DEHRADUN: Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati on Friday said he had no interest in reading Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s autobiography, Belonging: A Journey of Love, saying it offered him no spiritual or public-service inspiration.
Asked about the book, which has prompted reactions from leaders across party lines, the head of Jyotirmath replied “It is neither the Ramcharitmanas nor the Mahabharata that would inspire me.”
He said he drew inspiration from the lives of Lord Ram and Lord Krishna, as well as from accounts of history that encouraged public welfare. “I read about Ram and Krishna. The history that inspires people to work for the welfare of society is what matters to me,” he said, adding that he saw nothing in Gandhi’s life story that interested him.
The Shankaracharya also criticised the reported alliance between the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by Asaduddin Owaisi, and the Azad Samaj Party, headed by Chandrashekhar Azad.
He described the alliance as a threat to Hinduism and said coalition politics was weakening the possibility of a third political alternative. “Indian politics is gradually moving towards a two-party system like that of the United States,” he said.
He argued that alliances bringing different parties together could leave voters with fewer choices. Referring to efforts to combine Dalit and Muslim voters, Avimukteshwaranand said such political alignments could harm Hindu society and Hinduism.
His remarks were political opinion; he did not cite specific evidence to support the claim that the alliance posed a direct threat to the faith. He also targeted the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over its record on cow protection.
The Shankaracharya claimed the condition of cows had worsened under the state government and cited a reported decline of around seven million cows between 2019 and 2024.
“After such a large decline, people’s faith in the government on this issue is no longer what it was,” he said, predicting that the matter would affect the next election.
Avimukteshwaranand has often made headlines for his views on religious practices, cow protection and politics. In January 2024, he declined to attend the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying the construction was incomplete according to Hindu scriptures.
