Swami Ramdev was born Ramkishan Yadav in 1965 in Said Alipur in the Mahedragarh region of Haryana. His early education was in a village school.

 

At the age of 14, he was admitted to the Kalwa Gurukul (in Kalwa, near Jind, Haryana).  Here, under the tutelage of Ācārya Shri Baldevji he studied Sanskrit and Yoga, and earned a postgraduate (Ācārya) degree.  In Kalwa, he chose the path of celibacy and asceticism.  Here he became a sannyasi, adopted the name Ramdev.  While in Kalwa, he offered free yoga training to villagers.  After Kalwa he moved to Haridwar where he spent several years studying ancient Indian scriptures at Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya

 

The sage Patañjali has always inspired Ramdev, especially in his interest in Yoga, Sanskrit and Ayurveda.  Later, Swami Ramdev was very much inspired by the life and writings of Maharṣi Dayanand Saraswati.

 

In order to be away from the distractions of mundane activities, he journeyed to the Himalayan caves near Gangotri. Here he developed a clear vision of his life's mission which is to propagate yoga and Āyurveda and reform the social, political and economic system of India.

 

While in the Himalayas, he reconnected with Ācārya Balkrishna, a schoolmate from the Kalwa gurukul.  They joined to collaborate in their mission of regenerating and spreading ayurveda and yoga.  Ramdev took upon himself the onerous responsibility of demystifying and popularizing Patañjali’s Yoga.  Balkrishna devoted himself to the task of restoring people’s faith in the efficacy of the āyurvedic system of medicine.

 

Ramdev has written several popular books on yoga for health, including Yoga, Its Philosophy and Practice (Yoga Sādhanā evam Yoga Chikitsā Rahasya), Pranayama Philosophy and Practice (Prāṇāyāma Rahasya) and Yogadarsana (explaining Patanjali's yoga sutras).

 

In 1995, Swamiji founded the Divya Yog Mandir Trust at Kankhal in Haridwar.  This was followed by a Meditation Centre at Gangotri, and several other yoga and ayurveda organizations in Delhi and Haryana.

 

In 2003, Aastha TV broadcast in the morning, Ramdev teaching yoga. Since then, Swami Ramdevji's television popularity has become widespread across several other TV networks, and he had various other audiovisual media for teaching yoga and pranayama.

 

Yoga and pranayama camps at Patanjali Yogapeeth are attended by thousands of participants from all parts of the country. Swamiji teaches specific āsanas for various ailments, as also some simple home remedies and āyurvedic medicines.

 

Recently in support of his political campaigns, he launched the Bharat Swabhiman Movement.  This encompasses the Indian social, political and economic scene, including soil and agriculture, cow breeding and protection, cleaning the Ganga, etc. He wants to see an addiction-free, vegetarian, corruption-free India, proud of its own products.

 

Various honours and honorary doctorates have been conferred on Swamiji by universities in India and abroad. In 2006, at the invitation of Secretary General of the United Nations, Ramdev contributed to the programme for global poverty eradication.