Swami Ramdev (born as Ramkrishna) alias Baba Ramdev is a spiritual leader known for his ventures in yoga, ayurvedand agriculture. Baba Ramdev is best known for popularizing yoga among health conscious Indians through his mass yoga camps & TV shows.
Ramdev was born as Ramkrishna Yadav to Gulab Devi and Ram Nivas in the Alipur village of Mahendragarh district in Haryana state of India. He had a formal education till 8th standard in school.
He then studied Indian scriptures, yoga and Sanskrit in various gurukuls. Eventually, he became sanyasi, renouncing worldly life & took present name as Baba Ramdev. While living in Kalva Gurukul of Jind district in Haryana, he offered free yoga training to villagers for some time. Then he moved to Haridwar, Uttarakhand and spent several years studying ancient Indian scriptures at Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya.
This included a rare book of Aurobindo Ghosh, Yogik Sadhan, translated from Bengali into Hindi by Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil. After reading this small booklet योगिक साधन he went to the caves of Himalaya and practised intense self-discipline and meditation.
He entered prominence when he started the Divya Yog Mandir Trust with the company of Acharya Balkrishna at Kankhal Haridwar. In 2003, Aastha TV began featuring him in its morning yoga slot. Within a few years, he had gathered a huge following. Apart from making Yoga a household word in India, he has also taught Yoga in Britain, USA and Japan among other countries.
Patanjali Yogpeeth and Research on Yoga :
The flagship project of Baba Ramdev is Patanjali Yogpeeth. Since its inauguration in 2006, it has been one of the largest centers for research on Yog and Ayurved in India. The vision of the research institution as mentioned on the Patanjali Yogpeeth website is "To evaluate the physiological and clinical effects of Yog and Pranayam as taught by Swami Ramdevji and the Ayurvedic medicines formulated by Acharya Balakrishanji".
Apart from running free yoga classes and providing free ayurvedic consultancy in the premises of the yogpeeth, the Patanjali Yogpeeth website claims to run 20,000 free yoga classes and 2000 chikitsalayas all over the country. The facilities at the Yogpeeth comprise a 300-bed multi specialty hospital, a yoga research center, a university,an ayurvedic pharmacy and a food park.
Patanjali Yog Peeth has acquired a Scottish Island for about £2 million which was donated by Mr.Sam and Mrs. Sunita Poddar, originally from India and living in Scotland for 25 years, have been running the UK branch of the Patanjali Yoga Peeth Trust. The Little Cumbrae Island, off the fishing town of Largs in Scotland, will also serve as the Patanjali Yog Peeth's base overseas, where yoga will be taught. This project will be run by Patanjali Yogpeeth (UK) Trust.
