Here is a link to a great interview with Nithyananda:
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?281409

The question marks that hung over Swami Nityananda, 34, head of the Bangalore-based meditation centre Dhyanapeetham, after a sleazy sex video surfaced two years ago, momentarily disappeared when he was named the 293rd pontiff of south India’s oldest Shaivite math, the Madurai Adheenam, in April. But old allegations are back to haunt the controversial godman again, following a spill-all TV interview by a former lady devotee, Arati Rao. Jailed for assaulting a journalist and released on bail, he spoke to Deepak Thimaya in Madurai.

You can read a shorter version of this interview here.

This is the full, unexpurgated transcript.

Don’t you think you have let you devotees down and also put some of them in a defensive position?

I don’t think I have let down my devotees or put them in a defensive position. It is an attack on us. So the people who are attacking, are only trying to put me down and my devotees. I feel the devotees who have experienced the spiritual transformational benefits from me are very clear that it is an attack on us. It is persecution. So neither they feel I let them down nor I feel I feel I let them down. It is persecution of me and my devotees.

Some of your devotees who still continue to be your devotees feel that they have been put in an uncomfortable position, because they don’t know what the truth is.

If I know who exactly is the person who is saying this, I may be able to explain. It looks more hypothetical and generalized. I am unable to answer this question.

Some of your devotees may want to know it, because all may not want to accept you without questioning. Do you think you have caused discomfort to such devotees at least?

I don’t feel I caused any discomfort to them, anywhere. Because, all spiritual movements have been persecuted sometime and all such spiritual leaders have gone through such problems some time or the other. I taught my devotees to live in a complete personal spiritual experience instead of being bothered, tortured, being tarnished and being disturbed by some opinion which comes from here and there or from vague quarters without much understanding and without looking into the depths.

Don’t you think by saying this you are actually negating the kind of deluge that your organization is facing of public opinion? You as the guru, the all-knowing, may feel that it is a small and insignificant thing, to an ordinary person it may be a very overwhelming thing.

You called it a deluge -- it means it is something that will settle down. So, you yourself said it. For me it may be happening in a corner, but for a person on the street, it is happening all over. But, don’t you understand and can’t you look at this angle that the person on the street does not care about this issue? The 2G scam was huge for some people while it was not so huge for some other

Are you referring to the huge reception A. Raja received in TN?

No, I am not getting into the details of that, but am only giving a general example of any deluge is personal experience.

What you say is, what is deluge for someone may not be a deluge for someone else.

Neither I feel it is a deluge nor the disciples who experienced me feel that it is a deluge.