Swamis and Priests Have Something in Common: Scandal
With the uproar over the on-going Catholic Church sex scandal, one can easily miss sex scandals in other religions. This week we turn to India, where "god men" - called sadhu, swami or baba - have been getting caught with their metaphorical and literal pants down.
Many of the god men in India are "self-proclaimed, and they are being increasingly outed as hypocrites and fakes," said retired banker Ravi Ghatge. "Then everybody finds out that there is not an iota of spirituality in any of them," he added.
A couple examples:
A New Delhi holy man called Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj was caught running a call girl racket that found woman for influential members of Indian society, including politicians.
A man called Swami Nithyananda whose ashram has branches all over the world was caught having sex on camera. His defense was to claim that the whole thing was faked, and that the video had been digitally altered. A second tape then came out with Nithyananda having sex with a different person. He confessed and fled his ashram.
There's an unfortunate common link between the Catholic scandal and the Indian scandals: There have been allegations of rape and child sexual abuse in both religions.
In India, these scandals happen often enough that the president of the Indian Rationalists Association said, "This swami thing is not for new India."