Army Chief Meets Spiritual Master, Receives PoK ‘Guru Dakshina’ Plea

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Upendra Dwivedi met with spiritual leader Jagadguru Rambhadracharya in the latter’s ashram in Madhya Pradesh’s Chitrakoot and received a request from him to retrieve Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

On Wednesday, during General Dwivedi’s visit to the ashram, the spiritual guru declared he was initiated the same way with the Ram Mantra with which Lord Hanuman was initiated when he left for mythological Lanka, Ravan’s kingdom, to save Sita. They also conducted a spiritual session and the Army chief had an interaction with the saints and students of the ashram.

Rambhadracharya insisted on a guru dakshina (honorarium or offering to a guru or teacher in Hinduism) from PoK by General Dwivedi.

This was weeks after India had initiated Operation Sindoor on May 7 following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 civilians lost their lives. The attacks were aimed at nine terror camps in Pakistan and PoK. For the following four days, Pakistan’s firing across the border was countered by Indian forces. A ceasefire was finally agreed upon on May 10. Although peace has returned to the India-Pakistan border, New Delhi continued to insist that Operation Sindoor remains on.

Diksha or initiation is a spiritual process which created guru-shishya relations and prepares an individual to proceed on a worldly path

Jagadguru Rambhadracharya is a well-known Hindu spiritual guru, Sanskrit scholar and philosopher who has written numerous books.