Messiah Of The Masses

Ever since Baba Ramdev burst upon the scene in 2003, he has taken the country by storm in one area after another, making him nothing less than a phenomenon, says Punya Srivastava.

- Punya Srivastava

It was in the year 2003 that a saffron-clad ascetic with a wiry frame and overflowing black beard sat behind lakhs of TV screens, contorting his lean body into various folds, and jiggling his elastic stomach, while a stunned nation sat gaping at this spectacle. There are millions of yoga teachers, but it needed Baba Ramdev to catalyse the nation into embracing yoga. Nor did he stop there. His instant and electric popularity has made him a messiah of the masses, exhorting them to return to Indian culture and traditions.

His credentials include simplifying yoga asanas and pranayama for the masses, bringing ayurveda to innumerable households, establishing modern-day gurukuls, and creating a wave of swadeshi through Patanjali Ayurveda. From yog-shivirs in Haridwar to yoga demos in the Buckingham Palace, Baba Ramdev has done it all. His sinewy persona demystified yoga and stripped it of its esoterism, making it completely accessible to one and all. The evidence is stark. Public parks are populated with people performing breathing exercises like anulom-vilom, kapaal bhaati and bhastrika early in the mornings, half the middle class in the country sits glued to their television-sets copying his asanas or listening to his discourses on ayurveda. Film actors like Shilpa Shetty and Amitabh Bachchan are said to have learnt yoga from him.