The Ramnaam Bank

What drove 52-year-old Siddha Patil into the spiritual refuge of Aniruddha Baba was her hypertension, high blood pressure and a deteriorating relationship with her ageing husband and married children. About two years ago, at one of his spiritual camps, she was introduced to a bank unlike any she had ever known. Siddha enrolled, became a member and got a notebook. In this, she started writing down the name of Ram. Once the book got filled up, she deposited it and began work on the next. She is still filling books assiduously.

The Ramnaam Bank is a spiritual bank launched by Aniruddha Baba to ‘aid the cleansing process of a devotee’. A devotee opens an account at any of the 100 branches in Maharashtra for a fee of Rs 10, which is the cost of the passbook. Every account holder has to then buy a book, where he writes chants. Once a book is filled, it is deposited and an entry is made into the passbook. “Every time a book is completed, we are entitled to certain benefits. Two books will get you Bapu’s badge, while 151 completed books will get you his darshan. You can touch his feet too,” says Manohar Nakate, a security guard.

There are rules: devotees must write themselves. They can choose their own script and ink, but continuity must be maintained. The writing must be legible, and the devotee must chant what they are writing. “When you chant, the mind will not be distracted. Aniruddha Bapuji wants his disciples to be completely in the present when they chant,” says a follower.

The notebook must be filled in the name of the bearer, but on special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, posthumous rites, every account holder is expected to fill a notebook for a dear one. A new banking year starts with the guru’s birthday.

The total number of accounts of the bank stands at 127,776. Every devotee can write down chants in the name of a god of his or her choice. According to the bank, the Ramnaam chant has been written over 19 billion times; the Sriram Jairam Jai Jai Raam chant 1.2 billion times; the Krishna jaap  4.8 billion times, the Jai Jai Aniruddha Hari 1.2 billion times and the Dattaguru chant 2.4 billion times. About 876 devotees have completed 151 books each, while 93 have completed 251 books.