Jay Shetty

Jay Shetty (spiritual name Ghanashyam Priya Das) is a British self-help author and podcaster, the author of Think Like a Monk and host of the On Purpose podcast (The Guardian). On his blog The Essence, written under the byline “Jay Shetty / Ghanashyam Priya Das”, he wrote that he “received first initiation, (committing to specific spiritual vows) from His Holiness Radhanath Swami […] in 2010, where he was given the spiritual name Ghanashyam priya das”; another page of the blog, titled “My Spiritual Master”, is about Radhanath Swami (The Essence). A photograph of an initiation ceremony held by Radhanath Swami at Bhaktivedanta Manor, near London, in 2010 shows him taking his vows (photograph). A 2016 ISKCON News profile called him “Ghanashyam Priya” and “Known as Jay Shetty to his corporate peers”, and said he had lived in the ashram at Bhaktivedanta Manor for three years until January 2013 (ISKCON News).

In a 2024 investigation in The Guardian, John McDermott wrote that “Shetty often avoids mentioning Iskcon, instead describing himself as a ‘Vedic monk’”, and that the blog “was made private during the reporting of this article”. He quoted Nicole Karapanagiotis, a professor of religion at Rutgers University–Camden: “You would think that by now he would’ve mentioned where he was a monk … It’s hard to imagine that leaving that out is not deliberate, but it’s not clear what the reason for that is.” The Guardian amended the article in March 2024 after a legal complaint from Shetty, whose lawyers said he “has never been dishonest or evasive about his background, including his association with Iskcon” (The Guardian).