Swami Ramdev

Swami Ramdev: Facts we should know about

29Apr 15

Written byPoonam Patil Kalra

Published inYoga

Swami Ramdev is one of the most underrated humanitarian gurus that India has. His tremendous contribution to revival of Ayurveda and Yoga and making them household items, making healthy living accessible to all and sundry, has gone entirely uncelebrated. Here is an attempt at jotting down some of his major contributions to the nation, and humanity at large.

Swami Ramdev is a saint in truest sense, be it his living his benevolence towards mankind or his undying zeal to serve those in need. Moreover, he understood quite early that goodwill alone wont go too far- if he wants to serve the humanity, he as to establish a system that can sustain this spirit of service in the long run. In order to accomplish that he set up numerous organisations and establishments, on his hardwork and zeal alone. This lead to a massive revival of Ayurved and Yoga, something that was fading away from the land of Bharat.  

Here are a few of his works.

1. He founded the Divya Yog Mandir Trust in 1995 and in 2003 Aastha TV began featuring him in its morn
   ing yoga slot. His yoga programme was immensely popular and till date he has taught Yoga to more than 100 Crore (1 Billion) people through Aastha TV channel reaching out to more than 200 countries of the world (that is 1 in every 7 people in the world). Of the total number, 20 Crore (200 Million) people have learnt yoga directly through thousands of camps across India, UK, USA, Australia, Japan and several other countries of the world. He has several celebrity followers, movie stars, leaders, policy makers and alike.
   
2. He was the first non-Muslim to publicly address Muslim clerics at their seminary in Deoband. It is a city in Uttar Pradesh, where Dar-ul-Uloom - one of the most important and influential schools of Islamic Studies, is situated. Deoband, as a matter of fact, is the seat of global wahabism.
   
3. Patanjali Yogpeeth is an institute founded for the promotion and practice of yoga and Ayurveda by Baba Ramdev. It has two Indian campuses, Patanjali Yogpeeth-I & Patanjali Yogpeeth-II, with locations in the UK, US, Nepal, Canada, and Mauritius.   Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, is the largest yoga institutes in India.
   
4. Acharya Balkrishna, who is a close associate of Baba Ramdev, along with his co-authors have written a total of 41 research papers related to yoga and Ayurved.
   
   He has undertaken the project of developing the Ayurvedic system of medicines and research work and spreading the knowledge throughout the world. On October 23, 2004, he was honoured by former President   of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam at Rashtrapati Bhavan. In October, 2007 in the presence of Prime Minister, President and   cabinet ministers, he was honoured for his contribution in Yoga Ayurveda, Indian culture and his research in the field of Himalayan herbs. Acharya Balkrishan carried out research on more than 4000 herbs (the ancient shastras only state 600 herbs)   in Patanjali Research Foundation.
   
5. To give a boost to the Swadeshi Movement (Make in India), Swami Ramdev set up Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. Just three years after its entry into FMCG sector, the company has a turnover of about 3000 Crores. It has more than 300 products out of which highfliers like DantKanti Toothpaste, Aarogya Biscuits and Coconut hair oil have overtaken the sales of established   MNC brands like Colgate, Britannia etc.
   
6. Patanjali Chikitsalaya today gives free diagnosis and consultation to more than 200,000 patients daily through its more than 5000 nationwide centres. The biggest such effort anywhere in the world.
   
7. Patanjali Food and Herbal Park, stated to be the biggest such food unit in the world, which was inaugurated by Mr Subodh   Kant Sahay, Union Minister for Food Processing Industry. The 500-crore park, set up by yoga guru Swami Ramdev, about 20 kms   from here, will provide direct employment to 7000 people. Swami Ramdev said his main objective was to provide remunerative   prices to the farmers for their produce of cereals, pulses and vegetables. It was a step from 'yog kranti to krishi kranti'   with an objective of prosperity for the farmers in particular and the people in general. The state –of – art manufacturing   facility meets the best manufacturing standards worldwide.
   
8. Bharat Swabhiman, Baba Ramdev’s Cultural and Spiritual Organisation, with the goal of system change (Vyavastha Parivartan)   and Vishwa Guru Bharat (India – Best to lead the world ) Bharat Swabhiman and Yog Samiti are volunteer organizations functioning at grassroots level . Swadeshi Shiksha (education system based on Indian principles) and Swadeshi Chikitsa (medical system based on Indian principles) are two of the most important aims of this mission. Establishment of Hindi and all regional (Bhartiya-Indian) languages as the primary language in government-sponsored activities like education and the   judiciary is part of the agenda of this movement. Swami Ramdev draws attention to the fact that in terms of population Hindi   is the second most spoken native language after the Chinese language and yet in its own country it gets secondary status to   English. He also sees a problem in the fact that no modernized country in the world uses a foreign language for official purposes except India.
   
9. With an active membership of more than Four Crore volunteers and a support base of close to sixty crores Swami Ramdev was   able to steer the election mandate in 2014 Lok Sabha (Parliament) and 2013- 2014 to State assemblies of Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh,   Chhattisgarh, Goa, Maharashtra, etc. 
   
   
   Fulfiling his promise of India without corrupt Congress regime.
   
10. Swami Ramdev has addressed the International congregation of Cancer Specialists at Houston USA - In August 2009 Swami Ramdev addressed more than 700 Cancer specialists from all over the world at MD Anderson cancer centre USA. He was  honoured by the British House of Commons in July 2007. In January 2007 – Honorary Doctorate, by Kalinga Institute of    Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, in recognition of his efforts to popularise the Vedic system/science of Yoga.
    
11. Swami Ramdev was slated to receive the Padma Vibhushan award, the second highest civilian award, on the occasion of 66th Republic Day in Jan 2015, but he humbly declined to accept it.
    
12. In April 2015, Government of Haryana appointed Swami Ramdev as brand ambassador of Yoga and Ayurveda. He was given the status of Cabinet minister for Haryana but had declined it saying that he wanted to continue serving as a Baba.