Rise of the ‘monk-fluencers’

Equipped with new-age tech and online tools, spiritual gurus are effectively harnessing the power of social media to broaden their reach, spread ideas and also grab a slice of the entrepreneurship pie

A very millennial thing to do, I type, ‘how to manage anxiety’ on YouTube, and voila! Scores and scores of videos pop up. One that especially catches my eye features a monk in an orange robe, tonsured, and wearing a calm smile. That video, on BuddhismInEnglish’s YouTube channel, has over a million views. The channel, some of whose best-performing videos answer the simplest questions of life like ‘how to be happy’, ‘how to stop overthinking’ or ‘four proven tips to stay focused and ace your studies’, has close to 2 million subscribers.

While monkhood has been for long associated with the idea of renunciation and minimalism, the new-age monks are well-equipped with the latest technologies, and these ‘monk-fluencers’ are effectively harnessing the potential of social media to broaden their reach, spread their ideas, and also get a slice of the spiritual entrepreneurship pie. Interestingly, they’re tapping into everything —from YouTube videos and Instagram Reels to podcasts and Substack newsletters—to make a strong presence in the spiritual content creation space.

This is evident from Spotify’s ‘Culture Next’ report, according to which, for the year 2023, mythology/ spirituality was the most popular podcast genre among Gen-Z listeners, registering a year-on-year growth of a whopping 236%.

“As monks, we are not against technology,” says SB Keshava Swami, who has over 64,000 followers on Instagram, and more than 27,700 subscribers on YouTube. “Monks aim to contribute to society, and we want to share ideas, insights from ancient wisdom, and life hacks to help people live happier, more powerful lives. Social media helps us to reach many people in the most effective and efficient way. So, naturally, we would take advantage of that,” he adds.

Swami identifies as a “globe-trotter”. In a recent clip taken at the Aga Khan University in Africa, the monk addresses the students, saying, “Ancient spiritual teachings can help you to be more and more in control and in sync with your mind.” In another keynote at the University of Toronto, he spoke about the ‘7 habits of successful spiritualists’.

While it’s hard to determine how much of his social media presence has contributed to his offline popularity and vice versa, a user’s comment on a keynote speech in Africa—“In every corner of the world”—highlights the impact the two in tandem with each other is having on the overall spread

of spirituality.

Jaggi Vasudev, popularly known as Sadhguru, is among the most widely known contemporary spiritual figures. He boasts a whopping 25 million followers across Instagram and YouTube, and also runs the Isha Foundation in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and has centres in Bengaluru and Delhi, and international centres in Europe and Africa.

The online presence is resounding and so is offline, thus paving the way for a brand where the ancient wisdom of yoga, meditation and spirituality go hand-in-hand with the guru’s passion for luxury bikes. With a massive following on social media, he also addresses people globally and even made an appearance on The Daily Show with host Trevor Noah, where he spoke about his ‘Save Soil’ initiative. A mere scroll through the YouTube video shows the resounding reception of Sadhguru’s talk among the audience. “I have never heard of this chap, Sadhguru, but he is totally correct with respect to the ecological challenge in food production,” reads one comment. “I’m South African and have been following both my 2 favourite men Sadhguru and Trevor. I have all Sadhguru’s videos and songs on my laptop and wish to be part of Isha and Mahashivratri, trying to learn Hindi too,” reads another, highlighting how social media presence can translate to offline impact.

And the new-age gurus and monks appear to be well aware of this and are building their online presence while connecting with followers in real life.

For example, Gaur Gopal Das, who speaks about everything from spirituality to relationships, life and its battles, has over 5 million subscribers on YouTube, 8.3 million followers on Instagram, and over 185,000 on X. Some of the common titles he speaks on include ‘secrets of impactful success’, ‘creating a happy life’, ‘turning passion into purpose’, ‘leadership mantras’, et al. And it’s the relatability, along with a quest for inner peace in a life that increasingly offers intense pressure and mental health issues, that resonates. Whether it’s Sadhguru, Dandapani, Jaya Kishori, or the likes of Jay Shetty, the spiritual gurus speak of similar issues that resonate with a wider audience, on topics that lie in a broad category spanning across life hacks, motivation, and spirituality.

As per a report by Custom Marketing Insights, the global self-improvement market was valued at $41.2 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $81.6 billion by 2032, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% during the period. At the same time, the life coaching industry itself is set to reach $25 billion by 2025 globally, according to the Gitnux Market Data Report 2024. This involves an annual growth of 7% from 2022 to 2025.

According to an International Coaching Federation (ICF) Global Consumer Awareness Study, which was also conducted by PwC Research, 89% respondents of a survey undertaken in India said they were aware of life coaching, 59% said they had partnered with a life coach, and 97% said they were satisfied with the whole life coaching experience.

Controversies too

If social media builds a wider reach, it also throws everyone open to scrutiny and trolling.

“A monk mind practises detachment. We realise that everything—from our houses to our families—is borrowed,” writes monk-turned-social media superstar Jay Shetty in his best-selling book Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day. And as per a damning expose by The Guardian, Shetty has borrowed, rather fabricated, a large part of his monk story, too, such as about spending three years among monks in India, and also about his educational credentials.

However, that expose, published in late February, seems to have hardly put a dent on Shetty’s social media presence. The two recent episodes of his On Purpose podcast, which feature actor-filmmaker Michael B Jordan and best-selling author and biochemist Jessie Inchauspé, have hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube with comments such as “I love how incredibly personal this and many other conversations are on this podcast while being relevant to a wide audience!” and “Watching other podcasts & YouTube shows has really made me appreciate Jay Shetty as a host & conversationalist”.
Sadhguru, too, has come under fire more than once, and much strongly over allegations of illegally constructing structures under his Isha Foundation in Tamil Nadu. Also, he has been often criticised over his pseudoscientific claims, which gained much heat recently as he underwent brain surgery after suffering multiple bleedings in the brain. A tweet from a decade ago, which especially came into focus read, “Allopathy is purely chemical. Ayurveda is herbal. Siddha is essentially elemental in nature.”

While the non-digital gurus have also come under scrutiny and have even been brought down, social media subjects one to much criticism and trolling, hence, being a double-edged sword, offering much room to expand influence while also exposing one to much scrutiny.

“What somebody says about me, whether they call me god or they call me a rogue, makes no difference to me. I am who I am,” Sadhguru had said at The Indian Express Adda in December. “That doesn’t change. So I am not somebody who is made by people’s opinions, good or bad. It doesn’t matter. In terms of who I am and my experience of life, nothing changes.”

“But definitely in terms of effectiveness of work… it makes things unnecessarily difficult. It closes doors, you have to knock them down. These kind of negative campaigns are around the world,” he added.

Spiritual orator and motivational speaker Jaya Kishori, too, boasts a massive following on social media with a whopping 11.6 million followers on Instagram and over 3.42 million subscribers on YouTube. A separate YouTube channel where she “explores various topics such as spirituality, life coaching, relationships, youth problems and more”, has over 1.52 million subscribers.

At the recently-held National Creator Award in New Delhi, she was awarded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the category of ‘Best Creator for Social Change’. A spiritual orator, she charges close to `10 lakh for an event, as per media reports.

However, the massive offline and online following cannot spare one from social media scrutiny. “And then they give gyan (wisdom) about not being materialistic,” reads a comment on a clip of her from an interview, where a jovial Kishori spoke about her fondness for mobile phones, especially iPhone, so much so that she has to get all the latest models. “Almost every other baba lives a lavish lifestyle and gives gyan to normal public. Many will not like it but it’s just like any other profession with money making at its core,” reads another comment. “When you have everything, you can give gyan (wisdom) about detachment,” reads a third.

At The Indian Express Adda last year, monk, lifestyle coach and motivational speaker Gaur Gopal Das, too, spoke about the thin line one treads when it comes to social media. “We are in an age which is connected by mobile phones. Social media has become a big identity,” he had commented then.

“I feel it is so crucial to start digging deep to find out our own value and worth, and then it is a great tool to connect, express, make an impact, to sell your business… but if you are deriving your worth from the validation that comes from social media, then it can have a crippling effect on your mental health. When self-expression becomes your purpose, numbers follow as a consequence. When numbers become your purpose, self-expression goes out of the window and the numbers are anyway fluctuating all the time. But when self-expression is your purpose, even if the numbers fluctuate, I know that this is what I’m doing it for,” he added.

On what brought him to social media, SB Keshava Swami says, “Just a growing desire to serve the world and a recognition that as monks, if we don’t move with the times, if we do not meet people where they are, then we cannot really serve them in the best way.”

“Social media has helped us reach places and people that would otherwise be very difficult to reach,” he adds.

Business of spirituality

While social media helps to reach out to more people, that’s not the only avenue that monks and former monks are looking at.

Shetty is the chief purpose officer of the popular meditation app Calm, and hosts the popular On Purpose podcast, among the top-ranking podcasts of 2023. Although his net worth isn’t clear, some reports have pegged it at $4 million.

Similarly, Sadhguru’s estimated net worth is pegged Rs 18 crore.

Such is the potential of spiritual entrepreneurship that Udemy offers a Spiritual Entrepreneurship 101 course for which over 1,100 students enrolled. It teaches one how to fund a spiritual business, the best business structure, and how to connect with the target audience.

Spiritual entrepreneurship features prominently on Swami’s website too, to which he says that this form of entrepreneurship “is about being dynamic in the way we interact with the world to generate a different type of wealth. A type of wealth that is often forgotten in the midst of material, physical, and monetary wealth. And therefore, we encourage people to become spiritual entrepreneurs to try and generate that other type of wealth”.