Sanatan Sanstha has asked its followers to be mentally prepared to get arrested by police. Sanstha's mouthpiece 'Sanatan Prabhat', in a series of items on its front page on Friday, has advised its followers on cautions to be taken and preparedness required following the ban.
"Sanatan Prabhat's Delhi sources have confirmed that centre is contemplating the ban. That's why we have penned down certain cautions and preparedness required," Virendra Marathe, Managing Trustee, Sanatan Sanstha, told PTI in Panaji.
He said that the ban is not "confirmed" but "through source they have received the information on it."
'Sanatan Prabhat', which has carried a logo of lock and a latch on its main page, has foreseen immediate arrest of prime seekers followed by massive arrests of others working at grass root levels, including in rural areas.
"Police will resort to mass arrests in order to add up the numbers," the article reads. The seekers have been asked to make alternate arrangements to look after their family matters and financial transactions as they may have to spend time in the police custody.
Sanstha has asked its followers to opt for 'sadhana' and spiritual upliftment, which would be required to spend days in custody.
Marathe has said that even after being banned, sanstha will continue filing defamation suit against media, if it tries to degrade the institution through their writings.
"We will continue our legal fight against such entities," he said.
Sanstha has predicted that "the ban will continue till 2012 as the period is not gracious for spiritual forces." "Ban is a part of religious war (dharma yuddha) against evil forces. Have faith in God," it has told its followers.
On October 16, a crude ammonium-nitrate based improvised explosive device detonated across the road from the Grace Church in Margao, tearing apart Goa's festive-season cheer.
Sanatan Sanstha operative Malgonda Patil was killed and Yogesh Naik critically injured while transporting the bomb — one of the two the men thought to have fabricated to target Hindu religious gatherings held by a rival group, reports The Hindu.
The Hindu reports that many see the Sanstha as a harmless — if quixotic — cult: followers are assigned grades for their levels of spiritual awareness and encouraged to engage in arcane discussions, like the differing merits of lamps using ghee and oil.
Despite credible allegations that the Sanstha has coerced and harassed followers seeking to leave its ranks, branches have sprung up across Maharashtra, in several major cities nationwide, and even in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Behind the outfit's idiosyncratic facade, though, is an ugly militarist face, the Hindu report continues. Last year, Sanstha-linked Dharmashakti Sena chief Vinay Palwalkar proclaimed a coming apocalyptic war: “the war of the future will be a Dharamyudh, and the Dharamshakti Sena will be its guiding force.
Discussing September's riots in the town of Miraj, the organisation's house-magazine Sanatan Prabhat's October issue described the violence as “a well-planned attack on Hindus by Afzal Khan's [a 17th century Bijapur warlord] Muslim descendants.” “Now,” it continued, “Hindus need to become warriors of Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj to repel such attacks.”
Police in Miraj say Sanatan Sanstha activists, in fact, precipitated the violence, by distributing magazines with aggressively communal content and forcing shopkeepers to down the shutters. Three Sanatan Sanstha activists were arrested for distributing the inflammatory literature.
“Fed up of Muslim innocence,” the magazine reports, “Hindus [gave] a fitting reply.” “As a result of the riots in Miraj,” the article reads, “Muslims in villages were getting inspired to become insolent. Hindus, however, had enough of their insolence and started retaliating. A mob pelted stones and damaged mosques at 7 places. Thereafter, saffron flags were hoisted on these mosques.”
Much of the reporting in Sanatan Prabhat appears to have no great concern for the distinction between fact and fiction.
“Police,” one report claims, “have now discovered a kidnapping racket to provide recruits to Pakistani terror outfits through ‘Love Jihad.' Investigations have revealed that all over India some 4,000 young women have been recruited in this manner to be trained against their will as terrorists and suicide bombers. In Kerala alone, the police suspect that over 500 women have fallen victim.”
Meanwhile a village panchayat, which covers Ramnathi, where Sanstha's Ashram is located, has already moved a resolution seeking the ban on them as an offshoot of Margao bomb blast.
The activities of this decade-old organisation moved to this village in 2003 when Ashram took shape here near Shree Ramnath Devasthan.
The eerie of silence filled with tension got vocal during gram sabha when villagers vehemently spoke against Sanstha. A villager Vasant Bhat moved a resolution seeking to ban Sanstha and it was adopted unanimously after discussion.
"The resolution is demanding ban on the institution and also seeks to investigate the affairs of Ashram," Divakar Salelkar, Bandora panchayat secretary, told PTI.
Local sarpanch Prabhakar Gawde, who could not resist the locals from moving the resolution, said that they have forwarded it to Governor Dr S Sidhu, Chief Minister Digamber Kamat and local MLA Sudin Dhavalikar.
About Sanatan Sanstha:
It was founded in 1990 by Jayant Balaji Athavale with the blessings of Bhaktaraj Maharaj. The stated main aim of the organization is to present spirituality in a scientific language for the curious and to guide seekers.
Athavale has worked in the field of spirituality to share with humanity the findings of his research into the deeper understanding of the spiritual dimension using a scientific approach. In order to achieve this end, he has published more than 1.6 million copies of spiritual books in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati, English and six other languages since 2002.
