lucknow

Updated: Aug 29, 2017 17:44 IST

The Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP), a body of 13 prominent akharas of the country, has decided to submit a list of fake saints to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on September 10. The move comes in the wake of court’s judgment pronouncing Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty of rape and sentencing him 20 years in jail.

The parishad has strongly objected to the anointing of Swami Achyutanand Teerth as the Shankaracharya of Dwarka-Sharda Peeth that already has Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati as its Shankaracharya. The ceremony was held at Bhuma Niketan in Haridwar on Maha Shivratri this year in February.

According to ABAP president Swami Narendra Giri, who is also the head of Mutt Baghambari Gaddi in Allahabad, the saints associated with different Akharas have been asked to identify such people who do not belong to any Guru-Shishya or Vedic traditions and are misleading innocent people with false claims and cheap magic tricks. “The list of such people is being prepared in different states and after compiling it we will hand it over to UP CM and the chief ministers of respective states so that action could be taken against them. We are trying to submit the list to UP CM on September 10,” he added.

Swami Narendragiri said they welcome the court’s verdict on Gurmeet Singh although they want that stricter punishment should be given to him for his misdeeds. “He was not a saint but as so many people had blind faith in him, he not only had hurt their religious sentiments but also brought bad name to the religious community in India,” he added.

Swami Narendragiri said they had already issued a strict warning to such fake babas. “We have again decided to request the state government and the authorities concerned to provide land to only four genuine Shankaracharyas during the Ardh Kumbh in 2019 in Allahabad. The issue of fake seers and Shankaracharyas, who arrive in every Kumbh and Ardh Kumbh fairs in large numbers, was especially taken up at the meeting of the Parishad in Haridwar on November 7, 2016.”

He said that according to scriptures, Adi Shankaracharya established only four ‘peeths’ (chairs) of Shankaracharyas. These are Joshimath at Chamoli in Uttarakhand; Govardhan Mutt at Puri, Odisha; Sringeri Peeth in Karnataka and Dwaraka Peeth in Gujarat. “People claiming to be saint or Shankaracharyas other than these four peeths are fake,” he added.