Chennai: A European cult that mixes yoga with sex and pornography has been found to be operating out of Chennai.
Training nearly 100 youngsters in yoga and 'tantric love' at a rented house in Chokalingam Nagar, Teynampet, for more than two years now, the Movement for Spiritual Integration in Absolute (Misa) is trying to spread across the country, investigations by TOI have revealed.
A team of seven Misa teachers, nationals of Denmark and Romania, is now in the city for a special camp, titled 'Tantra - The Path of Love'. A majority of them, including the lead couple Mihai Stoian and Adina Stoian, have starred in porn movies produced by Copenhagen-based production house Sublime Erotica, which the Misa group has close ties with. Misa operates under different names in different countries. It is Natha in Denmark, Tara in the US and Satya in India.
TOI is in possession of videos that show the yoga teachers, now in India, in explicit sexual acts. Misa's supreme guru, a Romanian called Gregorian Bivolaru, has been jailed on several charges, including pornography, and is now said to have taken political asylum in Sweden.
When asked about the videos, Mihai, the 42-year-old Romanian national who heads Misa activities in the absence of Bivolaru, said it was an experiment in spreading the group's philosophy and practice. "For many, sexuality stems from desire. We want to spread the message that it is a divine integration of masculinity and femininity to attain spirituality," he told TOI at the camp being organised at a private club in Nungambakkam.
Other Misa teachers who figure in porn videos and now in Chennai are Ulrik Lishoj (Denmark), Simona Colesniuc (Romania) and Nicole Markus (Romania).
The foreigners' regional registration office said that as these people were on visit visas, they are not allowed to teach yoga or do any such job, but the 'teachers' have an argument. "We are only volunteers. The yoga centre is registered under a trust represented by Indians," said Angela Oestergaard, a 35-year-old Danish woman who manages Chennai Satya Esoteric Integral Yoga at Teynampet.
