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Godmen who took the shelter of impotency to prove their 'godliness'

  • Most of the godmen marked their sexual engagements as rituals toward a greater path.
  • When caught, most of them claimed that they were impotent, which again was proved wrong.
  • This reiterates what Ram Rahim said in his statement to the court that he is impotent since 1990.
Godmen who took the shelter of impotency to prove their godliness

Self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's statement on impotency at the court somehow draws a pattern that links all the godmen in the past who have used the shelter of "cosmic sex" and its connection with spirituality to prove a point. Interestingly, when they blatantly talk of a form of intercourse, they also contradict by saying that they are "impotent" and are unable to perform sexual intercourse. Like Ram Rahim, there was Asaram Bapu and the infamous Swami Nithyananda who resorted to the same path of defending themselves. 

In fact, there were more who took a slight deviation from the same to prove a similar point of "child-like" behaviour and 'Godliness'. The Kerala godman's claims of having slashed his own testicles in the bobbitising incident is a case in point. Ram Rahim too coined a unique phrase for his leela "Pitaji ki Maafi". Nithyananda told his victims that they were engaging in Madhura Bhava or the relationship that a lover has with a god. The child sex abuse allegations levied on Sathya Sai Baba were counter argued as the "good luck chance". Alleged survivors in Sai Baba's case claimed that the chief encouraged oral sex under this programme.

There is one innocuous point that remains hidden in all the above cases-the play of power and the feeling of invincibility. Having built a militia around them, all of them have trained themselves to believe that they are 'next to God' and the court will be believe them too.

Incidentally, the power that they have been exercising on the crowd, blinded by faith, fails to charm the judiciary. However, here's a list of godmen who have been attempting to fool justice in their own unique ways.

Ram Rahim Singh: His claim that he was "impotent since 1990" has both irked and amused his audience at court, who blurted out immediately "but you have two daughters". That must have stopped him right there. But that is not to be. Ram Rahim continued to convince the judge that 'everything' was fine till 1990 when his "manliness" cascaded and he started behaving like a child in the spiritual path toward God. He said that he was incapable of performing sexual intercourse and therefore there was no possibility of raping the two Sadhvis in 1999. Based on the statement of a hostel warden in the Dera hostel, who said that the chief's daughters were boarded there, the court said, "This very fact speaks volumes about virility of the accused... at least two daughters have born out of loin of the accused."

Asaram Bapu: The 72-year-old godman had initially refused to undergo the potency test, following his claim that he was impotent. The godman had initially objected to co-operate with the 3 doctors who were to do the test on him. However, he agreed giving the experiment a godly name again. He said that the body was "nashwar" (mortal) and that they could do anything to it. Interestingly, the godman, who allegedly raped a 16-year-old girl passed the potency in the very first stage where physical stimulation was required.


Swami Nithyananda: There were innumerable survivors of rape, who were exploited under the pretext of divine rituals, in Swami Nithyananda's ashram. The survivor of his 'divine' encounters with god have spoken of non-disclosure agreements and sex contracts that they had to sign. These were all masked in the guise of a 'Learning from the Master' programme. This programme, however, enrolled only a chosen few who would be very close to Swamiji and help him in running the foundation. These men and women were given two sets of non-disclosure agreement contracts to sign in the presence of the leader. Most of them signed the contract in blind faith, without even reading the texts that indicated sexual encounters during the course of the 'programme'.The contract read: 

"Volunteer understands that the Program may involve the learning and practice of ancient tantric secrets associated with male and female ecstasy, including the use of sexual energy for increased intimacy/spiritual connection, pleasure, harmony, and freedom. Volunteer understands that these activities could be physically and mentally challenging, and may involve nudity, access to visual images, graphic visual depictions, and descriptions of nudity and sexual activity, close physical proximity and intimacy, verbal and written descriptions and audio sounds of a sexually oriented, and erotic nature, etc". "By reading and signing this addendum, Volunteer irrevocably. acknowledges that he/she is voluntarily giving his unconditional acceptance of such activities and discharges the Leader and the Foundation, and anyone else not specifically mentioned here but directly or indirectly involved in the organization, management, or conduct of any such programs from any liability, direct or indirect, arising from such activities." The last half of the agreement clearly indicated the involvement of the leader himself in such activities. 

Despite that, when Nithyanand was caught, he pleaded that he was unable to engage in sexual interourse because he was impotent. Nevertheless, the medical reports stated otherwise. The report suggested that the testosterone levels of the godman was at 12.50 ng/dl, whereas the normal male of 20 to 49 years should record 249 ng/dl. But this could be due to blockage of testosterone by exogenous sources like drugs. However, even that was in the negative. 

Sreehari alias Gangeshananda Theerthapada: He is said to be raping a woman since she was a minor. However, she retaliated the last time he attempted to rape her in the name of divine union, the woman slashed his testicles. The baba, however, denied that anything of that sort had happened and that he had himself slashed them for religious purpose. 

While there is no way one could now prove Sreehari's potency, it is clear that he and many self-styled godmen like him have certainly tried to hide behind the sham of impotency to protect themselves from the clutches of the judiciary. 

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