Saturday, April 16, 2011
Maharishi Maverick
BBC ran a feature this morning on Baba Ramdev, an Indian guru who is entering politics. It's clearly hard to compare Ramdev to Western politicians, because the implications of yoga are different here, with lots of connections to hippies. He bears no resemblance at all to our own political Maharishi.
If you start by assuming that yoga is a mainstream religion in India, he's a little easier to classify. He sounds like Oral Roberts + Jack LaLanne + Ross Perot.
Ramdev runs a big business in health foods, which he promotes in sync with his guru-ness. His political views are populist and traditionalist, a long way from hippiedom. For instance, he uses yogic practices to cure homosexuality. I guaran-goddamn-tee you no American guru would try that! Wouldn't be no peace & love in that ashram, more like tar & feathers.
Overall Ramdev sounds like an Agrarian, close in spirit to Tomas Masaryk and Maury Maverick.
Worth watching. ¶ 5:26 PM
If you start by assuming that yoga is a mainstream religion in India, he's a little easier to classify. He sounds like Oral Roberts + Jack LaLanne + Ross Perot.
Ramdev runs a big business in health foods, which he promotes in sync with his guru-ness. His political views are populist and traditionalist, a long way from hippiedom. For instance, he uses yogic practices to cure homosexuality. I guaran-goddamn-tee you no American guru would try that! Wouldn't be no peace & love in that ashram, more like tar & feathers.
Overall Ramdev sounds like an Agrarian, close in spirit to Tomas Masaryk and Maury Maverick.
Worth watching. ¶ 5:26 PM
