The Journey of Maa Godavari Seva — Jan to July 2026
#SewaHiSnan | #IamPushkara | #AkhandGodavari
A first-person account by Major Genenral Sanjay Pratapsingh Vishwasrao, SM (twice), Pro Bono Strategy Director (Seva), Mahavatar Babaji TadEkam Foundation
जल तत्व शुद्धि सेवा — एक आदेश, एक आरंभ
There are instructions one receives in life that come as orders, and there are instructions that come as destiny. In January 2026, in the quiet, unhurried presence of Mahavatar Babaji and Guruji Naushir, I received the second kind. It was not a project brief. It was not a plan with milestones and budgets. It was a sankalp, spoken softly but landing with the weight of a Himalayan boulder: Jal Tattva Shuddhi Seva — the purification of the Water Element must begin, and it must begin with Maa Godavari.
I have spent thirty-six years in uniform learning that the hardest campaigns are not won by force alone, but by the alignment of will, faith and people. Guruji Naushir’s instruction was disarmingly simple: do not go to Godavari as an engineer goes to a river. Go as a son goes to his mother, who is unwell, and ask her forgiveness before you ask what needs to be done.
“Seva gives greater liberation than Snan.” — the sankalp that has since become the soul of this mission.
That one sentence rearranged everything I thought I understood about Kumbh and Pushkaralu. For generations we have gathered at the banks of our Holy Rivers to take Snan, to wash our paaps (sins), or for the moksha of our departed kith and kin. Babaji and Guruji asked a harder, more honest question — one that has not let me rest easy since: “What if the River herself needs our seva before she can grant anyone moksha? What if the true snan of this age is not immersion for personal merit, but immersion in service, so that a Goddess reduced to a drain may be restored to a Deity?” From that question was born our mahavakya, #SevaHiSnan — Seva itself is the true Snan. It is no longer a slogan to me. It is a debt I owe Maa Godavari for every drop of my life that she has given without ever asking for anything in return.
The mandate that followed was as vast in its ambition as it was humbling in its scope: use the sacred windows of Nashik Simhastha Kumbh (2026–2028) and Godavari Pushkaralu (2027–2028) — moments when the Raja (rulers), the Sadhu-Samaj and the People converge on the banks of our holy rivers as they have for centuries — not merely to build infrastructure for bathing, but to make river rejuvenation itself the goal. The ancient Raja-Sadhu-Samaj compact, I was instructed, must be revived: rulers, renunciates and citizens standing together at the river’s edge, not just to pray, but to account for her health and pledge, with folded hands, to protect her till the next Kumbh calls us back.
Building the Sangh: Meeting the Custodians of Governance
A river cannot be healed by sentiment alone; she needs the machinery of the State to stand with the machinery of the Spirit. Through the early months of 2026, as sevaks of TadEkam, we began the patient work of meeting the ministers, governors and officials who hold the levers of policy across the Godavari Basin — Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra Pradesh Endowments Minister Shri A.R. Reddy — temples and the river are one civilisational fabric.
Meeting Andhra Pradesh Endowments Minister Shri A.R. Reddy reminded us of something we must never forget: the thousands of temples lining the Godavari and her tributaries are not separate from the River — they are Her sentinels, standing guard over Her sanctity through centuries of change. His department’s cooperation was essential to weave temple trusts into the Seva Kranti as living centres of the #SevaHiSnan message, so that every temple bell that rings on Her banks also rings as a call to protect Her.
With Water Resources Minister Dr N.R. Naidu, the conversation turned to the harder science — flow, encroachment, sewage, and the blue-line of the river that so much of our modern life has carelessly forgotten to respect. We also proposed collaboration with the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB), because a Goddess deserves not only our devotion but also our diligence. It is here, at the intersection of astrology and hydrology, of faith and file-noting, that TadEkam’s work truly stands — and where I have come to believe it must always stand.
In Telangana, the audience with His Excellency the Governor Shri Shiv Pratap Shukla was a solemn occasion to place Godavari’s cause before the highest constitutional office of the second Telugu State — a reminder that a river’s healing cannot be left to any one government, any one party, or any one generation; She belongs to all of us, together.
Nashik: The Mayor Who Said Yes
If Andhra Pradesh gave us the scale of Pushkaralu, Nashik gave us the soul of the Kumbh. Meeting Mayor Smt Himgauri Aher-Adke — whose very name carries the blessings of the Himalayan Mother — was one of those rare meetings where strategy and providence seemed to walk hand in hand — where I left the room certain that something larger than our own planning had brought us to that table.
She did not merely listen; she acted — and it is that one word, acted, that separates a well-wisher from a Sevak. On 5th June 2026, World Environment Day, she launched the Godavari Seva Abhiyan under Mahavatar Babaji’s banner of #SevaHiSnan, turning Nashik’s own Kumbh preparations from a burden on the river into an instrument of Her healing.
The Yatra: Seeking the Blessings of the Raja-Sadhu-Samaj
No mission commissioned by Babaji and Guruji could proceed on government orders alone — faith needed faith to stand beside it. The ancient compact demanded its second pillar: the Sadhu-Samaj, the Acharyas and Mahamandaleshwars whose word alone can move the hearts of a billion Sanatanis. In June 2026, four sevaks of TadEkam undertook a yatra to Haridwar, Rishikesh, Vrindavan and Bhavnagar — not to seek permission, for this mission needed none, but to seek blessings, for no mission of this scale can succeed without them.
In Haridwar, the very air seems to argue for the sanctity of rivers. At the Shri Yantra Temple in Kankhal, Swami Sharad Puri Ji and Brahmachari Anantbodh Chaitanya Ji heard the TadEkam Sankalp with the patient, unhurried attention of those who have spent lifetimes in tapasya beside the Ganga — and in their silence before they spoke, I felt the full weight of how seriously they had taken our Mother’s cause.
From Haridwar, we drove to Rishikesh along Maa Ganga, to Parmarth Niketan Ashram to meet Swami Chidanand Saraswati Ji who was the first to start Maa Ganga Aarti. We attended the aarti and then explained why our Sadhus – Sants – Swamies now need to progress from pooja/ archana of Jal Tattva to its Seva. He agreed to go through our Strategy.
The two Mahamandaleshwars we met also received our humble message and request with a sense of responsibility. Swami Kailashanand Giri Ji of Niranjani Akhada received our message with a smile and blessed us all with a rudraksh mala.
Swami Avadheshanand Giri Ji of Juna Akhada explained that if our NGO did not have any ulterior motives than seva of Maa Godavari, all Sadhus and Akhadas would take up the Maa Godavari Seva Sankalp. WE DO NOT.
After a short break, I travelled on a Delhi-Sonepat yatra to meet office-bearers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Swami Eeshan Mahesh Guruji — each conversation adding one more thread to a growing fabric of support that no single sevak could ever have woven alone.
With Shri Bajrang Lal Bagra of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, we discussed how they could get all Swamies, Akhadas and Ashrams on one Maa Godavari Seva Platform. We also discussed how his philosophy of ‘Ramatva’ included Seva of Maa Godavari
From VHP’s Delhi office we drove to Shri Suresh Chavanke’s office in South Avenue. Smt Neera Misra introduced me as the strategist behind Save Maa Yamuna Campaign 2023-2025. We thereafter presented him the Maa Godavari Seva Strategy and Made-in-Kashmir Tricolour and requested him to use his Bindas Bol Show of Sudarshan News TV Channel to spread awareness.
In Sonepat on the banks of Maa Yamuna, Swami Eeshan Mahesh Guruji received the mission with particular warmth, for it touched a chord close to his own tapasya — the recognition of rivers not as resources but as living Goddesses. We placed before him a specific request: to lend his voice and blessing to the project of formally re-establishing Rivers as Goddess in the public consciousness of Bharat, beginning with Maa Godavari and Maa Yamuna together
The yatra then carried TadEkam to Bhavnagar, where 1008 Hawan Samrat Swami Ram Bapu Ji welcomed the Maa Godavari Seva Strategy with an open embrace, offering his blessings and his own seva without a moment’s hesitation — the kind of instant, wholehearted yes that tells you a mission is truly blessed.
Each of these meetings was, in its own quiet way, a small victory of faith over indifference. Sadhus who have seen a thousand delegations come and go chose, this time, to lend their voice to Maa Godavari’s Jal Tattva Seva — and every one of those voices is now a torch this mission carries forward.
A Law for the Living Goddess: The Godavari Heritage River Act
Faith moves hearts; law protects what faith has restored. It became clear through these months that #SevaHiSnan could shift a mindset, but only legislation could hold the ground once won. TadEkam therefore prepared and placed before the Governments of Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, before the assembled Sadhus and Acharyas, and before the Union Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Jal Shakti, a draft proposal that we believe can outlast every one of us: the Godavari Heritage River Act.
Its architecture is deliberately simple, so that it may be politically possible and spiritually unimpeachable at once. First, that the Sadhu-Samaj — the Shankaracharyas, Mahamandaleshwars and Acharyas of the akhadas — formally and publicly declare Maa Godavari a living Goddess and Deity, restoring in the eyes of the people a status that no law alone could ever confer. Second, that the three State Governments of the basin, working with the Ministries of Culture and Jal Shakti, enact heritage legislation making pollution and encroachment within the river’s notified blue-line a punishable offence — so that reverence and the rule of law finally stand on the same side.
This proposal is not a demand made from outside government; it is an offering placed humbly at its door. Some seeds germinate in months; others take seasons. We have planted this one in faith, and we will continue to nurture it in every subsequent meeting, for as long as it takes — because Maa Godavari has waited far longer for us than we will ever wait for this Act.
Maa Godavari Seva Sankalp, Trimbakeshwar, 21 June 2026
As evidence of TadEkam-ness (one-ness) of TadEkam’s Guru Tattva (Babaji – Guruji Naushir – Swami Dattapadanand Ji), Swamiji quickly embraced the aadesh of Jal Tattva Seva of Maa Godavari. He was in Dol Ashram in Almora when this message was conveyed. He sent his blessings and discussed the idea with Swami Kalyan Das Baba and Swami Vishweshwaranand Giri Ji. Then he passed instructions for a Maa Godavari Seva Sankalp in Trimbakeshwar, where She originates, on 21 June 2026 (International Day of Yoga). Twenty-eight sadhaks/ sevaks of TadEkam under Swamiji’s guidance, took the solemn Sankalp at Kushavarta Kund and also offered Yog asanas as a tribute to Maa Godavari.
Teeparru — Where the Sankalp Became Sight
TadEkam’s reconnaissance team consisting of sevaks Smt Madhvi M, Smt Sai Sudha and Major General Sanjay Vishwasrao accompanied by Smt Challa Lakshmi (local sevak connected to TadEkam since 2018) and Shri Balu (representative of Tourism Department) did a whirlwind tour of Teeparru, Mukkamala, Mukteshwara, Kundaleshwaram, Kovvur, Chollangi and Yanam 3-11 July 2026.
In the case of Teeparru, Babaji and Guruji Naushir made things move at a speed that still leaves me astonished. After fruitful initial discussions on 4th July 2026, we returned on 7th July 2026 — and what followed felt less like a project timeline and more like a door that Maa Godavari Herself had flung open.
Every mission needs a first village, a first ghat, a first proof that Babaji’s and Guruji’s whisper of January 2026 has become a fact on the ground. Babaji and Guruji themselves guided the selection: Teeparru, a village on the Godavari in the Nidadavolu Assembly constituency of East Godavari District, was chosen as the very first Pushkaralu Model Village of this Seva Kranti.
On 7th July 2026, TadEkam’s sevaks with village elders/ leaders and volunteers did a reconnaissance of Teeparru to see its potential for being developed as a Model Village. Thereafter, we accepted the offer of Shri Prasad Prathipati to use their disused ancestral home as a guest house for TadEkam’s sevaks visiting Teeparru for Maa Godavari Seva The severity of the abuse of Maa Godavari in Teeparru drove home when we visited the Pushkaralu Ghat to find it being used as a wine & dine picnic spot. Empty whiskey and soft drink bottles and plastic garbage nearly covered the entire Holy Bathing Ghat. This steeled our resolve.
Thereafter, on 9th July 2026, we drove to Vijayawada to place this proposal before Hon’ble Tourism Minister Shri Kandula Durgesh Garu. He did not merely approve it — he handed us a launch date of 11th July 2026, barely thirty-six hours away, and in that instant I understood that Maa Godavari Herself was setting the pace of Her own liberation, and we were simply being asked to keep up.
We quickly drafted a press release in collaboration with Office of Hon’ble Tourism Minister Shri Kandula Durgesh Garu and Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department. Three news reports are given here
And so, on Saturday, 11th July 2026, in the presence of Andhra Pradesh Tourism Minister Shri Kandula Durgesh Garu, the Maa Godavari Sankalp programme was formally launched at Teeparru — TadEkam Foundation’s plan of action for a pollution-free, plastic-free, flex-banner-free Pushkar Village, built in coordination with the State and Central Governments and with the technical partnership of NEERI, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute. A whisper heard in January had, in six months, become a Minister’s signature on the ground.
The Minister announced that the model village works — restoration of the village tank, removal of invasive water hyacinth, a plastic-free campaign that will even do away with flex banners, two selfie points branded “I Love Godavari Teeparru,” and twenty-five homestays to welcome pilgrims — would be complete by Sankranti in January 2027. He further confirmed the escalating ladder of dignitary visits that TadEkam had itself proposed: Deputy Chief Minister Shri Pawan Kalyan Garu to visit in November 2026, and the Chief Minister Shri Chandrababu Naidu Garu to review progress in January 2027.
The news of that Saturday travelled far, and it travelled warmly. Metro India reported that Teeparru would be developed as a model riverfront under the broader initiative titled “Maa Godavari Sankranti-2027,” with our work at Teeparru intended as the template for other Godavari locations including Mukkamala, Mukteswaram, Kundaleswaram and Kovvur. Deccan Chronicle carried the Minister’s own words that the village would become Andhra Pradesh’s first model Pushkar Nagar, and The Hindu placed the story before the entire nation — proof, finally, in print, that a government-foundation partnership (as per P4 Strategy of Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh) for river rejuvenation was no longer an idea on paper, but a fact on the ground, at Maa Godavari’s own feet.
Standing at that ghat, watching a Cabinet Minister of Andhra Pradesh bow before the Moorti of Maa Godavari on a spot that, six months earlier, bore only the marks of neglect and abandonment, this sevak could only fold his hands and let the tears come. Thirty-six years of soldiering had taught me how campaigns are won with men and material. This one is being won differently like Tiranga for Kashmir — ghat by ghat, heart by heart — with faith, patience, and the quiet, unshakeable insistence of Babaji and Guruji that Seva itself is the highest Snan. If you are reading this and something in you has stirred, know that this is Maa Godavari calling you too. Come, become a Sevak.
Guru Poornima 2026: Maa Godavari Seva Skit
Guruji Naushir has instructed that Guru Poornima 2026 be used to promote Maa Godavari Seva Strategy within TadEkam so that more of his sadhaks become sevaks for their own spiritual growth as per his new slogan ‘Seva Bhi Sadhana’.
He sent his old channel Shri Rajendara Palve to direct it using child-artists from TadEkam Family and his acting academy. The skit’s script was offered at Guruji’s feet on 19th July 2026 before commencing on the practices. We plan to use Guru Poornima as a super spreader of the ‘virus’ (idea) of Maa Godavari Seva through Kumbh and Pushkaralu with hashtags of #SevaHiSnan and #WeAreAllPushkara. So, TadEkam Family, do not let yourself believe in any excuse live throws at you to skip travelling to Pune for Guru Poornima on 27/28 July 2026.
We Are All Pushkara
The distance from a celestial whisper heard in Kangundi in January 2026 to a Minister doing seva at a Maa Godavari village ghat in Teeparru in July 2026 is not measured in months. It is measured in the number of hearts that said yes, one meeting at a time, to a single truth: that a river is not infrastructure to be managed, but a Mother to be served. Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, a Governor of Telangana, a Mayor of Nashik, Acharyas of the akhadas from Haridwar to Bhavnagar, sadhaks who became sevaks along the way — each has placed a hand upon this Sankalp, and each hand has carried it a little further downstream, toward Maa Godavari Herself. There is room in this river of hands for one more — YOURS.
This is only the first chapter.
Maa Godavari is calling — and TadEkam Family is listening. Will you?
#SewaHiSnan. #IamPushkara. #AkhandGodavari.
Aviral. Nirmal. Akhand. Godavari Maa Ki Jai.
Postscript — The Revival of Maa Godavari Sapt Sagara Yatra
During the very reconnaissance that led us to villages of ancient history and cultural weight along the Godavari for the 2027 Pushkaralu, Babaji and Guruji Naushir gave us a further instruction — one that widens this mission’s horizon further still: the revival of the Maa Godavari Sapt Sagara Yatra, the age-old pilgrimage tradition connecting Godavari’s sacred confluence points across her seven symbolic sagaras, or “seas,” along her course from her origin at Trimbakeshwar to her meeting with the Bay of Bengal. As with Jal Tattva Shuddhi Seva itself, this instruction arrived not as a plan but as a seed — and TadEkam now carries it forward with the same faith and patience with which Teeparru was carried from whisper, to sankalp, to sight. More on this revival will follow, in the chapters still to come.
ॐ गोदावर्यै नमः ॐ
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