The Spiritual Supermarket: Gurus Invade Indian Shop Shelves

The gurus invade Indian shop shelves.

- Aanchal Bansal and Shreya Sethuraman

The main entrance to Patanjali Yogpeeth on the Delhi-Haridwar highway leads to Sadbhavna Bhawan, a huge courtyard with a raised platform that stands on four pillars. On the platform, behind a small metal gate, is a grey sofa that is unoccupied. This is the seat of the much-loved yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who is now on a whirlwind tour of the Northeast. In his absence, the ashram is quiet, serene. We are greeted with Oms and pranams as we make our way to Acharya Balkrishna’s office. Ramdev’s companion since the 1990s, Balkrishna is also managing director of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd—he holds 92 per cent of the company’s shares; an NRI couple from Scotland hold the rest. He is busy, juggling business meetings and supervising paperwork. Around him, the atmosphere of spirituality gradually melts into the frenzy of entrepreneurship. Men in kurta pyjama pull out files to discuss the revamp of a defunct gaushala in Amravati, Maharashtra. From deciding the size of sheds for different breeds of cows to setting up a genomic lab to test their DNA, nothing is left to chance. For there is a lot at stake. Patanjali recently began making ghee from cow’s milk. It is now researching ways to use cow urine in its medicinal products