Kids as young as five are spouting shlokas and singing bhajans on social media. Is it true devotion or performative spirituality for likes?
What began as a cute video of a child chanting with a mala, recorded by doting parents and posted on Instagram, soon turned into a social media sensation. Before you knew it, five-year-old Bhakt Bhagwat from a gurukul in Govardhan, Uttar Pradesh, took over smartphone screens with his fluent shlokas and pirouettes, urging viewers to do “Krishna ki sewa”. In a self-published brochure, his parents call him “one of the youngest spiritual leaders in the world”.
At that age, most kids struggle to learn the alphabet. “But people say Bhagwat Prabhu is extraordinary. It is clear in his words when he says, ‘Hi-hello chhodo, Hare Krishna bolo’,” says his father Akam Bhakti Das, a software engineer-turned-Gita proponent who now resides and works in the same gurukul of Vedic studies.
At that age, most kids struggle to learn the alphabet. “But people say Bhagwat Prabhu is extraordinary. It is clear in his words when he says, ‘Hi-hello chhodo, Hare Krishna bolo’,” says his father Akam Bhakti Das, a software engineer-turned-Gita proponent who now resides and works in the same gurukul of Vedic studies.