Guruphiliac: Ramdev Revs Up PR Apparatus



Thursday, August 30, 2007

Ramdev Revs Up PR Apparatus

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Both are coming straight out of India like the Jay-Z and P. Diddy of freeze-dried, reconstituted yoga. But up to this point, it was Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's superior PR spawning facility that kept him in the world news while Swami Ramdev languished out of the limelight, except for that time he got rancorous on a politician who debunked his "medicines," as well as on an apparently innocent student reporter accused of being a terrorist for perhaps asking the wrong questions.

But now it seems Ramdev has taken up the gauntlet thrown down by that white-robed pretender who is wantonly lustful for a Nobel Peace Prize. The result has been a lot more visibility for Ramdev's Western ambitions. First there was the news of his visits to the United Kingdom, New York and New Jersey, and now his latest press release, heralding an upcoming trip to Canada, has drawn the attention of not less than 6 newspapers with websites in India, according to Google News.

It's perhaps not quite the reach Sri Sri's proliferate propaganda seems to have, but it's certainly a step up for Ramdev in our eyes. And speaking of eyes, could there be another epic eyeball lightning battle brewing here? Ramdev certainly has the rancor for it, but does Sri Sri? He has been successful at hiding his shadow from the eyes of the world so far. His softly said sweet nothings are completely devoid of anything that could be called jnana, but it does give the impression he's always about to step off a cloud, at least if you're a rube who's fallen for the act.

But if Ramdev makes a move for the golden ring of that Nobel Peace Prize, all bets will most certainly be off. It could be the granddaddy UFC octagon of all eyeball lightning battles.

Consider our fingers crossed.

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14 Comments:

At 8/31/2007 7:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

RamDev is really a trip! He got this huge donation from Laxmi Mittal (big steel man in India for those who don't know) and spent it on buying the controlling interest on a religious station named "Aastha". It shows all over the world. He then proceeded to ban any gurus from airing their programs if he didn't like what they were teaching or saying. Consequently, where you could tune into Aastha and see a big sampling of teachers from all over India, you now mostly have to look at the great Ram Dev. Some of the people he banned are more famous than he is (believe it or not) and he felt threatened, apparently. So he just took them off the TV! Some yogi.

 
At 9/01/2007 10:18 PM, Blogger gregory said...

i notice the new generation gurus, such as narayani amma, kaleshwar, bharat thakur, nithyananda, ramdev, all have a sense of mission and an exptreme degree of pragmatism; this is the way the world is, i am going to use every trick there is to do my job... they are all incredibly bright guys, extremely confident, knowledgeable about east and west, use all the modern tools, and they get things done with absolutely no waste of time... you might use them as examples of what higher consciousness looks like when it is engaged with the world... and they never second-guess themselves, nor bat an eye at being different or proper.. quite interesting to be in their company, any of them... my opinion is that they are all doing their bit to keep higher consciousness possibilities in the forefront of their followers minds.

 
At 9/02/2007 1:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

An ordinary yogi who was going around on his bycycle in Rishikesh to teach yoga. Got a hugh monetary/moral/social support of O.P.Srivastav(One of the board of director) of Sahara India Group. And thru his channel he hype his yoga lesson which is known to world since ages. There is nothing new, innovative, siddhi about his technique. Its all media hype. He calims to give free crs. and make deal with business people in repective city/country for his tour. Charing not less then 4 to 5 million. For him yoga means business. He sells ayurveda drugs under his name which is all manufactured by other companies. There have been many cases of side effect of his drugs but all eye wash by o.p. srivastav and his gang. By the way sahara group is a big nexsus of politicians/ business people/ cricketer/bollywood star. And ramdev is using all this for his ambitions. And now his is going for power game. Absolutely greedy, professional,worthless person you call him guru. Bull shit. And i am writing all this with all the proof.
And the most stupidity is you guruphiliac compare him with sri sri. That sri sri is after noble peace price. I teel you when he will get NObel peace price it will be a owner for that price. You r comapring sun with peace of mirror which is reflecting sun. Stop writing such crap on net. Would you dare to write such things for pop or any mulla. You will have hundreds fatwa on you. Its only 120 millions hindus and theree leaders who are targeted by such people. And by the way Sri sri and his foundation is in more then 157 country not just figure go and check your self.
ANYWAY WORLD WILL KNOW THE TRUTH SOON. AND I WANT YOU TO BE SORRY FOR YOUR WORDS. TAKE IT FROM ME.

 
At 9/02/2007 9:56 AM, Blogger guruphiliac said...

my opinion is that they are all doing their bit to keep higher consciousness possibilities in the forefront of their followers minds.

Of course, that's how they create their bank balances. But some of the gurus you mention do so at the expense of nondual truth. Coming to know this truth does not make you superhuman, does not give you magic powers, does not make you any more divine than anyone else. Narayani Amma, Kaleshwar and Nithyananda are all unmitigated miracle-mongers. They use the idea that they create miracles to take money from people. It's raping the Upanishads for fun and profit. It should be a capital offense as far as I'm concerned.

 
At 9/02/2007 1:37 PM, Blogger cw said...

"i notice the new generation gurus, such as narayani amma, kaleshwar, bharat thakur, nithyananda, ramdev, all have a sense of mission and an exptreme degree of pragmatism; this is the way the world is, i am going to use every trick there is to do my job... they are all incredibly bright guys, extremely confident, knowledgeable about east and west, use all the modern tools, and they get things done with absolutely no waste of time... you might use them as examples of what higher consciousness looks like when it is engaged with the world... and they never second-guess themselves, nor bat an eye at being different or proper.. quite interesting to be in their company, any of them... my opinion is that they are all doing their bit to keep higher consciousness possibilities in the forefront of their followers minds."

All this you are saying could equally apply to any snake-oil salesmen.

 
At 9/03/2007 3:15 AM, Blogger gregory said...

one big difference between the snake oil salesman and a guru... the snake oil salesman never allows intimacy, he makes his pitch, takes the money, goes to the next town... gurus can be known by the fact that give access to their company, for days, weeks, years... there is an intimacy that is freely offered and does not depend at all on the qualifications of the seeker, the connection is open to anyone who wishes to persist, and this is not something earned by merit or practice, the guru just allows anyone, and deals with their problems and psychosis and weirdnesses and neediness and hides from nothing... you or i would not want this job, it is one of the worst on earth...

 
At 9/03/2007 9:10 PM, Blogger Global Purple Orchestra said...

Greg said....you or i would not want this job, it is one of the worst on earth...

OOh! Greg, now you talkin' maan. Nobody cares where did the snake oil sales man disppear just after the deal. On the other hand, the guru, i guess sleeps with his phone on. He is on the job 24/7. Atleast the gurus i had seen and known work that way. I have a guru pal who get calls at 2am asking for mantras for a sound sleep. He also get calls at 4 am asking for special mantra to meditate deeply. One may get a high with the hoopla of people and worship, perhaps for a couple of days, but when it persist for a lifetime, it can be sickening.
I seriously believe he is trapped.
I had offered him some rescue if he desired, with a bit of help from GP folks here, Chuckji and DFJ and the likes but he feels its too late.

I know he chills out with a couple of female disciples but i think its ok. Poor fela, he needs that break. Infact there are more women disciples than what he can handle, who want to chill out with him and i know how shitscared he is. How many times can you dip da thing after all? Ask me, i have stood steady max 5 times on an average.

The guy, i found is sick of money too. He is tired basically. A small time guru who never traveled outside his town, but already wants to shut the fuck up. Call 'em space daddy, flimflammer, still the globe trotting bigtime gurus must be friggin' sick of the whole crap. But they must be fakin that stupid smile on the mug. Gurudom must be some kind of a mafia in style and operation. Once you are in, there aint a way out. Its a one way trip. No comin' back. The snake oil sales man is like a piece of shit infront heaps of 24/7 guru crap.

 
At 9/04/2007 8:01 AM, Blogger CHUCK said...

young greg says...there is an intimacy that is freely offered and does not depend at all on the qualifications of the seeker...

...................

greg, you must be very young, just a pup to believe this. there is ALWAYS an inner circle and an outer circle. if a fella/ow has lots of money or is willing to do grunt work, he/she may be allowed to come against the barbed wire fence of the snake oil guru's heart---but he/she ain't gettin over the fence unless he/she is willing to take it up the backside and keep quiet also! I ain't speaking specifically about these particular guys....but if any of them claim to be workin miracles, they are liars. If they are chargin money for their teachins, they are thieves and if they are liars and thieves, they will likely be very practical about it--like the world is-- tryin to get the most out of folks, keep their mugs in the news like John Gotti for as long as possible without goin to jail for it.

I do believe their are good gurus out thar but they donut do the same bullshit as some mentioned here like She She Ravi Shrunknards and Ramdevil.

 
At 9/04/2007 8:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

anonymous said...ANYWAY WORLD WILL KNOW THE TRUTH SOON. AND I WANT YOU TO BE SORRY FOR YOUR WORDS. TAKE IT FROM ME.


What a hoot for this guy to blast Ramdev for doing the same kind of stuff to promote himself that Sri Sri does and finish up with a prophetic statement that we are all going to be very very sorry for dising Sri Sri! Ain't religion grand?

 
At 9/07/2007 5:48 AM, Blogger Madhavanand said...

It is good that Ramdev has controlled Aastha. He stopped airing Brahmrishi Kumar Swami programmes and you can check my blog to know more about Kumar Swami.
www.madhavanand@blogspot.com

 
At 9/07/2007 11:08 AM, Blogger CHUCK said...

semblance said...I had offered him some rescue if he desired, with a bit of help from GP folks here, Chuckji and DFJ and the likes but he feels its too late.
.................

For what it's worth, semblance, my mule says he will pray for your friend's deliverence! I have red stories of other gurus who get tired of the sycophants who are like 30 somethins still tryin to nurse on their yomamma's tits (no offense meant to my own boy, Chuck JR). They have sometimes got tired and just walked away. But in your friend's case he might actually have to go to work, wearin flip flops while workin construction on 4 story bamboo scaffolds---as I saw in India my own self.

The man can escape if he really wants to, says my mule Da Free Jack!

 
At 9/12/2007 6:04 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Madavanand,

Ram Dev is a control freak with a huge ego, imo. He just made a list of gurus he thought were his "competition" and deleted them from the airwaves, regardless of their following. He basically doesn't like mantras, so he pushed BKS off the air.
Your blog on BKS looks suspiciously like "Mark"'s blog, which is based on his anger over his friend following BKS in UK. It also appears to be tied to the nutcase Premsingh Thakur, who put up the msn geographies site. That guy rants and raves about how he is receiving divine messages from God that BKS is the devil, blah blah blah. "Mark" (or is that you?) evidently went to some stadium event in which BKS spoke in UK, didn't like the portion of the message he sat for, didn't meet BKS, then decided that BKS has no right to practice Ayurveda in any way shape or form and charge fees for visits. I know BKS very well. He's an accomplished Ayurvedic physician, awarded the Dhanvantri award by the government of India for medicine. His techniques include mantras, yes, and also sometimes herbs. But they work. All doctors charge money. Most of their remedies don't work. And people keep going anyhow. At least BKS's stuff works for many people. I personally love the guy, don't understand how his stuff works, but know from experience and others' that it does work. Just because RamDev doesn't like competition doesn't make him right to throw people off TV.

 
At 2/03/2009 9:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

all the comments & allegation made on the sahara group and o p srivastava of sahara is purely nonsense,swami ramdev is an institition and o p srivastava is a man of high morality and ethics , he has helped lacks of indian to earn a life of respect and dignity by giving them oppurtunity to earn a respectable living through the sahara group,as far i know of o p srivastava , he will never say yes to an answer which in relity is no ,and he is known for his social service amongst the masses ,his association with swami ramdev is purely emotional and moral ,sahara group has no reasons to invest or donate money to sahara ,when they have their own social welfare dept wherin they have shown results in lucknow and other towns by developing places for recreation of the general public and social upliftment,as per my knowledge swami ramdev is accepting donations publicly through yog shivir and utilising the same for the services of the general public, as per the allegations made on relationship of o p srivastava with politicians ,i belong to up and i know ,he has no relationship with politician with a negative image,the gentelmen who have wriiten the nonsense comments on swami ramdev and o p srivastava really dont know anything on these two giant personalities , the writer is of a sick mind and should get him admitted and treated by a good doctor.

 
At 7/05/2017 11:24 PM, Blogger The Wizard said...

No wonder the supreme Court sent Roy for treatment in tihar prison.well one cheque is due if that bounces then he is in for a long holiday.

 

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