NEW DELHI: Yoga Guru Ramdev on Wednesday asked cricketers and film stars not to "sell themselves" by becoming brand ambassadors of aerated soft drinks and junk foods that he is vigorously campaigning against.
    
"No cricketer, film hero or heroine should sell himself or herself for money because if you sell yourself for Rs 2-4 crore,you are selling your conscience," Ramdev said, when asked whether cine and cricketing heroes should endorse aerated drinks and junk food.
    
He said it is the people who hero-worship cricketers and film stars and they, in turn, should be concerned about the health of their fans.
    
"I feel hurt when a player says that it is his commercial interest ... your national interest suffers for your commercial benefits. When we overlook our social obligations, I feel we are doing a condemnable job," Ramdev said.
    
While skipper M S Dhoni endorses Pepsi drinks, Kareena Kapoor is the brand ambassador for snacks from the Pepsi group. Saif Ali Khan endorses Lays' munching chips.     

Almost all top cricketers including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, and leading film personalities like Shahrukh Khan and John Abraham have done ad films for soft drinks. Aamir Khan has been the leading ambassador for Coke.

Ramdev has been running a vigorous campaign against aerated soft drinks.
    
In his yoga camps, the guru openly names the two biggest brands and ask his disciples to discard their products.
    
Ramdev, who has held yoga camps in several parts of the world, giving direct training to 20 million people, is against patenting ancient vedic knowledge for commercial gains.
    
"We should consider yoga as the heritage of the Vedas. We received the knowledge of yoga from sages and nobody has any right to patent it," Ramdev said, adding that we can make slight changes in asanas (techniques) but we cannot claim copyright on them.