On the path to enlightenment, one must be lost. Ram Bahadur Bomjon, a Nepalese spiritual leader who became rich and famous after months and months of deep meditation and fasting under a tree in the Piluwa forest, was arrested in Kathmandu after years on the run. The charges are rape of a minor, sexual harassment and kidnapping of at least four followers who mysteriously disappeared from the ashrams – the spiritual communities led by him – founded in the districts of Bara, Sarlahi, Sindhupalchok and Sindhuli.
Known as Buddha Boy, the Nepalese monk became famous in 2005, as a teenager, thanks to the stories of his followers who observed him meditating motionless without needing water, food or sleep. Since then and on several occasions hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Nepal from all over the world to follow the teachings of the young Nepalese monk: the story of Bomjon gained popularity also because it was considered the rebirth of Siddhartha Gautamathe so-called historical Buddha.
Meditation in Piluwa Forest
His case was also examined by the Nepalese government, which however said that it had not collected enough elements to be able to evaluate the situation: it was certain that he did not sleep or eat during the day, but from 5 in the evening to 5 in the morning the monk's body was covered by a cloth. After ten months of – at least on paper – uninterrupted meditation, Bomjan he disappeared only to reappear three years later and say that he had spent this time meditating, alone, in the jungle.
As the documentary tells Little Buddha: The Reality of Ram Bahadur Bomjan, over the years thousands and thousands of followers have made themselves available to the guru, building his fortune which, despite the accusations, has continued to prosper with the work of his network of ashrams, even moving away from traditional Buddhism to create a new religion. When he was arrested, Little Buddha was in possession of cash amounting to 30 million Nepalese rupees – about 225,000 dollars – and another 22,500 dollars in foreign currency from 16 different countries. The key to an SUV, the booklets of three two-wheeled vehicles and various electronic devices were also seized. Laptops, pen drives, iPads and tablets, cell phones.
The allegations of abuse and misconduct against Bomjan they date back more than a decade. In 2010, when dozens of assault complaints were filed against him by the inhabitants of a town where his ashram had been built, he defended himself by saying “that he beat them because they disturbed his meditation”. An 18-year-old accused the guru of raping her in a monastery in 2018 and the police launched another investigation the following year into the disappearance of four of her followers.
The reaction was not well thought out and not at all enlightened Bomjan upon arrest. As the Nepalese police said, when the officers arrived she tried to jump out of the window of her house on the fourth floor.
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