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The ‘Munnabhai’ Trinity
The year 2003 saw a movie being released in almost all theatres across the country when dreaded ‘short circuit’ got a much loved word ‘Circuit’ and ‘aam aadmi’ became ‘Munnabhai’. The year 2003 saw a movie being released in almost all theatres across the country when dreaded ‘short circuit’ got a much loved word ‘Circuit’ and ‘aam aadmi’ became ‘Munnabhai’. We all as a cinegoer remain excited, motivated till after only few hours of passing the theater’s ‘Exit’, but the movie, Munnabhai MBBS, had an impact that lasted few months from then. As with any entity, it was fading from everyone’s memory too, till in 2006, ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ reiterated the need to follow Gandhian Principles to achieve the objective/s concerning the masses at large. Munnabhai became a next door name with people starting relating themselves to the protagonist. Several researches, group discussions, TV Talks, articles were done on the feasibility and applicability of the Gandhian principles in today’s age. But as is known that age or time cannot defy the ground rules, Anna took the plunge in following one of the principles, Satyagraha in April 2011. He succeeded in it too with people lending their support from every corner of the world. Around 200 cities in India itself joined his crusade. People thronged the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to lend their voice to the revolution. Relentlessly struggling with the Lok Pal bill committee meetings and the preferred outcome, Anna is still firm in his dealings. Anna Hazare started his career in the Indian army as a driver in 1963. He spent his spare time reading the works of Vivekananda, Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave, and they inspired him to become a social worker and activist. During the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, he was the only survivor in an exchange of border fire while driving a truck in Khem Karan sector. During the mid-1970s, he survived a road accident while driving. Probably, he survived the fatal events to spearhead the national causes he carries on his shoulder each time when required. He transformed the village Ralegaon Sidhi and the native villages with his movements of providing them with clean water; uprooting alcoholism; executing watershed development programs; promoting milk production; providing education and education infrastructure; removing untouchability; institutionalizing collective marriages; establishing Gram Sabha as an important democratic institution; carrying out anti-corruption protests in Maharashtra; fighting for Right to Information movement; crusade for Lokpal Bill movement; and supporting the electoral reform movement to name a few. Now Baba Ramdev has plans to follow the principles of Satyagraha by going on fast on the black money issue of national importance. Rs. 56676 crores was stashed abroad in 2007-08 fiscal alone (CAG Report) alone. Extrapolating the figures, last five years has seen three lakh crores of the Indian taxpayers money stashed abroad. While strikes and lockouts seem to be the ammunition of the past, life-threatening intimidators are fast gaining importance in today’s modern and more civilized world. Fast unto death, self-immolation are becoming the potent way of getting things done, provided they are genuine and impact lot many people than a mere few. This week, Chandauli farmers’ self immolation threat against their land acquisition did bear fruit as the UP govt. has to budge from their earlier stand of acquiring their lands for a city development. The drama unfolding at the city’s airport where four ministers from the ruling party greeted Baba Ramdev and tried pacifying him adds more credibility to the revived way of revolt. Baba Ramdev shot into prominence when he started the Divya Yog Mandir Trust with the company of Achary Bal Krishna. In 2003, Aastha TV began featuring him in its morning yoga slot. Within a few years, he had gathered a cult following. He is known for his efforts of popularizing yoga. The New York Times called him "an Indian, who built Yoga Empire, a product and symbol of the New India, a yogic fusion of Richard Simmons, Dr. Oz and Oprah Winfrey, irrepressible and bursting with Vedic wisdom". His yog-camps are attended by a large number of people in India and abroad. Born as Ram Krishna Yadav to Gulab Devi and Ram Nivas Yadav, at a village Ali Saiyad Pur of Mahendragarh district in Haryana state of India, in the year 1965, he was inspired by the portraits of Ram Prasad Bismil and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose hanged in his room. As soon as he grew up and read the Autobiography of Ram Prasad 'Bismil', his mind was totally washed. After completing middle education (eighth standard) from Shahzadpur, Haryana, he joined Aarsh (Arya) Gurukul, Khanpur and studied Sanskrit and Yoga under the guidance of Achary Pradumn. Eventually when he came in the contact of another saint Achary Baldevji, he renounced worldly life and entered into Sanyas and changed his original name Ram Krishna to the present one of Swami Ramdev. In Kalva Gurukul of Jind district in Haryana India, he offered free training of Yog to villagers for some time. Then he moved to Haridwar and spent several years to study ancient Indian scriptures at Gurukul Kangari where he read another rare book of - Yogik Sadhan which was translated from Bangla into Hindi by Ram Prasad 'Bismil'. After reading this small booklet, he went to the caves of Himalaya and practiced intense self-discipline and meditation. For changing governance policies, he has initiated a movement named Bharat Swabhiman along with Rajiv Dixit. The five goals of Bharat Swabhiman campaign are:
- 100% voting
- 100% nationalist thought
- 100% boycott of foreign companies and adoption of swadeshi
- 100% unification of the people of the nation and
- 100% yoga-oriented nation
As a part of campaign, Baba Ramdev has been organizing yoga camps across India to create awareness amongst people against corruption and black money. Sri Sri Ravishankar, a renowned Indian spiritual leader, is also willing to go on fast, if required, till the government accedes to the demands of a corruption-free India. He was the pioneer of the Anna’s movement, but has kept a low profile since then. On being asked the reason, he says that his fast will have international ramification and he doesn’t want the movement to spill outside India. Sri Sri Ravishankar’s influence has spread not just in India but all over the world. He was born in the year 1956 to the Iyer family at Papanasam in Tamil Nadu, India. He is the founder of the famous Art of Living foundation that has made an incredible contribution in changing the lives of people. In the year 1982, Sri Sri Ravishankar went into ten days of silence and turned into an enlightened master. Thereafter, he started serving the society by making them learn the art of living life. For the excellent work performed by him, he received a number of awards. To name a few, 2005 Global Humanitarian Award, Guru Mahatmya award, Phoenix Award and many more. He teaches spirituality, gets involved in peace and humanitarian work, conceptualized the Sudharshan Kriya (a breathing-based technique) across the world. Now why are we discussing the above? What do they all have in common? A humble beginning, years of successful hard work, people following, national & international impact to list down a few. Is each one of us looking upto them to be the game changer or would like to rub it off as just another attempt to make a cut? Tunisia to Egypt, an Arab upheaval brought the entire country to a standstill. Is India also heading towards another Tunisia or Egypt? Will the Trinity of Baba, Sri and Anna work for Munnabhai to lie down and feel contended in achieving his goal, though 5 years late? Can Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani be credited to be the Brahmas to have created Munnabhai, theories of who can transform India first, the world later? Few questions still seek answers that lie in the future.
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