Asaram Bapu Disgusting! This is How Godman Imparts ‘Diksha’ - Facts

Story:

DISGUSTING! This Is How Godman Imparts ‘Diksha’

Self-proclaimed Godman – Asaram Bapu has been accused of rape by a minor (15-year-old) girl. The victim reported that she was being raped by Asaram Bapu while her parents were sitting in the other room. Disgusting!

Asaram Bapu, the self-styled Godman sermonised the nation on how the gangrape victim – Nirbhaya would had avoided it all if she would had taken diksha, recited mantras and begged in front of those six beasts who were raping. Asaram’s sermons made our blood boil in disgust.

But now after seeing this photograph of Asaram Bapu imparting ‘Diksha’ to a disciple in his unique style, I understand where he is coming from and what kind of sermons he is capable of uttering.

Analysis:

The message comes with an intimate picture allegedly showing Asaram Bapu with one of his foreign girl disciples, calling it as a disgusting act on the part of the self proclaimed spiritual guru. The message also highlights few other allegations against Asaram Bapu made in the recent past. Those are not complete facts; the person in the picture is not Asaram Bapu.

About the Picture

The message conveyed in the story is in fact an article on Fashionscandal.com with the same title. The picture in question does NOT show Asaram Bapu with any of his foreign girl disciples; it is in fact Swami Virato, also known as Joseph Bacanskas, along with his wife Ludmila Bacanskas, a.k.a Dhiraja. You can see the original picture in an article about him here. Swami Virato is a colorful local character in Asheville, North Carolina, and was a former radio show host, publisher and even a psychotherapist. Since Virato looks quite similar to Asaram Bapu (refer to the pictures in image section below), the above picture gained much (false) credibility – that it is Asaram in what is portrayed as a disgusting ‘Diksha’ imparted to a foreign girl disciple. The picture also gained this false authenticity because of the few allegations raised against Asaram Bapu in the recent past.

Picture: Not Asaram Bapu, Swami Virato — Not Asaram Bapu, Swami Virato

Allegations of Sexual Assault

In August 2013, Asaram Bapu was accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old minor girl (not rape case as mentioned in the story) in his ashram near Jodhpur, Rajasthan – on the pretext of exorcising her from evil spirits. The case was filed with the Delhi police by the girl’s parents, and medical examination of the girl confirmed that she had been assaulted. Following these consequences, Jodhpur police arrested Asaram Bapu on September 1, 2013 from his ashram. Asaram has dismissed the girl’s allegations and said that the accusations against him were a conspiracy orchestrated by Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi of the ruling Congress Party. Mentioned below are certain important points:

In this case, certain media channels seem to have exaggerated the incident. The incident was initially reported as a rape case, but medical examination of the girl confirmed that there was no rape attempt, but showed signs of sexual assault. This was not reported/corrected by most of the media which called it a rape case.

In the case of alleged sexual assault, Asaram was soon issued a non bailable arrest warrant, which his lawyer said was not fair, also considering the high stature of the person. Some media reported that Asaram ran away to avoid his arrest and even hid himself in his ashram, however, Asaram followers say he never ran away or avoided arrests, but was always open to investigation.

It was reported that a caretaker of Asaram, Shiva had indecent CDs to expose Asaram’s association with women. However, the same person later gave a media statement saying the police forced him to say so, and that he did not have any such CDs.

The victim girl’s friend, who said she talked to her on phone, gave a public statement to media saying Asaram was innocent and that the girl just did what her parents told her to. Again, this was not reported by most media channels.

On the day of the incident, couple of caretakers of the Asaram ashram say that the victim girl did not show any signs of torture and was in fact happy.

It is to be noted that there were few conspiracy attempts against Asaram in the past, where his staff came up with allegations that were later proved to be false. Vaidya amrit Prajapati working in the medicine department of Asaram ashram, who was removed for misconduct at work, came up with a public allegation before media that his wife was sexually harassed by Asaram. This was later known to be false and was also proved to be the conspiracy attempt of Raju Lambu, in a sting operation. It is said that Raju Lambu, also called Raju Chandak was expelled from the Ashram for his waywardness and indecent conduct, and is now trying to take his revenge. In the sting operation, Raju Chandak speaks in Hindi saying:

“Whatever you give to the media, they will publish it as a scandal. They are like kid. Their sole intention is to increase TRP. (translated)”

As of this writing, Mr. Asaram is in jail, while police continue their investigation.

Statements on Delhi Gang Rape Victim

After the Delhi gang rape victim Nirbhaya died in Dec. 2012 in a heinous crime, Asaram is reported to have said:

“Only five or six people are not the culprits. The victim is as guilty as her rapists. She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop. This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don’t think so.”

He is also reported to have said:

“The girl should have taken God’s name and could have held the hand of one of the men and said, ‘I consider you my brother’ and to the other two, she should have said, ‘Brothers, I am helpless. You are my brothers, my religious brothers’. Then the misconduct wouldn’t have happened.”

Asaram denied blaming the girl for the gang rape, and said that his statement was distorted by media and presented in the wrong way. He even announced a reward of 50,000 rupees for anyone who can prove he blamed the victim for the gang rape.

Death of Two Boys in Ashram

In early 2008, two boys Abhishek Vaghela (11) and his cousin Dipesh Vaghela (10) went missing from a residential school of the Asaram Bapu’s Motrea Ashram in Ahmedabad, and their decomposed bodies were later found from the banks of Sabarmati River near the Ashram.

This brought up allegations of black magic being conducted at the ashram and led to the CID (Crime Investigation Department) filing a charge sheet against seven office-bearers of the ashram. However, the investigation did not find any proof of black magic in Asaram ashram.

Land Encroachment

About a decade ago, the Asaram Ashram was allocated around 10 acres of land in Bhairavi village of Navsari district by the state government of Gujarat. The ashram encroached on an additional 6 acres that resulted in protests of the local villagers. Following their complaints, and after repeated notices were ignored, the district authorities with the help of police bulldozed the encroachments and took possession of the land.

In 2001, the Yog Vedanta Samiti of Asaram was reportedly given the permission to use the premises of the Mangalya temple in Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh for 11 days during a satsang, after which the samiti failed to vacate the premises and continued to occupy a total of 100 acres of land, valued at over 700 crores. The land belongs to Jayant Vitamins Limited, and Asaram denied any involvement in this land encroachment.

In Sep. 2013, after the charges of sexual assault on Asaram, the Nashik Municipal Corporation destroyed a part of Bapu’s ashram in Bhilwara for a 10 year encroachment of government land.

The Asaram ashram authorities say that they have hundreds of ashrams spreading good in legal terms, and that couple of incidents where they have built extended boundary walls are hyped by the media.

Conclusion

To conclude, the picture in question is not Asaram Bapu, but a lookalike foreign Sadhu Virato along with his wife Ludmila Bacanskas. As far as the sexual assault allegation against Asaram is concerned, the case is still under investigation and he is not proved guilty as of this writing. It appears like there are certain facts that are not conveyed properly by the media.

Following these consequences, it is to be noted that many people come up with messages basing this Asaram case to say Hindu saints are after money and crime. Several Hindu organizations have always said that conspiracies against Hindu saints are meant to defame and wipe out their ancient religion of Hinduism. True Saints do not get into crime of any kind nor look for money; they do like to spread spiritual knowledge – for the betterment of humanity and society as a whole.