Rujuta Phadke, BeyondHeadlines
Mumbai: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev announced his political party in mid 2010, and for past few days, the yoga guru had been quite loud about his plans of “cleansing” the political system. This might have had a positive impact on Baba’s followers; however, it has put the Shankaracharya in a “not so happy” state.
Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati was in Mumbai on March 1 and expressed his feelings about “political venture” of yoga guru. “Saint-Mahatmaas (saint and monks) should abstain from politics. These kinds of acts will soon lead to common people lose their faith in saints,” said Shankaracharya.
Elaborating his stand on sadhus and politics, he also made a brief comment on the Indian voting system. Shankaracharya said that in India, the educated class did not go to cast their votes. “People vote wither for money or because they are threatened to life. Simpler temptations such as meat and liquor are enough for political parties to ensure votes. If a sadhu loses an election, he is also bound to lose the respect in the society.
While Baba Ramdev is sure of the cleaning the system, not with any asanas this time, Shankaracharya has also raised a question on yoga gurus own system. In an interaction with the media, he passed a comment on Baba saying, “although he claims to cleanse the system, is he clean himself?”
It seems that Bharat Swabhiman Andolan, yoga guru’s political venture, has a lot to prove, especially when people from Baba’s own fraternity are busy taking a dig at him.
(rujuta@beyondheadlines.com)
