26 year old Godman Dhirendra Shastri is a katha Vachak and the head priest of Bageshwar Dham (Hanuman temple) which is located in Gada village of Chattarpur District in Madhya Pradesh. He has lately been in news as his videos have gone viral. He proclaimed to have miraculous power . From 5-13 January he is in Nagpur but he left the venue two days earlier to Raipur . It is said that the rationalist in Nagpur challenged him to perform ‘miracles’ on a public forum.
How he became Priest ?
According to the people of gada village it is found that, baba Dhirendra Shastri was a auto rickshaw driver few years back . He spent his early life in extreme poverty and complete his primary and secondary education from government school of Madhya Pradesh.
His family lived in mud house. His historic rise as a priest connected to the Bageshwar Dham temple, Chattarpur District. Once Shastri took over the affairs of the temple, he claimed to have performed various miracles, which further added to his popularity. Shastri was revered from his teenage days as he claimed to have taken deeksha from his grandfather Setulal Garg Sanyasi Baba, who was also a katha vachak.
How did People follow him ?
He has a website offers variety of services selling Bageshwar Dham Mahayantri, which he claims is blessed by Brahmins and would benefit those who work hard but still have no money. People take the token from this website who ever want to meet the baba , then who take the token fill the details like name, father’s name, children’s name, mobile number etc.The dham then contacts whoever it wishes and asks them to come for darshan at a fixed date.
The process of appointment is also colour coded. Those who have to meet Shastri have to place a coconut in a red cloth for regular meetings, yellow cloth for marital meetings and black cloth for harassment by spirits.
Why is he trending?
An Nagpur based- Akhil Bhartiya Andhshraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, an anti-superstition organisation challenges the Godman Dhirendra Shastri to prove his miraculous powers . Dhirendra, in reply, shot back at the organisation saying that he completely believes in Bageshwar Balaji.
But he left Nagpur from his Ramkatha two days prior as per his schedule. He was in Nagpur from January 5-13 for a Bhagwad Katha but left the venue two days earlier for Raipur.
It didn’t end with this. He was once again in the news when his video with a journalist went viral on January 20.
In the video, Shastri is seen talking to a journalist The priest goes on to tell the names of journalist’s brother and nephew, signaling his magical powers. But the catch here was, all the information, Shastri revealed about the journalist was already available on his Facebook profile.
This invited a lot of criticism from the people on social media, as the video went viral