This Fake Country Is Run by a Guru Accused of Rape. How Did It End Up at the UN?

Recently a curious video of a woman—dressed in a turban, sari and elaborate jewellery—speaking at a UN meeting in Geneva went viral. 

The meeting, held on Feb. 24 and open to the public, featured a woman called Vijayapriya Nithyananda from a “country” called the “United States of Kailasa.” She claimed that Kailasa’s “supreme pontiff,” a man named Nithyananda, faces “persecution and human rights violations” for being the torchbearer of Hinduism. 

“He was banned from preaching and exiled from his birth country,” she said. “What measures can be implemented to stop [his] persecution?”

Days after this video went viral on March 2, UN officials told the BBC that that speech wasn’t recorded since it was “irrelevant.” But the video has thrown a spotlight on Nithyananda, a self-styled guru, and the string of prosecutions—not persecution—that he faces in India. And the United States of Kailasa? That doesn’t exist either. 

Self-styled “godmen” or gurus are not uncommon to India, the world’s largest democracy. There, popular gurus have built sprawling empires on the business of spirituality—estimated to be worth over $30 billion in India alone—they’ve forged political connections, and even run parallel governments. Over a dozen high-profile gurus are currently sitting in jail for crimes ranging from rape, murder, and blackmail. 

Allegations of abuse against Nithyananda first appeared in 2010 when police arrested him after a video went viral showing him having sex with an actress. Nithyananda simultaneously claimed he was “practising savasana”—a yoga pose in which you lie face-up on the floor—that he’s impotent, and that the video is doctored. The court ordered him to undergo an impotency test, proving otherwise. He was not convicted, and was released on bail within two months. But subsequent allegations landed him in way more trouble.

Since 2018, he’s been under trial for rape, fraud and criminal intimidation after a police complaint served by two former devotees, including a U.S.-based woman who alleged he raped her several times over the course of five years. In 2019, police launched a manhunt for him following a complaint of child abuse in his ashram.

Nithyananda has denied all charges and published a viral video saying, among other things, “No judiciary can touch me.” 

Then, in 2019, he announced that he had set up his own country, the United States of Kailasa, on an island apparently purchased by his wealthy followers off the coast of Ecuador. The Ecuadorian government was quick to clarify that they’ve neither granted asylum to him, nor is he in the country. India’s Ministry of External Affairs, too, issued a statement saying they had cancelled his passport. Trials based on charges against him are delayed indefinitely since the police say they can’t find him. 

Nithyananda continues to appear in virtual sermons, and his representatives keep showing up at overseas events, including at a dinner party hosted at the British House of Lords last year, causing outrage. This month, a blog called TAPinto Newark published details of officials in the U.S. city signing a sister-city agreement with Kailasa. Newark retracted the agreement days later.

Newark officials told the press that they were deceived into almost recognizing the state of Kailasa. “We hope cities throughout the country and around the world are now alerted to the deceptive activities of this baffling syndicate,” a Newark spokesperson told the New York Post. 

This month, the New York Post also reported that U.S. state California had also signed a certificate of special Congressional recognition for Kailasa in Jan. 2022, which was rescinded soon after as well. 

Nithyananda’s platforms have also published records of receiving a cultural agreement from the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, and another certificate from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for “Kailasa’s Hindu Heritage Month” celebrations. In 2021, the city of Fall River, Massachusetts, signed a letter for a “Kailasa Day” in the city. Fall River officials admitted it was their fault for not being more vigilant. 

A congressional spokesperson from California, who spoke to the NY Post on condition of anonymity, is quoted as saying that they get hundreds of such requests every year and usually, there’s no trouble. But this was a mistake.

“It was an attempt for the group to achieve legitimacy. They exploited our office with a non-binding letter.”

VICE World News reached out to Nithyananda’s representatives, but didn’t hear back at the time of publishing. 

The recent news prompted a response from Nithyananda’s “representatives,” clarifying in one Facebook post that Kailasa is a “borderless service-oriented nation”—a virtual nation in essence. They then denied all allegations against Nithyananda, saying he’s not a fugitive as the Indian authorities label him, but is in an undisclosed location due to “persecution” and “innumerable attempts” on his life. 

In a video statement posted this Thursday, Vijayapriya, the woman speaking at the UN, said: “Kailasa and its representatives have not frauded [sic] anyone, nor are we fake. We are a legitimate organisation.”

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