Kalki Bhagavan is the name given to the hindu guru Vijay Kumar by his disciples.[1] He was born on 7 March 1949 as Vijay Kumar, in Natham district, Tamil Nadu, and worked as a clerk at the Life Insurance Corporation in the early 1980s before becoming an administrator of a school in Rajupeta village in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor District.[2] He and his wife "Amma" Padmavati (born 1954)[3] claim to be divine beings, or avatars. The headquarters of their organisation are in Golden City, near Chennai, India.
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Kalki is the name given to the tenth incarnation of Vishnu when Vishnu will appear on a white horse, wielding a sword, as destroyer of the wicked.[4] Bhagavan is the name given to a superior guide, or a respectful form to address spiritual teachers or guides, as commonly referred to in guru traditions.[5]
The price for a standard darshan with Bhagavan is Rs.5. The price for group darshan darshan with Bhagavan is a minimum of Rs.5,000 and Rs. 50,000 for one-to-one darshan, as for March 2010.[6]
In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Madras High Court and in the Supreme Court it has been alleged that the personal assets of Kalki Bhagavan and his wife have been enhanced through the misappropriation of donations from their followers. Documents deposited with the Income Tax Department by their son state that Kalki Bhagavan and Amma Bhagavan have received gifts of Rs.5 crore, mostly from outside India.[7]
On 2 July 2008 eight people died and more that one hundred were injured during a stampede at a preliminary ceremony marking the inauguration of a Oneness temple.[8]
The Communist Party of India has called for an official investigation into the financial affairs of Kalki Bhagavan. The Communist Party has also complained at the occupation by representatives of Kalki Bhagavan of Dalit land for construction purposes at Varadaiahpalem.[9] The Oneness Movement has attracted controversy, with local TV[10] and press reporting corruption within the organisation and unrest among the local population.[11][12][13]
In March 2010 in the Chennai High Court, a judge issued an order to thirty Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu news channels preventing them from showing footage related to allegations about the organisations and affairs of Kalki Bhagavan.[14]