‘I asked for PoK as dakshina’: Spiritual leader Jagadguru Rambhadracharya shares blessing given to Army chief Upendra Dwivedi

NEW DELHI: Spiritual leader Jagadguru Rambhadracharya on Thursday revealed that he bestowed the Ram Mantra Diksha upon Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, invoking the blessing once given to Lord Hanuman by Maa Sita before his conquest of Lanka. The Guru said he asked for a unique dakshina in return: “I want PoK back.”General Dwivedi visited the revered seer at his Chitrakoot Ashram on Wednesday during a tour that also included the inauguration of a state-of-the-art simulator machine at Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya, a pioneering step in medical training for eye surgeries.“This machine allows doctors to practice surgical procedures virtually before operating on real patients. There are only 4–5 such machines in India, and this is the first one in Madhya Pradesh,” said a member of the Sadguru Sewa Centre, adding that the Army Chief also observed the functioning of the facility’s operation theatres.With 140 vision centres and an equal number of surgeons operating across the network, the centre also explored possibilities of collaboration with the armed forces to extend eye care services to personnel and veterans.The Army Chief’s visit comes days after his critical leadership role in Operation Sindoor, India’s retaliatory mission against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK following the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.General Dwivedi, alongside Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi and Air Force Chief Marshal AP Singh, oversaw operations from the military command centre, featured in a booklet recently circulated among Indian Army personnel.India has since launched diplomatic efforts, sending multi-party MP-led delegations to key countries to underscore its zero-tolerance stance on terrorism and expose Pakistan’s role in cross-border attacks.