Ramdev Gets Rapped By Health Dept.
File under: Satscams and The Siddhi of PR
Good old rancorous Swami Ramdev is getting heat from India's Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss:
The Health Ministry is proposing amendments to the Drugs and Magical Remedies Act which makes it illegal to advertise for invalidated cures by allopathic or alternatives. The Ministry believes that claims made by various yoga gurus are not backed by authentic medical history, investigations and proofs.Oops! No more cancer and AIDS miracle cure claims. It sounds like the Swami needs to find a higher-grade of bull balls for his next batch of "medicines."
posted by guruphiliac @ 6:32 PM
17 Comments:
Uh-oh. I wouldn't trust Ramdev with my medical decisions, but I wouldn't trust the India Heald Dept either.
It's one thing for bozo gurus to make claims that they have magical shakti that will improve your health, grant super dooper enlightenment or whatever. Buyer beware. Anyone can protect themselves by thinking independently.
The Government, on the other hand, *forces* its decisions on people. You follow their dictates, or men with guns come and take you to jail.
We can use laws narrowly constructed to force people to not use outright, provable lies in selling medicine, enlightenment, or whatever. Beyond that, I'd rather have a thousand Ramdevs making stupid claims that people are free to ignore, rather than a government -- even a reasonable one -- forcing this or that decision on everyone.
Stuart
http://home.comcast.net/~sresnick2/mypage.htm
I have been doing YOGA [ AJAPA} for 30 years. and your advice is right on!!!!. There is no such thing as a " magical cure". . but there ARE paths to make things better. and it ALL depends on the persons state of attraction, and how he relates to an enlightened person..
Uh.. we actually have that sort of restriction in place here in the US. The FDA allows sale of Ayurvedic medicines only provided they are labeled and sold as "food supplements", and don't make any sort of claim to be treatment or cure for a specific illness.
Even if this sort of outlawing of claims of cures by Ayurvedic companies or Yoga gurus happens, it's hardly going to put a dent in sales because these preparations have been a part of Ayurvedic pharmacopoeia for centuries. It's a part of the Indian cultural fabric. And regardless of the ingredients in Ramdev's medicines, I am willing to bet that they aren't as dangerous as thalidomide.
"The Government, on the other hand, *forces* its decisions on people. You follow their dictates, or men with guns come and take you to jail."
With false claims and unlicensed practitioners, this is nothing but a great decision and a movement towards science from hokum and snake oil.
> Uh.. we actually have that sort
> of restriction in place here in
> the US.
So? The fact that the US does something is irrelevent to whether it's right or wrong, smart or stupid. If we're really interested in looking at what makes sense, what happens to be currently in place has little bearing on the investigation.
thanks antra. but i apologize for not being more specific. there is MORE to it than ayuraveda for sure. thats only a SMALL portion of it.
Go to this link to see the real intent of the Drugs and Miracle Act passed in some parts of India. It's basically the state controlling religion, acccording to some lawyers:
http://www.hindujagruti.org/bill/index.php?id=5
As they explain in one of the paragraphs, the people doing black-magic and "curing" through superstition, etc., are supposedly the target of this law. But those people rarely work through Trusts or legal organizations, and the law specifically makes those Trusts and Organizations illegal.
Seems that it will be up to politics which organizations get dragged into court and which ones don't. (whether the local magistrates are followers or not will play a huge role)
Also, according to the law, according to these lawyers, all the Vedic scriptures become defacto illegal! I wonder how far this will be enforced.
The bill is specifically aimed at "Aghori" practices. Guess Ramakrishna would have been hauled off to jail then, eh? Animal sacrifice is one of the specific, unbailable offences.
Sounds to me like the treatment Jesus received from the hysterical masses. Who knows which of these saints are real and not real? I personally don't believe Sai Baba is much, other than a mesmerizing, child-molesting pig. But notice that this law is not being enforced on him. So what's the use of it anyhow?
There are many saints in India who do and will continue to prescribe specific practices according to Atharva Veda (which can be considered Tantric practices by this law). Do they lock them up and throw away the keys?
Anon said:
Animal sacrifice is one of the specific, unbailable offences.
What a joke!
Does it cover goats sacrificed by Muslims on the occasion of Bakr-id?
It is a terrible sight during Bakrid or the days approaching it when sheep are herded and led to different parts of town. Would you lily white guys in the US tolerate this nonsense? I am sure there are laws against public slaughter of animals, though eating beef and mutton and other forms of meat are de rigeur. Wonder if public slaughter of animals is permitted in Saudi Arabia or Dubai.Work to prevent such things rather than going after Gurus who are trying in their own bumbling way to improve the world.
anon said
Would you lily white guys in the US tolerate this nonsense?
................
Not likely! Neither would we allow millions of our country men to live in plastic tents 2 feet from major road ways while the wealthy people they work for live in palaces and believe themselves to be very spiritual people. India is ripe for a revolution and needs one.
"Not likely! Neither would we allow millions of our country men to live in plastic tents 2 feet from major road ways while the wealthy people they work for live in palaces and believe themselves to be very spiritual people. India is ripe for a revolution and needs one."
Hey, guess you did not know that we also get CNN and see Jay Leno and so on. What have you done for the homeless yourself? Stop preaching to what you consider the third world! Stop focusing on the ills of my country when your own is sustaining a life of relative affluence through huge debt racked up directly or indirectly from my country, where inequity is rife, where many people live lives of poverty and misery. I would never even step into your silly country. You living in USA think that you can preach and keep on about Gurus who are in any case several notches above you in the evolution scale. In my country, a slumdweller in the poorest of poor sections has a better sense of self worth than what you have and is more spiritually ahead. So please keep your foul mouth to yourself. All the posts in your group come from Hindu haters and commies and as for the rest of you go join the baptists to preach to the whole world and to keep converting the poor of my country from Hinduism to your lousy faith.
Stop preaching to what you consider the third world!
If you had stopped there, you would have made a great statement. The rest of that bollocks is the same sort of hyperbole you hear Americans spew, making you not an iota better.
anon said,
All the posts in your group come from Hindu haters and commies and as for the rest of you go join the baptists to preach to the whole world and to keep converting the poor of my country from Hinduism to your lousy faith.
................
Ain't Hindu fundamentalism a beautiful thing!
Same to you Jody and that goes for you too Chuck!
anon said,
Anonymous said...
Same to you Jody and that goes for you too Chuck!
....................
I don't understand what you are sending to Jody and Chuck. Whatever it is, at least Chuck deserves it. Please clarify for those of us who feel that Chuck deserves whatever he gets!
On the other hand, I believe that you will find few if any Baptists or normal christians of any stripe on this blog, Many or maybe most of us have practiced sadhanas originating in the Hindu tradition for many years, some with a lot of intensity and perseverance. We have attended and participated in hundreds of pujas, fire ceremonies, and lectures by learned people. We have read the Vedic scriptures and tried to incorporate the wisdom.
What we want is the truth and Jody has always been pointing out that the truth is available as our own innate awareness. How is it wrong for false teachers who pervert this great tradition of knowledge and make it a mockery, to be shown for what they are. If it is proven that the innocent have been blasted here, appropriate apologies can follow.
This blog is small part of a world wide awakening, that truth exists and that being a slave to the ego of a charismatic person does not help you come to it.
Anon said:
All the posts in your group come from Hindu haters and commies and as for the rest of you go join the baptists to preach to the whole world and to keep converting the poor of my country from Hinduism to your lousy faith.
Very sad!
Why do you presume that Hinduism has nothing better to offer than the antics of some fake gurus? I for one have deep respect for the wisdom of Hinduism and therefore cannot come to believe that the 'teachings' of these charlatans have anything to do with Hinduism. I do not know why you want to insist that cheats and charlatans are true representatives of Hinduism.
It looks like you were born a Hindu but never tried to look beyond the surface. Hinduism is much deeper than the rabble rousing of VHP politicians or fleecing scams of babas and gurus. They are not bringing any glory to this ancient religion by abusing it to satisfy their lust and greed. I suggest you take some time to go deeper into Hinduism. You might be surprized to discover that you can be a good Hindu without having the compulsive urge to defend every scamster as the holy prophet of Hinduism.
To Angry Hindu Anonymous,
Blah blah blah blah. You read too many newspapers written by the rich Indians who own them, who continue to print all anti-outside anybody crap (especially American) so the masses will not rise up and revolt, leaving them with nothing. It is always in the best interest of the rich to direct the anger of the masses outside to a far-away place in order to maintain the status quo.
Sounds like you, with your fanatical attitude, would do very well along side a right-wing Christian from America. There is virtually no difference between fanatical "Hindus" and fanatical "Christians". Neither is representative of his own religion.
Nice that you are satisfied with Jay Leno and CNN as sources of social commentary for India. May I suggest that you also read Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things" to see more about the social ills in India? Far more reliable than Jay Leno. You also might like (dislike) Kiran Desai's work "The Inheritance of Loss". Both women have won the Booker Prize for their work.
I find it so laughable when people look at any society and gauge it on what they see in a) their immediate neighborhood b)what they saw on TV c)what they heard from others who have an agenda.
Travel a bit. Then decide what's what and where.
But I digress -- the best and worst of spirituality, imo, is based in traditional Hinduism. Ramdev, again imo, is not a very good representative of anything very good from Hinduism.
BTW Even when Hindus are converted to Christianity, they continue to discriminate based on caste. Why should you care if a person is a Hindu or Christian? Why not care, instead, whether they are decent to each other? If you were less worried about what religion a person was, and cared more about Love and Spirituality, less fires would burn in Gujarat, Bombay and Delhi, in the name of "communal unrest".
All countries have warts. India, America, England, Germany, Indonesia. So what? Becoming hysterically patriotic about it and screaming at people to shut their "foul mouths" when they point out some of those warts, is backward.
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