I was Discriminated and Sexually Assaulted for being🔗

a Western Hindu

She been tormented, sexually harassed and almost deported from India just because she is a disciple of His Divine Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda. She is evidence of how the poison of the Media Mafia seeps into every fabric of society, and the power that the same media wields in the conspiracy to destroy Sanatana Hindu Dharma, Hindu Saints and their followers.

Guru and Our Hearts

I was in India, having just completed my first residential program in the aadheenam (monastery) when the media attack first hit the news. Some friends and I were in Haridwar, for the Kumbh Mela, and we found out what had happened through a series of confusing emails from aadheenam coordinators. They told us to be extremely careful, take off our malas, and don’t tell anyone we are Swamiji’s disciples. This made no sense to us, since everywhere we went, from Madurai in the south to Varanasi and Vrindavan, everyone who saw our malas treated us very nicely and folded their hands in front of His photos. We ignored the email, thinking it must be some confusion or something local to Bengaluru, and continued our journey

Officials

In March of 2018, I was verbally accosted and held up by Immigration Officers at Bengaluru International Airport. Now, I’m wearing kavi, the sacred saffron cloth of a renunciant, and I have my hair in Shiva Jatas, the traditional dreadlock style. As soon as he saw me, the officer at the front of my queue told me I had to step out of the line. I asked why, and he told me that I had written the wrong flight information on my landing card. I pulled the plane ticket out of my bag, double checked it against the landing card and told him it is accurately written. He didn’t even look, he just said, ‘No’. I was confused and I had to go to the table at the side and ask for a new landing card.

With knots in my stomach, I walked to the side table. I knew I was being singled out for being Swamiji’s disciple, and there was nothing I could do about it. I asked the man behind the table for a fresh landing card, and he laughed, saying, ‘We don’t give landing cards here.’

I told him that the other man had sent me to him to get a fresh landing card, and he ignored the statement, saying, ‘You’re here because you’re Nithyananda person.’

With his broken English, it was hard to communicate, but I tried my best to explain my Visa was new and I was traveling within my legal rights. He snatched the passport out of my hand, as well as my plane ticket stubs and landing card, and went behind a glass partition. I could see him scrutinizing my papers, chatting with other officers, and drinking something.

After about half an hour, all the other passengers from my flight had gone through, and I was still sitting there, alone. A female officer came up to me, circled the table a few times laughing, then put her face in my face, laughing openly. I asked her what was so funny, and she said, ‘You, Madam.’

I told her I was not being funny, and that her laughter was inappropriate, but she kept laughing in my face.

This treatment is expected at a bar or a brothel, but it continues to elude me that uniformed officials claiming to serve the people of India can be so uncultured and ignorant! Finally, after an hour had passed, I made a phone call to one of my friends in Bangalore. It was 2:00 a.m. and I didn't want to disturb anyone, but I couldn't take any more of the rude treatment, especially when the lady officer told me they weren't going to let me enter India. I asked my friend to call the Sangha lawyers and send them to Kempegowda Airport and ask for Sarah Landry, which is my legal name. I also asked him to call the Aadheenam and have a team sent to protest this unfair detention and to also make calls to all the local news channels. When I had opened up publicly about the harassment in 2012, News 9 and National News had both ran stories about it, saying that all opinions about Swamiji aside, women should not be mistreated in the airport like this. I reminded him of those stories and said to tell the journalists I was again being held without ground by Immigration and that if they didn't let me through, I'll give all the journalists interviews from Canada upon my return. He agreed to do this for me.

As soon as I ended my call, the lady officer looked frightened and ran to inform the others of what I had said. I saw their faces drop behind the glass partition. The man who had my passport came rushing back to me, and returned all my papers, saying, 'Please just go.' He stamped my passport and let me into India.

I asked, 'Don't I need to write a new landing card?'

But he ignored that question, proving my suspicion: I hadn't made any mistake, they just used that lie as an excuse to legitimize discriminating against me on the basis that I follow His Divine Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda.

Nithyananda

Swamiji is the greatest blessing in my life, and the attack against Him is the greatest sorrow. The incidents I've outlined here, the death threats I get from random people on Facebook, the sexual assault I receive on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, and the continued harassment by Immigration Officers are nothing compared to the pain and suffering I feel when I see Swamiji being denied the basic human rights, being illegally arrested, and having 50 assassination attempts on His life. I want nothing more than to serve His mission and let the world know He is alive and ready to bless them! This prayer of mine has been thwarted by His detractors long enough, and now it's my sincere hope

that by reading this and seeing the Nithyananda Truth page, you will find it in your heart to help us put an end to this persecution.