Types of Authorities in Sanatan Dharma

Other religions know their Popes & Prophets, but we Hindus don’t know the formal authorities, titles & spiritual designations of our Sanatan Dharma.

Let’s change that in 2 minutes.

1 - Guru - This is the broad term for not just the teacher but the mentor who guides you from darkness of ignorance to light, they can be your parent or an actual spiritual person.

2 - Rishi - They’re the ancients who directly saw the mantras of our Vedas through meditation as they were revealed, hence their name comes from drishta, vision, or rs, to go. Like Atharva Rishi & more.

3 - Muni - They take vows of silence & focus on discipline & deep meditation.

4 - Acharya - They teach proper conduct along with the meaning of the Vedas or Shashtras, and found or head a school of thought called a Darshana.

5 - Shankaracharya - Current Heads from long lineages of gurus that are heading & overseeing the 4 main spiritual mathas founded by Shri Adi Shankaracharya

6 - Pithadipati - These are the CEOs of the seats established by an order or group

7 - Brahmachari - This is a celibate student who’s learning under a guru

8 - Sannyasi - This is a formally initiated monk who has cut off from their family & group

9 - Vairagi - He’s also a renunciate who has given up everything with detachment or vairagya

10 - Naga Sadhu - These are often naked & highly trained defenders of Dharma under the Shaiva order, visible at Kumbha Mela

11 - Purohit - This is like your family’s personal spiritual doctor, the priest who conducts the mandatory rites called samskaras, from naming to funeral

12 - Pujari - This is the caretaker priest who performs the worship of deities at specific temples.

13 - Pandit - This is a learned scholar of any shashtra, and in fact, Shashtri is someone who has formally completed a shashtra’s study at a pathshaala

14 - Kathavachak - This is a storyteller or narrator of a katha like in the puranas, like Morari Bapu

15 - Pravachankar - They give discourses or lectures more philosophically focused than the storytellers

16 - Tantrik - This is a practioner of the Tantra form of worship, who understands the tools of mantra, yantra and sadhana.

And in case you’re wondering, there are female counterparts for most of these titles so it’s not just male-oriented.

If anything, there are so many more like Goswami, Mahant & Amma that I couldn’t cover in this list so its very diverse.