Present here in large numbers, my dear brothers and sisters.

Today, I was fortunate to visit Kedarnath shrine and pay my obeisance to Lord Shiva, and I’m fortunate to come amongst you people and receive your blessings. I did not have any inkling, but Baba gave me a surprise. I was honoured in a special manner, ornamented with a lot of affection. I sincerely thank Swami Ji, the entire Patanjali family for this.

But, due to my upbringing, due to the people who taught me, who inculcated values in me I’m very well aware that whenever you have been honoured then it means a lot of things are expected of you; don’t back away; and fulfil those expectations. Therefore, in a way, Guru Ji has given me an exhaustive list of do’s and don’ts of what I ought to do, how I should live.

However, along with this honour, I also believe in the blessings of all you, I have full faith in the power of blessings of one twenty-five crore Indians. I don’t believe as much in my own capabilities as I believe in the power of the blessings of you people and my countrymen. And, therefore those blessings are a source of energy, values keep you within the bounds, and everyday one gets a new inspiration to lead a life committed to the nation.

Today, when I have come amongst you, then you people would also experience that one of your family members has come to you. And, I’ve not come here for the first time, I’ve been fortunate to visit you people again and again, was fortunate to visit you people as a family member. And, I was also fortunate to witness the growth of Swami Ramdevji, how he evolved over a period of time; I was fortunate to observe this thing from a close quarter .His determination and dedication to that determination is the keyto his success. And this herbhas not been discovered by Acharya Balkrishna Ji; Swami Ji himself has discovered this herb. The medicines and herbs discovered by Balkrishna ji help in keeping the body healthy, however, Swami Ramdev Ji’s prescription gives you the strength to overcome all the obstacles to move ahead.

I am fortunate to inaugurate the research centre today. If you look at the history of our country then one thing is absolutely clear that we were so visible, so successful, we had reached on top of the world; and when the world found that it was impossible for them to reach there, so they chose the path to destroy whatever achievements we had, to completely demolish those achievements. And the entire period of our slavery, our entire strength, our sages, ascetics, saints, teachers, farmers, scientists, everyone was devoted to protecting whatever achievements we had, the slavery of 1000-1200 years sapped that strength.

After independence, whatever was left should have been developed, rewarded, should have been modified as per the changing time and should have been ornamented in new and innovative ways and that should have been presented to the world by a free India; however, this was not done. There was an attempt to completely destroy those achievements during the period of slavery, however, even after independence, for a prolonged period, an attempt was made to consign these achievements into oblivion. We could fight with enemies when they tried to destroy our achievements, we could come out of that; however, at least three generations remained in the state of confusion, indecision when our own people attempted toput these achievements in oblivion.

Today, I can say with a lot of pride, with of a lot satisfaction that this is not the time to forget; but it’s the time to take pride in our achievements; and this is the time that makes the world aware about India’s glory and achievements. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that how India was at such an exalted place in the world. It was due to the sacrifices made by our ancestors for thousands of years in discovering and innovating new and newer things, gifting them to the mankind for its welfare, making modifications to adapt to the changing times. However, we failed to impress the world as we became indifferent towards innovation, towards research.

When India witnessed IT revolutions after several years then our children in the age group 18, 20, 22 impressed the world in the IT field; then the world attention was again drawn towards India. IT changed the world. Our youth in the age group of 18-20 impressed the world. We ourselves have witnessed the power of research and innovation. Today, entire world is very sensitive, very alert about Holistic Health Care. However, it’s not able to find a way.The world is desperate for peace, they have been attracted towards the great tradition of Yoga discovered by our sages and ascetics. Fed up with the outer world, they are trying to explore and experience the inner world.

In such a scenario, it’s our duty to inform the world about the easily available path of Yoga that is now equipped with modern research and analysis to demonstrate how Yoga can heal the body and mind, how it can enlighten the soul. I offer my respect to Baba Ramdev Ji for converting Yoga into a movement. He instilled the confidence in ordinary housewife that one doesn’t have to go to the caves of Himalaya to practice Yoga; it can be practiced next to your kitchen, on footpath, in fields, in gardens and also in the courtyard of a temple. 

This is a big change. And as a result of that every effort is made by every country in the world to associate maximum number of people with the event when International Yoga Day is celebrated on June 21.To all the people in the world that I get to meet, it’s my experience that they would discuss about our country, about development, about investment and political scenario, however, they would invariably ask me one or two questions about Yoga during the discussion. This curiosity is there.

To some degree, we ourselves harmed the strength of our Ayurveda. While modern medical science people thought that our Ayurveda’s prescriptions are not based on any research; Ayurveda people thought that modern medicines were not effective, they cure people but in reality people don’t become healthy. The entire time was wasted in this struggle that who is superior? It would have been better had we collectively used our entire knowledge, by combining our traditional methods with the latest techniques, then it would have been a great service to the mankind.

I’m happy that the project, the movement started by Baba Ramdev Ji through Patanjali Yog Vidapeeth is not confined only to glorifying the Ayurveda. Baba Ramdev has taken it upon himself that he would present Yoga to the world in the language of research and science understood by the world, as per the globally established system of medical science to motivate the world. In a way he is serving the country. He is on a scientific expedition to share whatever knowledge was earned in thousands of years by our sages and ascetics through hard work and sacrifices. Today, after having the seen the research centre established here I believe that it can rival any modern research centre, the centre that has been set up on the banks of mother Ganga. That is why I offer my deepest regards to Baba. Government of India formulated a health policy when Atal Government was in power. When we got power after a gap of several years, our government brought a health policy for the country. We have come up with the vision of Holistic Health Care. And today the world doesn’t want to be just healthy, it doesn’t want to stuck at a disease free state; people now want Wellness, therefore the solutions must be holistic. We must put emphasison Preventive Health Care, and cleanliness is the cheapest and the best way to have Preventive Health Care. Who does what in terms of cleanliness should be left to be decided in future. We should, 1.25 billion Indians should decide that they will not pollute. This doesn’t require a big commitment, no need to fill the jails or sacrificing your life, no need to sacrifice your life like a soldier on the border; just one small thing that ‘I will not pollute’.

Do you have any idea how many lives a doctor saves? You can save lives of more kids just by not polluting. Whatever reward you earn by donating to a poor person, your donation given in rupees become more valuable when you ensure a poor person’s health by not polluting. And I’m happy that the new generation of our country, our kids argue with their family members. If a senior citizen, old person throws out something, if a family is travelling in a car and water bottle is being thrown out, then the son, five year old grandson asks for stopping the car, he tells them, see, Modi Dada has prohibited this, please bring back that bottle; this atmosphere is being created. Even the young kids have become soldiers of my cleanliness mission. That is why we would be doing great service to our poor if we place more emphasis on the Preventive Health Care. 

Nobody pollutes, we ourselves pollute. And then we give sermons on the lack of cleanliness. And, if we Indians take a pledge that we will not pollute then there will be no hurdles in eradicating the diseases and bringing back health in the country.

This is the level of our indifference that we were familiar with this gigantic Himalaya, the herbs available on Himalaya, we were familiar with the story of Lord Ramchandra Ji and Lakshman Ji, familiar with the story of the hard work and industry by Hanuman Ji, we were familiar with all that, and we became so indifferent that those country of the world that were not aware about the medicinal herbs and plants got the patent of those herbs when they got to know about the big commercial value of these herbs. Some other country got the patent for turmeric, some other got the patent for Tamarind (Imli). This indifference, the habit of forgetting our strength, has harmed us badly. Today there is a huge market for herbal medicine, however, India lags behind in supplying those herbal medicines, we need to do much more.

Whatever research and innovation is being done at Patanjali Institute, it will help in supplementing the global structure for Holistic and Wellness Care, these medicines will become useful for them in future. Several years ago, government of India has constituted a commission, Hathi Commission, to promote Ayurveda, it was headed by someone called Jaisukhlal Hathi. That commission came up with a very interesting report. At the outset of the report, it is being mentioned that our Ayurveda could not become popular as its process was not as per the modern requirement.They would give you a bag full of herbs then they would ask you to boil, boil it in a certain quantity of water, you will get a residual potion, you take that potion in a spoon and then add this and that in that potion; and then you consume that potion.So an ordinary person thinks that why to spoil this and that, take a medicine instead, take a pill and it will work for me. And that is why, he had said in his report, it’s a very old report, that proper packaging of Ayurvedic medicines is the first requisite. If these Ayurvedic medicines are packaged like modern medicines then the people will turn towards Holistic Health Care.And, today we see that we don’t have to collect those herbs and plants that require boiling, all the things are available in ready-made form.

I believe that Acharaya Ji has dedicated himself in that direction. And I believe that the world’s attention will be drawn to the book dedicated by me to the public today. The attention of the people associated with the medical science will be drawn to the book.If this book opens a window to the immense power of the systems developed by nature for the welfare of mankind and if we understand that power then this book will provide a huge opportunity to move forward.

I’m confident that the hard work done by Balkrishna Ji, the dedication and the hard work done by Baba Ramdev in the mission modeand the glorious tradition of India, and the attempts to present it in a modern scientific way, all this can become a basis for India to carve out a place for itself in the world. A big part of the world is already practicing Yoga and it wants to associate itself with Ayurveda, we will work in that direction.

I, I’m fortunate to come amongst you, I was honoured, I bow down to Baba, I offer my deep regards and best wishes to all of you.

Thank you.

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