At the time that my two ex-gurus were exposed as rapists and child molesters in 2007, India was not yet willing to face the crisis within its culture—a crisis that was hiding behind orange robes, tilaks, and fancy temples. For too long Indian society had willfully denied or ignored the fact that 99 percent (a figure given to me by an Indian man) of its gurus are fake—and many of them were taking sexual advantage of their followers.
How many of them are engaged in illicit and illegal sex acts with followers is yet to be determined. But if you work from a simple supposition that whoever has opportunity and desire will take advantage of others sexually (think: Hollywood stars and moguls), you could conclude that a large percent of “gurus” are raping and molesting their followers.
Flash forward just a decade later and we’re seeing today that fraudulent and rapist gurus are finally being exposed. A recent expose titled “Goddamn!” in a September issue of Outlook India (the equivalent of Time magazine in the U.S.) reported on the arrest and conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh “Insaan” of Dera Sacha Sauda—aka, the “baba of bling.” He was sentenced to 20 years for the rape of two former devotees. Sidebars in the article include reports on other gurus arrested for sex crimes—including one of my ex-gurus, Kripalu Maharaj of Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat in North India.
The Outlook’s in-depth coverage of one guru represents only the tip of the iceberg. There’s a long way to go to root out all of the sex abuse committed in the name of God by these spiritual conmen.
I asked the lead investigative reporter of the expose, Ushinor Majumdar: “Why is your publication exposing these gurus now when the abuse has been going on for decades?”
He told me that India is finally arresting and prosecuting some of the “godmen.” As a result, more arrests beget more media exposure.
The first of the gurus to be exposed was Asaram Bapu in 2014 (real name: Asumal Sirumalani). He was arrested and put behind bars after a spate of allegations of rape and other crimes against him. His family members were also charged, because they aided and abetted his sexual abuses.
By July of this year, several others had been arrested. An article published in India featured the headline: “Asaram Bapu to Gurmeet Ram Rahim—10 Godmen who are Facing Sexual Harassment Charges.” It reported on self-styled “gurus,” “babas,” “sadhus,” or godmen who found themselves embroiled in sex scandals. My ex-guru, Kripalu, was once again included in the bunch in the sidebars.
Interesting side note: I’ve been getting tons of negative commentary from Asaram supporters on my Facebook page for posting this article. Like most devotees of these conman gurus, they are rabidly invested in trying to prove their masters are innocent of all crimes and, in fact, are God realized saints living on earth. These people have invested so much, including their hearts, minds, souls, and money, to these fake gurus. They cannot accept the fact that they made a monumental mistake. As a result, obsessed devotee fans of these conmen are a huge part of the problem, because they help the gurus commit the crimes—knowingly or unknowingly.
Asaram was arrested after my two ex-gurus had been arrested—and one of them convicted of child molestation in Texas USA. Kripalu, who got off of his rape charges in Trinidad & Tobago (under questionable circumstances — think: huge payoffs), returned to India a free man. However, he was never again free in his mind. From then until he died (at the hand of his own followers, who were sick of him and the threat he posed to the rest of them), he was obsessed with two things: the fear of being arrested and the need to make more money to pay off as many people as possible to stay out of jail.
With Asaram’s arrest, Kripalu realized that India’s former hands-off policy for its “gurus” was not as strong as it used to be. Now, gurus were not necessarily above the law. At the end of every day, he would obsessively compulsively ask his money collection person: “How much did we make today (in donations)?” That’s how “high” of a person he was! Sex. Money. Power. The “holy” trinity of all “gurus.”
Now, it’s way past time for all of the sex abusers hiding behind orange clothes and other religious costumes to be arrested and exposed across India. It’s time for the people of India to demand widespread exposure and reform. It’s time to give all of the many victims hiding in silence and pain our support and their voice.
It’s time India.
NOTE TO DESSENTERS — I’ve been reporting on my ex-gurus’ sex abuse for so long that I’m used to the responses I’ll get. One line of attack will be: “Why are you picking on India when sex abuse is rampant in America in Christianity?” The reason is that I was in a Hindu cult for 16 years, so that is my direct experience. I was never a “Christian.” Furthermore, just because sex abuse occurs in the Christian religion doesn’t mean that it doesn’t occur in Hinduism and should not be exposed. Christian abuses have been exposed for years. Please refrain from this ridiculous line of reasoning, which does nothing but protect sex abusers. Get out of the way. Let all of India’s sex abusers finally be exposed. If they are truly God realized, then they can take care of themselves. Or don’t you have enough faith to believe that?
