Who is it Bhole baba, Baba Narayan Hari alias Saakar Vishwa Hari ‘Bhole Baba’ left his police job more than two decades ago and turned to spirituality and created a large number of followers. He had followers all over the country. 116 people died and many were injured in a stampede incident at a satsang of Bhole Baba held in Sikandrarao area of Hathras district on Tuesday. After this incident, people’s curiosity about Bhole Baba increased.
Followers came from many states
The extent of Baba’s influence and followers can be gauged from the fact that the list of those killed in the stampede, released by the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday night, includes people who had come to the satsang from Etah and Hathras districts of western Uttar Pradesh, apart from Agra, Sambhal, Lalitpur, Aligarh, Badaun, Kasganj, Mathura, Auraiya, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Bulandshahar, Faridabad and Palwal in Haryana, Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, Deeg in Rajasthan, etc. Especially, most of the people who went to Baba’s gathering are women. An official said that out of the 116 dead, 108 are women.
The real name of 70-year-old Bhole Baba is Surajpal
According to a retired IPS officer of police, the real name of Bhole Baba, about 70 years old, a native of Bahadur Nagar of Patiyali police station area of Kasganj district, is Surajpal. He told that Surajpal left the police job about two decades ago and turned to spirituality and after becoming Bhole Baba, the number of his devotees started increasing. A large number of people gather in his satsang. Patiyali Police Circle Officer (CO) Vijay Kumar Rana confirmed that Bhole Baba is a resident of Bahadur Nagar and about two decades ago he left the police job and started doing satsang.
No children, does satsang with wife
The CO said that one of Surajpal’s three brothers has died and Baba, who is famous as Bhole Baba, has made his property in Bahadur Nagar a trust and appointed a caretaker. Baba has no children and takes his wife along with him to satsang. An expert from Hathras said that Baba gives sermons and keeps his volunteers for security arrangements, who take care of the arrangements for his satsang. He said that Bhole Baba, who gives sermons, left his police job more than a decade and a half ago and started satsang and became ‘Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba’.
Wears saffron robes and white suit and tie
After the establishment of Baba’s ashram in Bahadur Nagar, his popularity among the poor and underprivileged grew rapidly and he gained millions of followers. One specialty of Narayan Hari is that he does not wear saffron clothes, but prefers to wear white suit and tie. His second favorite dress is kurta-pyjama. During his sermons, he says that he does not keep anything from the donations given to him and spends it on his devotees. (PTI-Bhasha input)