From Moksha To Market: Ramdev’s Journey From A Fakir Baba To A Billionaire Entrepreneur

Not many can get an entire nation to twist, turn and topple themselves in front of a television set, every morning religiously, like did Baba Ramdev. His tummy tucking theatrics while had an entire nation amused, he laughed his way to the bank with his pet project Patanjali that re-packaged age old ayurvedic wisdom making its way on to the shelves of almost half the households in the nation.

Kaushik Deka’s ‘The Baba Ramdev Phenomenon: From Moksha to Market,’ traces the entire journey from the making of the monk, his move from moksha to the market, his political stint and his equations with Prime Minister Modi, and the challenges and controversies that make the monk and his mammoth enterprise one of a kind.

Here is an excerpt from the book which looks at how it all began:

Ayurveda for the masses:

Later that year in 1997, in Kankhal near Haridwar, Pandit Devi Dutta—his father was a vaidya—and his son Akhilesh gave some bhasma to Ramdev and Balkrishna. The duo started making medicines from this bhasma, but for large-scale manufacturing, they had neither fund nor infrastructure. So they regularly borrowed money (`10,000–15,000) from Chatrapati Swami Das of Guru Niwas Ashram. ‘…because we were sincere and never compromised on the quality of the medicines, these were effective in curing ailments, and soon we became popular in Haridwar and nearby areas. We used to make and sell medicines, but our goal was never to make money or profit. Whatever money we earned, we reinvested it or used it to pay our debts.’

But such ad-hoc practices could not continue for long. Ramdev and Balkrishna realised that they needed to get government approval and recognition for manufacturing and selling Ayurvedic medicine. On 10 November 1994, the duo set up ‘Yog Sadhna and Chikitsa Shivir’ at Swami Shankardev’s Ashram—where they were staying at that time—and started selling medicines. Two months later, on 5 January 1995, they registered Divya Pharmacy, which started with four rooms under a tin shed in Kankhal. Apart from selling medicine, it also functioned as a hospital with four vaidyas. ‘The four rooms have become a four-storied building today,’ says Ramdev. The initial investment was of `5 lakh, of which `3.5 lakh came from Ramdev’s third disciple, Jhivraj Bhai Patel. Several other disciples donated the remaining amount. ‘We continued our sadhna with the feeling of sewa.’

And then came his first experiment with product launch—the innocuous chavanprash, a kind of nutrient and immunity builder for most Indian households. In 1997, Divya Pharmacy started manufacturing chavanprash without any big announcement. There was no advertisement. Those who came to Divya Pharmacy could buy it. It did not have fancy packaging like the other mega brands dominating the market at that time—Dabur and Zandu. There wasn’t even an attempt to compete. ‘We were not thinking of market or competition. We created it as a preventive medicine. We focused only on quality, finding the right ingredients. It was not business. It is never business for us,’ says Balkrishna.

There is an alternative side to the origin of Divya Pharmacy, a version, expectedly not corroborated by Ramdev. Tehelka had once published a story elaborating on it. According to it Ramdev, Balkrishna and Acharya Karamveer had started their journey together sometime in 1990–91 at Tripura Yoga Ashram in Haridwar, where they helped in preparing Ayurvedic medicines. They soon met Swami Shankar Dev of Kripalu Bagh Ashram, and together they registered a trust called Divya Yog Mandir. They claimed that the Trust aimed to impart practical knowledge of yoga and pranayama. But things started falling apart soon enough.

Nine months into the Trust, Balkrishna expelled two of their businessmen on charges of indulging in undesirable activities. Next was Sadhvi Kamla, in 1997, to be shown the door. She was followed by Karamveer, who was forced to resign. Eventually, Ramdev and Balkrishna also convinced Shankar Dev to write that ‘in case of division of the trust, the property of the trust will be transferred to a trust with similar intention’. By ousting everybody else, the two became the real owners of the Trust. But there is a footnote to this story—Swami Shankar Dev mysteriously went missing in 2007 and could not be traced.1

Whenever I talked to Ramdev about Swami Shankar Dev, I could see pain and desperation in his eyes. According to Ramdev and Balkrishna, Shankar Dev was suffering from several ailments and was in deep pain. He vanished from the ashram one day after his morning walk. ‘We filed an FIR immediately. We miss him at every moment in our lives. It was he who gave us a place to stay in Haridwar. He was our guru and in Indian culture, gurus are above everyone,’ says Ramdev.

Ramdev’s other two gurus—Acharya Pradumna and Acharya Baldev, live in two kutirs in Patanjali Yogpeeth—and Ramdev often spends his evenings with the two gurus. On one summer evening, when I was engrossed in a discussion with Ramdev and Balkrishna in Ramdev’s hut, the yoga guru suddenly left. About an hour later, when I looked for him to say bye, I was told that it was his time with his gurus, and so he should be excused.

For the next six years, Ramdev travelled across the country, holding camps, teaching people easy yoga and providing Ayurvedic remedy to almost every ailment. And these were easy remedies—thirty minutes of yoga, and a few corrections in the diet chart, coupled with some Ayurvedic medicines wherever needed—and his patients became brand ambassadors for him. ‘I was in Patna for some work and when I heard about this camp, I attended it. It was perhaps in 1999. I was suffering from high blood pressure and was on medication. He taught us pranayama and asked me to have garlic on empty stomach in the morning.

He did not give me any medicine. Only asked me to stay happy and think positive. I was not sure if I would get results but I tried his method. Within a month, I could see the improvement. It [had] worked,’ says Dr Samiran Malla Bujarbaruah from Guwahati in Assam. Bujarbaruah spread the word among all his neighbours and relatives, and they too got desperate to get in touch with him.

Some of his ‘patients/followers’ from across the nation made trips to his ashram in Haridwar. But for many of them, he was still the Miracle Man they could not reach at will until TV brought him to their living rooms.

Excerpted from The Baba Ramdev Phenomenon: From Moksha to Market by Kaushik Deka, Rupa Publications India, 2017 with the permission of the publisher.