Vishwananda

Bhakti Marga views itself standing in the tradition of Sri Vaishnava, into which Vishwananda has been initiated.[5] It represents vishishtadvaita as philosophy, translated as qualified monism. According to it, all souls are a part of God and can reflect him, but are not identical with him.[7] The aim of the teaching is to purify the soul through devotion to God. This is done by repeating mantras (e.g. the ashtakshara mantra), singing bhajans, rituals (pujas and yajnas) and karma yoga.

Apart from that, Vishwananda claims to be a master of kriya yoga in the tradition of Babaji, teaching his own version of the technique, called Atma Kriya Yoga.[2]

Every Bhakti Marga Ashram has at least one temple, which in turn often contains several idols representing deities. In addition to various Hindu deities, Vaishnava and non-vaishnava, Babaji and Ramanuja are worshipped as gurus in the main temple in Springen.[3] The main deities in Sri Vaishnava are Narayana and Lakshmi,[8][9] who are also worshiped in the Bhakti Marga temples.[4] However, many other deities are also worshiped, some of which belong to the Vaishnava pantheon (Radha and Krishna), but some of them do not. This worship of non-vaishnava gurus and deities, like Shiva and Durga,[10] distinguishes Bhakti Marga form other Vaishnava religions, like Shri Vaishnava, or Gaudiya Vaishnava, which is known in western countries mainly through the Hare Krishna movement.[11][5]

In addition, the Ashram in Springen contains a Russian Orthodox chapel, in which there are also relics of Christian saints.[2] It is not uncommon in the syncretistic system of Hinduism for Christ to be viewed as the avatar of Vishnu. However, there are currently no liturgical services in the chapel. Building of the temple has cost more than one million euros. The movement claims to have between 30 to 50 centres or temples worldwide, some of them rather small.[3]

In November 2020 it became known that Bhakti Marga in Kirchheim in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district of Hesse wants to set up its Hindu Germany center in the area of the Seepark Kirchheim holiday complex, which includes its own lake.[12][13]

In January 2022 Bhakti Marga purchased a former Catholic Church in West Elmira, the former Our Lady of Lourdes parish, to become it's first Ashram and temple in America.[14][15] According to Swami Tulsidas, Bhakti Marga's representative in North America, the main deity in the new ashram will be that of Narasimha, the Hindu man-lion, an Avatar of Vishnu.[16]

Various newspapers in Switzerland (Tagesanzeiger, Basellandschaftliche Zeitung) reported that Guru Vishwananda stole relics from 25 churches and monasteries with the help of two women who were his disciples. According to the newspaper, Vishwananda claimed that his actions only wanted to save the relics from destruction in an imminent war of relics.[17] According to the managing director of Bhakti Marga, Swami Vishwananda has a previous conviction in Switzerland for disturbing the peace of the dead.[18]

There are known allegations of sexual misconduct by previous followers of the guru's homosexual activities with disciples, including Brahmacharis of his organization. Sect representatives of the Evangelical Church in Germany Institute for Research on Religious and Ideological Issues are aware of this and have reported sexual assault, ranging from social pressure to rape.[2][1][19] This led to the temporal dissolution of his organization's national branches in the US and UK in 2008.

In a TV documentary by the Hessischer Rundfunk from January 2022, several alleged victims were interviewed and the guru was accused of sexual abuse.[20][21][22] The office of the district attorney in Wiesbaden confirmed several reports, which, however, would not have led to charges since they didn't find any clear proof. Vishwananda dismissed all allegations of sexual transgressions through his lawyer as reported by the HR.[23]

In a lawsuit between Bhakti Marga and the HR, seven provisional injunctions were issued by a German court in march 2022, which prohibited public allegations of sexual misconduct as reported widely by major German newspapers.[24][25][26] Vishwananda filed an affidavit at the court, declaring that he never sexually assaulted anybody. Other injunctions though were rejected by the court, for example, it was permitted to report, that the guru was seeking devotion, and sexual contact to young men. Reports about 'abuse of power', the organisation being 'totalitarian' were seen as a legitimate opinions by the court, or the evaluation, that former members would be still traumatized and suffering, were also allowed. Consequently, the TV report was taken down from the media library of the ARD. From the podcast, still 5 of the original 6 episodes are online, while one was slightly modified.[21] Since the court case is still ongoing, the HR did not make any statements if they would contest the injunctions.

Vishwananda refers to various traditions that he claims to represent. He claims to be in the tradition of Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya and to carry out initiations in their name. Officials of the Sri Vaishnava, however, state that he is not authorized to teach in the name of this tradition.[5]

Vishwananda also pretended to be the bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. Bhakti Marga maintains a Russian Orthodox style chapel in Springen, which also contains a box with relics. In fact, Vishwananda was originally ordained as Priest Michael by the Apostolic Orthodox Church (AOC). In the meantime, however, he has been excommunicated from the mother church, the Catholic Orthodox Apostolic Church (COAC).[27]

On March 17, 2018, Bhakti Marga carried out a group chanting at the Buchenwald concentration camp, which led to protests from politics in advance. Corresponding om-chanting sessions were also held in other locations of former concentration camps, for example on December 10, 2016 at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Critics accused Bhakti Marga to exploit and relativize the holocaust.[28][29]