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 Prime Minister, Narendra 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 September 12, 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 god men.
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 god men, 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 organised a cultural festival in 2017 in which there that caused substantial ecological damage to the river Yamuna. The Ecological tribunal imposed a fine of crores on SSR, which he refused to pay. When the ‘RSS propped up’ Anna Movement supposedly against corruption became prominent, SSR was very active in support from one side and another god man Baba Ramdev was active in support from another!
The other god man who has very close links to the BJP/RSS is Baba Ramdev. He began as a yoga teacher and graduated to become a very successful entrepreneur, with the Patanjali brand. His closeness to those in power has helped him to expand his business empire exponentially. 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 allopathic medicine was so brazen that the Indian Medical Association took him to court and he was forced to apologise. His anti- Muslim rhetoric while launching his product similar to Rooh Afza, again landed him in trouble and he profusely apologised again! His proximity to the centre of power is a big safety umbrella for him in minting money and spreading hate against Muslims.
There are many others babas and suchlike who have been dominating the scene. Among these is Bageshwar baba, Dhriendra Krishna shastri, a young man in his twenties whose claim to fame that he ‘tells the past’ of people e. His bluff was called out by the activist against blind faith Shyam Manav. When Manav challenged him in Nagpur, he hurriedly wound up his camp there and ran to Bageshwar. Mr. Narendra 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 these godmen and RSS, that much is true. As far as the agenda of RSS is concerned, the godmen are in unison and are in sync with the agenda of RSS that espouses Hindu Rashtra accompanied by a strengthening of the hierarchy of caste and gender which should be birth based.
Godmen are not the traditional clergy associated with priest craft. 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 however a dark underbelly to this tribe. There was murder of Shankarraman in the Ashram of “Shankaracharya Jayendra Sarswathi and he was accused of murder of an 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 and a journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati was killed for exposing his black deeds. Finally with difficulty law caught up with him and currently he is in jail, but out most of the time on parole.”
There was also this murder of two young boys in the Ashram of Asaram Bapu. The present prime minister was a visitor to ‘Bapu’s Ashram’ and former PM, Atal Bihari Vajpayee also associated with Asaram Babu in 2013 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. Currently he is in jail –in theory – though most of the time, he is out on parole. Interestingly the jailor who has been giving him parole has also joined the BJP immediately after his retirement.
These are just the few from the vast World of Baba’s, all with assorted titles. There is a similar phenomenon in Pakistan too, where some Maulana-like characters with charisma draw huge crowds of devotees. We also know of Benni Hinn who through his hypnotherapy draws large crowds.
It could be argued that the RSS has large numbers of progeny who also propagate and assert the goal of Hindu Rashtra through their actions and teachings. Many of these god men also promote Hindu Nationalism at an ideological level without being part of the official ‘RSS combine’. Their impact on society is deep and with social insecurities rising, these objective conditions lead many into the arms of these god men, who have a great amount of protection from the state and the social eco-system. Many hagiographical books have also been published on these characters.
Only few serious, analytical studies on them are readily available. Surely more in-depth studies of individual godmen and this phenomenon is the need of our times. At a time when such phenomena has a field day, rationalists like Dr. Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh have been murdered.
Sad but true, most murderers are also getting away with the crime.
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Emergency regime and the role of RSS
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Undermining religious freedom: Proffering ‘integral humanism’ as a right wing defence