Although I am fairly new to yoga, I must admit I find Swami Ramdev stance views very disturbing. His position on homosexuality seems contrary to the basic tenants of the practice. As for the healing "diseases such as Swine Flu, cancer, and AIDS"... lets just hope that anyone afflicted with these ailments doesn't take him up on his advice without first contacting their medical practitioners. Yoga as a lifestyle would seem a wise choice for anyone afflicted with these or ANY disease, but not at the risk of discontinuing sound medical advice.

These kinds of claims are neither yoga nor science. Yoga and science both value truth.

Absolutely not. Ramdev is the worst kind of charlatan faith healer in a ultra-traditional Yoga wrapper.

Great discussion of Ramdev going on right now at the Yogadork blog:

http://www.yogadork.com/2009/10/05/swami-ramdev-founds-scotland-peace-island-challenges-bikram-for-title-of-yoga-don/

Bob Weisenberg
http://YogaDemystified.com

Heal, Cure. Not necessarily the same thing. Yoga is theraputic for many medical conditions (read Tim McCall's book Yoga as Medicine). Yoga improves the immune system so it is a help in preventing colds and flu. Yoga teaches you to care for your entire self....resulting in improved diet, sleep, social attachments. Cure is a big word and hard to prove. Let's go with words like prevention, pain control, immune system improvement. Yoga is a gift you give yourself.

I lost all respect for Ramdev when he made the claim about "curing" homosexuality. I believe that his statements are more for attention than anything else. I remember a story of some yoga teacher in San Francisco making similar claims about being able to cure AIDS through yoga, and manage to gather a large amount of attention and interest. People who are ill are vulnerable to deception, when a "guru" proclaims he can heal their ailment, they want to believe that there is a way to be cured.

I believe that practice of yoga changes lifestyle choices which lead to healthier living, which in turn reduces the risk for diseases such as cancer or AIDS, but these lifestyle choices are not unique to yoga. But once a disease such as AIDS has be contracted by an individual, I doubt that any amount of yoga practice would cure the disease.

Sat Nam,

I would agree that pranayam can heal disease BUT indirectly. Pranayam strengthens the Immune System - the real hero in this story.

The best defense against the swine flu or any virus is to strengthen your immune system through practicing yoga + meditation, stress reduction and eating healthy organic foods.

In terms of homosexuality - the Creator has made no mistakes - we are all unique expressions of the Divine. Perhaps Swami Ramdev needs to go deep inside himself and accept all aspects of his sexuality.

peace and love to ALL

My belief was that we were well past the thought processes that defined one's sexual proclivity as a disease.

This headline and article are disappointing to me to say the least.

How about a cure for heterosexuality?

I don't think that it is right for anything to have a claim for homosexuality this is a claim that could not be proven nor should be accounted for through massage, yoga or any other modality for that matter. He should stick to what he knows and not make false claims. very unprofessional

Genevieve,
I am so glad to see someone make the distinction between cure and heal. People can use yoga to help heal themselves as beings, but it is not some kind of miracle cure. For me, yoga is a tool.

As a matter of respect not only to homosexuals but to Swami Ramdev, we should ask Mr. Ramdev to shell out some definite proof of what he is claiming. How can this be proved? For how long have his healed ones been "cured"? . We definitely need some kind of structure in these discussions to get the most out of it.