Mohan Bhagwat has been in the news for the last few months. First, he vaguely hinted that people should retire at the age of 75 years. This was taken as a hint for Modi to relinquish power when he turns 75 this September. Then in his three lectures in Vigyan Bhavan he clarified that he did not mean so. His own 75th birthday was celebrated on 12 September 2025. The remarkable thing of the event was the presence of Sri Sri Ravishankar (SSR), supposed to be the spiritual Guru and major person of the pack from the rising tribe of Godmen.

SSR has been claiming that he has no interest in the world of politics and his main concerns are spiritual. He has a vast empire under “Art of living” and the amount of property amassed by him, like the property of most of the Godmen, is immense. It is a paradox. Most of them preach that the wealth, the World is an illusion and one should not run after it. As it happens, they themselves amass huge amounts of real estate and other wealth. SSR introduced Sudarshan Kriya as the key component of his teachings and attracted millions of followers. SSR has also founded ‘Art of Living’ with systemic formulations which appeals to many.

He had organized a cultural festival in 2017 in which there was a huge ecological damage to river Yamuna. The Ecological tribunal imposed a fine of crores on SSR, which he refused to pay. When RSS propped up Anna Movement supposedly against corruption, SSR was very active from one side and another Godmen Baba Ramdev was active supplementing this from the other side.

The other Godman who has very close links to the BJP/RSS is Baba Ramdev. He began as a yoga teacher and graduated to a very successful entrepreneur, with Patanjali brand. His closeness to those in power has helped him to expand his business empire to the sky. His yoga shows are the point of attraction for millions. During Covid, he took full advantage of the misery wrought in by Corona to launch his brand, ‘Coronil’, violating the medical norms of introduction of new drugs. His brand was launched by two Central Cabinet Ministers, Harshvardhan and Nitin Gadkari. His abuse of modern science and allopathy was so blunt that the Indian Medical Association took him to court and he was forced to apologize. His anti- Muslim rhetoric while launching his product like Rooh Afza, again landed him in trouble and he profusely apologized again. His proximity to centers of power is a big safety umbrella for him in minting money and spreading hate against Muslims.

There are many others who have been dominating the scene, The latest in the scene has been Bageshwar baba, Dhriendra Krishna shastri, a young man in his twenties. He claims to be able to tell the past of the people. His bluff was called by the worker against blind faith Shyam Manav. When Manav challenged him in Nagpur, he hurriedly wound up his camp there and ran to Bageshwar. Mr. Modi calls him his younger brother. Now he is planning a Hindu Gaon (Village) where only Hindus will be settled.

There is no direct relation between the Godmen and RSS, that is true. As far as the agenda of RSS is concerned, the Godmen in unison are in sync with the agenda of RSS of Hindu Rashtra, the strengthening of the hierarchy of caste and gender which should be birth based.

Godmen are not the traditional clergy associated with priestcraft. They have devised their own methods to attract the people. Something from the traditional knowledge, something from their own imagination, they do coin the phrases which become central to their identity. Their confidence in their craft is remarkable and they generally are very effective speakers.

There is a dark underbelly of this tribe. There was murder of Shankarraman in the Ashram of “Shankaracharya Jayendra Sarswathi and he was accused of murder of ashram worker, Shankararaman. In Satya Sai Baba’s Prasanthi Nilayam also there was a murder case. When Jayendra Sarswati was an accused in murderer case Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Asaram Bapu sat on a protest. Gurmeet Ram Rahim carried on with his dark activities, one journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati was killed for bringing forward his black deeds. Finally with difficulty law caught up with him and currently he is in jail, rather most of the time on parole.”

There was murder of two young boys in the Ashram of Asaram Bapu. Narendra Modi was a visitor of Bapu’s Ashram and Atal Bihari Vajpyee danced with Asaram Babu in 1913 in Lucknow. In the 2014 Haryana Elections Gurmeet Ram Rahim asked his followers to vote for BJP. After the victory many from the Manoharlal Khattar Cabinet went to seek his blessings. As currently he is in jail in theory but is most of the time on parole. Interestingly the jailor who has been giving him parole joined BJP immediately after his retirement.

These are only few from the vast World of Baba’s and with assorted titles. Similar phenomenon is there in Pakistan also, where some Maulanas like characters with such charisma draw huge crowds of devotees.

One is also knowing about Benni Hinn who through his hypnotherapy draws large crowds.

As such while RSS has large number of progenies who are propagating and asserting Hindu Rashtra through their actions and teachings, most of these Godmen are promoting the Hindu Nationalism at ideological level without being part of official ‘RSS combine’. Their impact on society is profound and as social insecurities are rising, they lead many into the arms of these Godmen, who have a great amount of protection from the state and the social system. Many hagiographical books have come out on these characters. Only few serious studies on them are available. Surely more in-depth studies of individual godmen and this phenomenon is the need of our times. This is a time when such people are having a field day and rationalists like Dr. Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh are being murdered. And in most of these cases the murderers are getting away with the crime.

Vedio URL:https://youtu.be/NDMARvl4XJ4

Sectarian Nationalism and Godmen: Sri Sri Ravishankar attends 75th Birth day of RSS Chief