Spiritual Leader Sadhguru Takes Baba Ramdev For a Ride On a Ducati

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Baba Ramdev and Sadhguru also shared their experience in a video uploaded on Youtube with a title “Biker Dudes”.

Ayushmann Chawla
News18.com
August 17, 2018

Who doesn’t love a good motorcycle ride and that too on a Ducati, well we have a video that can represent that joy as recently spiritual reformer and author Jaggi Vasudev, commonly known as Sadhguru was seen riding a Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled with Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev. The two popular Indian spiritual leaders also shared their experience in a video uploaded on Youtube with a title “Biker Dudes”. The two rode the bike at the foothills of Velliangiri which is near the outskirts of Coimbatore, along the Western Ghats. In the video, Baba Ramdev shares his experience where Sadhguru told him “Don’t take both your hands off” as they were riding at pretty good speed. You can watch the video below.

Baba Ramdev also told about the moment where he took his hand off a little and lost balance and how he recovered and held Sadhguru tight after that. Both the spiritual leaders are an idol to their followers and riding a motorcycle without helmet and safety gear doesn’t convey a good message.

Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled was launched in India last year and is powered by a 803cc oil cooled engine, as on the standard scrambler, that churns out 74 bhp and 68 Nm of peak torque. It also gets full 200 mm extended travel on the front and rear suspension, higher seat off-road style footpegs with removable rubber.

The bike comes with 19-inch front and 17-inch rear spoked wheels with Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tyres and Brembo braking system that features a Bosch 9.1 MP ABS system with pressure sensor.

https://www.news18.com/news/auto/spiritual-leader-sadhguru-takes-baba-ramdev-for-a-ride-on-a-ducati-watch-video-1847725.html

Ramdev booked for ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogan remark

The Indian Express

APRIL 13, 2016

Mohd Bin Omer, a medical college student and an activist, in his complaint said that he had seen a video clip on YouTube where Ramdev threatens members of a particular community.

Yoga guru Ramdev,

Yoga guru Ramdev, who had said that he would have beheaded laksh of people for not chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogan, was booked on Wednesday by the Hyderabad police.

Omer said in the complaint that he had seen a video clip on YouTube where Ramdev threatens members of a particular community, Assistant Commissioner of Police M Srinivasa Rao said. 

“We are investigating the matter further,” Rao said. Ramdev had recently said he respects the law of the land and the Constitution, otherwise he would have “beheaded” lakhs of people for refusing to say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.

Hyderabad-based MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had earlier said he would not say the slogan.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/ramdev-bharat-mata-ki-jai-fir-hyderabad/

After Shankaracharya, Ramdev stokes controversy, says Sai Baba was no God

Reetu Sharma
OneIndia News
November 3, 2015


New Delhi, Nov 3: The controversy over worshipping Sai Baba is yet not over and Yoga guru Ramdev on Monday joined the bandwagon and claimed that Sai Baba was not a God. 

According to an IBN7 report, "Supporting Dwarkapeeth seer Sankaracharya Swaroopan and Saraswati's ideology that Sai Baba should not be worshipped as God, Ramdev said that he was a great saint but not God." 

Earlier, Dwarkapeeth seer Sankaracharya Swaroopan and Saraswati had said that Sai Baba should not be worshipped as God. 

Talking about the issue RSS recently said that Sai Baba of Shirdi never claimed he was God and that "no issue" should be made over whether he should be worshipped. 

"Even Sai Baba never said he was a God. Sai Baba served the society. This should not be made an issue," RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said. 

RSS spokesman Manmohan Vaidya said in Hindu society every individual has the right to decide whom to worship. "Every individual in Hindu society has freedom to decide and worship God. There are many swayamsevaks in RSS who are Sai devotees," he said. 

Puja is offered to even trees and mountains, he said. 

The RSS leaders were responding to the statement made by Dwarkapeeth seer Sankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati made some time ago that Sai Baba of Shirdi should not be worshipped as God.

Read more at: http://www.oneindia.com/india/ramdev-stokes-controversy-says-sai-baba-was-no-god-1917324.html

Importing And Marketing Culture

Prem Khatry

The Rising Nepal

October 4, 2015

There is a feeling in Nepal – we are one small but important market for Indian products – and these products are coming to Nepal in different forms, shapes and denominations. An open Nepali mind is fundamental and more receptive than our open borders. This is the main reason why such products make an easy entry and stay here. The flow of many products discussed here as cultural products has a long and steady history in Nepal whereas some have made recent but successful inroads. They have survived, thrived and sustained in the hands and purses of the highly receptive Nepalis.

Let us begin with the producers and go on to production. Nepal has old and strong cultural links with India through various aspects of the Vedic culture – polity, law, faiths, sacraments, education, arts, health and economy, to name the most important aspects. In historical times, beginning from the Maurya-Kirata to the modern times, great teachers, their missions and visions, the court regalia and the like have always left their mark in the process of urbanisation, political development and culture.

The Buddha and Emperor Ashoka took the opportunity to send their men and mission to Kathmandu for the propagation of Buddha's timeless teachings. Nepalis not only gave the visitors a green signal to do so, they also promoted Buddhist thoughts and practices at times when they had difficulty in India.

Big names in Nepal

History says from another angle Shankaracharya was doing his best to stop the popularity of Buddhism in Nepal and asserting on the establishment of the Vaishnava school of thought. He is said to have created a spiritual wave against Buddhism. This wave, it is said, was felt very seriously by the Buddhist monks and laity in Kathmandu. It took a long time for the Buddhist faith and practices to raise their heads and steer their right paths. And, in less than one hundred years, Nepal was recognised as the home of Tantric Buddhism after the fall of the faith in the north and east Indian plains.

Whether it is Hindu or Buddhist, the spiritual waves from the south have always been influential and strong on the soils of Nepal. During the time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of Bengal and Goswami Tulsidas of the northern region, and afterwards the Vaishnava faith and practices became almost a household culture and conduct in Hindu Nepal. Pilgrimages in India became common and regular routine work of Nepali devotees. Sanskrit language and literature also influenced the courts and middle class society of Nepal.

In more recent times, saints, gurus and their missions have been creating visible and lasting impression on the culture of recent Nepal. From Sai Baba to controversial figures like Asaram to Nirmal Baba, they have their strong followings here. The most famous Vaishnava saint Jagatguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj and/or Shree Shree Ravi Shankar have the largest number of followers in Nepal. Similarly, the healer-yoga teachers like Ramadeva or Pilot Baba or Mantra teacher Kumaraswami of Prabhukripa Nivaran family have been raising their following in more recent years.

There is a rumour building strongly in Nepal that even the ruling government of India is planning to work closely with the Hindu fundamentalists of Nepal to restore Hinduism as the state religion that was in pre-2007 Nepal. But these are unsubstantiated statements.
The promotion of Hindu faith and practices through several cult figures and their preachers has been mostly one-way traffic as our own saints like Bhikshu Amritananda, Shree Khaptad Baba, Dr. Swami Prapannacharya, Kamalnayanacharya Dr. Ramananda Giri and several others have very little or no following in India.

It is now strongly felt in Nepal that the south-north traffic of faiths and practices is not only limited to holy men, their missions and the goods that accompany them. Now there are other commercial items, too. Like the faiths travelling north as spiritual commodities, there are actually different forms of commodities coming to Nepal and creating small to medium to big dents in the body-culture of Nepal. Just a few items would be sufficient to substantiate the writer's analysis.

Take Mehendi (a herbal paste with long lasting designs painted on hands) for example. Until some years ago, this colourful paint was shown on the hands of the Marwari and other upper class ladies of the plains during some festivals and ceremonies at home. Today it has hit the market. From the Terai, this colour has been making its entry into cities like Kathmandu, attracting females of all castes and ages. Even elementary level female students want to have this paint on their tiny hands to mark the coming of a festival at home and the community.

One can only guess, as the Mehendi cone goes to many hands at a fast rate, its business could be rated into millions per week, if not per day. Such a business certainly brings the entrepreneurs as business promoters and add to the already saturating population statistics. And, this is just an example of a new addition in popular culture.

Take another example from Janai Purnima and Rakshyabandhan. The traditional Nepali belief held that the holy thread is to be renewed every year on this auspicious day by the thread holder castes. Similarly, the colourful thread is to go to the wrist through the family (in cities the temple) priests as marks of 'protection', hence the name. This is fine and good. But lo and behold! A 'Rakhi culture' has now come all the way from the plains through Hindi serials and migrants.

Now a sister is taught to tie this colourful, expensive and laboriously made thread around her brother's hand as another kind of protection and welfare of her sibling/s. Now almost every corner of the city has this temporary stall with hundreds of varieties of this thread. Earlier it catered for the migrant Terai-Indian population, but now it has infected the Pahadi and valley population of youngsters.

Flourishing business

Finally, one writer suggested rather jokingly how our 'Fagu' has been 'Holi' and added new features and soon the wife could be 'bibi ji'. It is not just a change of a name; it has also changed the earlier character and added new paraphernalia. A business is flourishing in these names and taking a big amount of money out of the country just for the sake of imitation of a neighbourhood culture. One must say – Nepalis are very innovative and change-seekers but have no or little thought about how new inventions can come heavy on our own traditions that are simple, inexpensive and carry history as well as meaning.

http://therisingnepal.org.np/news/6290