Bageshwar Dham Sarkar (Dhirendra Krishna Shastri) Age, Family, Biography & More

Bio/Wiki
Real Name	Dhirendra Krishna Garg [1]Dhruv Rathee - YouTube
Other Name(s)	• Bageshwar Dham Sarkar [2]Bageshwar Dham’s Official Website • Bageshwar Dham Maharaj [3]Aaj Tak • Shri Dhirendra Krishna Ji Maharaj [4]Bhakti Bharat’s Official Website • Bageshwar Baba
Profession(s)	Kathavachak (Spiritual Orator), Priest
Known For	Being the Peethadhishwar at the religious pilgrimage Bageshwar Dham, Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh
Physical Stats & More
Height	in centimeters- 170 cm in meters- 1.70 m in feet & inches- 5’ 7”
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Black
Personal Life
Date of Birth	• Source 1: 4 July 1996 (Thursday) [5]Bhakti Bharat’s Official Website • Source 2: 10 July 1996 (Wednesday) [6]YouTube – Bageshwar Dham Sarkar
Age (as of 2022)	26 Years
Birthplace	Gadha Village, Chhatarpur District, Madhya Pradesh
Zodiac sign	Cancer
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh
School	A government school in his village
Educational Qualification	Class 12 [7]Bageshwar Dham’s Official Website
Religion	Hinduism [8]Bageshwar Dham’s Official Website
Caste	Saryupariya Brahmin [9]Bageshwar Dham’s Official Website
Controversies	• Acquired the Properties Unlawfully With the growing popularity of Bageshwar Dham, the prices of land in the area also increased. Even the rent of a shop was increased to Rs 1 lakh per month. According to the sources, Dhirendra and his associates took it as an advantage and decided to acquire more land in the village. Initially, they started acquiring the government land including a crematorium, pond, and mountain. With his political influence, he even prepared the legal documents of the property. Later, a community building was also acquired by Dhirendra which was built with the funds of the panchayat. Reportedly, he threatened a few villagers to acquire their land. Once, his associates even ran a JCB on the houses of a few villagers who had refused to leave their land for him. In an interview, some of the villagers even said that he had the power because of his good relationship with Madhya Pradesh’s political leaders. [10]Dainik Bhaskar • Promoted Untouchability Among People In 2022, during his spiritual event, his devotee named Jeevan came near him to touch his feet, he stopped him and said, "Just don’t touch us, we are untouchable people.” Immediately, one of his associates took the man away from Dhirendra. Later, the video went viral on social media and he was heavily criticised for promoting untouchability among the people. The netizens then started the #ArrestDhirendraShastri trend on Twitter. [11]ABP Live On 27 May 2022, Bageshwar Dham Sarkar (Official) took to Twitter to give clarification on the video. The tweet reads, "Misleading propaganda was done by posting the edited video.” • Accused of Promoting Religious Discrimination Dhirendra Krishna has often made statements on religious discrimination during his various spiritual events. In 2022, during his spiritual event, he persuaded his devotees to boycott the Hindi film ‘Pathaan’ by relating to it religious discrimination. [12]News 18 In the spiritual event, he said, "I swear to you, to the people of the whole of India. You have an oath. Whoever opposes Sanatan, whether he is a leader or an actor. Look, you people had boycotted the film of an actor, then everyone started tying kalavas, and applying tilak. Take an oath today that you will not watch films of such people by raising both your hands.” In one of his other spiritual events, he targetted Muslims and Christians by saying, "Stay away from chadar and father.” • Case Field for Promoting Superstition In January 2023, a case was filed against him by Shyam Manav, the chairman of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti for promoting superstition among people. He even challenged Dhirendra to showcase his magic powers by guessing the items he had kept in another room. Shyam offered him a reward of Rs 30 lakh for the same. When Dhirendra came to know about this, he winded his spiritual event in Maharashtra two days before on 11 January 2023 which was supposed to finish on 13 January 2023. [13]ABP Live In an interview, Dhirendra talked about it, he said, "I don’t have anything to prove. I just do what he (Bageshwar Balaji) inspires me to do. I am just a servant at the feet of Bageshwar Balaji. I do as he inspires me.” Later, when Shyam was asked about challenging Dhirendra. He said, "Dhirendra Shastri had organized Ram Katha in Nagpur, and along with it he also announced to set up of a divine court. Even before this, a divine court has been held in many places. And its videos are also available on YouTube. There are some things in Maharashtra which promote superstition. I have all those videos with me. I have also made them available to the police. And it is illegal to do superstition and black magic in Maharashtra. It is also a crime to propagate it. In this crime, the punishment can be from 6 months to 7 seven.” Later, Dhirendra accepted the challenge and invited Shyam to his event in Raipur which was scheduled on 20 January 2023 and 21 January 2023. In an interview, Dhirendra talked about it, he said, "Earlier, I held a court for seven days but you didn’t come. If I get a chance, I will come again. But now, I accept your challenge. You are welcome to Raipur between January 20-21. I will hold the court there. I will pay for your ticket.” He even said that he did not possess any super natural powers and it was Lord Hanumana who had guided him throughout. • 'Hindu Rashtra' remark in Bihar and other related controversies During his five-day Hanumanth Katha event (from 13 May 2023 to 17 May 2023) in Bihar, he attracted many controversies. His remark that "the fire of Hindu Rashtra will be ignited from Bihar" didn't go well with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar who slammed him and said that the people making such comments about Hindu Rashtra were not even born when the Constitution came into being. Nitish Kumar also said that the state government never interferes with anybody’s faith. During his ‘Divya Darbar’ session, he again attracted controversy when he called his followers ‘pagal’ after he had to cancel ‘aarti’ due to over-crowding at the venue. Following his 'Pagal' comment, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son and Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav slammed Shastri and said, “This Baba is abusing Biharis and calling them 'pagal'. Politics is being done to divide the country.” [14]India Today
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Unmarried
Affairs/Girlfriends	Jaya Kishori (kathavachak; rumoured) [15]YouTube – News Tak
Family
Wife/Spouse	N/A
Parents	Father- Ram Karpal Garg (kathavachak) Mother- Saroj Shastri (milkwoman)
Siblings	Brother(s)- Shaligram Garg Ji Maharaj (younger; kathavachak) , Saurabh Garg (younger) Sister- Name Not Known (younger)
Other Relative	Grandfather: Pandit Setu Lal Guruji aka Shri Shri 1008 Dada Guru Ji Maharaj alias Bhagwan Das Garg (kathavachak)
Money Factor
Net Worth (approx.)	Rs 3.5 lakh per month (as of January 2023)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Dhirendra Krishna Shastri

• Dhirendra Krishna Shastri is an Indian self-styled godman and kathavachak (spiritual orator). As of 2023, he is the chief priest at the religious pilgrimage Bageshwar Dham, Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh.

• In childhood, his family condition was not good. He used to travel to his school on foot for around 5 km. His family used to live in a kaccha house of one room. Later, his family built a pucca house at the same place.
  

  Dhirendra Krishna Shastri’s home

• His grandfather and father used to work as a kathavachak in the village. On the hilltop of their village, there was a small Shiva temple. Later, his grandfather decided to build a lord Hanumana temple near the Shiva temple. Within a few years, the temple became popular among the village people.
  

  Bageshwar Dham Temple

• When Dhirendra Krishna Shastri was nine years old, he started accompanying his father and grandfather at various spiritual events. After completing school, he decided to work as a kathavachak to support his family financially. Later, he dreamt of doing sadhana of agyaat vaas and shared his dream with his family members. His grandfather suggested him to start his sadhana as he considered the dream a message from god.

• Dhirendra then started learning sadhanas under his vansh guru Sadhguru Sanyasi Baba and Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Ji Maharaj.

• In 2009, after completing his sadhana, he narrated Shrimad Bhagwat Katha for the first time in a village. Gradually, he started gaining popularity among people. He then started preaching kathas along with his father and grandfather at the Bageshwar.
  

  Dhirendra Krishna Shastri in his teens

• He once organised a press conference in the local media where he promoted the Bageshwar Dham temple. He even collaborated with a TV spiritual channel and started broadcasting his kathas on the channel. Through his TV show, he started gaining popularity in other states as well.

• In an interview, his devotees shared that before listening to their problems, Dhirendra wrote their problems on a piece of paper and called him antaryami. They further shared that he has the power to remove negative energies from people that too without even touching them.

• Later, various Indian spiritual channels started telecasting his kathas and pravachans.

• Dhirendra Krishna Shastri is known for organising ‘ghar wapsi’ events for Hindus who have converted to other religions. In an interview, while talking about ‘ghar waspsi’ event, he said,
  

  Till the time we’re alive, we’ll make sure of ‘Ghar Wapsi’ of maximum number of people and stop religious conversion. We’ve to focus on unity among Hindus and boycott those who speak against Sanatana Dharma.”

• His associates started a YouTube channel Bageshwar Dham Sarkar on 28 June 2019. As of January 2023, he has around 3.71 million subscribers on his channel. On the channel, the videos of his spiritual events are uploaded.
  

  Bageshwar Dham Sarkar’s YouTube channel

  

  Dhirendra Krishna Shastri’s YouTube play button

• Dhirendra is also involved in various social services. At Bageshwar Dham, he started Annapurna kitchen to provide free food to people. He has also organised various camps for the welfare of needy people and animals.
  

  Dhirendra Krishna Shastri with a cow

• In an interview, he corrected the reporter for addressing him as Baba. He said that he was neither a sanyasi nor a baba, and only a kathavacak or shastri. ^[16]YouTube – Aaj Tak

• On 12 June 2022, he was honoured with the World Book of Records, London for his matchless contribution to the discourse on the story of Bhagwat Geeta.
  

  Dhirendra Krishna Shastri’s certificate from the World Book of Records, London

• On 14 June 2022, for his work towards various communities, he received a certificate of appreciation from Shant Shiromani.
  

  Dhirendra Krishna Shastri’s certificate of appreciation

• His name was also listed in the World Book of Records, Europe for his matchless contribution to propagating religious awareness in 2022.
  

  Dhirendra Krishna Shastri’s certificate from the World Book of Records, Europe

• While Dhirendra has a large following among devoted individuals, many have raised concerns about his speeches, which have at times appeared to provoke communal violence, his actions, and his claims, including the assertion that he can cure cancer through his blessings and medicines.