The Narendra Modi Government may have offered Baba Ramdev a scenic island with a lighthouse to be converted into a yoga resort, but the guru is already putting final touches to a yoga-theme park and museum near Roorkee, on the Delhi-Haridwar highway.  

At the park -  Ramdev’s swadeshi answer to Disneyland – gardeners are busy tending to a herbal garden of Ayurvedic and medicinal plants. Each plant has a label containing its scientific and native name, and genus.  

Nearby, geese and duck glide in man-made ponds.  Rabbit hutches are being readied, and gaudily painted giant mushrooms pop out from the gardens.  A gigantic tree-shaped construction with a café on top, towers over the whole complex.  

But it’s the intricate labyrinth of man-made caves that is the central attraction here. As ones makes way through the dimly lit caves, golden sculptures of ancient gurus and medicine gods like Dhanvantri, glitter in semi-darkness.  Artificial bats hang from the ceilings. Once ready, water will drizzle down, giving the caves a realistic look.

 Scenes from the times of  Sushruta, Charakha and Patanjali depict the Ayurvedic and yogic traditions. 

“Crores of pilgrims visit Haridwar. We thought why not show them our Vedic parampara (traditions),” says Baba Ramdev, brushing aside questions on how much the park’s cost.

Adjoining the park, which will be inaugurated in mid-2016, is a multi-storeyed building where a yoga museum is taking shape.  Both, the park and the museum, are the brainchild of Acharya Balkrishna,who is busy putting together an encyclopaedia on yoga that will be released on the next World Yoga day.

The energetic duo is taking yoga into realms that the original compiler of the yoga sutras - Patanjali - may not even have dreamt about.  

comment COMMENT NOW