The Sanatan Sanstha’s very own holy book

Over the years, Right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha has gained a tendency to retain its spot in the limelight, primarily owing to its alleged links to the killings of progressive thinkers, blasts and attacks, and its controversial public statements—they most recently branded two India Today reporters as “terrorists” after they conducted a sting operation on members of the Sanstha.

With this public spotlight, there are a lot of questions on the ideology of the Sanstha. There’s one book which followers of the Sanstha consider to be their Bible—the Kshatra Dharma Sadhna, written by the organisation’s founder Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale, which reflects Athavale’s own beliefs on society. It’s interesting to look at Athavale’s life leading up to his founding of the Sanstha while analysing the ideas of the book.

Athavale’s life and the founding of the Sanstha

After completing his MBBS in Mumbai, Athavale switched to studying hypnotism. By 1970, he had become a well-known name in the field and conducted numerous shows of hypnosis across Maharashtra and Goa. It was during one such show that he came in contact with his future wife, Dr Kunda Athavale (her maiden surname was Borwankar), in Goa. Both of them went to England in 1970 to study global literature on hypnotism and stayed there till 1978, when they returned to India.

On their return, the Athavales started their practice of clinical hypnosis. For the next 12 years, the couple taught the art of hypnosis to those who came to them with their problems, treated numerous patients, and also published various research papers in the field of hypnosis.

However, during his practice, Athavale became so heavily inclined towards spiritualism and religion that instead of treating his patients using clinical hypnosis, he started telling them that he could talk to God. He stressed (to his patients) on the importance of indulging in religious rituals to get rid of their problems.

All this led to Athavale started the Sanatan Sanstha in 1999 at his residence in Sion, Mumbai, with the aim of eliminating evils (durjans) from society and to establish “Ishwariya Rajya”—God’s kingdom on earth. He initially named the organisation Sanatan Bhartiya Sanskriti Sanstha which, over the years, was changed to Sanatan Sanstha.

A source privy to the affairs of the Sanatan Sanstha said: “Athavale gained many followers after he formed Sanatan Sanstha in 1990. Most of his followers were from Maharashtra and Goa.”

The ‘Bible’ of the Sanstha

Athavale had written other books, like Gurukrupayoganusar Sadhna and Adhyatamche Prastavik, but, as another source close to the organisation says, it was the Kshatra Dharma Sadhna which has become the most significant. It contained directives for the Sanstha’s sadhaks and sadhikas—the terms he coined for his followers.

According to the book, both durjans and sadhaks exist in society. “Mantrik, Asuri Shakties, and evil powers from the sixth and seventh universes” enters into the bodies of durjans and as a result, “hey commit wrong acts against the nation and against their religion”. Athavale used different words for these durjans: rashtradrohis (anti-nationals), deshdrohis, and dharmdrohis (against Hindu religion). The book said, “Such durjans must be killed otherwise they will kill the sadhaks and will establish their Asuri Rajya here.” The bodies of the durjans produce something called “Raj-Tam particles”, which disturb the sadhaks.

This is why, the Kshatra Dharma Sadhna says, sadhaks must protect their fellow followers by killing durjans who are against religion and country. Athavale’s book claims that Lord Krishna had called for Sanatan members to kill these durjans and there would be a war—the Kshatrasdharma Latha—between dharma and adharma, sadhaks and durjans, and that God would kill the durjans by manifesting himself through the body of the sadhaks. Sadhaks who kill durjans will then be blessed with moksha—freedom from the cycle of births and rebirths.

The Kshatra Dharma Sadhna also goes into detail on the “divine kingdom”—the Ishwariya Rajya. Athavale himself was against many aspects of society and hierarchy today which is reflected in this text. The book states that in order to establish Ishwariya Rajya, political parties and its leaders must be destroyed. It says Ishwar (God) will provide arms to the Sanstha’s sadhaks and sadhikas at the right time. The sadhaks and sadhikas don’t need to practice firing these weapons and arms because, through napjaps (chanting), their bullet(s) would automatically find the right target.

The book explains that the constitution of this so-called divine kingdom will be based on the Mahabharat and Ramayana. There will be no share market in this kingdom, nor will there be a yearly budget. A new judicial system, called the “Ishwariya Nyay Vyasvastha”, will be introduced under the new order in which the Sanatan’s sadhaks will act as judges and will punish the lawyers presently employed with various courts in the country. Athavale wrote that he disliked India’s democracy, law and order, education system and police. Instead, he placed emphasis on the relationship between a teacher and student, calling it the “purest relationship of al”l, superseding relationships that one shares with their parents, brothers, sisters and spouses.

Athavale wrote that sadhaks should be fearless and unemotional; they should not pay any heed to injustice, loss, ill-treatment and sorrow, and should always obey their guru. Sadhaks should also have an innate sense of anger towards durjans and therefore should always do something against them. The Kshatra Dharma Sadhna explains that while “destroying” the durjans, sadhaks should feel they are “punishing” them in the same way in which a mother punishes her naughty child. It says violence against durjans is actually non-violence and if sadhaks do not kill durjans, they will be subjected to sin.

Other Sanstha publications

The Sanatan Sanstha runs a newspaper called Sanatan Prabhat as well as other published works of the organisation. These publications explain what sadhaks must do if they are under the attack of mantriks. It’s suggested that sadhaks and sadhikas stick photographs of god(s), patches of Athavale’s blankets, and copies of articles written by him on their bodies, while dressed only in their undergarments. They are asked to pray in front of empty boxes so that the black energy inside their body passes away (inside the empty box)—thereby preventing evil energy from attacking them.  

The organisation’s newspaper is a veritable font of advice of this manner. For example, if devotees hallucinate about someone “having sexual relations with them and raping them”, Athavale advises they sit down with their legs stretched out and place an empty box between their legs so that the black energy and sexual thoughts stored in their bodies end up being absorbed by the box.

‘Their ideology was to eliminate people who spoke against their religion’

A retired senior police official who visited the Sanatan Ashram in Goa while investigating the Dabholkar murder case, said, on condition of anonymity: “I was aghast to see the scene in the ashram. Around 100  young men and women—with pictures of Hindu god(s) on their bodies—were moving about in a state of (what seemed like) hypnotic trance.”

The police official said Athavale would conduct meetings with people he was close to and give them orders. Malgonda Patil, who died in Margao during the blast, used to live in the room next to Athavale. He (Athavale) used to hypnotise the sadhaks and sadhikas. The Sanstha’s ideology was to eliminate people who spoke against their religion.”

Vijay Rokade, whose wife had been a member of the Sanstha, was the first person to file a petition against the Sanatan Sanstha—even before the murders of Dabholkar and Pansare. In his petition submitted to the Bombay High Court in 2011, Rokade said the Sanstha was going to “assassinate” some people in the future.

Rokade told Newslaundry, “In Kshatra Dharma Sadhna, it’s clearly mentioned that they want to wage a war against the country and take over it. They don’t believe in the existing education system, courts, the police, military, electoral system and other such institutions that govern the functioning of a country. They want to take over and re-establish it according to their principles. The idea of assassinating people is derived from Kshatra Dharma Sadhna.”

Rokade said Athavale and his wife Kunda had conducted massive research work in the field of clinical hypnosis during their tenure in England. “They have used that research covertly in the practice of Sadhna at Sanatan Sanstha,” he said. “They have designed their spiritual practice on the principles of psychiatry. Their books, too, are written on the basis of the same. Any person who follows their course design for a period of four or five years surrenders themselves to these principles and hands over their possessions, including property, to them. They then work for them full-time and follow all their orders.

“Such is the influence of Sadhna designed by Athavale that a person loses his capability to differentiate between right and wrong—they only believe in the words of the Sanstha. For them, the Sanstha’s publication is the ultimate truth.”

Rokade also pointed out that the organisation had made some changes in the script of Kshatra Dharma Sadhna after their deeds were exposed in public.

When Newslaundry contacted Chetan Rajhans, the spokesperson of Sanatan Sanstha, and asked him about the killing of durjans in Kshatra Dharma Sadhna, he said: “Killing of durjans means abolishment of corrupt elements in society using a legal course like filing petitions in court, RTIs, and lodging police complaints so as to expose corruption in society. It means abolishment of evil tendencies using constitutional means.”

Despite Rajhans’s claims, after an investigation that took over nine months, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Police had claimed a connection between the Sanstha and the murder of Bengaluru-based journalist Gauri Lankesh. There’s no escaping the fact that the Sanstha has been questioned in various other cases. Given that, and what is known of its “holy book” and activities, the organisation remains both mysterious and controversial.