Acharya Dhirendra Shastri, a katha vachak (narrator of Hindu non secular tales), has been withinside the information recently and his following has been on an upswing.

Social media has been agog with discussions over a latest improvement in Nagpur related to Shastri. Shastri, the pinnacle priest of Bageshwar Dham, a Hanuman temple in Gada village of Chhattarpur district in Madhya Pradesh, become in Nagpur from January five to thirteen for a Bhagavad Katha, however left the venue days in advance for Raipur.

In Nagpur, he were challenged via way of means of rationalists to perform ‘miracles’ on a public forum. Shastri reportedly left Nagpur after the project become thrown at him. But he has denied this and claimed he left as he had reduce brief all his programmes via way of means of days.

Who is Dhirendra Shastri and what made him so popular? Madhya Pradesh has witnessed a surfeit of godmen and katha vachaks withinside the beyond few years, and 25-year-antique Shastri is one in every of them.

Locals declare he become an autorickshaw motive force a few years in the past. Bageshwar Dham become a small temple till some years in the past and its popularity, specially because of miracles claimed to had been executed via way of means of Shastri, introduced to its popularity. A lot of infrastructure withinside the shape of roads, eateries and inns has arise close to the village recently.

Shastri’s upward push has been meteoric and he’s by and large regarded for calling distressed humans to his dham, wherein he tells them approximately their antecedents at the same time as reputedly resolving their problems.

The truth that he’s younger and has a barely competitive fashion of functioning—in which he berates folks who project him—has additionally contributed to his popularity. Most godmen thrive on country patronage and Shastri isn’t anyt any different.

Most MLAs from the Bundelkhand vicinity, wherein the dham is positioned and is by the way the maximum socio-economically backward vicinity of MP, provide their respects to Shastri. State domestic minister Narottam Mishra is likewise a follower and has visited the dham.

Shastri and Mishra have mutual admiration, with the previous regarding the opposite as a ‘Sanatani Babbar Sher’ (Hindu lion). While leaders of all shades assist the Bageshwar Dham, Shastri certainly has a pro-BJP stance. However, inside political circles, he’s stated to be the ‘discovery’ of Alok Shukla ‘Pajjan’, the Congress MLA from Chattarpur.

Bageshwar Dham has a internet site that gives diverse services, even one to alleviate oneself of poverty. It sells a ‘Bageshwar Dham Mahayantra’, which it claims has been blessed via way of means of severa Brahmins and could gain folks who paintings very tough however nonetheless haven’t any money.

There is a gadget of having tokens for assembly Shastri on the dham at some point of his durbar. The applicant has to offer diverse details, inclusive of name, father’s name, deal with and cellular number, in a box. The dham contacts the ones it needs and asks them to return back for darshan at a hard and fast date. The method for appointments is colour-coded.

Those looking to satisfy Shastri ought to area a coconut in a crimson fabric for ordinary meetings, in a yellow fabric for marital issues, and in a black fabric if careworn via way of means of spirits. Shastri has denied he fled after the rationalist institution challenged him in Nagpur.

“I reduce brief all programmes via way of means of days considering the fact that I actually have a yagna at Bageshwar Dham. I become in Nagpur for a divya darbar. Why didn’t this institution come and meet me on the ones days?” he instructed the media after accomplishing Raipur, wherein he’s doing a Ram katha.

Interestingly, he additionally stated he had in no way claimed to have executed miracles. “I am best propagating Sanatan Dharma, that’s my proper beneathneath the Constitution. I best pray to my god to assist the ones in distress. People area chadars and mild candles for the same.

Why isn’t that taken into consideration irrational?” he requested in Raipur. Congress MLA and chief of the Opposition withinside the MP assembly, Dr Govind Singh, who has withinside the beyond taken on every other very effective guru, Rawatpura Sarkar, stated, “ Sanatan Dharma is on the centre of notion of severa humans.

Why did Bageshwar Dham (Shastri) flee withinside the center of the night? I could need him show his claims in public in order that notion in Sanatan Dharma isn’t always eroded,” stated Singh.