God Goes Viral: The Business of Reels-Based Devotion
By Nihira Pillai on April 8, 2026
It is a usual morning. My grandmother heads to the puja room after taking a bath. She lights the diya and says her prayers. Only this time, it’s not her reciting the chants but a YouTube song being played in the background. She sits for hours scrolling through YouTube shorts of different Gods, most of them AI-generated.
What appears on her screen is not incidental. Across Instagram and YouTube, spiritual content creators are repackaging astrology, spirituality and Hindu devotional practices into short-form, algorithm-friendly content. Daily horoscopes, AI-generated deities, and manifestation affirmations are now seconds-long reels. This shift is fundamentally changing how faith and spirituality are accessed, shared, and practised in the digital age.
In this new ecosystem, devotion is no longer solely tied to ritual practices, but is increasingly becoming more performative, shaped and influenced by algorithms and trends. As faith becomes increasingly scrollable, the experience of belief itself begins to shift, shaped more by platform design than by tradition.
Almost every other video begins with “Don’t ignore this sign”, “If this reel found you”, “Here’s what Lord Krishna wants to say to you today or “Watch till the end if you are a true devotee”. These are not merely clickbait, but tap into this quiet devotional anxiety stemming from the pressure to remain in the good graces of the divine, and the uncertainty of whether one is doing enough to get there. They draw on a deeper fear of falling out of favour with the divine, forcing people to engage with these reels.
Another format used extensively by spiritual creators is “claim this energy” affirmation reels, wherein they ask the audience to “double tap to claim” or “share with five people to claim” this energy, and so on. These are schemes used by content creators to gain traction on their reels, packaged as an act of devotion or spiritual gain.
As devotion and spirituality slip into the logic of algorithms, it also transforms what it means to encounter the divine. The reciprocal exchange of seeing and being seen is called the Darshanic Gaze. In Hindu practice, darshan (seeing) is not merely seeing the deity but also being seen by the deity. Which means God also sees you, your pain, your fears, and blesses you simultaneously as you see him.
This feeling is further intensified when deities begin to resemble humans, not as distant, celestial forms, but as almost familiar figures, resembling humans. In many AI-generated reels, gods are rendered with lifelike features and expressions, in an attempt to bring Gods closer to humans and reshape how they are seen and experienced. It reflects a move from ritual-based devotion to a form of belief mediated by images, algorithms, and constant visibility.
Underlying this plethora of spiritual content is a burgeoning world of content creators who are aware of spirituality as well as the dynamics of the feed. Astrology influencers, tarot card readers, or devotional content creators put out not just spiritual content but also build audiences. Their content is at the nexus between faith and strategy, where devotion is matched with the mechanics of engagement.
The accessibility and closeness to God depicted in these reels appeal to the audience. In moments of uncertainty, these reels offer quick reassurance that feels personal, even though they are intended for mass consumption. In contrast to traditional practices that demand time, effort, and discipline, this form of engagement is effortless and accessible.
However, this intersection of spirituality with platform functionality raises important questions. With spirituality being increasingly tied to the metrics of visibility and engagement, the line between devotion and manipulation is getting blurred. Prompts that encourage users to “act now” or risk missing a blessing rely on belief, as well as a subtle sense of compulsion to participate.
In the endless rhythm of the scroll, faith has not disappeared; it has merely adapted. What was once grounded in presence, ritual, and distance is now immediate, visual, and infinitely repeatable. The divine is no longer limited to sacred buildings or texts but circulates through screens, informed by trends, filters, and algorithms. And as faith continues to transform with the logic of the feed, the question is not whether people believe but how they believe and how that belief is being shaped, mediated, and designed for personal gain.
