Chennai: As a former stand-up comedian, counsellor, reiki healer, and spiritual guru, as well as the director of an upcoming Tamil movie, Tamil Nadu-based Mahavishnu has worn multiple hats, but it is his current one—motivational speaker—that has landed him into trouble.
The Madurai native was arrested Saturday for allegedly verbally abusing a visually impaired teacher at a government school. He is currently in judicial custody.
The 30-year-old, who has been part of Tamil television since he was a teenager, launched a YouTube channel in 2014 named Paramporul Foundation which has 417,000 subscribers at present.
After the success of the channel, he created an NGO of the same name, based in Tirupur. The organisation claims to have offices in Malaysia, Australia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. According to the NGO’s official website, it aims to “help human society to enter the next stage of evolution”.
The spiritual leader, who is in the thick of the controversy, has had a diverse past.
Jack of all trades
A native of Alanganallur in Madurai, Mahavishnu became a popular TV face as a teenager after he appeared in a comedy reality show on Sun TV.
In one of the videos, a teenaged Mahavishnu, who went by the stage name ‘Madurai Maha,’ is seen saying, “Your son studied software, what is he doing now? He is selling underwear.”
As the teenager continues with his performance, imitating day-to-day conversations between people that touch upon family, friendship, and even power cuts, the crowd bursts into laughter.
“He will become another Muthu (a popular Tamil comedian),” said Tamil actor-director T.S.B.K. Moulee after watching Mahavishnu’s performance on the show.
At 16, Mahavishnu was awarded the ‘Best Comedic Artist’ by the Tamil Arts and Literature Society and the youngest achiever by the Tirupur Rotary Club.
He later ventured into entrepreneurship and started two companies—Asathal Maha Eventz, a corporate event management firm, in 2009, and Mspidy, a social bookmarking site, both based in Tirupur district. The companies’ official websites and other information are not accessible now.
The Paramporul Foundation is synonymous with Mahavishnu. The YouTube channel of the foundation only has videos of Mahavishnu, mostly in a white shirt and veshti, preaching on a range of topics from family, relationships, and fate, with karma and liberation forming the central theme of everything.
For example, in a video titled “Kolkata doctor case justice explained (sic)”, Mahavishnu doesn’t talk about the rape-murder at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital at all. Instead, he talks about how people who commit criminal activities for money or power will never achieve “liberation”. In the last three minutes of the nearly 15-minute video, Mahavishnu requests donations to buy an auto-rickshaw for a former participant of a comedy reality show who is struggling financially.
As per the Paramporul website, Mahavishnu achieved “enlightenment” after meeting with a 92-year-old disciple of Kanchi Vishwanath Swami.
The disciple imparted profound wisdom and teachings on family, life, money, fame, assets, and desires.
“The disciple’s teachings laid the foundation for Mahavishnu’s spiritual path” and he promised to share the knowledge with others leading to the birth of his YouTube channel and success.
The organisation declined a request for comment.
Last year, the self-proclaimed spiritual guru met with state education minister Anbil Mahesh and submitted a petition to include Thiruvarutpa, a collection of poems written by Tamil saint Vallalar, in the Tamil Nadu curriculum.
Later, he also met with health minister Ma. Subramanian and Dairy Development Minister Mano Thangaraj, though it was not clear for what.
His directorial debut, a comedy-drama starring Tamil actor Chandran and Malayali actor Anju Kurian and titled Naan Seidha Kurumbu, is set to release on 30 September, according to Filmibeat.
Issue becomes political
On 5 September, Mahavishnu was invited to the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Ashok Nagar, Chennai, to deliver a motivational speech.
However, instead, he began discussing rebirth, telling students that God did not create humans equally because of karma in their previous birth. When the visually-impaired teacher objected, Mahavishnu allegedly insulted the teacher.
Following a widespread outrage over the incident, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led government in Tamil Nadu transferred the school’s principal. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin also issued guidelines for formulating new guidelines for conducting events at the government schools.
The issue has triggered a political storm with the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit calling the incident a mere ploy of the DMK government to hide the “real issues” that are affecting state-run schools.
Talking to ThePrint, state BJP vice-president Narayanan Thirupathy said, at a time when many schools in the state lack basic infrastructure, the state government is making a big deal out of the arrest of Mahavishnu.
“The charge on Mahavishnu is that to talk about rebirth is wrong. The problem is that, if what Mahavishnu spoke is wrong, then the administration that made him talk should take responsibility. And that administration is with Anbil Mahesh. He should have resigned by now,” Thirupathy said.
The DMK said the state government promptly took action against the responsible individuals.
“We opposed it. We oppose any sort of indoctrination and religious preaching should be prohibited in schools,” DMK spokesperson Advocate A. Saravan told ThePrint. He said the SOPs for conducting events in schools will make sure that guest speakers, approved only by the state, will enter the schools.
The spokesperson said the government could not explain why Mahavishnu was invited to the event.
“The principal might have thought the children would be motivated,” he said.
(Edited Sanya Mathur)