Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar, student of English Department, MK Bhavnagar University. This blog i have written as a response to Thinking Activity, Which is a Part of my academic Work. Which we get after each unit. In this blog, i am going to discuss about one Docuseries by Discovery+(2022) named My Daughter Joined a Cult based on life of one Indian 'Sadhu' named Swami Nityananda.
'My Daughter Joined a Cult' Following the life of the controversial and self-styled godman, Swami Nithyananda,He is the founder of the trust Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, which has temples, gurukulas, and ashrams in many countries. The series giving a voice to individuals who were at the epicenter of it all. First episode of this Docuseries released on 9 June 2022 in English Language. The series directed by Naman Saraiya. The series is about a Cult and trapping of women by cult. To understand the series it is important to understand meaning of cult first.
What is Cult?
Cult is a type of religion or religious group, especially one that is considered unusual. In another meaning, Cult means a person or thing that has become popular with a particular group of people.
An older sense of the word cult involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture, are related to a particular figure, and are often associated with a particular place.References to the "cult" of a particular Catholic saint, or the imperial cult of ancient Rome, for example, use this sense of the word. In the 1930s, cults became the object of sociological study in the context of the study of religious behavior.
Mind controller :
'My Daughter Joined a Cult' webseries showing how cult trapping girls and controlling people's mind. The story based on real life story of Swami Nityanand and his cult, Swami Nityanand pretending himself as a 'avtara' of Lord Shiva. His aashram known as 'Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam', where people from various States and country living. They all have to follow rules decided by Nityananda and his team while living in 'Aashram' and if they dare to disobey their rules, they got punished harshly. Still no one raised voice against him, that the way he control mind of people.
Cult controlling behavior of people
People feel they do not belong and go searching for somewhere to fit in, and in many cases, unknowingly end up joining a cult. A cult consists of a group of followers that are completely devoted to a leader. Cult leaders have a way of preying upon vulnerable people and roping them into situations they do not fully understand.Behavior modification is a tool that cults often use on their followers. This technique uses different kinds of positive and negative punishment and reinforcements, to reach the desired behavior. Members are taught to stop the doubts about the cult that enter their minds and replace them with good thoughts about the cult or with a key phrase that they repeat over and over. Some cults use techniques that prey on the phobias or fears of the members. They often threaten that bad things will happen to them, such as developing cancer or going insane, if they ever leave the group. Some groups take it to the extreme levels of mass suicide.
In this webserie, Swami Nityananda use various kind of punishments to control people's behavior. For example there id one incident in which a girl named Sangeetha, who refused to live in Nityananda's 'ashrama' and found dead after sometime. So this is the punishment for her of going against the cult.
Trapping by Nityananda
Swami Nityananda was excellent speaker. He mesmerized his devotees by his speech. He used say that, "The moment you sit in front of me, enlightenment starts". This is the reason that large number of people fall for him, including educated and rich people. Also he has many foreign devotees, just like other 'Guru'. In one of the part of Series we find two foreign devotes named Jordan Lozada and Sarah Landry were talking about the treatment given to them in the asharam. And the point they made was they got better treatment than other national or rural devotees because they are foreigners.
Many of their followers came as a whistleblowers. They left the cult and share their experiences with all. The series is all about their life stories, from they joined cult to detached themselves from the cult of Nityananda. Main person who telling the story is anonymous woman, who Sharing her experience of been part of the cult of Nityananda. She talked that how Nityananda trap people, shouting on his devotes. She also talked that Nityananda divided his trusted people into various committees and gave them different works like management of ashram, cleaning, social media and promotion of ashram etc.
Experience of Sarah Landry and Jordan Loazada.
There are two foreign disciples who was part of Nityananda's cult and share their story in webseries. One of them was Jordan Loazada who help to revealed homosexuality of Nityananda. While sharing his experience, he said that he has to go to serve Nityananda as a duty, one day Nityananda forced him for homosexual relation and he had no way out of Nityananda's decision.
The another disciple was Sarah Landry, who was named as a Sudevi after joining the cult of Nityananda who claimed himself as a avtara of Lord Shiva. She was social media manager and highly influenced by Swami Nityananda. She had large number of followers in social media, Nityananda very much aware about usage of social media to let people in into his cult. So he used to gave targets to Sarah, that in each of his speech and meetings Sarah has to bring as much as people she can bring by social media usage. And as sarah share her experience that whenever she fail to fulfill the target given by Nityananda, she was punished and has to listen abused words from Nityananda.
Also she shared her story that how she physically abused by Nityananda. She said that she was "brainwashed". Nityananda ordered her to be physical with him for her own person development as he said that sarah is a form of 'Shakti' and to Awake her 'Shakti' she has to be physical with him. She also forced to share her nude selfi and photos as a part of her own personal development and goods. She said that,
"If we don't do as he tells us, we are made to seem like a raakshas (devil)."
She also met two girls in foreign land when she sent there to convince that Nation's government for helping Nityananda and for giving protection to Nityananda. The girls were from same asharam of Sarah, and yet she wasn't aware how they get beaten up and tortured and locked up in the underground cages. She heard all about this from small girls, and that's the turning point which detached her from cult. She removed her 'Kavi', meand saffron robes and chronicle that they have to wear while in the ashram. She Also neglected her identity as a 'Kailashians'. And never go back to the asharam. After a long time she put video in which she announced bad desires and deeds of Nityananda. Here is the video by Sarah Landry.
Role of Journalists
There are several Journalists who played vital role in this docu- series. There are several news reporters took interview of Nityananda and try to reveal his true side. One of them is Dhanya Rajendran. Founder of The NewsMinute. While working for Times Now channel, he took revealing interview of Nityananda and documentary shows how he was forced to get out of ashram and abused by words and labelled liar.
Controversial Death of Sangeetha
'My Daughter joined a Cult' webseries also includes controversial death of Sangeetha, 24 year old girl, deciple of Swami Nityananda, living under his shadow in the ashram. One day she call her mother Jansi Rani from unknown number and show her desire to flee from ashram as she seems tired of living there. And within a few months she found dead and reason given to her mother was Heart attack. Her mother wasn't ready to accept this reason for her daughters death, she filed case against Nityananda and fought till last but she lost the case. And Nityananda never got punishment.
Nityananda's Own Country
Following accusations and charges of rape and abduction in Indian courts, Nithyananda fled India and went into hiding. He subsequently announced the founding of his own self-proclaimed island nation called 'Kailaasa'. He introduced his own Currency and rules there. Also they have their own national anthem, and flag. This showing how one can commit crime at one place and live happily at another place.
Against the narration that this webseries making of Nityananda, there is YouTube video, in which a girl from the cult of Nityananda saying her good experience and benefits of living in the cult of Nityananda. Do watch it here.
