A godman is a colloquial name for a particular type of charismatic guru who has a high-profile presence, is capable of attracting attention and support from Indian society, and makes claims of spiritual attainments. Godmen sometimes claim to possess paranormal powers, such as clairvoyance, or healing abilities.
They are often outside the establishment and may not have taken initiation and associated with that, they tend to live in their own ashrams, instead of that of belonging to a religious order.
Their success comes, often not from the strength of their parampara, but from their personal qualities. They may however assert that they accept authority of a guru. An example of a godman is Sathya Sai Baba.[1][2]
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The Indian Rationalist Association denounces the purportedly supernatural feats of godmen as “well-packaged gimmickry.”[3] This group performs demonstrations of magic tricks which replicate the effects achieved by godmen, such as walking on coals,[4] producing sacred ash from thin air, exploding stones with "mental power," levitating, or turning water into blood.[5][6]
Very few godmen have allowed observation of their feats under controlled laboratory test conditions, such as Swami Rama's controlling of his heart functions, or simultaneous differential thermal control of a hand.[7]
All information in this entry is sourced to James G. Lochtefeld's The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism unless otherwise stated.