From Rifle to Pen: An Indian Soldier's Sanatan Dharma Journey Reaches America

From Rifle to Pen: A Soldier's Sanatan Dharma Journey, Now on American Soil
Kargil War veteran Naresh Das Vaishnav 'Nimbark' brings 18 years of research on the Sanatan Vaishnav Bairagi tradition to Amazon and Walmart in the United States
The same hand that once held a rifle to guard the nation's borders now holds a pen to recover chapters of Sanatan Dharma that had quietly slipped out of public memory. This is the story of Naresh Das Vaishnav 'Nimbark' — a retired Naib Subedar of the Indian Army, a Kargil War veteran, and a former United Nations peacekeeper — who has spent the eighteen years since his retirement researching and writing about the Sanatan Vaishnav Bairagi tradition and the Nimbarkacharya Sampraday, a lineage of saints and scholars whose contributions to Indian history and devotion have rarely been documented in one place.
A Journey That Has Reached the United States
Nimbark's books have already found readers in England, Germany, Japan, Dubai, and South Korea. They are now available in the United States as well, listed on both Amazon.com and Walmart.com — a milestone he describes not as a commercial achievement but as evidence that knowledge rooted in truth and sustained effort does not stay confined to one country or one language. His guiding principle, repeated across his writing and public talks, is simple: "Not by claims, but by documents will history speak."
His Largest Work Yet
This year Nimbark published his most ambitious book to date: Sanatan Vaishnav Bairagi Parampara — From the Vedas to Modern India. Running to 491 pages and drawing on 120 authenticated documents, the book traces the tradition from the Vedic era through to the present day. It is available in paperback and hardcover through Notion Press, and offered completely free on Google Books, Internet Archive, Academia.edu, and Zenodo — a decision Nimbark says reflects his belief that this knowledge should be accessible to anyone who wants to read it, regardless of their ability to pay.
With this latest release, his body of work now stands at sixteen books — seven in Hindi and nine in English — read by researchers, students, and general readers in more than 150 countries.
Eighteen Years of Documentary Research
What sets Nimbark's writing apart, according to those who have followed his work, is its insistence on primary sources. Rather than relying on oral tradition or secondary retellings, he has built his research on temple inscriptions, copper-plate grants, ancient texts, the accounts of Greek travelers and historians, and records held in national archives. The result is a body of work that reads less like devotional literature and more like documentary history — an approach he says was shaped by his years in uniform, where evidence and verification were never optional.

The subject matter itself has been largely overlooked by mainstream historical writing. For centuries, Vaishnav Bairagi ascetics guarded temples, held their ground during periods of upheaval, and in some cases went on to found ruling houses — from the Bairagi kings of Delhi to warrior-saint Banda Bairagi, and the princely lines of Chuikhadan and Rajnandgaon. Nimbark's books, including Rosary and the Throne: The Vaishnav Bairagi Rulers and The Vaishnav Bairagi Kings of India, attempt to bring this military and political history out of obscurity and into the historical record.
From Soldier to Historian
Born to a farming family in Ramnagar, Sonipat, Nimbark served in the Indian Army from 1984 to 2008, including deployment during the Kargil War in 1999 and later as part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone. After retiring, he turned his attention to writing, publishing not only historical research but also a personal memoir, Yatra: Bandook Se Kalam Tak (Journey: From Rifle to Pen), which traces his own path from soldier to seeker. He describes himself simply as "a soldier of God, an ordinary priest of the temple" — a line that recurs throughout his work and, by most accounts, sums up his approach to it: understated, document-driven, and free of self-promotion.
He currently serves as President of the Global Sanatan Vaishnav Bairagi Seva Sangathan and is the founder-editor of Sanatan Bharat — Naya Savera, a free bilingual Hindi-English e-magazine that publishes monthly research articles on Sanatan Dharma, Indian history, and the Vaishnav tradition.
Why It Matters
Modern education, Nimbark argues, has largely left out the saints, warriors, and scholars who protected temples, preserved devotional practice, and kept regional histories alive across centuries of political change. His writing is an attempt — admittedly a personal and ongoing one — to close that gap using evidence rather than assertion. Whether or not readers agree with every conclusion, the underlying method is consistent: cite the source, show the document, let the reader judge.
As his books now reach readers on Amazon and Walmart in the United States, Nimbark frames the moment not as a personal milestone but as part of a larger continuity — proof, in his words, that knowledge built on truth, discipline, and sustained effort eventually finds its way across borders, languages, and continents on its own.

About the Author
Naresh Das Vaishnav 'Nimbark' — Retired Naib Subedar, Indian Army (1984–2008); Kargil War veteran; UN Peacekeeping Mission (UNAMSIL, Sierra Leone, 2000); historian, author, and editor of Sanatan Bharat — Naya Savera.
Website: www.nareshswaminimbark.in
Email: nareshkumarswami731964@gmail.com