Baba Ramdev.

One of the most amazing Yogi in modern times is Baba Ramdev.

Lot of information is available on internet, therefore the gist of this blog is to highlight his achievements.

He is one of the most trusted person who used Television effectively to promote Yoga in an unique manner of having mass Yoga camps for the public all over the country.

He has a logical and scientific approach to everything and a lot can be learned from this unique Yogi who turned spirituality into a political, economic and cultural brand.

He popularized Yoga and Ayurveda in a very big way , challenged big brands like Nestle , Colgate Palmolive, Ponds, Nivea , Coke ,Pepsi,Dabur, Godrej, Hindustan Lever, Proctor & Gamble, Kellogs, Kissan, Brittania ,Himalaya, Lakme, Dabur to name a few companies.

Baba Ramdev shows what a man with clear intention and honesty and integrity can achieve, he has set a bench mark for all the Gurus who were previously hiding behind a lot of mumbo-jumbo nonsense and misleading the masses.

Baba Ramdev made simple home remedies very popular for acidity, gas , cough , cold , fever , skin problems , hair problems , he not only gave solutions but produced and marketed pure products which solved problems and gave rise to a new lifestyle.

Today we have toothpaste, shampoo, soaps, oils, ghee, biscuits, noodles, detergent, jams, sauce , energy bars, creams and a lot of other products available at very reasonable rates from Patanjali Brand by Baba Ramdev.

The thought process of a person matters more than his material wealth or the costume worn by him. Baba Ramdev shows that it’s not necessary to know English or to be an intellectual or be highly educated to be successful.

He is one of the most intelligent man whose approach is highly scientific and he is the person who introduced “Anulom Vilom” and “Kaapal Bhatti” a scientific way to decarbonize the blood in our body and store more praana and oxygen in our body to prevent illness.

Baba Ramdev shows us what a man with a clear mission can achieve in a life time and put into action what he says and feels.

A true saint is one who serves Humanity, irrespective of color, caste , creed, religion or nationality. Baba Ramdev has strived to address the problems of health, wealth and happiness and has succeeded in making Yoga a part of regular life without expensive shoes or Gym equipment – in fact a lot of organizations have been inspired to adopt Yoga instead of physical exercises due to his influence.

The whole of Humanity will be Blessed if we have more Yogi’s ; Fakir’s and Saints who can show how serving Humanity is the best form of love and devotion and with their constructive activities they make life much better in a world full of challenges at different levels.

Dr Chandra Bhanu Satpathy.

A lot of information can be found in the internet about Dr C.B.Satpathy , but what I wish to write about Him is the simple truth that mystics and saints do exist in modern times also.

Dr C.B.Satpathy is an eminent personality who retired as Director General of Police from the state of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2008. He has been a source of inspiration for me personally and my father had entrusted my spiritual evolution to Him when I was in college.

He was born in 1948, completed his BA (Hons) in Political Science in  1968 from Ravenshaw College, completed MA in Political Science from Ramjas College, Delhi in 1970 and  thereafter taught Political Science in Motilal College, Delhi University , joined IPS in 1972 and retired in 2008.

He has been an inspiration behind making more than 300 temples of Shiridi Sai Baba all over the world apart from a lot of social work, I personally appreciate His writing for absolute clarity and logical thinking process.

According to him, temples should not be dedicated only for worship but should function as centers of human service to all sections of society. “ Love cannot sustain without mutual tolerance and devotion cannot exist without love.”

We can add immense value to society by being constructive, our positive thought process and actions will ultimately make the world a better place and bring us closer to the Divine.

More information is avialable on http://www.saibabaofshirdi.net/

Neem Karoli Baba.

Neem Karoli Baba is “World Famous” because Mark Zuckelberg, founder of Facebook,told PM Narendra Modi about his visit to Kainchi Dham in Uttarakhand.

“Early on in our history……..we had hit a tough patch……..I went to meet one of my mentors Steve Jobs who told me in order to reconnect with the mission of the company, I should visit this temple he had gone to,” Zuckerberg said.

He spoke about how, during the month he spent in India, he saw how people connected and how it reinforced his vision for the social media company.

Zuckerberg had gone there in 2008 on the advice of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, who had himself made the journey in 1974. Jobs could not meet Baba as he had left his body in Sept 11th , 1973.

I appreciate both Mark & Steve because they have been bringing in revolutionary products which have been changing our life and help realize our oneness despite the divergence.

Steve Jobs had made the Macintosh computer in 1984 featuring an integral graphical interface & mouse. Later on he was inspired by the book “Be Here Now” by Ram Dass and visited  India to meet Neem Karoli Baba. Steve Jobs went on to produce ipad, ipod and iphone – which brought about a much needed integration of computers and mobile phones – something that the whole world was desperately waiting for.

Mark’s Facebook could have more engagement and users sheerly due to the iphone , ipad & android phones.

Interestingly, Ram Dass the author of “Be Here Now” was known as Dr Richard Alpert who was a Professor in Harvard University where he worked in Social Relations & Psychology Department and experimented on hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD. Neem Karoli Baba once took all his supply of LSD and gulped it to show that LSD is useless in spiritual pursuit.

Now Neem Karoli Baba was a Sadguru or Mystic who was born in 1900 and passed away in September 1972. He made around 108 temples of Hanumanji, influenced American & Indian Society.

He was born in Agra District in a Bramhin family and believed in serving people through continuous feeding, the atmosphere around Him reverberated with chanting of devotional songs followed by Bhandara or feeding the poor and hungry.

His simple teaching was to love all of humanity without any distinction of color, caste, creed, sex – His main role was to break down all barriers and bring about social integration through music, food and remembering God.

Let us follow a simple life of serving our fellow human beings all over the world without any barriers of nationality, caste, sex. To love God is to love humanity- you can’t be a feminist, nationalist and have an us versus them attitude – because when you sleep you are no longer a man or woman, Indian or American.

The Famous Sufi Saints of India.

There are four Sufi Saints who made huge difference in the social and cultural life and helped evolve Humanity.

1.     Moinuddin Chisti of Ajmer – came during rule of Prithviraj Chauhan .

2.    Qutabuddin Bakhtiar Kaki – Qutab Minar dedicated to Him and was close to Iltutmish of Slave Dynasty.

3.    Fariduddin Ganjshakar – development of Punjabi literature –more than 124 hymns composed by Him is included in Guru Granth Sahib by 5^th Sikh Guru Arjun.

4.     Nizamuddin Auliya -  He was spiritual master of Amir Khusrau & Nasiruddin Chirag –e – Delhi.

The common thing among these four famous Sufi Saints was that they formed the spiritual chain or “silsila” of the Chisti order in India, each successive person being disciple of the previous.

This was similar to the ten Sikh Gurus or the spiritual chain of Kriya Yogi’s of Mahaavatar Babaji or Ancient mystics known as Essenes –famous for “The Dead Sea Scrolls”.

The Sufi Saints stressed on love as a means for realizing God, love of God implied a love of humanity. They had a highly evolved sense of secularity and kindness. They brought about a paradigm shift towards worldly matters and people began to be inclined towards mysticism and prayers and remaining aloof from the world.

The Sufi Saints always promoted the local language and culture and believed in assimilation, mutual tolerance , quality of accommodation and to bring about cohesion of diverse people they promoted Qawwali music by which  listeners became so mesmerized that they started dancing a traditional religious dance called” Dhamaal”.

Sufi music serves as a basis of contact with people & facilitates mutual adjustment between communities. The Sufi poets Rumi, Hafiz, Bulleh Shah, Amir Khusrow and Khwaja Gulam are so popular that they continue to inspire Bollywood film music and are known as epitome of romantic songs.

The Sufi model of “Khanqah” was more like an ancient “Caravan Serai” as they were removed from the main city, had a “Baoli” or Stepwells – similar to a pond, the “Khanqah” was more like a spiritual retreat where people from all over the world came to meet the Spiritual Master, it usually has a mosque for prayers attached along with a “Madrasa” or School where children were imparted education . Feeding or “Langar” was very popular as the poor and hungry were always served with love and care.

Therefore by default the “Khanqah” became the focal point of social and community development – very much like our modern day Malls  - only difference being that Malls are more materialistic.

We can explore the life of the saints and the subtle methods used by them for social engineering and evolution and with appropriate adaptation they can be used to develop our complex society.