Self styled godmen and India’s tryst with spirituality goes back a long way. In the recent past many so called spiritual gurus have been caught on the wrong foot. The latest being Asaram Bapu. He has been finally convicted for raping a minor and will be in jail till death.
Asaram Bapu was born as Asumal Thaumal Harpalani who eventually turned out to be one of the most controversial godmen of India.
After partition in 1947, he and his family moved to Ahmedabad, then part of the former Bombay state in India, now Gujarat. The family left behind all their immovable assets in Sindh.In Ahmedabad Asaram’s father founded a coal and wood business. The business went on for a short time but after his father’s death, Asaram left home in search of God at 23.
Asaram Bapu has been found guilty of raping a teenager in 2013. He was arrested after a 16 year old girl from Saharanpur alleged sexual assault in his ashram on the outskirts of Jodhpur. He is charged under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
Asaram faces charges of trafficking, rape, sexual crimes against children and will now face life imprisonment.
Asaram has been under judicial custody since September 1, 2013.
The self-styled godman is embroiled in a rape case in Gujarat as well, where two sisters have lodged separate complaints against him and his son Narayan Sai.
Since the trial started, as many as nine witnesses in the two cases have been attacked. Three of them have died.
The 78-year old ‘godman’ unsuccessfully moved 12 bail applications, of which six were rejected by trial court, three by the Rajasthan High Court and three by the Supreme Court.
Judge Madhusudan Sharma, who pronounced the verdict, has been given Z+ security in view of his safety.
At the time of his arrest, Asaram had an estimated net worth of Rs 10,000 crore and a mini-empire of over 400 ashrams spread across the world.
Asaram still has many devotees among the political and business class, including the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
Embroiled in criminal activity like Asaram are fraud godmen like Gurmeet Ram Rahim and Rampal.
With the spate of sordid sex scandals emanating from the realm of gurus and godmen, it is hard not to be sceptical about all things “spiritual”.
When flamboyant Haryana godman cum film and music personality, Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim, was convicted of multiple rapes in 2017, his flock erupted in fury, leading to massive riots, large-scale property damage, hundreds of injuries and 30 deaths.
Not just Hinduism in 2013, self-styled Sufi dervish, Gulzar Ahmed Bhat, was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police for raping and sexually abusing several young girls in Budgam district.
And in 2016, Father Edgar Pigarez, a Kochi-based Catholic priest, was awarded double life imprisonment for repeatedly raping a 14-year-old girl at his parish house.
During the heydays of the Congress party, Indira Gandhi had her favourite spiritual counsellor, Dhirendra Brahmachari. PV Narasimha Rao’s go-to guru was the tantric-adept Chandraswami. Chandraswami alias Nemi Chand Jain first gained fame through his skill as an astrologer but his rise to national prominence came as a result of his association with former Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. Soon after Rao became Prime Minister in 1991, Chandraswami built an ashram known as Vishwa Dharmayatan Sanathan in Delhi’s Qutub Institutional Area.
In 1996, he was arrested on charges of defrauding a London-based businessman of $100,000. He has faced charges for repeated violation of India’s Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA).
Both gurus exercised considerable influence over their powerful acolytes and benefited tremendously from the association.
Swami Nithyananda faced charges of financial irregularities and sexual molestation.
In 2012, Watkins, the renowned London bookshop dealing with mysticism and occultism declared him one of the world’s 100 most influential spiritual leaders.
The great late Sathya Sai Baba was plagued with accusations of sexual abuse whch could never be proven and whose stash of cash, gold and silver, discovered after his death, they are still possibly counting.
Be it Asaram Bapu, Satya Sai Baba, Nithyanand, Ichadhari Bhimanand, Nirmal Baba, Baba Ram Rahim, Ashutosh Maharaj, Chandra Swami, Radhe Maa, Amrita Chaitanya, Tunnu Baba and the very recent Sant Rampal all have taken law in their hands. Santosh Madhavan, from Kerala, became popular as Amritha Chaithanya. He has been charged with pedophilia and making videos of sexual misdemeanours with underage girls. On May 20, 2009, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for molesting two underage girls.
Shiv Murat Dwivedi alias Ichchadhari Baba used the guise of spirituality and the offer of money, expensive gifts and cars to lure young women into a prostitution racket.
Radhe Maa is an Indian religious leader based in the Borivali suburb of Mumbai, Maharashtra, recognised for controversial issues.
In August 2015, videos of Radhe Maa’s devotees carrying her on their shoulders during satsangs went viral online.
Most of such babas in India are basically conmen whose real powers emerge when it comes to converting black money into white.
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