A YOGIC REVOLUTION IN INDIA

A revolution is taking place, a yogic revolution through a television channel, ASTHA, which is said to be viewed by 15 crores (15,00,00,000) in India. The most talked 0f yogi in India these days is Swami Ramdeo of Kankhal (near Hardwar) who is the most successful architect of this yogic revolution through which many have benefitted, many of those suffering from diseases of various types.

I believe in the great efficacy and benefits of yoga, asanas and pranayam. At the age of eleven in 1942 when I had become very weak after a double attack of typhoid, I was taken to a yogi who taught me some asanas and in fifteen days I had regained my health, without any tonic, and played games with the same energy as I had been before falling sick.

At the age of forty three when I had no ailment, I attended a fifteen day course of a Yogi in Patna, Bihar, doing all the eighty four pawan mukhta asana and experienced that my body had become totally clean from within and and I had the feeling of being always fresh and energetic. But some of my friends suffering from some ailments were cured.

In the year 2000 when I fell sick had heavy diabetese (read about it in the letters) and soon after was not even able to walk, a yogi did teach me some asans but my body had become weak that I could not do it. I did Vishnu Sahastranaam regularly and some exercises and slowly recovered when no doctor had any prescription for me and had written me off.

In 2004 , the ASTHA television channel in India started showing regularly twice a day the yoga programme of Swami Ramdeo which I too started seeing on the advice of some people. I saw it, did prayanama and asanas as directed by him and have benefitted immensely, like so many others.

I wrote about it in the JYOTISH LIST. Here are those letters. It is all based on the first hand experiences of my friends and also mine.

K.N.Rao.


From: "knrao"
Date: Sat Jun19 ,2004 7:08 a.m
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 1

A yogi in India whom doctors may not accept is making big waves. Now read on.

Better than any shantis, the best one that are working now in some families in northern India are the excellent yogic lessons, mixed with ayurvedic or, call it, simple herbal prescriptions of Swami Ramdeo, that have been working almost like miracles.

Is a revolution taking place in India in reviving yoga on such a mass scale which is stupendous ?

Almost every third man who comes to meet me talks of the miracles of the cures he prescribes and demonstrates in his most popular television programmes.

The programme is broadcast regularly by the ASTHA television channel. He is clear in his mission, aim and objective. What is available for the poor in India, he asks and makes his lessons available to them. He is on a great mission. In his camps while in the front row there are the paid participants, he allows the poor who cannot pay also to join it free.

I will narrate the first hand experiences of some people known to me intimately.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
Jyotish-List@Puja.Net


From: "knrao" <k_n_rao@...>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 7:10 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 2

Mrs. A.Y. who has been coming to me with her husband and children for nearly twenty two years for Vishnu Sahastranam recitation and knows so many stotras by heart told me the other day about the benefits of Swami Ramdeo’s yoga lessons.

She is an insulin dependent patient of diabetes and has to take it twice a day in large doses. Besides, she had difficulty in walking. She started doing the yoga lessons through the television channels. Now she has reduced the intake of insulin considerably in terms of units and is able to walk more than five kilometers at a stretch.

Is doing yoga properly and combining with recitation of OM etc. as Swamiji does, with a sprinkling of spiritual lessons shanti or not ?
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
Jyotish-List@Puja.Net


From: "knrao" <k_n_rao@..>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 7:49 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 3

A neighbour of Mrs.A.Y. is very fat and did not know how to reduce her bulk and weight. It was a great source of tension for her. She did the asanas shown on the television and took ashwagandha leaves as instructed. She has reduced her weight by forty pounds and has been maintaining that for many months now. ( Do not ask me what ashwagandha leaves are. I do not know.)

Such cures working like miracles and reducing mental and physical tension is
the shanti one searches.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
Jyotish-List@Puja.Net

From: "knrao" <k_n_rao@...>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 7:13 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 4

Another friend, a male, told me that his wife who could not walk and had come to my house climbing three stairs since there is no elevator here, did the yoga lessons of Swami Ramdeo and all the pain in her legs has vanished and she now walks normally.

Swami Ramdeo demonstrates all these in his lessons through some asanas and pranayama in which Bhasrika has a privotal place.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From: Praveen Kumar <chunnu2001@v...>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 1:25 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Re: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo's Mission 4

Respected Sir,
Yes sir, Swamiji's yogic instructions are really good. If I am not wrong, it is Kapal-Bhati pranayam which has a pivotol role.
Praveen Kumar (Mumbai)


From: knrao <k_n_rao@com>
To: jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject: Re: [jyotish-list] Re: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo's Mission 4
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 23:24:07 IST


I have only put on record what I have heard. May be after somedays we also hear criticism of all this.
K.N.Rao.


From: "knrao" <k_n_rao@...>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 7:15 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 5

People suffering from back pain, spinal trouble, and mental depression have felt and said that mentally, physically, emotionally and now, spiritually, they have improved.

They say in one voice that Swami is the greatest missionary now in India, doing free service for humanity.

The beauty of it is that all his teachings are spiritual not merely the physical exercise, which people talking about yoga, reduce yoga into these days.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
Jyotish-List@Puja.Net


From: "knrao" <k_n_rao@...>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 7:16 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 6

Nishiji came on 17 Dec. 2004 and told me of the aunt of the boy she has employed. This aunt of his, a woman living in Vasant Kunj, Delhi, had a very severe diabetes and gangrene in the legs which was spreading. Two fingers of her leg had to be amputated and doctors said that it could lead to dangerous
spreading of it.

The woman went just for three days to attend a camp in April 2004, to Hardwar of Swami Ramdeo where she was taught some asanas and pranayama and given some herbs. There has been a total reversal and there no are symptoms of gangrene even. Doctors proved wrong totally. Miracle of yoga is what one had heard of but one is seeing them, and so openly all around.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From: knrao <k_n_rao@>
To: jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject:[jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 7
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 14:00:46 IST

I have been recording such events all my life because of which I could write so many books without missing facts. In the case of Swami Ramdeo it is easier to collect the events because it has now become an every day story.

And these people coming to me and telling about it are looking so healthy , so cheerful and so infectious in their enthusiasm to recommend the lessons of Swami Ramdeo all free to everyone. These are true and verifiable stories of inner transformation which shanti should do.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
Jyotish-List@Puja.Net


From: "knrao" <k_n_rao@r...>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 8:20 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 8

If you come to Delhi or India and you find people folding their palms, joining them and rubbing the fingers of both hands against each other do not be surprised.

It has now become a recognised cure for falling hair, dandruff etc. It also prevents hair turning grey or if they have become grey, the further growth will be black, not grey. It is what many have told me.

Do it for five minutes at least. The more the better. That is what Swami Ramdeo tells in his televised programmes.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
Jyotish-List@Puja.Net


From: "knrao" <k_n_rao@...>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 8:22 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 9

You may ask me what are my own personal experiences. Well for three days, I have been keeping a carpet before my television and as soon Swami Ramdeo’s programme begins, I spread it , lie down on it and do all those yogic exercises particularly those which are good for diabetes and pain in legs.

The result, I have been feeling very energetic and my sleep is deeper now. There is no pain in my legs. I will get my diabetes checked after a week to give to this remedy a reasonable trial.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From: "knrao" <k_n_rao@...>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 8:56 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 10

Swami Ramdeo says , I am told though I have not heard it myself in these three days, that allopathic medicines are poisonous and multi-nationals have a vested interest in a nation of patients. He seems to be saying that with a real fire of conviction as I can see and notice.

I learn that he himself had suffered at one stage in his life. What happened is not known to me. But I can collect the story. Someone says it was paralysis while others say it was a stroke. After that his search for yoga cure and herbs became intense.

Now he wants to share it free with poor people and with a price with the affluent. His ashram manufactures some of these herbal medicines which are available for purchase I learn. That they are manufactured is clear from the television programme.

I heard him say in one programme that he was telling the ingredients for such medicines so that people could prepare them in their houses as the ashram may not have adequate quantities of such medicines. Also that he had no intention of making money. If he had any intention, he says, he could become a billionaire overnight.

There is an e-mail address also of his ashram
diyvayoga@rediffmail.com
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
Jyotish-List@Puja.Net

From: "knrao" <k_n_rao@r...>
Date: Sat Jun 19, 2004 8:57 am
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 11

Ramdeo left his parental house at the age of fourteen and is from Haryana. He does not want to become a guru and has no disciples. In one talk of his I heard him talk of those gurus and mahatmas who “fell” down in some weaker moments.

He then quotes from Patanjali shkolas which he must have memorised at some stage in his life along with the Gita. Then he teaches his yoga lessons. Healthy living, healthy thinking is what he encourages and preaches. It has been happening on a mass scale now though for the first fifteen years as a yoga teacher he was confined to a small ashram where people went to get cured free of cost.

His reputation spread slowly. Some non-resident Indian was taken there by a rich Indian who had benefitted from Swami Ramdeo’s yoga lessons.

The non-resident India also benefitted and then asked Swami Ramdeo why should, what he preaches and teaches, not reach masses. How ? The question was posed and the solution was to get it shown through the ASTHA channel. This is the story I have heard.

It is so heartening to see such quick transformation in so many so fast.

Is it not difficult to believe it ? But it is there for you to verify. Just as I was writing this came RS who helps me with my computer and my publications. He told me that he and his father had benefitted so much from these television programmes of Swami Ramdeo. His father with his constant ailments has been improving fast.

I heard Swami Ramdeo repeat what we all know but he puts it pithily thus: there must be Samaya (time) Sankalpa (resolution) and then comes Siddhi (fulfilment) of the intended goals of yoga. And he clarifies, it does not demand more time than half an hour per day.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From: knrao <k_n_rao@com>
To: jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo’s Mission 12
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 23:51:53 IST

In the television programme between 8/30 and 9/30 at night today there was a feedback also of the reduction of weight of those attending the camp.

The feedback was something like this.

1) One male 111 to 92
2) 64 to 63 in one day
3) 135 to 129 (age 20) in a week
4) 118 to 112 in four days.
5) Those who reduced six, seven or eight were too many.

An interesting fact that came out today was that at least 6,00,00,000 people watch it on television everyday. Out of these how many unknown Indians would have reduced their weight is not known. But Swmi Ramedo says how much burden of how many in India got reduced cannot be estimated.

I have not worked on horoscopes of people who have reduced weight. Has anyone done it astrologically or physically ?
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
TRIBUNE
Friday, June 4, 2004,
Chandigarh, India

Swami says he has cure for all ailments
Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service

Tips for a healthy “yogic” existence
· Drink one or two glasses of water early in the morning.
· Do not have water while eating or immediately after eating.
· Avoid fried food, cola drinks and other concentrates.
· Try and always remain happy.
· Do pranayam in the correct way everyday.


Panchkula, June 3

Swami Ram Dev does not preach the principles of sat, chit and anand, but thousands of people are flocking to him, seeking treatment for all kinds of diseases. Parkinson’s disease, obesity or blocked arteries — he claims to have an ayurvedic cure for all ailments.

“I am an upcharak and not a dharam shikshak. I learnt yoga and ayurveda through years of research in the Himalayas. I am putting my skills as an ayurvedic pracharak to use by helping out those suffering from diseases,” he says. His ayurvedic medicines are being sold at rates much lower than in the market. At least 15,000 persons from different regions are attending his camp here.

High-profile politicians, bureaucrats and serving and retired members of the judiciary are visiting Amravati Enclave here for a special session with him. Other than giving a discourse on a healthy lifestyle, Swami Ram Dev demonstrates yogic kriyas in the mornings. His teams of eight vaids have set up office in Sector 4 here, besides one at Amravati Enclave, where patients are examined.

Says his personal assistant Yashwant Bansal, “Over 500 persons come to Amravati Enclave in the evening every day.”

Swami Ram Dev says he is dedicated to the promotion of yoga and ayurveda. He says, “These ancient sciences are millions of years old. Though people have lost touch with these and moved to allopathy, these ancient sciences help to cure, while allopathy only suppresses the disease”.

Substantiating his claim, he narrates cases of his patients who have been cured.

Lambasting allopathy, he says this Western science has failed to find cure for joint problems and spinal problems. “They recommend operations while I say these can be cured with ayurvedic methods. These operations only make the problem dormant for some time,” he claims.

“The benefits of yoga remained hidden because people began propagating only aasanas as yoga prachar. The way to perform pranayam was wrong and yoga came to be connected only with ascetics,” he says.

Yoga gaining popularity
Arvind Katyal
Chandigarh, June 3

Yoga is now seemed to be accepted by a majority of people. One could feel the difference with the presence of more than 10,000 persons at the ongoing yoga camp being conducted by Swami Ram Dev. Various institutions like the Art of Living, the Bhartiya Yog Sansthan, schools and private yoga trainers have been demonstrating yoga to people.

Jaspal Singh, who came specially from Jagraon in Punjab to attend the 10-day camp, said in their village homes, lifestyles had changed under the influence of the westernisation. He said he had attended earlier camp in Ludhiana in April last and since then was doing all kriyas, be it pranayam or other asanas.

Dr Rajpal Gulati, who have come from Patiala to attend the camp, said after watching the Swami on TV for the past four months, he had been regulary doing the ‘kapal bhati’ and few other asanas. Dr Gulati said he had tried many allopathic medicines for his cough and bronchitis problem but always it had aggravated. Now with the pranayam, he was feeling the improvement gradually.

Ms Sudesh Kumari of Chandigarh who has hydrated cysts in liver, said the regular practice of pranayam had improved her digestion. She is now aged 70 years. She learnt pranayam lessons from episodes on the Astha channel. She said the yoga was good for people of all ages.

Monika, a housewife from Chandigarh, said the best part of Yoga teaching by Swami Ramdev was that one starts getting up early in the morning, avoiding junk food, including non vegetarian.


Thursday, June 3, 2004, Chandigarh, India
Swami Ram Dev’s yoga camp begins
Our Correspondent
Panchkula, June 2

Swami Ram Devji of yoga fame of Kankhal, Hardwar, demonstrated various asanas and the pranayam kriya at an eight-day-long yoga camp which began at the Sector 5 ground here today.

Interested people from all sections of society started collecting inside a vast pandal put up on the HUDA ground from 3.30 am onwards. The camp that began at 5 am continued till 7.15 am. It was well-attended.

Earlier, Mr B.K. Roy, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, formally inaugurated the camp by lighting a lamp. He also presented a bouquet to the Swami. He also participated in the yoga session.

On the first day of the camp today, the Swami asked people to lay emphasis on practising pranayam (breathing exercises which can cure any kind of ailment). He stressed on ‘kapal bhati’ and another kriya ‘anulom and vilom’, a breathing exercise done through the nostrils.

A number of bureaucrats from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh besides politicians and judges and top-level police officers also participated in the camp. In April, a similar camp was held at Ludhiana. It is being held for the first time in Panchkula.

Though there was a lot of enthusiasm among the people in the morning, things went awry because of a virtual traffic jam near the venue. Few traffic policepersons could be seen before the starting of the camp and they, too, appeared only when the camp began.

Compared to the VIPs, for ordinary people, it was a hard task to get entry to the camp. They had to pay Rs 250 to Rs 500 per ticket for different sections.

From : 108 knrao <knrastro@hotmail.com>
Reply-To : jyotish-list@puja.net
Sent : Wednesday, June 23, 2004 4:35:30 PM
To : jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject:[jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo Again 1

Let me narrate my history of diabetes.
1) When it was detected in 2000 it was, after fasting, 428 and after breakfast (called pp) 586. It was shocking as I had continued to work inspite of all this without feeling its physical effects except that I felt sleepy often.

2) To cut a long story short I was on insulin for ten days after which I refused to take insulin but through some walking exercise and medicine brought it down to 150 fasting and 200 after breakfast (pp) ofcourse with regular tablet in the morning and the evening.
3) Then with medicines both times it got stabilised at 110 before breakfast and 150 pp.

4) I have been taking the medicine as usual but doing the pranayama prescribed by Swami Ramdeo. Today I took the blood test before breakfast and it was 69. I immediately took some sugar. PP is 109.

Diabetes had affected me in many ways including my gait when I could not walk. Now after the asanas he teaches, I am able to walk steadily. I walked, climbing down and up three flight of stairs to see how much I could walk in a normal way. I did it with much ease than ever in the last four years and walked more steadily.

As far as diabetes is concerned, it fantantastically under control.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
23 June 2004


From : knrao <k_n_rao@rediffmail.com>
Reply-To : jyotish-list@puja.net
Sent : Thursday, June 24, 2004 7:45:14 PM
To : jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo again 2

Today when I heard Swami Ramdeo, he was mostly prescribing medicines for different diseases. He started by saying that he would present before his audience a miraculous. He referred to a patient of cancer whom doctors had given only seventy two hours more. His name disclosed was Hari Krishna Shastri perhaps. He said that in two famous cancer institutes he was tested and no hope held out. He was given only seventy two hours of life.

He then came to the ashram of Swami Ram Deo was given a medicine which he took for two days, felt better and found his tumour diminishing in size. After a month it had become tiny. He now could do the pranayama prescribed by Swami Ramdeo. He did it regularly. He has no trace of cancer left now.

Then he went to one of those institutes and got himself examined.The doctors could not believe it and instead of giving him a medical report said that they would study it.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From: knrao <k_n_rao@com>
To: jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo: the other view 1
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 23:51:07 IST

I have been watching the television programmes of Swami Ramdeo and his claimed cures of diabetes. It is what some others too have told me. In my own case, there has been some difference. But then I always wait for a period, sometimes, sufficiently long to see if it can be accepted finally. I will be able to give my well formulated opinion after many months.

A very brilliant doctor told me that if doing asanas and pranayama a diabetic patient is reducing the calories in his body and also controlling his diet, what he is doing is effectively what doctors prescribe.

It is not a cure of diabetes but control only, he says. It appeals to me. Then I will have to examine the horoscopes of the people claiming to have been cured if there is some astrological explanation also clearly or not.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From : knrao <k_n_rao@com>
Reply-To : jyotish-list@puja.net
Sent : Saturday, June 26, 2004 12:02:36 AM
To : jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject : [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo: the other view 2

The doctor friend I referred to has given the instance of another yogi who was very much talked of in India in the eighties of the last century and whose television shows in those days, when we had no private television channels, were also popular. That yogi was famous for what he called cure of diabetes and blood pressure through his yoga.

But privately, this doctor friend treated him for diabetes and blood pressure is what I know and had known for nearly a decade till he died.

What about those who are claiming that they have been “cured” I asked the doctor and he explained it.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From: knrao <k_n_rao@com>
To: jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo: the other view 3
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 00:11:07 IST

Two things happen in this claimed yogic cure, explained the doctor. The first was leaving their sedentary lives Indian middle classes and upper classes are known for, they have been doing some exercises, whether it is physical or yogic. That is good for health.

The second factor is that even in the case of doctors, when a patient has faith in a doctor twenty five percent cure is fast and is psychomatic. In the case of a yogi also the psychosomatic cure can be fast but not the physical part of it as , he says, diabetes and blood pressure are incurable.

It would be an interesting astrological study. Was the dasha, whatever level you use, favourable when the patient felt cured and less favourable when it relapsed or earlier,
occured ?

Yes, that is a balanced attitude neither to accept it blindly nor reject it outright.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From : knrao <k_n_rao@com>
Reply-To : jyotish-list@puja.net
Sent : Saturday, June 26, 2004 12:05:08 AM
To : jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject : [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo: the other view 4

Yes, so many of us have witnessed in our lives saints curing some diseases with their spiritual powers. But such cases are rarest and happen only when the saint decides to do it. This is the case of spiritual power when the blessings etc. of the saint work. He even touches the patient. Here something like pranic healing comes into play.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From: knrao <k_n_rao@om>
To: jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo: the other view 5
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 00:29:13 IST

What about those claims of people who have talked of their heart blockages being removed avoiding heart surgery or those whose cancer is said to be cured.

The best test is to see their medical reports before they started their yoga lessons and then examine them again after they claim that they have been cured.

Yoga is always excellent.It cannot fail totally is well known. But yoga curing heart ailments avoiding angioplasty, or even open heart surgery is unknown so far. It appears to be a very tall claim. So it is in the case of cancer. Wait, watch, verify the truth before accepting it or rejecting is the correct line.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


From: knrao <k_n_rao@com>
To: jyotish-list@puja.net
Subject: [jyotish-list] Swami Ramdeo: the other view 6
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 02:39:18 IST

An ayurvedic doctor whom we call vaidya in India objected to the ayurvedic prescriptions of Swami Ramdeo saying that they were not strictly ayurvedic.Could they be new formulations with some herbs added and some of the accepted ayurvedic ingredients taken out ? So there is some opposition in some quarters but none dare come out openly as the success rate, or the claimed success rate of cures of Swamideo are said to be high or supposed to be high.

But are ayurvedic doctors able to cure some of these diseases without combining yoga ? What is curing, or at any rate, giving some relief--is is the medicine or the yoga or both or one of them only ?

Someone will find out an answer I hope. But at the moment almost every third person who comes to me talks of Swami Ramdeo and his cures. He is a big crowd puller, the biggest perhaps in India at the moment.

Soon I will ask my friends to work on the horoscopes of some people known to us claiming of being cured. May be we will find an answer there.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.


About Swami Ramdeo
Swami Ramedo is from yaduvamsha (meaning that he is a Yadav) belonging to The village is Said Alipur The village is Said Alipur the sub-tehsil Nangal of Mahendragarh in Haryana (From Yadav Jyoti May 2004 in Hindi page18) Swami Ramdeo is the disciple of Sri Baldeoji Maharaj of Gurukul Kalva. Taking brahmacharya , he took initiation into sanyas from Sri Shankardevji Maharaj on the banks of the Bhagirati.

After spending many years in he Himalayas and deep studies in scriptures he taught Astadhyayi, Mahabhasyha and Darshanopnishad in Gurukulas.

Later, with his intimate friends, Acharya Shri Karmaveerji Maharaj and the great Ayurvedacharya and researcher Sri Bala Krishna, he founded in 1995 Divya Yoga Mandir in Kankhal. Here he started teaching Yoga, spiritual lessons.

Combining the Vedic with modern, he has been running a Gurukul in Kishangarh, Ghaseda in Haryana.
He lives only on fruits.
( From the back cover of the book
PRANAYAM RAHASYA by Swami Ramdeo.)
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
Editor, Journal of Astrology,

An excellent yoga teacher of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, Delhi and two out of his three daughters, who all are yoga experts came to meet me today and I discussed with them about the television programmes of Swami Ramdeo. These daughters have won many prizes in yoga competetions and run their classes regularly.

They said that doing yoga under real guidance for modern age as is being done in Santa Cruz in Bombay was the right approach. They pointed out some flaws in the lessons of Swami Ramdeo and told of the complications some of these television lessons have been creating. The father who is an excellent yogi corrected me and told me how exactly Kapal Bhati pranayam is to be done. Then his daughter told me how she has helped people control their diabetes through yoga.

In the meantime, the following news item which appeared in the Times of India also speaks of this.
K.N.Rao.
SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2004
THE TIMES OF INDIA CITIES: CHANDIGARH
There's a sting in yoga tale
KS DHALIWAL

JALANDHAR: This is going retro with a vengeance. The centuriesold science of yoga is now a fad storming the living rooms of a TV-ensnared India. To ape is human and that's just how the portly, the sick and the plain inspired are beguiled by the miracles promised by the idiot box yogis.

Suresh Vij saw an asana on TV. It looked good and promised more. "My knees used to pain. The TV yogi promised relief and I practised it many months. The pain got severe. I had to take to allopathy and even accupressure, but my condition only deteriorated."

Kanta Sharma from Central Town picked up a purported yogic cure for diabetes from TV. The asana involved forward-bending. She was already a slip-disc patient and her condition worsened. Parminder saw pranayam (yogic breathing exercises) on TV and followed suit. Soon he developed hypertension and regular headache. It turned out that his sinuses were already blocked and the pranayam he copied was dangerous for him.

According to professionals clinical application of various asanas of yoga requires a careful screening of the person and then individual treatment. Pranayam, for example, is being wrongly prescribed as a miracle cure for all ills. The professional advice is that there are different types of pranayam depending on individual needs.

Gurbachan Singh, who has been teaching clinical yoga since 1978 is quite cynical about the new-age gurus. "Most of these people have picked up their skills from Divine Life yoga centres and have then begun to act as teachers themselves," he laughs. "Many come to us for cures and then pretend to be experts."

Therefore get checked by some yoga expert how these varieties of prayanam and asanas are to be done not to develop complications is their advice.
Yours,
K.N.Rao.
Editor, Journal of Astrology,