India is a country with no dearth of miracles and debacles of Swamijis. These Godmen, a word that suggests stardom, albeit with a hint of derision, are all heirs to an ancient tradition of humble wisdom seekers, who surround themselves with fawning followers.

Some are genuine, but most have built flexible cults that stretch around the globe. It was in 2004 that I had a TV encounter with one of its kind. It was a slender figure clad in saffron robes with a long, dark beard, hair tied in a bun, who was fondly called Baba Ramdev.

What was different about this new ‘Baba’ was that perhaps he was the only one with no foreign returned labels tagged onto his fame. He was the only one who was trying to revolutionise ‘yoga’, taking it to the pinnacle of welfare and well- being.

Coupled with proper breathing techniques, Ramdev’s aim was to heal every inch of his poor and diseased country through Ayurveda. What was also unique was his method of teaching.

His ‘practice’ was with the general public, either through the medium of television, or through his various meetings with the civic community. He rarely clouded the air with talk about enlightenment and religion. And he always spoke of Indian solidarity.

The whispers of his philosophy was that our body is the only place of worship because that is where God resides, in every ailing muscle, every brittle bone, every dying cell. And his mission was to educate the common man on how to keep this ‘temple’ glowing and healthy through Pranayam.

His Yoga was simple. No critical postures. No dogmas. No ideology. Only instant benefits. It was this lissom yogi who finally influenced a hardcore sceptic like me, to do something I had never done before in my life. To stop living and start breathing!

To give credit where credit is due, it was only because of Pranayam that I finally got rid of my 20 year old sinusitis. When he held one of his ‘shivir’ in Bhubaneswar, my sisters and I attended it with due diligence.

In 2012, when Baba led protests against corruption in India, advocating for the repatriation of black money held in foreign banks, my dedication increased. At last, here was a responsible man who was not only a proponent of Ayurveda, but who was also trying to rekindle our lost faith in the simple but age- old adage that ‘Health is Wealth’.

But somewhere along the way, he began to sound and look like Donald Trump. Without the orange coloured hair of course. This bombastic TV personality’s public stunts started attracting undue attention.

His relationship with truth also started becoming elastic. Unable to resist a branding opportunity, soon his name and face was splashed everywhere. In just over a decade, Patanjali vaulted from a tiny operation into an economic powerhouse.

From this cosmic empire he announced plans to add swadeshi SIM cards to his ever-growing list of products; which included 900 merchandise, across various categories including beauty and wellness, healthcare and packaged food. Soon the Yoga guru launched one of a kind of ‘sanskari jeans’, which is ripped just enough to be ‘traditional’, to keep the ‘Indianness’ of men and women intact!

Everything that followed thereafter, felt like a shambolic melodrama in slow motion. One that projected the Baba as a wannabe business tycoon. Protected by critics, aided by the Media and to some extent, even by the law, he was turning into a whole new breed of a populist guru.

And because of his vast following and a claim to holy purpose, Baba soon began challenging Allopathy and even the Doctors. Going so far as to say that the Hippocratic Oath was just a hypocritical claim and modern medicines and healthcare professionals were all expendable.

Blessed with a gift of the gab for charming his audience, he transformed himself into a desi Billy Graham, the Southern Baptist firebrand who advised American presidents and energized the Christian Right Wing. With his political patronage, Baba was the perfect advertisement for a rising middle class, always hungry for religious assertion.

Ramdev was also the first godman to earn his millions as a businessman instead of just siphoning donations from wealthy followers. According to a ‘Business Standard’ report, a large-scale transaction of forest land also took place and his Patanjali group acquired over 400 acres of common land in Haryana’s Aravalli region.

This son of a poor illiterate farmer, who had suffered a paralytic attack and was hell bent on healing his nation, was either too stupid. Or too clever. Soon it dawned on me that this Yoga guru, whom I lovingly called Baba; who had my positive energies flowing; and who taught me how to stop living and start breathing, was just another conman.

He may have cleared my sinuses, but my brains were clouded. I soon began to see that he was just another electoral pawn in the business of power politics. His Ayurvedic company was just another façade for a multibillion-dollar colossus. And his pious traditionalism was just another mask for darker forces. Baba re Baba!

P.S. The ‘businessman’ who always insisted Patanjali is not an industry but ‘a service for humanity’, has received a contempt notice from the court for ‘misleading claims’. His company has been advised not to issue further misleading advertisements.

But the Baba still claims, that with his blend of fierce capitalism and monkish renunciation, he will make India a ‘world economic power and world spiritual power by 2050.’ Will someone tell the Baba, that when you renounce our rationalist legacies to make hollow promises, you not only get drawn away from duty, you also shatter the hopes and aspirations of many.

The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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