09-26-2006, 12:53 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Swami Ramdev: The Zooming Guru</b>
Ajay Uprety
Source: The Week
Imagine the collective ujjain of 25 crore people in synchronisation. Breathe in... hold, 2, 3, 4... breathe outâthe opening regime of pranayama. One out of four Indian lungs inhaling and exhaling the elixir of life; 10 crore of them in their drawing rooms, same time, same place, every day between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., when the saffron-clothed, sandal-clad Guru Ramdev of Haridwar, Uttaranchal, comes on air on Aastha TV.
Not since fitness guru Jane Fonda lured people to their exercise mats for aerobic workouts in the 80s has there been a cult following to maintain fitness and health. Or so, claims the ashramâthe Divya Yog Trustâfounded by the 30-something-40-looking guru, who lives on a staple diet of fruits and milk, while occasionally relishing bitter gourd or cucumber. He can drive a two-wheeler but doesnât mind riding pillion, either. His sermons are splattered with jokes, he touts cow urine therapy and cold-shoulders MNCs.
Obviously the âpackageâ has worked; in 10 years he has penetrated north India and is invading south. Last year he held four camps in Karnataka, Chennai and Kerala.
The guru courts politicians, celebrities, the rich, the poor, the sick... even couch potatoes and Netizens. Hereâs a blog entry: âThis summer vacation, I happened to watch Aastha TV. My uncle does yoga daily and advised me to try it. He said, "All these thousands of people in camps must not be stupid. There must be something in yoga".â
That is the winning word. Ramdev reaches millions with his âyoga made easy approachâ using 21st centuryâs technological ammunitionâcassettes, CDs, books, television, the Netâin his vast outreach programme. The ashram, from where he runs his extensive empire (rough estimates put its worth at Rs 100 crore), combines the ancient science of yoga and Ayurveda with modern medical science. The trust receives 1,000 phone calls every day through 12 telephones. Around 1,400 letters and emails pour in each day. The phone calls, letters and emails are individual cries for cures of various lifestyle ailments. The trust spends about Rs 2 lakh on âpostal therapyâ (replying to the queries posed by patients) every month. The long-distance medical counselling is free of cost. At its out-patient department, 40 doctors treat 2,000 patients every day, throughout the year.
Ramdev started relentless efforts to popularise yoga in 1995, along with Acharya Karamveer and Acharya Balkrishna. While Karamveer is well-versed in yoga and the Vedas, Balkrishna is a physician with a degree in Ayurveda. "This site was originally a neglected orchard," says Ramdev. "We had to fell a tree, which was an abode of ghosts, and from the wood we made 50 cots for the ashram in Kankhal, Haridwar." Ramdev became the president of the trust, Karamveer the deputy president and Balkrishna the general secretary. The objective of the trust was to reach yoga in every part of the country and cure as many patients as possible.
That goal with Ramdevâs healthy cocktail of yogic exercise and Ayurveda medicines marked the meteoric rise of an ordinary man to a revered guru. The amazing thing is that he has touched the educated as well, including luminaries like former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The chief ministers of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh sing his praises. "The four chief ministers plan to introduce yoga as a compulsory subject in schools," says Balkrishna. The trust has even held a camp in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Educated professionals are also backing him. Engineer Nitin Barve, 35, is up at half past five on Sunday mornings to do pranayama. He attended a camp in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, a year ago, and learnt various breathing techniques. Since then, he has not missed a single day of the 20-minute pranayama. "I lost 7kg in the first three months," he says. Now, why would someone with no ailments take to the guruâs teachings? "Ramdev never talked about religion during the 7-day course. He did not promise that only his path would lead to salvation. He spoke to us about good health and well-being and told us how to go about it," says Barve. The guruâs teachings have increased his stamina; he no longer feels tired after a dayâs work.
Dr Anuj Bhatnagar, 24, an intern at a Ghaziabad hospital, was suffering from hypertension and was asked to lose weight. A friend told him about the guruâs exercises. He learnt them and in two weeks he lost 4.5kg. "Being in the medical profession, I thought what he taught was rubbish," says Bhatnagar. "I just followed the exercises and never took the medicines he prescribed. And it was fantastic. Before the exercises, I used to do brisk-walking. It didnât help. I can now understand why people are following him."
There are grey areas surrounding the guruâs educational background; the literature of the trust does not shed light on it, either. It is said that he travelled the Himalayas for several years before he settled in Haridwar. He discovered several medicinal plants in the Himalayas which he uses in treating his patients. Apart from reeking the benefits of cowâs urine and manure.
Ramdev was born as Ramkishan at Alipur, in Mahendragarh district of Haryana; he studied up to Class 8 in Shahjadpur and then joined a gurukul in Khanpur village to learn Sanskrit. From there he went to Jind district and joined the Kalva gurukul and later imparted free yoga training to villagers across Haryana. His Himalaya odyssey was to do penance and hone his yogic skills.
Apart from the camps, he plans to train 5,000 teachers every month. "If 5,000 teachers teach yoga to a 100 newcomers every month, five lakh people will learn yoga every month and in one year, 60 lakh people. In this way, our mission for yoga to be practised in every home in India will be achieved," says Balkrishna.
Ramdevâs influence has extended across the country thanks to his programmes on television and the guru is the first to acknowledge it. "It is impossible to reach everyone individually," he says. "Television has helped me a lot." To lend more credibility to his âyog-scienceâ camps, the guru picks up patients suffering from diabetes, blood pressure, cardiac ailments, obesity and cancer and puts them through pathological tests done by allopathic doctors before and after the camp. At a camp held in Haridwar in technical collaboration with the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, and Trans Asia Bio Medical, 2,000 patients were tested this way. Dr R.K. Gupta, head of the department of pathology at the Sanjay Gandhi Institute, says eight tests were conducted on each of the 2,000 patients for their profiles. The exercise was to prove a point to sceptics. "I get these tests done to avoid allegations against me," says the guru. "Tomorrow, people should not raise their finger against me and say I fooled them."
The guru has a strong agenda against MNCs and their products and says "cold drinks are virtually poison" which can cause cancer, diabetes, impotency and heart disease. "A glass of butter milk or a cup of tulsi tea has much more nutritional and medicinal value," he says. Many, who attended the Haridwar camps vouch for his remedies. Dr N.K. Singh, who had cataract, followed Ramdevâs diet and exercise regime for a year and it disappeared. Sameer Srivastava tried all types of medicines to reduce his hypertension. "But it made no difference, then I tried muktavati, a drug suggested by Swami Ramdev, and it did wonders," he says. Ramesh, a resident of Delhi, had a backache for 20 years. He went to the guru last year and was cured.
The guru does not attend to the patients; the doctors, mostly BAMS and MDs, treat them using rare medicinal herbs grown in the ashramâs Divya Medicinal Garden. The ashram has a byre with 150 cows to provide milk, dung and urine for preparing and conserving medicines. A farm grows vegetables and foodgrain. The Divya Yog Pharmacy, a research and marketing unit of Ayurvedic medicine, is equipped with sophisticated instruments worth Rs 12 crore. "There is strict quality control right from the collection of raw materials to the end-product," says Dr Viswajit Mukerji, the head of the drug development unit and former managing director of Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation. "Our target is to produce 6 crore tablets a day." Some of the popular drugs made here are muktavati (for hypertension), madhunashinivati (for diabetes), kayakalpvati (for skin diseases) and meghavati (memory enhancer). The details of the drugs, its composition, the manufacturing date, bar code and doses are displayed on bottle labels; tablets come in blister packs. The pharmacy also conducts clinical trials on drugs to study their therapeutic and side-effects.
The Divya Yog Trust, the hospital, the pharmacy, the herbal garden, the cow shed and the yoga camps are managed by an army of workers, all under the aegis of the guru. Yet, he has a dream, a costly one, which is half-way to completion: The Rs 100-crore Patanjali Yog Peeth, a mega-centre at Bhadarabad, 20km from Haridwar, which should fortify his empire. The way heâs going, it shouldnât be long.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Divya Yog Website
Ajay Uprety
Source: The Week
Imagine the collective ujjain of 25 crore people in synchronisation. Breathe in... hold, 2, 3, 4... breathe outâthe opening regime of pranayama. One out of four Indian lungs inhaling and exhaling the elixir of life; 10 crore of them in their drawing rooms, same time, same place, every day between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., when the saffron-clothed, sandal-clad Guru Ramdev of Haridwar, Uttaranchal, comes on air on Aastha TV.
Not since fitness guru Jane Fonda lured people to their exercise mats for aerobic workouts in the 80s has there been a cult following to maintain fitness and health. Or so, claims the ashramâthe Divya Yog Trustâfounded by the 30-something-40-looking guru, who lives on a staple diet of fruits and milk, while occasionally relishing bitter gourd or cucumber. He can drive a two-wheeler but doesnât mind riding pillion, either. His sermons are splattered with jokes, he touts cow urine therapy and cold-shoulders MNCs.
Obviously the âpackageâ has worked; in 10 years he has penetrated north India and is invading south. Last year he held four camps in Karnataka, Chennai and Kerala.
The guru courts politicians, celebrities, the rich, the poor, the sick... even couch potatoes and Netizens. Hereâs a blog entry: âThis summer vacation, I happened to watch Aastha TV. My uncle does yoga daily and advised me to try it. He said, "All these thousands of people in camps must not be stupid. There must be something in yoga".â
That is the winning word. Ramdev reaches millions with his âyoga made easy approachâ using 21st centuryâs technological ammunitionâcassettes, CDs, books, television, the Netâin his vast outreach programme. The ashram, from where he runs his extensive empire (rough estimates put its worth at Rs 100 crore), combines the ancient science of yoga and Ayurveda with modern medical science. The trust receives 1,000 phone calls every day through 12 telephones. Around 1,400 letters and emails pour in each day. The phone calls, letters and emails are individual cries for cures of various lifestyle ailments. The trust spends about Rs 2 lakh on âpostal therapyâ (replying to the queries posed by patients) every month. The long-distance medical counselling is free of cost. At its out-patient department, 40 doctors treat 2,000 patients every day, throughout the year.
Ramdev started relentless efforts to popularise yoga in 1995, along with Acharya Karamveer and Acharya Balkrishna. While Karamveer is well-versed in yoga and the Vedas, Balkrishna is a physician with a degree in Ayurveda. "This site was originally a neglected orchard," says Ramdev. "We had to fell a tree, which was an abode of ghosts, and from the wood we made 50 cots for the ashram in Kankhal, Haridwar." Ramdev became the president of the trust, Karamveer the deputy president and Balkrishna the general secretary. The objective of the trust was to reach yoga in every part of the country and cure as many patients as possible.
That goal with Ramdevâs healthy cocktail of yogic exercise and Ayurveda medicines marked the meteoric rise of an ordinary man to a revered guru. The amazing thing is that he has touched the educated as well, including luminaries like former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The chief ministers of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh sing his praises. "The four chief ministers plan to introduce yoga as a compulsory subject in schools," says Balkrishna. The trust has even held a camp in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Educated professionals are also backing him. Engineer Nitin Barve, 35, is up at half past five on Sunday mornings to do pranayama. He attended a camp in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, a year ago, and learnt various breathing techniques. Since then, he has not missed a single day of the 20-minute pranayama. "I lost 7kg in the first three months," he says. Now, why would someone with no ailments take to the guruâs teachings? "Ramdev never talked about religion during the 7-day course. He did not promise that only his path would lead to salvation. He spoke to us about good health and well-being and told us how to go about it," says Barve. The guruâs teachings have increased his stamina; he no longer feels tired after a dayâs work.
Dr Anuj Bhatnagar, 24, an intern at a Ghaziabad hospital, was suffering from hypertension and was asked to lose weight. A friend told him about the guruâs exercises. He learnt them and in two weeks he lost 4.5kg. "Being in the medical profession, I thought what he taught was rubbish," says Bhatnagar. "I just followed the exercises and never took the medicines he prescribed. And it was fantastic. Before the exercises, I used to do brisk-walking. It didnât help. I can now understand why people are following him."
There are grey areas surrounding the guruâs educational background; the literature of the trust does not shed light on it, either. It is said that he travelled the Himalayas for several years before he settled in Haridwar. He discovered several medicinal plants in the Himalayas which he uses in treating his patients. Apart from reeking the benefits of cowâs urine and manure.
Ramdev was born as Ramkishan at Alipur, in Mahendragarh district of Haryana; he studied up to Class 8 in Shahjadpur and then joined a gurukul in Khanpur village to learn Sanskrit. From there he went to Jind district and joined the Kalva gurukul and later imparted free yoga training to villagers across Haryana. His Himalaya odyssey was to do penance and hone his yogic skills.
Apart from the camps, he plans to train 5,000 teachers every month. "If 5,000 teachers teach yoga to a 100 newcomers every month, five lakh people will learn yoga every month and in one year, 60 lakh people. In this way, our mission for yoga to be practised in every home in India will be achieved," says Balkrishna.
Ramdevâs influence has extended across the country thanks to his programmes on television and the guru is the first to acknowledge it. "It is impossible to reach everyone individually," he says. "Television has helped me a lot." To lend more credibility to his âyog-scienceâ camps, the guru picks up patients suffering from diabetes, blood pressure, cardiac ailments, obesity and cancer and puts them through pathological tests done by allopathic doctors before and after the camp. At a camp held in Haridwar in technical collaboration with the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, and Trans Asia Bio Medical, 2,000 patients were tested this way. Dr R.K. Gupta, head of the department of pathology at the Sanjay Gandhi Institute, says eight tests were conducted on each of the 2,000 patients for their profiles. The exercise was to prove a point to sceptics. "I get these tests done to avoid allegations against me," says the guru. "Tomorrow, people should not raise their finger against me and say I fooled them."
The guru has a strong agenda against MNCs and their products and says "cold drinks are virtually poison" which can cause cancer, diabetes, impotency and heart disease. "A glass of butter milk or a cup of tulsi tea has much more nutritional and medicinal value," he says. Many, who attended the Haridwar camps vouch for his remedies. Dr N.K. Singh, who had cataract, followed Ramdevâs diet and exercise regime for a year and it disappeared. Sameer Srivastava tried all types of medicines to reduce his hypertension. "But it made no difference, then I tried muktavati, a drug suggested by Swami Ramdev, and it did wonders," he says. Ramesh, a resident of Delhi, had a backache for 20 years. He went to the guru last year and was cured.
The guru does not attend to the patients; the doctors, mostly BAMS and MDs, treat them using rare medicinal herbs grown in the ashramâs Divya Medicinal Garden. The ashram has a byre with 150 cows to provide milk, dung and urine for preparing and conserving medicines. A farm grows vegetables and foodgrain. The Divya Yog Pharmacy, a research and marketing unit of Ayurvedic medicine, is equipped with sophisticated instruments worth Rs 12 crore. "There is strict quality control right from the collection of raw materials to the end-product," says Dr Viswajit Mukerji, the head of the drug development unit and former managing director of Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation. "Our target is to produce 6 crore tablets a day." Some of the popular drugs made here are muktavati (for hypertension), madhunashinivati (for diabetes), kayakalpvati (for skin diseases) and meghavati (memory enhancer). The details of the drugs, its composition, the manufacturing date, bar code and doses are displayed on bottle labels; tablets come in blister packs. The pharmacy also conducts clinical trials on drugs to study their therapeutic and side-effects.
The Divya Yog Trust, the hospital, the pharmacy, the herbal garden, the cow shed and the yoga camps are managed by an army of workers, all under the aegis of the guru. Yet, he has a dream, a costly one, which is half-way to completion: The Rs 100-crore Patanjali Yog Peeth, a mega-centre at Bhadarabad, 20km from Haridwar, which should fortify his empire. The way heâs going, it shouldnât be long.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Divya Yog Website