Dhirendra Shastri, a peethadhish of the Bageshwar Dham Sarkar, commonly known as Bageshwar Dham Baba, has been in the centre of debates for quite some time because of his strong stance against love jihad and religious conversion.
Recently, on the microblogging site, many propagandists and Islamists Twitter users shared a 16 seconds video clip of the Bageshwar Baba. In the short video clip, the baba can be heard saying that Hindu deity Shri Ram had five fathers.
The user Ali Sohrab, who is a Muslim activist and allegedly fights against islamophobia, a hoax invented to show victimization of the Muslim community in India, sharing the video clip wrote, “Ram had five fathers: Pandit Dhirendra Shastri.”
Mohammad Tanvir, a journalist according to his bio, sharing the same video wrote that we are not suggesting that Ram had five dads, but Dhirendra Shastri is.
Additionally, the state general secretary of Indian National Congress (INC) Haryana, Vikas Bansal, another INC Gujarat unit member Hitendra Pithadiya and Kirti Azad, a member of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) also shared the video with the same fake.
Apart from these prominent Twitter handles, other users going by the handle name @/1vincible3, and @/AnilPatel_IN also claimed that Dhirendra Shastri had said that Shri Ram had five fathers.
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Fact Check
We started our research with a relevant keyword search on YouTube and came across the original video from a year ago. The 3 minutes 26 seconds video on the official channel of Bageshwar Dham Sarkar contradicts the claim of the Twitter users.
At the start of the video, Bageshwar Baba says to his followers that, “Shri Ram had five fathers. Strange to state, difficult to believe, yet true. Kheer only appeared from Agni dev (Fire deity), making him the father of that child. Hence, he is given the status of father.”
Ramayan, a Hindu text, says that Shri Ram was born from Agni Dev’s Kheer Prasad. Ayodhya’s king had three queens. Under the direction of Guru Vashishtha, King Dashrath performed the son Kameshti Yagya in order to have children with Kaushalya, Kaikai, and Sumitra, which Shringi Rishi accomplished. At the end of the Yagya, Agnidev himself emerged from the Yagya Kund carrying a pot of kheer. The three queens received this kheer from him. A few days after consuming Kheer, Lord Shriram, Bharata, Lakshmana, and Shatrughna were all born from the wombs of their respective mothers: Kaushalya, Kaikai, and Sumitra.
He continues, “Dasharatha is the second father; he fostered him. The third father is Jatayu. Maharaj Dasharatha once lost consciousness during the battle of Devasur. Jatayu then used his wings to break him out of his coma. Dasharatha was pleased and asked him, “What should I give you?” Jatayu replied that I have no need. He was an astrologer. He said to Dasharatha that he will have four sons while glancing at his hand. If anything has to be given, Jatayu should be given a right over his eldest son.”
Bageshwar Baba emphasized it by saying that when Dasharatha died, Shri Ram was not able to perform his last rites. However, he performed Jatayu’s last rites like a son would.
He continued by saying that Vishwamitra was Shri Ram’s fourth father out of his five fathers. Vashishtha had informed Dasharatha that Ram would return with a bride when he was travelling with Vishwamitra. Vishwamitra was given the responsibility of the father since the father has the authority to marry the son. Lastly, baba says that King Janak is Ram’s fifth father since his wife’s father is also considered a father figure.
What Bageshwar Baba meant was apart from his biological father, the other four people were like father figure to Shri Ram. He did not want to imply that he was born out of five fathers. However, the video was taken out of context and an edited version was shared to mislead people.
| Claim | Bageshwar Dham baba insulted Shri Ram by saying that he was born out of five fathers |
| Claimed by | Ali Sohrab, Kirti Azad, Hitendra Pithadiya, Vikas Bansal, Mohammad Tanvir and several other Twitter users |
| Fact Check | Misleading |
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