Vishwananda

Vishwananda was born in 1978 into a Hindu family in Beau Bassin-Rose Hill, Mauritius.[1][5]

According to reports from family members Vishwananda had a special spiritual inclination already in his childhood and youth. Instead of playing, he preferred prayer and visits to holy places. Supposedly at the age of five he had an apparition while he was in the hospital of Mahavatar Babaji, whom he recognized as his personal guru.[6]

In his youth, Vishwananda apparently often visited the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba in Puttaparthi. There he learned about the "supernatural abilities" (siddhis) that Sai Baba was known for. He later broke away from the guru, but took up the practice of "materializing" vibhuti (holy ash), jewellery, flowers and even golden lingams.[2] Still in Mauritius, when he was around 20 years old Vishwananda made contact with European tourists.

Since 1998 he was invited to Switzerland and England,[4] and later to Germany, Poland, South Africa, Portugal and other countries where Bhakti Marga now has smaller centres. More and more followers started to gathered around the seemingly charismatic Vishwananda during darshans. During these events there is singing of Bhajans, the guru gives lectures, and touches his followers at the third eye as a form of shaktipat and distributes vibhuti.[6]

Around the year 2000 he was baptized and said he would receive messages from Jesus and Mother Mary.[2] In 2004, he purchased a property in the small village of Steffenshof in Hunsrück, Rhineland-Palatinate, and expanded into an ashram.[6] There, in July 2005, he established the organisation Bhakti Marga.[4] He began to initiate men and women into celibate brahmacharis and later on into swamis as well. Married people could also become members as devotees. Vishwananda teaches his own version of kriya yoga called Atma Kriya Yoga.[2]

In June 2007, the Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger reported that Vishwananda stole relics from 25 churches and monasteries with the help of two women who were his disciples. According to the newspaper, Vishwananda said that he only wanted to save the relics from destruction in an imminent war of relics.[7] According to the managing director of Bhakti Marga, Swami Vishwananda has a previous conviction in Switzerland for disturbing the peace of the dead.[8]

In 2008, Bhakti Marga acquired the former conference and seminar house of the "ver.di" trade union in Springen, a larger property near the Rhine-Main area.[6]

Mahamandaleshwara initiation

On July 11, 2015, a peace pole and a certificate was conveyed to Swami Vishwananda for his outstanding accomplishments for world peace over the last 20 years. Swami Vishwananda, so it says, "helps the people to connect elements from eastern spirituality with elements of the western spiritual tradition gives people access to a very personal experience with the Divine, regardless of culture, gender or age".[9]

In September 2015, he has been granted the title Mahamandaleshwara by Nirmohi Akhada, the first guru outside of India to be awarded the title.[2][10]

In August 2023, Focus reported that Vishwananda, who had been previously consecrated as a Russian Orthodox priest, had maintained a Russian-Orthodox-style chapel in Springen, even after he had been excommunicated.[3]

In a January 2022 television and podcast documentary by Hessischer Rundfunk, the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation, several alleged victims were interviewed and Vishwananda was accused of sexual abuse.[11][12] In response, Bhakti Marga filed suit against Hessischer Rundfunk in Hamburg Regional Court for false reporting in a TV and podcast production.[13] Vishwananda denied all allegations of sexual transgressions, filing an affidavit at the court through his lawyer.[14]

After a thorough examination, the Hamburg Regional Court came to the conclusion that numerous statements containing the core allegation of alleged sexual abuse were procedurally untrue and therefore inadmissible. These statements were also ruled not permissible as statements of suspicion.[13] Seven provisional injunctions were issued by the district Court of Hamburg in March 2022 which prohibited public allegations of sexual misconduct against Vishwananda as had been widely misreported by major German newspapers.[12][11]

According to the podcast of the Hessischer Rundfunk that had been partially prohibited by the Court of Hamburg due to false claims about sexual abuse, Vishwananda married the German citizen Eva Diehl around the turn of the century.[15]

• Vishwananda, S. S. (2012). Just Love: The Essence of Everything. Bhakti Event Gmbh. ISBN 978-3940381194.
• Vishwananda, P. S. S. (2019). Bhagavad Gita Essentials. Bhakti Marga Publications. ISBN 978-3963430473.
• Vishwananda, P. S. S. (2023). Nārada-bhakti-sūtra: Commentary on the Perfection of Devotion. Bhakti Marga Publications. ISBN 978-3963430985.

• Haigh, Martin J. (2022). "Geogpraphical Spread of Hindu Religion and Culture into the West". In Singh, R. S. (ed.). Practising Cultural Geographies: Essays in Honour of Rana P. B. Singh. Singapore: Springer Nature. pp. 224ff. ISBN 978-9811664151.
• Hawley, J. S. (2020). Krishna's Playground: Vrindavan in the 21st Century. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0190123987.

• Official website