Serious safety concerns at Nithyananda Ashram - Facebook posts by Jesse

FaceBook Post by Jesse to alert Nithyananda himself of the safety problems

This post was made on 14th October 2017 after Jesse had exhausted other avenues of attempting to have safety issues considered seriously at the ashram of Nithyananda in Bidadi.

It was made to:

1. Get the attention of Nithyananda himself as other senior people at the ashram seemed intent on covering up safety problems.
2. Receive feedback from those in the actual industry of Aerial Arts on Safety and in particular on the Corde Lisse ropes in comparison to what the ashram was using for participants and for their Guinness Records attempt .

The actual post is available at https://www.facebook.com/groups/622174321133562/permalink/1992465394104441/

A full page version can be seen https://m.facebook.com/groups/622174321133562?view=permalink&id=1997985603552420

October 14

I sadly feel compelled to make a public statement to those I see with an interest in Aerial Acrobatic and esp #CordeLisse safety and anyone interested in or associated with the Nithyananda Sangha.

I can no longer at this time give any endorsement to the #Yogitvaprogram, or in turn the Sangha, and feel I must give warning to others about this.

So I make this a detailed albeit long post and do so publicly as to put this all out in the open especially as expressing concerns in private to the organisers is met with severe judgement, evasiveness and even retaliatory action.

I have, in the past, promoted #Yogitva at the Bidadi Sangha of @Paramahamsa Nithyananda It is with deep regret that I can no longer endorse these programs and must take the drastic step of recommending against any involvement with these groups.

I have tagged Sri Nithyananda Swami on this so if he is not complicit in this, he can do something about what appears to me to be rogue operators using dishonest practices to promote him. (Recently I have found out that Adheenavasis receive 10% of payments for courses they teach or that they get people to sign up for)I came to #Yogitva as the least expensive course I had seen with the Nithyananda Sangha. It was US$500 for 21 days and promoted as a very in depth Yogic course focussed around #ShivaStumha (#Mallakhumba) for men and #KundaliniRajju(#CordeLisse) for women. And that these were the most ancient and best practices from Shiva himself for ultimately spiritual enlightenment. The course would also result in participants becoming "Acharyas" and taking this sport to the world operating our own centres.

Although open to possibility, I was somewhat sceptical to some of the promoted "powers" (shaktis initiated by Paramahamsa Nithyananda not requiring practice as siddhis do) including the shakti of yoga so that one could do instantly far more yoga practices than without such initiation. Also having health problems I was very interested in the promises of healing at the Sangha and the promise in #Yogitva of sleeping in a very high energy space that we needed to bring our own sleeping bags to be in. (This location was never disclosed, and instead we were put into a cheap motel at a cost of ~USD$6 ea where we spend very little time and consequently obtained very little sleep)

Thus my reasons for this course were both spirtual and physical.

None of us knew this at the time, but the organisers were aware that the underlying reason for this course (as revealed to me after the event by an organiser) was to ultimately create a foundation to be able to obtain some Guinness World Records for promotion purposes.

They are now promoting this course as 7 days long as per https://innerawakening.org/yogitva and the promotion certainly makes it sound amazing. For the 21 day advert, it was even more amazing. It is still indicated that in 7 days you are preparing your body for the bighest state of oneness. Although becoming an Acharya is not shown on the page, accompanying youtube and facebook promotion indicates one will be certified as an Acharya to teach others on behalf of the organisation.

I was attempting to understand what rope standards should be, especially as I had concerns over certain ropes used.

From my research, the generally accepted for #CordeLisse using a pleated rope by safety conscious suppliers is:

- Load 10 % or less of lowest break strength

- Cotton with soft texture

- 30-35mm diameter

- Flexible for conforming to body

- Proven anchor points rated much higher than load

Recently, much thinner ropes were brought in for student use.

- ~12mm diameter

- Plastic texture

- Quite elastic/stretchy. ~20cm stretch over 4m for 85kg.

- Stiffer than would feel desirable such that they do not conform as well to tighter curves of the body.

These presented numerous safety issue, including:

- Tearing of the skin of participants

- Deep bruising and arterial damage, especially on inner arms for 10cm or so around the elbow crease and somewhat on legs

- Muscular damage especially thighs and upper legs.

Amongst others, I brought these issues and dangers to the attention of the organisers along with my concerns over public statements that were made that all the ropes even obtained at the last minute were safe and met the high safety standards. To me this was dishonest promotion.

Unfortunately I only received emotionally charged defense of the ropes and other safety issues.

As most things at the Sangha seem highly disorganised, ineffiennt and projects are put together in a rush with volunteers working through the nights with no sleep, the Guinness Record attempts were no exception. The additionally required ropes were organised at the last minute and choice was limited. Thus the skinny ropes were all that could be obtained to meet the required number of ropes as per the Guinness attempt (4 people per rope and a total of at least 250 people to do the Guinness attempt meaning a minimum of 63 ropes... I think there were 70 ropes total)

Certainly at the start of the course, there was no documention whatsoever. A scant power point presentation was put together ad hoc during the course but has not to my knowledge been made available to participants and did not include safety specifications. However, at the start of the course, female participants were told to only use correct ropes and shown a 30mm+ sheathed type Corde Lisse rope.

Thus if they had not compromised rope safety and for the shortage of ropes chose ~12mm "climbing ropes" instead, they would not have been able to receive the Guiness records Guinness record. For me this calls into question the validity of the record itself.

I am unable to even obtain tested breaking strains for these other ropes and their "experts" said they would be safe if used within 2 weeks of purchase. At at the minimum 1/3 the breaking strain of standard ropes assuming correct materials buy 1/3 the diameter, this itself is a concern. How Guinness Records can accept they are safe so long as used within 2 weeks without any other specifications is beyond even my imagination.

One rope broke during the event or became untied ( I have heard conflicting accounts) while a participant was suspended from the rope. Fortunately he was not in an inverted posture/asana at the time.

Although there were crash mats in this event, there was never any training on how to fall or break falls and most of the participants in the event had never been on a rope before. The massive class was held with the teacher on stage and limited people with any experience to supervise what was happening directly.

In the other Guinness World Records Guinness Record, a Malakhamba event, there were insufficient crash mats and thin mats were used to inadequately cover asphalt and dangerous square beam bars beneath. It was a hot day, participants were kept in the sun for hours and at least one participant fainted, fortunately not while on the pole as the pole he was on had insufficient thin mats and metal beams beneath.

However, back to the the safety of these ropes, it goes beyond the breaking strain as the other characteristics of the rope were unsafe:

- Size and Stretch - significantly increased the pressure on parts of the body the rope was wrapped around to support the bodies weight

- Plastic Like Texture - Was far more conducive to tearing of the skin.

There were numerous other serious safety issues on the premises at the Bidadi Ashram, many of these placed students life in SERIOUS danger.

- A massive ad hoc UPS powered by dozens of truck batteries powered a media room #Yogitva students were based in. Poor wiring and components resulted in an electrical fire while participants were in the room (It took me probably more than 2 minutes to trace back to wiring to its source to turn off the supply because the wiring was such a mess with cables in rats nests across the floor in two directions. I pointed out to organisers that then needed RCD's on the units, and I dont believe this was implemented prior to the next incident)

- Just days later having students clear out water from this same flooded room with live electrical cables completely immersed in the water (Again nobody realised this problem until I saw it probably an hour after other students were standing in the water trying to bucket it out. Actually two people continued to use the power for their online promotional presentation

- Only allowing participants 2-4 hours sleep per night

I have been met with massive resistance by organizers to my requests to provide specifics on safe specifications and safety of the thinner rope they defend as being endorsed.

The organizers wishes for us to take these practices to the world. However, I am very uncomfortable with not even being able to receive a standard on for example rope specifications to use. Especially when they then make statements about it being a spiritual practice so it is safe regardless of anything else. (See their statements below)

Especially as this is now linked with Guinness World Records that they are using for authenticating their group and rope practices I feel compromised safety attitudes are very dangerous to the overall industry.

See this from their new #Yogitva advertising:

“During this program, you will be trained into Nithyananda Shivastambha℠ yoga and Nithyananda Kundalini Rajju℠ yoga by skilled Yoga acharyas( and Guinness World Record holders!) who have been initiated into this sacred science by The Avatar Himself!”

The video I have linked shows the basic moves first taught during the Guinness records attempt using also the skinny ropes which resulted in injuries, however, the actual rope in the video I think is a correct Corde Lisse rope unlike the "climbing" ropes I am specifically questioning.

These are some of the organizers responses to raising concerns on the ropes and requesting what safe specifications should be for rope selection:

"The ropes were climbing ropes"

"Two Mallakambh masters of over 30 years experience assured us those ropes are safe. They said after 2 weeks they should not be used, but since they were brand new they would be perfectly fine"

"Those ropes were in no means unsafe. They are climbing ropes."

"The Ropes we use normally are thicker for comfort and consistent use for rope yoga." (Ed: I believe the normal ropes meet the Corde Lisse standards I delineated above)

"Safety of participants was in no means compromised by use of climbing Ropes."

"GUINESS (records) checked the safety of the Ropes for hours" (Ed: What qualifications do Guinness have to assess safety? It is unclear how they checked and what standards if any were used by Guiness Records)

"As seekers why would we waste our complete energy on worrying about the unknown? A core principle of spirituality is trusting that life CARES and provides for you! This is literally the safest space on planet earth, we are in the cosmic womb." (Ed: In addition to electrical problems aforementioned, during our time there two people were crushed under a one tonne statue falling on them and required immediate ambulancing to hospital; Also one rope fell while participants were on it, fortunately it was not when they were in an inverted posture/asana)

"The rajju ropes were actual rajju ropes that were demoed and tested . The new ropes were rough but they arr rajju ropes"

"We are not that desperate for guinness to use any sub standard rope and you should know that Swamiji or any of us in the sangha wouldnt allow any such thing"

"Uday deshpande is one of the top most authority on rope and pole yoga and he was very satisfied with the safety standards and it was u guys who had perfectly safe ropes of the highest tensile strength which is why 1/3rd of the size of ropes "braided" is perfectly acceptable or else u should no guinnness would have simply disqualified the whole event"

(Ed: 1/3 of a rope cannot equate to the whole rope for more reasons than just safe load bearing capacity)

"#Mallakhamb/#Shivastambha has never been about ‘safety.’ It’s about raising consciousness and reaching enlightenment. Of course, in the modern day, safety has to be addressed differently because of views from foreigners like you. In India, I’ve seen kids practice virabadrasana with nothing but hard rocks below them, Jesse."

" The traditional practice happens on virtually any vertical object.. Everything from a pole, hanging pole, stone pillar (as Swamiji was taught) and even a thin piece of cane!"

" The ropes will hold 99.99% of the time. But again, even when it comes to cane Mallakhamb, the probability of the cane snapping is A PART of the practice. Are we saying it’s a part of ours, absolutely not. But take that into consideration at the very least."

I would really appreciate the responses to this situation of those that are experienced in Corde Lisse safety, especially for beginners being taught. Thankyou.

4 Days later after receiving only insults, threats and lies from the people at the Nithyananda organisation and being cut off from their groups, and nothing at all from Nithyananda, a second post was made:

October 18USE OF EMPTY SHEATH OF CORDE LISSE SAFE?
In discussion with someone today, a nice person, but having some difficulty getting her to realise that if people compromise safety of others they should not be protected , I was reminded of a blatant rope safety issue further to that already posted.
To facilitate a Guinness World Records for class size, Nithyananda Kundalini Rajju group used non standard ropes for Corde Lisse. Most were 12mm stretchy bad, and arguably dangerous ropes, but at least one was ONLY THE SHEATH of a #CordeLisse rope.
I was told one of the ropes broke DURING the Guiness attempt and Guinness were aware of this. Perhaps it was one of the sheaths only. Regardless how can anyone justify the use of a empty sheath only for Corde Lisse including inverted posture for beginners in a class 😱😱😱Also the organisers told Guinness that all ropes met safety standards.
How could this be anything but a blatant lie?
And how can Guinness World Records call this the largest class if safety is not part of the class?
Further details are in this post https://www.facebook.com/groups/622174321133562/permalink/1992465394104441/Care to comment Guinness World Records Primetime?
Care to comment Corde Lisse practicers or suppliers?

16 days later a post was made to see if any response could be obtained from the alleged endorser of the safety standards at the event... crickets!

October 30Dear Mr Deshpande Uday Vishwanath
I have been advised that you have have endorsed all safety practices and equipment at a recent Guinness World Records new event called Kundalini Rajju but fitting into the more established category of Aerial Arts of Corde Lisse.
I am aware of your reputation and desire to promote #Mallakhamba so am surprised to hear of your endorsement of what seems to be clearly unsafe practices and equipment, especially for beginners, and thus unconscionable disregard for participants.
This included using the #Sheath of a #CordeLisse #Mallakhamb#KundaliniRajju rope without the actual rope inside, for beginner participants to perform asanas including an INVERTED asana.
A rope fell or broke also with a beginner participant on the "rope", luckily not when inverted.
Can you confirm please that you have been portrayed correctly in endorsing this as safe?
I ask this as the organisers repeatedly have defended their use of equipment using your name as their justification.
Also can you please provide what you would consider good specifications for a safe rope to use for someone close to 100kg in weight, for various asanas including inversion, and considering not just breaking strength but other factors such as potential tearing of skin, damage to blood vessels and muscles from inadequate rope thickness or excessive elasticity?
Additionally, elastic ropes used with a plastic feel of about 12mm diameter I have been told you endorse, so long as they are used within 2 weeks of purchase. If you did indeed make such a statement, can you please explain why these may be unsafe after 2 weeks but ok within 2 weeks?
Thankyou