Virtually declared a villain by the police and the media, Sant Rampal’s popularity in the cyber space is becoming a source of envy for many mainly because of the growing curiosity about the self-styled godman was quite strong.
Currently behind the bars for a series of cases registered against him, Rampal has become a star in the virtual world and the social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube.
That is not all! The “Sant” has a comprehensive website for his followers to listen to his “satsang” — live, video, MP3. There is little doubt left about his followers in the real world, as more than 15,000 were present in the ashram when the police was making efforts of his arrest.
But his popularity’s graph reached heights in the cyber world only in the past week. Almost two people were hitting the ‘like’ button every hour on his Facebook page in the previous week when the Haryana police was struggling to get inside his Satlok Ashram at Barwala village in Hisar.
It was only on late Wednesday night that the police managed to get hold of Rampal who was hiding in his ashram after a fortnight-long struggle. The godman was put behind bars after the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday cancelled his bail in eight year old murder case, and following registration of fresh criminal charges against him.
On the other hand, the internet world is marked by his presence, not only on the news websites, but on the popular social networking websites.
Besides several pages and groups created by his supporters on the Facebook, Rampal has its own account on the website besides another one on Twitter — @kabirsahib. Only a month back, he also started live streaming on Youtube to share his satsang videos.
Joined Twitter in November 2009, he has a total of 362 tweets and 160 followers so far. The last tweet by ‘Baba’ was at 9:20 pm on November 8.
Having three groups by his name on Facebook — by the name of Jagatguru Tatvadarshi Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj, Satguru Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj, Sant Rampalji Maharaj, his total followers add up to 6,089. Besides, his Facebook account — Jagatguru Rampal Ji Maharaj — has 3,152 followers.
Rampal’s actual popularity in the world-wide-web can be gauged from his Facebook page — Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj — which has received 229.6 per cent more “likes” as compared to the last week.
In a week’s time, his page was liked by 287 people — at the rate of 229.6 per cent —taking the total number to 412 likes. The graph also shows that 335 people are “talking about this” page.
Projecting himself as “jagat guru” (world’s master or supreme), he portrayed himself to be eleventh in the lineage of great saint Kabir. The same was presented on his website.
His an all-inclusive web portal — www.jagatgururampalji.org — have links related to satsangs; almost all scriptures including that Bhagavad Gita, Vedas, Purans, and those related to Sikhism, Islam, and Christianity; various publications; and a huge “photo gallery” having his pictures in six different albums — including that of 2013 and 2014.
The website also given information regarding “false and fabricated cases” imposed on Rampal associated with the Karontha episode with full information.
His views on the “frequently asked questions” like “Is it true that only foolish people worship other gods”, “Why Guruji criticises philosophies of other saints” etc, were also made available in detail, supported by videos.