<p>Since the sex scam catching the Godman on tape with Tamil film actress Ranjitha broke out, the gates are closed and firmly secured with a small posse of police standing guard to just two attendants inside the ‘Ashram’. The message is singularly clear: the party is over for now. <br /><br />The metamorphosis of Rajasekharan into Swami Nithyananda from his birthplace here, known world over for its spiritual ‘gurus’ from Ramana Maharishi, Seshadri Swamigal to the ‘Visiri (fan) Swami’, has at once been a poignant saga of daring and transcendence, followed by the sensational fall. <br /><br />“Nobody understood him (Rajasekharan) in his own birth place which led him to quit, be initiated elsewhere into a spiritual discipline and establish an ‘ashram’ near Bangalore as Swami Nithyananda. But just as he was at the peak of his yogic prowess, conquering worlds, for a moment he was just another ordinary man and slipped down,” said a monk of a Shiva Temple close to his ‘ashram’ in a pithy sum-up of the Godman’s rise and fall.<br />Born into an ordinary lower middle class family – his father Arunachalam made a living from a retail store - Rajasekharan was just 10 when, “an astrologer predicted he will become a ‘sanyasin’,” Kumaraswamy, paternal uncle of Nithyananda told Deccan Herald here on Tuesday.<br /><br />A retired State Bank of India cashier, Raghupathy had initially taught the boy ‘yoga’, while a ‘Devi Upasaki’, Kuppammal, gave him the ‘Deeksha’ (initiation), remembers Kumaraswamy. Rajasekharan did not show much interest in studies, though after completing his SSLC exam, his father persuaded him to join a polytechnic in Gudiyatham.<br />Landing up in Chennai in 1995, he worked for a month in a private auto company when he decided to take the plunge to become a ‘sanyasin’ and joined the Ramakrishna Mission much against his family wishes, says Kumaraswamy.<br /><br />The wandering youth’s stint there was followed by long Himalayan sojourns during which he learnt new meditation techniques and came back “enlightened with extraordinary healing powers,” and turned Swami Nithyananda, recalled Kumaraswamy. Nithyananda’s surviving family members here lead an anonymous existence. While Nithyananda’s mother is said to be at his Bangalore ashram, his 90-year-old grandmother, could hardly speak when this DH correspondent reached their modest home in ‘Kanni Kovil Street.’<br />“We are all down and depressed and don’t know what to utter; his grandmother can hardly rise after she heard about this (sex scandal) that has shocked all of us into disbelief,” said a woman aide at their house, adding, “please do not disturb us.”</p>
<p>Since the sex scam catching the Godman on tape with Tamil film actress Ranjitha broke out, the gates are closed and firmly secured with a small posse of police standing guard to just two attendants inside the ‘Ashram’. The message is singularly clear: the party is over for now. <br /><br />The metamorphosis of Rajasekharan into Swami Nithyananda from his birthplace here, known world over for its spiritual ‘gurus’ from Ramana Maharishi, Seshadri Swamigal to the ‘Visiri (fan) Swami’, has at once been a poignant saga of daring and transcendence, followed by the sensational fall. <br /><br />“Nobody understood him (Rajasekharan) in his own birth place which led him to quit, be initiated elsewhere into a spiritual discipline and establish an ‘ashram’ near Bangalore as Swami Nithyananda. But just as he was at the peak of his yogic prowess, conquering worlds, for a moment he was just another ordinary man and slipped down,” said a monk of a Shiva Temple close to his ‘ashram’ in a pithy sum-up of the Godman’s rise and fall.<br />Born into an ordinary lower middle class family – his father Arunachalam made a living from a retail store - Rajasekharan was just 10 when, “an astrologer predicted he will become a ‘sanyasin’,” Kumaraswamy, paternal uncle of Nithyananda told Deccan Herald here on Tuesday.<br /><br />A retired State Bank of India cashier, Raghupathy had initially taught the boy ‘yoga’, while a ‘Devi Upasaki’, Kuppammal, gave him the ‘Deeksha’ (initiation), remembers Kumaraswamy. Rajasekharan did not show much interest in studies, though after completing his SSLC exam, his father persuaded him to join a polytechnic in Gudiyatham.<br />Landing up in Chennai in 1995, he worked for a month in a private auto company when he decided to take the plunge to become a ‘sanyasin’ and joined the Ramakrishna Mission much against his family wishes, says Kumaraswamy.<br /><br />The wandering youth’s stint there was followed by long Himalayan sojourns during which he learnt new meditation techniques and came back “enlightened with extraordinary healing powers,” and turned Swami Nithyananda, recalled Kumaraswamy. Nithyananda’s surviving family members here lead an anonymous existence. While Nithyananda’s mother is said to be at his Bangalore ashram, his 90-year-old grandmother, could hardly speak when this DH correspondent reached their modest home in ‘Kanni Kovil Street.’<br />“We are all down and depressed and don’t know what to utter; his grandmother can hardly rise after she heard about this (sex scandal) that has shocked all of us into disbelief,” said a woman aide at their house, adding, “please do not disturb us.”</p>
