Published Oct 26, 2026 | 1:13 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 26, 2026 | 1:32 PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with holographic avatar of Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati at Chinmaya Amrit Mahotsav Global Sammelan.
Has India reduced itself to manufacturing AI Babas?
The question popped up on social media after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati’s holobot at the Chinmaya Amrit Mahotsav Global Sammelan at New Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam on October 23.
The event celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Chinmaya Mission, founded by Swami Chinmayananda, born Balakrishna Menon in Kochi, Kerala.
At the event, PM Modi said he “was fortunate to have met Chinmayananda” in 1993, the year the Swamiji passed away.
Swami Chinmayananda’s holobot joined the Prime Minister in the recollection.
“Hari Om, Narendra. I remember you coming to Vadodara in February 1993 to invite me to the centenary celebrations of the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. At that time, I told you that I was now advanced in age. This old and ailing person could not take on such a great responsibility. Now, Hindu youth would have to shoulder this responsibility.”
Words of praise for the Prime Minister followed soon after.
“…look at India today; I am very happy that the person I met in 1993 is today the Honourable Prime Minister of India. You are realising my vision by revitalising our temples, reforming the education system, strengthening the economy, and facing challenges with indomitable strength and courage. We are all very proud of everything you have done for India. Those pillars are rising once again,” the holobot observed.
A user made fun of this use of AI.
“America: We Make AI Car; China: We Make AI robot. Meanwhile, India: We Make AI Baba,” the post went.
The Indian Youth Congress and many other social media users responded with a video clip of the real Swami Chinmayananda (‘non-AI version of Swami Chinmayanand ji’) in which he said, “Only rascals need a religion.”
The late Swami, who opposed religious dogma of any kind, elaborated.
“Good people don’t need a religion. Is there a doctor who complains that I am tired of this profession? I’m going to resign from this profession. Why? No healthy man ever comes to me. Similarly, only wicked people will be around any worthy swami because they are to be improved. It is meant for dangerous people,” his video message said.
Swami Chinmayananda, as Balakrishna Menon, had initially been an atheist. He worked briefly with The National Herald newspaper. There, he wrote about the need for socialism to better the lot of the poor in India.
In 1947, at the age of 31, he headed to Rishikesh to meet Swami Sivananda Saraswati.
“I went not to gain knowledge, but to find out how the swamis were keeping up the bluff among the masses,” Swami Chinmayananda later recounted. The meeting transformed his life, and he eventually became a monk.
The Swamiji was scathing in his dismissal of religious fanaticism in his discourses.
“It is true the villainy, cruelty, ambition, madness and even wars have repeatedly reached the arena of life clothed in the cloak of glorious religion… What prompts these fanatics to draw out their weapons and murder the weak and the helpless is not their faith in religion, but their own base and low animalism, disguised in the pious robes of religion,” he is said to have observed.
Actor Prakash Raj, a trenchant critic of Modi, posted a video.
“So you bring a Swami ji on AI. That too, one from Kerala who says rascals misuse religion. And he is blessing you, wishing you, and you are having a conversation…,” Prakash Raj said, while asking the Prime Minister not to stretch the bounds of people’s credulity any further.
YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, who had recently joined Prakash Raj and the Cockroach Janta Party in the SIR protests in Bengaluru and Delhi, was also caustic in his condemnation. “Modi is now talking to AI videos of dead people to praise himself,” he observed.
Aditya Garg, who identifies himself as national spokesperson of the Congress party, noted: “If it’s pinched you, it must be the truth; not AI.”
There was criticism of Chinmaya Mission too.
“I have great respect for @ChinmayaMission. It is a great organisation, founded by a true master who taught us to question everything. It is upsetting that such an illustrious organisation found it necessary to pander to a politician’s megalomania,” a user behind the handle vizagobelix, who identified himself as an entrepreneur, posted.
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(Edited by R Rajesh Kumar.)
