The crowds that throng his discourses are big enough to envy any political party, for yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, however, joining any political party is a strict 'No'.
HALONG BAY (VIETNAM): The crowds that throng his discourses are big enough to envy any political party, for yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, however, joining any political party is a strict 'No'.
"If I have any political ambitions, it would definitely not be to win votes for a seat in Parliament but to win over the hearts of leaders in Parliament," the Baba said.
Ramdev, who is known as Babaji or Swamiji says, "Politicians across all parties now are interested only in how to make the most of themselves. There are so many cases of corruption against them and often some of them are charged with heinous crimes."
The swami said it was his dream that India should have a political system which is vibrant efficient and accountable and leaders are humble and work in a transparent manner.
The spiritual guru who is currently conducting a yoga camp for over 950 participants aboard the luxury liner Super Star Virgo is of the opinion that yoga is capable of achieving the dream and help bring in a revolution of sorts.
"Yoga is an entire way of life. It can spur a change in the thinking of people and bring about a revolution. Vaicharik kranti se hum parivartan la sakte he (We can bring change with revolutionary thoughts)," he said.
Advocating for compulsory voting in India the guru who\ visited Hong Kong and Halong Bay when the ship halted at these places during the past four days said, "A total of 32 countries in the world have a compulsory voting system so why can't we have one too?"
He reasoned that since there was such a high level of illiteracy in the country during polling the exact picture was not known.
"It becomes all the more imperative that everyone votes to that the corrupt political system can be made clean and transparent."
The man whose demonstrations of asanas like 'anulom vilom' 'kapalbhatti' and 'suryanamaskar' beamed on television has made him a household name in India and abroad says yoga can help an individual realize his abilities and give him vision and understanding, all hallmarks of a good leader.
The guru said that India can become a superpower if its leaders and people make the effort to stop commercialization of politics and stop it from becoming an industry.
Also, Ramdev said India should take efforts to curb the rising population. "In order to seed up the development of the country people should be fined for more children and given incentives for having lesser children, he said.
"We can make India self sufficient by adopting a swadeshi ideology. We have so much scope and potential in the fields of education and medicine and I am sure India will very soon become self-sufficient," he added.
During the course of the cruise, Ramdev halted at Halong Bay in Vietnam and took in the sights of the natural stalactite and stalagmite "Palace Grotto' caves, which have been declared as a World Heritage site by Unesco.
He had words of admiration for the Vietnamese whom he said were a brave and patriotic people. "We Indians should learn from Vietnam which despite being a much smaller country stood up to western invasion."
The tri-nation cruise taking the 'Yoga on Sea' participants led by Baba Ramdev is on its way to Chinese coastal city of Xiamen. It had already crossed Sanya in south China Sea and the cluster of 1,600 islands of Halong Bay in Vietnam. Even though Ramdev frequently visited other countries to propagate yoga this is his maiden visit to China and Vietnam.
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