Baba of the masses
He wears saffron robes. He has a HUGE fan following. He is almost never politically correct. And he swears by Pranayama as the cure to everything. He is Baba Ramdev.
To be honest, i was a bit skeptical at first when my mother told me about him a few years ago. Another "poli saamiyar" (fake godman) i thought. Over the last few years though, from what i have seen and heard of him, my opinion has changed quite a bit.
He is a Baba of the masses. Wherever he conducts his shivirs (workshops) on yoga, it is not only the affluent people, but also the "aam junta" who throng the place. He seems to have Utopian dreams for India. He follows a 2 pronged approach :
1. Popularization of Yoga in every nook and corner of India
2. Taking on national issues like corruption and poverty head on.
It is no secret that he has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with his comments on non-vegetarianism, soft drinks, homosexuality and supposed miracle cures for incurable diseases. But the fact remains that he has big dreams for India - To make it a healthy, patriotic, self sufficient and poverty free nation.
About the man himself. No one can deny that he has charisma! If you can understand Hindi, you really must tune into Aastha channel sometime in the morning (or evening) to understand what i mean. He treats his audience like a bunch of naughty children. And surprisingly, the audience seem to love being treated that way. He makes them follow his lead in doing different kinds of breathing and other exercises. He gives them short breaks in between and uses these intervals to regale them with his superb oratory skills. He takes a dig at almost everything. He is extremely well informed about the goings on in our country. He even manages to extract oaths from the men in the audience saying that they will never smoke, drink alcohol or take gutka ever again. Now how many actually keep their promise is a different story altogether.
The other day he was talking about black money - He said that it is because of high denominations like 500 and 1000 that money gets stashed away illegally. If there were only lower denominations then the packages become bulky and harder to hide. This theory is a widely acknowledged one and has been doing the rounds for quite some time, but the way in which he took the concept and explained it to a largely illiterate audience is something commendable.
Baba Ramdev is a man of very strong and firm opinions. Some love him and some hate him, but there is just no writing him off. He is silently bringing about a revolution of sorts in the hinterlands of India.
I once came across a wikipedia article about him. Apparently this is what spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankar had to say about him -
"If an individual can be credited with reviving yoga in this country (India), it is solely Swami Ramdev. Yoga can cure even fatal diseases and Swami Ramdev has definitely proved it time and again. Swami Ramdev has spread yoga to such an extent that sooner or later, one has to embrace it."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Ramdev
On the home front, my mother is going to be very happy when she knows that i have written something nice about her idol :)
To be honest, i was a bit skeptical at first when my mother told me about him a few years ago. Another "poli saamiyar" (fake godman) i thought. Over the last few years though, from what i have seen and heard of him, my opinion has changed quite a bit.
He is a Baba of the masses. Wherever he conducts his shivirs (workshops) on yoga, it is not only the affluent people, but also the "aam junta" who throng the place. He seems to have Utopian dreams for India. He follows a 2 pronged approach :
1. Popularization of Yoga in every nook and corner of India
2. Taking on national issues like corruption and poverty head on.
It is no secret that he has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with his comments on non-vegetarianism, soft drinks, homosexuality and supposed miracle cures for incurable diseases. But the fact remains that he has big dreams for India - To make it a healthy, patriotic, self sufficient and poverty free nation.
About the man himself. No one can deny that he has charisma! If you can understand Hindi, you really must tune into Aastha channel sometime in the morning (or evening) to understand what i mean. He treats his audience like a bunch of naughty children. And surprisingly, the audience seem to love being treated that way. He makes them follow his lead in doing different kinds of breathing and other exercises. He gives them short breaks in between and uses these intervals to regale them with his superb oratory skills. He takes a dig at almost everything. He is extremely well informed about the goings on in our country. He even manages to extract oaths from the men in the audience saying that they will never smoke, drink alcohol or take gutka ever again. Now how many actually keep their promise is a different story altogether.
The other day he was talking about black money - He said that it is because of high denominations like 500 and 1000 that money gets stashed away illegally. If there were only lower denominations then the packages become bulky and harder to hide. This theory is a widely acknowledged one and has been doing the rounds for quite some time, but the way in which he took the concept and explained it to a largely illiterate audience is something commendable.
Baba Ramdev is a man of very strong and firm opinions. Some love him and some hate him, but there is just no writing him off. He is silently bringing about a revolution of sorts in the hinterlands of India.
I once came across a wikipedia article about him. Apparently this is what spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankar had to say about him -
"If an individual can be credited with reviving yoga in this country (India), it is solely Swami Ramdev. Yoga can cure even fatal diseases and Swami Ramdev has definitely proved it time and again. Swami Ramdev has spread yoga to such an extent that sooner or later, one has to embrace it."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Ramdev
On the home front, my mother is going to be very happy when she knows that i have written something nice about her idol :)
Hey vinee, amma will be thrilled to read this about her idol. A true daughter and follower!!
ReplyDeletePeri! She was :) She's always looking for fresh converts to yoga :) but i was just talking about his ideologies, so don't worry i haven't crossed over to the other side yet ;)
ReplyDeleteits nice
ReplyDelete