Sanatan Sanstha and its operations

What does Sanatan Sanstha do?

How do religious associations like Sanatan Sanstha operate? What do they do? What do its followers do?

These questions are asked to me daily by people from all walks of life. Ordinary people meet me on the roads and ask me; what did I do in the Sanatan Sanstha ashram? How did I spend my time? I tell them that I was taught about spirituality.

I was wrong, very wrong.

Religious organizations are supposed to follow religious practises, we are supposed to devote time in the devotion of God. All our thoughts should be occupied with the thoughts of God, we should think God, talk God and all our actions should be guided by God.

Sanatan is said to be a spiritual organization. Not only does its website say so, it is repeated several times during the various interactions with the followers – sadhaks and outsiders. It is repeated several times very prominently in their dailies. They stress that Sanatan Sanstha provides complete spiritual knowledge and training. For an organization that was founded only in 1990, this is a very tall claim. They state that their main objective is to present spirituality in a scientific language. So, what is the key difference, or is there a difference between the scores of religious organizations and spiritual organizations?

Sanatan Sanstha is different:

The sanstha does this very differently. It aims to teach spirituality to people. They have a big offering, they conduct satsangs in the Sanatan Sanstha Ashram as well as at its different branches. They conduct balsanskar vargs so that young children are taught about Hinduism, traditions and our culture. They are given information about the various Gods and Goddesses and the festivals and their importance. Looks all okay from the look of it in fact the objective is very impressive. Why should any Hindu oppose such lofty work?

But Sanatan Sanstha then deviates from the trodden path. It has its own agenda and it is not limited to spiritual teachings. No sir, not at all. Spirituality is a disguise, there is something hidden behind the veil.

Slowly and very softly, we are informed that there are millions of Gods and Goddesses and we should not pray to all of them. We should select a few, principally our Kul Devta (the God of our clan) and a couple more. We should spend maximum time in reciting their name. Still okay, nothing suspicious, right.

Now is the stinger.

Slowly and softly again, we are told that the Guru is the true GOD. He is the one and only one. We should pray to Gods as well as the guru. And who is the guru?

You guessed it right, he is none other than the founder of Sanatan Sanstha, HH PP Jayant Athavale. A hypnotherapist turned spiritual teacher. A person who aims to teach people spirituality. His brand of spirituality, his brand of Hinduism, his words and his preaching.

A Guru’s job is to guide us, lead us to the correct path. He is our mentor; he cannot be our God. God is Almighty. We should worship him. We should not worship the Guru. This is what our religion says, this is what our holy books say, this is written in Vedas and Puranas. Don’t trust me blindly, read their website, the message is ever prevalent.

Sanatan Sanstha has turned spirituality on its head. This is not good, not good at all.

I know, I was a part of it. I had run away from everything.