Influencers on the web
Navni Chawla talks to five social media influencers who are creating healthy content and elevating the lives of people
“I cringe at the crappy and distasteful content that some of the creators are putting out there on social media,” said a colleague of mine, in one of our edit meetings (discussions in which all the in-house writers brainstorm and come up with new story ideas). Another remarked: “And what are they promoting? Cuss words! Vulgarity! Is this aligned with our culture? Does it define our values as a community?
Our editor intervened: “Why not write about the young influencers who are creating healthy content and helping others? That will be our contribution to counter this menace of low-quality content being propagated.”
I immediately jumped at this idea and took it up as my assignment. To profile some competent influencers on social media, I interviewed five of them. All of them are experts in their field and are leaving a magnanimous impact. Let’s take a look at who they are and how they are contributing to society.
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Satvic Movement by Subah Jain Saraf and Harshvardhan Saraf
Satvic Movement is a not-for-profit health education platform formed with the aim of bringing man closer to Mother Nature. It provides simplified holistic knowledge taught in our Vedas and scriptures. Led by Subah Jain Saraf and Harshvardhan Saraf, Satvic Movement is empowering everyone, especially the youth, to adopt a healthy, disease-free lifestyle. They do this through their website and YouTube videos, health transformation workshops, food books, Facebook, and Instagram. They have a following on YouTube of four million subscribers (a whopping figure) and 395 thousand on Instagram.
“ ‘Sattva’ essentially means the mode of goodness,” says Subah. She further explains that in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says that there are three modes through which all living entities function: sattva, rajas, and tamas. The latter two represent passion and ignorance respectively, and the former, the highest and noblest qualities in a human being. For example, Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and Vibhishana, the three brothers mentioned in the Ramayana, represent the three modes. Ravana, who was rapacious and arrogant, lived in rajas mode. Kumbhkarana, who only slept and ate, lived in tamas, and Vibhishana was high on sattva, or the mode of righteousness, and ultimately sided with Lord Rama.
Subah describes sattva as an umbrella term for higher qualities like having love and compassion in the heart, surrender to a higher power, fearlessness, and self-control over the body, the senses, and the mind. Harshvardhan added that sattva recognises happiness or bliss as the default state of being. A person who is living in sattva will not need an outcome or an external reaction to be happy.
Satvic Movement was the result of Subah and Harsh’s personal health journeys. At one point, both of them were struggling with many health issues. Harsh had psoriasis, a breathing problem, and nose blockage, while Subah was dealing with thyroid, PCOD, and hair fall. Throughout their childhood, they thought that popping allopathic pills was the only fix to their problems. When they were exhausted and their health wasn’t getting any better, they started wondering if there was another path to healing their ailments. After doing research and meeting masters and teachers, they concluded that only by switching to a sattvic lifestyle was it possible to eradicate the root cause of their diseases.
They began implementing the changes assiduously in their food and lifestyle, and experienced a breakthrough. For the first few months, it was difficult for them to break the conditioning, but later on, when they got their health tests done again, they found that all their problems had disappeared.
This miraculous turnaround made Harsh and Subah realise the power of the wisdom they had received. They decided to share this newfound knowledge with the world through the fastest means of communication with a worldwide reach. That’s when they started their Youtube channel, Satvic Movement. They make ancient Vedic knowledge easy and adaptable for everyone. The attempt is to condense and simplify this knowledge so that anyone can embrace a holistic and disease-free life.
According to Subah and Harsh, a sattvic lifestyle involves re-establishing a connection with nature and her five elements: water, air, fire, ether, and earth. Whenever there is an imbalance of these five elements in the body, disease arises. For example, today, a lot of people binge-eat, unmindful that they are over-stuffing themselves. This increases the earth element in the body, and the ether (space) element (in which all other elements exist) gets compromised. As a result, diseases like obesity arise. One can rectify this by undertaking a 16-hour fast, which balances the ether element.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna describes the quality of sattvic food as full of rasya, or juice. So all the water-rich, alkaline fruits and vegetables are sattvic by nature and are very healthy for us. Avoiding oily, spicy, dead, processed, and packaged food also falls under making a sattvic food choice. Likewise, sunbathing is good to nurture the fire element, and doing pranayama (breathing exercises) balances the air element in the body.
Anyone who diligently follows sattvic food habits gets more intuitive about what and how much they should eat. They can easily tell if they are served something packaged or fresh, like coconut milk.
In Satvic Movement, both Subah and Harsh have their specific domains and roles. Subah is the right brain of Satvic Movement and brings all the creativity and colours to it. Harsh is the left brain, taking care of administration, team building, and management. Harshvardhan says, “The body, mind, and spirit are so intricately connected that just by adopting a simple sattvic diet, one’s thoughts start settling, and one can see its positive effects trickling into every aspect of life. The bad habits fall automatically, and one associates more with like-minded people. Receiving spiritual knowledge also has a direct impact on the intellect, emotions, and other subtler layers of our consciousness. We naturally become gentler in our responses, feel calmer, and more in control. The negative emotions of greed, lust, anger, jealousy, etc. subside on their own as an outcome of the purification of both body and mind through sattvic knowledge.”
Subah adds, “Our ancestors used to say ‘Jaisa ann, vaisa mann (What you eat makes up your thoughts),’ and that’s a universal truth. Food might not be the only aspect of changing one’s lifestyle, but elevating one’s food choice can definitely have a powerful impact on the overall health of an individual. And, when one experiences the higher tastes of life, the lower drop on their own.”
Although the entire team of Satvic Movement is doing great work through the lifestyle changes they suggest, they are very modest and say that the knowledge they spread through their videos and books is not new but, rather, a compilation of all that they have learnt and received from the masters and great books like Practical Nature Cure by Acharya Lakshman Sharma and Essene Gospel of Peace (some of Subah’s favourite books). They strive to simplify it to make it relatable to the masses. They add that this knowledge was not just taught and practised in India but is available in almost every culture. All we need to do is walk our way back to Mother Nature.
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Kaliraang by Simran Kumar
Healer and tarot reader Simran Kumar started her channel Kaliraang about two years back. She is an ardent devotee of Kaali Maa and works with her energies; hence the name Kaliraang. Everything that Simran shares through Kaliraang is an amalgamation of all the life lessons and skills she developed over time. It defined her life’s purpose, anchored her deeply into spirituality, and helped her turn around hardships into favourable circumstances through manifestations, healing, rituals, and pooja.
Simran’s roots are embedded in spirituality and branch out into tarot card reading, water healing, crystal healing, chakra healing, pranic healing, and other many customised remedies to help those facing problems. She emphasises keeping a pure intent (to help and heal the other) before performing a remedial process for someone. She has also been invited to many giant MNCs like Ernst and Young, PWS, etc. to conduct healing workshops. Simran has the knack to empower people with life skills like mindfulness, inculcating a positive mindset, brain rewiring, getting in touch with one’s deeper essence, creating a healthy environment that accelerates growth, reprogramming the brain to bring what you want in life, and taking charge of things rather than operating from the autopilot mode.
Simran conducts special workshops for students to help them focus and score well in exams. She also teaches chakra activation, pranayama, breathing exercises, and meditations, and has about 22 thousand followers on YouTube and 18 thousand on Instagram. She uses these social media platforms as her main channels to do general readings and predictions. The comments on her videos testify to her credibility as a tarot reader and healer par excellence. Her readings are very holistic and insightful. Simran says, “I share a very cordial relationship with my cards. I never learnt tarot reading in this lifetime. It feels it’s a gift from God that I have been carrying from some past life. Since my childhood, I have felt so connected to Spirit. I remember my first exposure to tarot cards was when my aunt got them home and I was playing with them as a baby. Seeing them made me imagine some esoteric visuals. Today, I can connect the dots and understand that I am blessed with clairvoyance and clairsentience. So, I must use this gift to help others.”
Simran shared that before getting into full-time energy work, she was an interior designer and even worked in the industry for a good four years. She was always spiritually inclined, and her heart’s calling was to work with Spirit. Slowly, as she started doing readings for her family and friends, which turned out to be highly accurate, it reconfirmed her faith that she was on the right path. She read extensively, explored, tested, and even ran experiments in this field. After applying a lot of her learnings practically, she decided to immerse herself completely into healing others.
While doing readings, Simran connects with energies sincerely. She doesn’t ask for any information except the seeker’s name (not even the date of birth). She leads from a place of surrender and channels universal energy to get helpful insights into a person’s problems. She offers people the guidance needed to remove any obstacles in their way.
Today, one has to book Simran a month in advance, as she is much in demand. She also helps other healers to cleanse their energies, remove blockages to creating wealth, and protect themselves from the evil eye, other people’s negativity or traumas, and paranormal attacks.
At a very young age of 26, she feels extremely happy and proud to have built something of her own through which she is able to connect everyone to the higher spirit.
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Gurudath Kamath by Gurudath Kamath
Gurudath Kamath is a personal coach, an author of the book The Inner Guru, and a speaker. His YouTube channel, Gurudath Kamath, has a huge following. He runs a very popular workshop called The 6 a.m. Million-Rupee Morning, in which he offers tools that can help one conquer all the barriers to success. Gurudath supports and empowers thousands of youngsters and middle-aged people to create healthy habits, a growth mindset, and victory in life. He has a huge following of 34 thousand on Instagram.
But looking back, Gurudath didn’t have an easy childhood. After his parent’s separation and his father’s demise, he was brought up by his maternal grandparents. He loved sports as a kid, and it also taught him the value of discipline in life. Later, he moved to Bangalore to do his MBA. Sadly, he slipped into the bad habits of laziness, partying, and an unhealthy lifestyle. When he saw things going downhill due to a poor focus in life, he decided to make a shift. Around the same time, fortunately, he was exposed to great books and meditation via Art of Living courses. As he started to feed his mind and body a healthy diet, he noticed his life transforming miraculously. “I remember my first experience of doing Sudarshan Kriya (an intense breathing and meditation exercise). My whole body was vibrating with energy,” shares Gurudath. He soon realised that there were only a few things one could control in life and work with: mind, body, breath, and one’s focus.
Gurudath understood that getting the real education that life teaches you and investing in yourself were the two most important things to be done. He learnt this through his self-work journey, books, teachers, seminars, workshops, etc. Gurudath says, “We live in a fear-driven world; we focus more on what we don’t want or have, but with the right focus, one can attain their goals.” In all his content, he emphasises having good habits, a disciplined routine, goal-setting, and having the right attitude in life. “If you take care of your inner well-being, rest assured that everything else will take care of itself,” he adds. He sees good habits as the roots or foundation of a great future.
Gurudath says that for anything to work in your life, you have to work. All the answers that you seek from the outside world lie within you. You just need to turn inwards and tap into them. He also says that consistency is the key to progress and prosperity. Having a higher goal in life to look up to and the enthusiasm of a child to pursue it makes one build a positive personality. He believes that when one is determined to adapt, learn, and be happy, then everything else falls into place.
“Forgiveness also plays an important role in one’s happiness. It is not for the other person; it is for yourself. Because when you hold on to anger and resentment for another, you put yourself in a cage. You must pick up your lesson, introspect, grow from it, and move on,” shares Gurudath. He also says that the antidote to fear is to shift the focus from one’s obsession with oneself to a higher purpose. When we learn to see that everything is not about ourselves, we are bound to grow.
Gurudath puts forth the idea that if one has four or five core values defined in life, whether it is creativity, health, contribution, family, etc., it becomes easier for them to make decisions in life. They just have to check if their decision is in alignment with their core values. These values act like a compass in one’s day-to-day life. Gurudath also teaches stress management, goal setting, visualisations, etc. among many other things in his workshops.
Whoever watches Gurudath’s short videos on Instagram can instantly feel their motivation boosted and attitude changed towards life. “The biggest investment you will make today is in self-education and learning life skills,” reiterates Gurudath. He continues, “I also urge parents to let their children make independent choices. Parents must support when the child is going in the right direction. They must not label failure as ‘wrong.’ Failure only helps one tread wiser on the path of life. The fear of failure makes one lose their unique characteristics. So, let’s instil the right mindset in children, which is polarised with love.”
Theinnerguru.connect@gmail.com
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Let’s Be Eloquent with Apoorvaa Aagarwal
Apoorvaa is a lawyer, an education influencer, a professional coach, and a certified etiquette coach. She has 115 thousand followers on Instagram and is known to create some really healthy, fun, and useful content. And the best part is that she packages it most creatively. Her Insta page goes by the name Let’s Be Eloquent. Apoorva hails from Meerut and was always a very driven, ambitious, and self-made woman.
Since her schooldays, Apoorvaa had the knack of speaking eloquently and with perfect pronunciation. She was very interested in educating others about communication skills and public manners. Self-fuelled and sincere, she created a page on Instagram to share her knowledge about improving one’s communication with the world.
Today, Apoorvaa leaves no stone unturned and creates learning content on improving vocabulary, etiquette, resume hacks, interview-cracking hacks, public speaking, using correct grammar, personality grooming, etc. Her videos are fun to watch and full of insights. They are so diverse, relevant, easy to understand, and wholesome that one can grasp one hour of knowledge in just a one-minute reel made by her. She uses the reel feature of Instagram to put out some creative ideas that make one hungry for learning. “Today, the communication skill set is the most important one. To be able to articulate your thoughts well and in a way that the other person understands makes for good communication. In this world where cut-throat competition prevails and 100 people fight for the same job, it is absolutely necessary to be proactive and hone these skills,” says Apoorvaa. She suggests that one must have a diligent ritual of learning, reading, and speaking in the language one wants to work on. It is like doing one’s prayers or bathing every day.
Apoorva also says that the best way to pick up English or any other language, for that matter, is to innovate new ways to learn that one loves, for example, speaking in front of an imaginary audience, listening to podcasts, or watching movies on Netflix with subtitles. It’s always easy to learn anything that way. She also says that to increase one’s vocabulary, one should Google synonyms of words. “If one chalks out the areas first that one needs help with, it becomes easier to pick up those aspects and even master them,” says Apoorvaa. “In a professional setting, one can better their communication skills by planning their day. If you know what the words and sentences are that you might need the next day, you will prepare well beforehand. Planning makes everything simple and structured.”
Apoorva strongly recommends taking constructive reviews or feedback on your style of communication from others and then incorporating it into your daily practice. She also believes that if one has the openness and willingness to learn, then they are faster to improve. “No one book can teach you English well. You can pick any book in the world, and you will learn from it. You just need the right intent,” says Apoorvaa.
“Practice, practice, practice! That’s the only mantra that works for anyone,” she says smilingly. She also adds that the easiest way to go about improving one’s communication skills is to invest in workshops, work with a mentor or coach, and engage with helpful content on social media platforms. “I am a dedicated wife and now a mother too, but nothing has ever stopped me from contributing by doing the work I love. It gives me so much satisfaction to have created something I can call my own. I aspire to reach and educate as many people as I can through various platforms. It makes my personal self-growth journey more buoyant.”
Speaking to all these influencers made me realise that they all have one thing in common: all of them used catharsis to grow immensely through the challenges they were divinely placed in and then innovated their own method to come out winners and also share their knowledge with the world.
I wonder how many more influencers like these are out there, creating such wonderful content and making an impact. We, as a platform, are so proud to be speaking about them. Our world needs such content creators so that only healthy messages are propagated through the butterfly effect, to make this world a better place to live in.
“How strange that even a minor event, action, or small shift can have such a tremendous effect. Like the butterfly’s wing is capable of altering the path of a tornado, certainly, everything, even the very tiny thing, can affect everything.”
—Tuwalily