dedicated labor and/or ten percent of someone's yearly income. This creates a dedicated labor pool and continuous revenue. Nice. This allows for his empire to run perpetually. Don't fall into this trap.
Hope this helps clarify things.
Jai Maa.
Not to defend the swami or anything, but graveyard practice is well known Vama marga Tantra sadhana.
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend the books Aghora and Kundalini by Robert Svoboda.
Svoboda's guru, the Aghori Vimalananda, wasn't particularly kind to fake "godmen" exported by India to the West.
Incidentally, Vimalananda strongly cautions Svoboda, his disciple, about certain Tantric fire rituals:
"The homas that are done as part of the Six Rituals of Tantra - rituals performed to cause death, delusion, discord, hatred, obstruction and enchantment - are quite different. Each ritual requires a specific set of mantras and even clothing, and worship materials like oil, salt, chilies and other intense, spicy substances are used. Don't even experiment with these rituals; terrible karma is involved."
Tantrika, you are so right. It is the likes Of Nithy who misuse tantra for exploitation and abuse of sincere seekers that gives tantra a bad name. Some Tibetan lamas do similar practice. Graveyard meditation is also use to overcome fear. Tantra quickens the path of dedicated practitioners according these lamas.
ReplyDeleteThough I heard of one bad drunk sex lama in America, the ones I met and learn from were all very dedicated teachers, students were treated with respect. Fees were very reasonable - mostly to cover travel expense. Beyond that, students make offerings of thanks after the course - this is an offering, not a required fee.
Commercial gurus like Nithy corrupts dharma beyond recognition with slavery, deception and exobitant fees.
Om Namah Shivaya,
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tantrika, for the information. Yes, one of our contributors to this blog specifically purchased the book, Aghora, by Robert Svoboda, in hopes of understanding Sri Nithyananda a bit better.
It is our opinion that the path of an aghori is not a very high form of spirituality. The focus is on ghosts (sound familiar?) and by avoiding the pitfalls, one can eventually lead to Divinity through this practice. [Opinion: Why try to reach Divinity through ghosts, and not go to Divinity directly? That is a much more direct path.] Unfortunately, Aghora practice is full of traps and slipping into one of these worldly pitfalls can lead to truckloads of bad karma. On the positive side, Aghora practice can lead to healing capabilities (sounds familiar?). Other practices such as cannibalistic rituals are not as widely revered, and the preferred spot for spiritual practices are cremation grounds (sounds familiar?).
Here is a link the Wikipedia site for Aghori:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aghori
Although we doubt that Sri Nithyananda practiced all of these aspects mentioned on the Wikipedia site, we would not be at all surprised if some of the practices involving ghosts, siddhis (supernatural power), healing, cremation grounds, etc. were part of his 'spirituality'.
Yes, we feel that Sri Nithyananda is an Aghori gone bad. Let's pray that he comes out of it.
Thanks also for mentioning the fire rituals using chilies. We also do not believe that this is sattvic (pure) and should be avoided at all costs.
Jai Maa.
I browsed thru the Agora book some time ago. I have a feeling that many of the 5 star reviews were written by followers of the author. Here is one review that is written by a non-follower. I wouldn't buy the book.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/review/RY7Z898F1M05G/ref=cm_aya_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0914732218#wasThisHelpful
More reviews of the Agora book mentioned by Tantrika.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A37MXBYM73WVVW/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview
http://www.bing.com/search?q=nithyananda+cult&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n
ReplyDeleteI just search for "nithyananda cult" with Bing, this block came third.
Great job!
Om Namah Shivaya,
ReplyDeleteThanks anon, for letting us know to keep our guard up while reading the book, AGHORA, At the Left Hand of God (Aghora) (v. I).
Aghora Book Reviews on Amazon
Yes, the reviews are quite polarizing. Out of 31 reviews, 26 of them are 5 stars, and four of them our 1 star. There is one lone 4-star rating. Yes, we found the book to be informative, entertaining, and insulting all at once. The accuracy of the book has been validated by some heavy weights in ayurveda who probably would appreciate that we do not mention their names, but their confirmation was enough for us to at least consider that a lot of the information in this book was accurate. Unfortunately, there are not many books about aghoris, so this is the best resource we have for now. Hope this helps.
Jai Maa.
Actually, Aghora is *beyond* "high" and "low" spirituality. It is encountering the sacred in the profane and stripping all social conditioning from the ego in the quest to be absolutely free.
ReplyDeleteRemember how Ramakrishna touched his tongue to feces as sadhana to overcome his social conditioning of cleanliness as a Brahmin? Remember how Bhagawan Nityananda (the *real* avadhoot) would smear himself with shit and eat it like it was a delicacy? These are the two true GREATS.
Aghora is obviously a path fraught with danger, and not for the faint of heart, nor for one who lacks devotion to a true Aghori guru.
Oh, the actual practice doesn't always use ghosts, although those sadhakas inclined to power and subjugation do choose to go down that road.
Please tell me about the healers...
ReplyDeleteI am a healer who learnt healing from Sri Nithyanandha.. I was just having him in my heart as a most sacred relationship- A GURU. But now can I "heal" others?
Does it involve Ghosts? Will I/Others get hurt? Any bad karma involved? How do I solve that problem if I had already done some damage to others/myself through "healing"?
Also, please someone shed light on "healing" done here. What happens to the person receiving it? I never felt anything or anychange after subjecting myself to healing. If it cured diseases, then there would not be so much competition for becoming doctors! I am curious about what is done to the person during "healing"
ReplyDeleteHere is a real story worth sharing:
ReplyDeleteThere was a man, God fearing and caring, humble and innocent. He is in a land away from his parents and family, alone with his wife. Soon he is blessed with a child whom he loved dearly. He takes good care of his family but misses his home. He meets some "converted crooks" who solicits conversion to Christianity as the sole path to liberation. The man soon realises the need to reinforce his religious beliefs in his children, in this far off land. He becomes very religious. He is afraid that some day, such crooks will convert his children. He sees the need to protect them. He tries to teach his children the beauty of the religion they are born into and to be proud of what they are. Somewhere down the lane he is introduced to the "cult"; he falsely believe that tis IS the ultimate truth. The "cult" is saving the world and with it his children from falling prey to such conversion. What an irony! He drags himself and his family into it. Soon, he is so taken in aka brainwashed by the cult that he looses track of his primary goal and falls prey to the "monster" aka master. The man is confused and blind to the situation. He looses himself....a beautiful life...wasted and dreams shattered! what a tragedy....sounds familiar??? the poor homesick soul??? time to wake up and awaken, NOW!!! Luckily, this man was woken up by a stroke of good fortune (good karma)....won't you too?
Physical existence is always happening between cause and effect. Suppose there is an infection, the cause was bacteria. You ate or drank something somewhere and got infected; so the cause was bacteria.
ReplyDeleteNow there is an effect, infection. So you are trying to take away the cause by taking antibiotics. You kill the cause with medication, because it is external to you. With other diseases that are not externally caused, but are happening from within the body, the cause is so much deeper compared to an infection. For this type of disease to manifest, there is an imbalance or a malfunction in the energy-body, which manifests itself in the physical body, or sometimes in the mental body.
Now with something like healing you are only appeasing the effect. In a way, what you are doing is that, with a little control or mastery over your own energies, you are able to put a screen between the cause and the effect. So the effect dies out, but the cause stays buried.
As far as nature is concerned, as far as life energy is concerned, the effect was only its way of telling you that there is a cause inside of you. What we call as ‘cause’, the disturbance of energy, is trying to manifest itself in a certain way.
Let us say you have asthma and I just remove your asthma today. Without asthma in you, when you still have the same kind of energy in you, you may become some other calamity in a moment. The disease may not be there, but you could get into an accident.
Your asthma was only an indication of a deeper disturbance.If you try to take away your asthma, it may manifest in some other way, as some other calamity. This is because your energies are still in the same situation, but the effect of it was taken away. So, it will take effect in a deeper or more acute form to inform you again.
For the energy body to be disturbed either there is an improper lifestyle, improper thought patterns, improper emotions or a combination of all these. There is a certain karmic structure that you have built which is causing some kind of turmoil to your energy, which manifests itself in the physical body as disturbed energy or disease.
Now, this whole activity of trying to heal somebody is, in some way, trying to play God - trying to manipulate energies in an improper way.
I don't agree healers are playing God. Healers help the sick when doctors are not available. Most ancient cultures and native societies have healer shamans to help the sick. Taoist Healers in China can read energies, prescribe herbs, accupunture, tunai and energy healing to help the sick. Same with shamans in Africa and the Americas.
ReplyDeleteI think over-charging matters, even if the money collected is used for good. Many devotees were tricked into believing the absolute importance of such programs gone into debt to attend the programs. I dare say that most programswere of limited benefit, others may be downright harmful.
ReplyDeleteJust think of the parents who had a child with cancer in Vancover who believed in Nithy so much they were willing to borrow the $200 for a few seconds of blessing for their sick child. It is bad enough this blessing is unlikely to do the child any good. It is worse that it cost the poor family so much! The family was fooled! So are the many who paid USD $6000 for the 21-day "Living Enlightenment" or "Inner Awakening" program in an over-crowded dormitory in his Indian Ashram.
NEW FAIRY TALES OF NITHYANANDA BLOG
ReplyDeleteWow, even more online trouble for that self-proclaimed king-of-kings Mr. Grand Poobah himself, Swami Nithyananda. Check out this new blog:
Fairy Tales of Paramahamsa Nithyananda
His whole cult is shaking now. I bet Mr. Nithyananda will be going into deep samadhi on his so-called 'jayanti' (which is today) when he sees this. Hope the hangover isn't too bad. Pleasant dreams, boy wonder.
Wow, that Fairy Tale blog puts the Nithy timeline together in a easy tabular for those not having the time to read the details. Love it!
ReplyDeleteOk, this guy is a cheat who is getting rich by defrauding ordinary people. I don't need to be convinced on that.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you and others here have found some inconsistencies. Great.
But I think the way this information is presented is much too verbose. Cut to the chase. This is the internet generation when the attention span of most people is at most 5 minutes.
You need to simplify your information, and present the core of your facts as quickly and as simply/straightforwardly as possible.
Think Power Point, not Word.
VN is right about being straight froward and simple, and the Fairy Tale is doing it well. This blog is good with greater details. Each has its purpose!
ReplyDeleteTo VN...
ReplyDeleteDid you check out the fairy tales blog http://nithyatales.webs.com - you may like how they present the facts