Swaroopanand Saraswati was born Pothiram Upadhyay on 2 September 1924 at Dighori village of Seoni district, Madhya Pradesh in a Kanyakubja Brahmin family.
[14] Swami Swaroopanand in June 2012 [15] told Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna of his stance against having hydro projects, dams, and barrages on the River Ganga.
He said that the abrogation of the Article would be beneficial for the people in the valley, and that a demographic balance is necessary to end recurring strife in J&K.
[21] Swami Swaroopanand in May 2015 welcomed the decision of the Maharashtra government to extend ban on cow slaughter to bulls and bullocks in the state and opined that it would increase the production of milk which will in turn help feed children in the country.
He stated that more than twelve crore (120 million) cows were being slaughtered in the entire country every year, which needed to be stopped.
Some political leaders opposed the law banning cow slaughter just to appease Muslims and other minority groups.
Providing beef in the name of cheap source of protein to minority and depriving the majority from milk is against both the democratic and Indian values.
[25] Swami Swaroopanand in July 2014 caused controversy due to his remarks against Shirdi Sai Baba and his followers.
He also mobilised the Naga sadhus in enforcing his order that Sai devotees should not be allowed to worship Rama or bathe in the Ganga.
In 2016 he said that worship of Sai Baba is responsible for the drought that affected Maharashtra [26][27][28][29][30][31] After these remarks, several formal FIR and PIL complaints were filed against Swami Swaroopanand.
[32] Swami Swaroopanand in February 2016 questioned the claim of ISKCON to be a part of Sanatana Dharma and accused it of being a front for money-laundering, it being used to send money from India to USA and other foreign countries.
[24] Swami Swaroopanand in May 2015 said, "Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion to curb corruption, bribe taking is rampant in the country.
"[33] Swami Swaroopanand in May 2017 asked Congress leaders involved in a beef party in Kerala to be jailed under NSA act.
[34][35] In the context of the 2015 Dadri mob lynching alleging cow slaughter and consumption of beef, Swami Swaroopanand in March 2016 said, people should be permitted to eat and serve pork to test tolerance of other communities before putting a blame on certain group of Hindus for being intolerant.
"[33] Swami Swaroopanand in March 2016 said, "There is an increasing feeling of 'detachment from faith' among the Hindu youths as compared to those of other religions.
There is a need to include Hindu scriptures in the curriculum of schools and colleges to prevent the long-term mental degeneration of Hindus due to influence from anti-Hindu propaganda that has its clutches deep into almost every socio-cultural sphere of India.
While 'they' have their religious schools to spread fundamentalism, terrorism and hate preaching, we don't have a medium to reach out the Hindu youth about the richness and greatness of our scriptures and cultural values.