Bangalore, March 30: Infamous sex swami would charge a hefty fee for workshops, which he claimed would help people attain instant enlightenment
Douglas McKellor, an American national and once a disciple of Swami Nityananda, has registered a case with California State Attorney General against the self-proclaimed godman.
In his complaint, McKellor has accused Nityananda of sexually exploiting the devotees at the ashram, fraud and financial irregularities.
A resident of San Jose in California, McKeller came in contact with Nityananda in 2007.
Influenced by the swami, McKellor changed his name to Swami Nityaprabha and later became the head of the California branch of Dhyanapeetham.
Describing how he got conned by Nityananda, McKeller, in his complaint, said, “I was in the first batch that enrolled for Nityananda’s week-long instant enlightenment programme.
It was held at the Los Angeles ashram in June 2007, where I paid swami a fee of $400,000 for the workshop and the enlightenment certificate.”
McKeller added, “During the workshop, I felt abnormally lightheaded. It was like as if some strange drug was causing me lose all my senses.
Nityananda would reportedly refer to pretty girls as flowers. He would say he needed the ‘flowers’ for his pooja.
Nityananda performed some fire rituals and asked us to cut a strand of our hair. Then, he put the hair in fire along with something that looked like marijuana seeds.
After the workshop, he issued certificates to everyone claiming that we had attained enlightenment.”
H S Chandramouli, Nityananda’s advocate, confirmed that a complaint has been filed by McKeller. “Those close to swami are discussing about the plan of action. However, noting has been decided yet,” said Chandramouli.
——Agencies