The guru, the handmaids and the yoga ‘cult of abuse’

Wearing an orange tunic and a matching turban-style cap, Bruno Antonio Malatesta addresses the camera with the reassuring if mildly weary patience of a seasoned spiritual guide.

However, not all may be as it seems. The YouTuber, who presents himself as a master of the Shaivist Hindu tradition, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of running a shadowy sect where he allegedly enslaved and subjected women to physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

Prosecutors believe Malatesta, 59, lured dozens of vulnerable women and girls to a residential community in the hillside town of Almese, west of Turin, with courses in yoga, meditation and martial arts.

Once there, the women, whom Malatesta called “nuns” or “handmaids”, were subjected to strict rules of obedience, forced to work long days on agricultural land and punished for breaking rules, including with beatings or by being made to sleep on the floor, according to investigators.

One alleged victim told the newspaper La Stampa that she had previously lived at the retreat with her mother. 

“He humiliated us, divided us and tormented us every day,” the woman, now 27, said of Malatesta. “He said that in our past lives we were whore witches, and that he would save us by taking away the negative energy.”

Malatesta, who referred to himself as the “master” or “chosen one”, presented sexual violence as a purifying ritual sometimes offered for payment, prosecutors say. They believe some victims were as young as 16.

A video released by the carabinieri shows the inside of a home filled with statuettes of Hindu deities, resembling the backdrop for Malatesta’s YouTube videos. 

Twenty women living in the community’s cluster of villas at the time of the arrest have been moved to safe houses, the state broadcaster Rai reported.

Recruitment was overseen by a local charity. The case has drawn parallels in Italian media with the Manson family, the 1960s Californian cult whose members were manipulated into committing murders.

Malatesta began practising martial arts at six years old before encountering the teachings of the Hindu yogi Paramahansa Yogananda and founding the Almese community in 2014, Corriere della Sera reported. The Shaivist tradition venerates the Hindu god Shiva as a supreme deity.

Malatesta’s YouTube channel has only 133 subscribers. Its videos include yoga lessons, meditation and breathing exercises, and short clips containing pithy morsels of spiritual wisdom.

“Distil the drops of wisdom that can form in the heart and mind of each of us and gather them in the experiences of life,” Malatesta says in one video. “This will become the greatest treasure for you.”

The channel also features martial arts demonstrations, including one piece of choreography in which two women in black outfits with gold sash belts lunge at one another with sticks. Chiara Lisa, a fighter in the video, is one of three people being investigated on suspicion of assisting Malatesta at the retreat. She is listed on the foundation’s website as its vice-president.

Malatesta’s motives may have been partly financial, with followers required to cede possessions to the foundation while paying for accommodation, meals, therapy and ceremonial items such as salts, crystals and incense, prosecutors say. Malatesta is also alleged to have produced and sold paintings that were said to have healing properties.

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An initial investigation was launched after complaints filed by the ex-husband of an alleged victim in 2018. That inquiry was shelved in 2023 before further complaints prompted a fresh investigation the following year, leading to the guru’s arrest last week.

Malatesta is also accused of fraud, with prosecutors alleging that he feigned difficulty walking to claim benefits. He is yet to respond to the allegations publicly.