On July 18, 1861, Kadambini Bose was born in Bhagalpur, British India (modern-day Bangladesh). She was born during the Bengali renaissance, a period of religious, social, and educational developments in the Bengal area from the nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. This cultural revolution had a direct influence on Kadambini since her father was a prominent member of the Hindu reformation movement Brahmo Samaj, as well as co-founder of India’s first women’s rights group, Bhagalpur Mahila Samiti. And, despite the fact that educational options for Indian women were limited at the time, Kadambini’s father, the headmaster of Bhagalpur School, recognised the value of education and enabled Kadambini to attend.
Kadambini married Dwarkanath Ganguly, her mentor and instructor at Bethune College, after graduation. Dwarkanath, an outspoken advocate for women’s rights in India, urged his wife to seek a medical degree.Calcutta Medical College declined to enrol Kadambini, but the couple persisted, and she was finally admitted as the college’s first female medical student. Despite continuous opposition from instructors and staff, Kadambini received her Graduate of Bengal Medical College degree in Calcutta in 1886, becoming the first Indian-educated female doctor.(Anandi Gopal Joshi was the first female Indian doctor, although she received her education in America.)
Kadambini had only been practising medicine for a few months when a hardline Hindu news publication published an article questioning her doctorate credentials and referring to her in derogatory terms. Kadambini took the case to court, and after a lengthy legal struggle, the article’s editor was convicted to six months in jail for libel. Conservatives opposed to female emancipation could not stop her, and Kadambini chose to pursue the highest possible medical qualification; she flew to the United Kingdom in 1892 and obtained three additional doctorate certificates. She returned to India and worked as a gynaecologist at Lady Dufferin Hospital before opening her own private practise.
Kadambini’s hectic life as a doctor and mother of eight children did not prevent her from playing a part in India’s women’s rights movement. She was one of six delegates in the first female delegation to the Indian National Congress in 1889, and she helped organise the Women’s Conference in Calcutta in 1906. She was also quite involved in a number of other campaigns, such as one that sought to better working conditions for female Eastern Indian coal workers.
Swami Ramdev, popularly known as Baba Ramdev was born in 1965 in Alipur in the Mahendragarh district in the state of Haryana. He is famous for popularizing yoga among Indians through the medium of television and his mass yoga camps. Baba Ramdev is an Indian spiritual leader and a renowned yoga teacher. His yoga camps are attended by thousands of people and he has taught yoga to several celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan and Shilpa Shetty.
Baba Ramdev was born as Ramkrishna Yadav. His father was Ram Nivas Yadav and his mother named Gulabo Devi. He attended school till class eight in Shahjadpur in Harayana and then joined a gurukul in Khanpur village to study yoga and Sanskrit. Ultimately he renounced worldly life and became a Sanyasi (took to monastic living) taking on his present name. He later travelled to the Jind district and joined the Kalva gurukul and offered free yoga training to villagers across Harayana.
After becoming a ‘Sanyasi’ he spent many years undertaking a study of ancient Indian scriptures and also practiced intense self-discipline and meditation. During this time he started offering free yoga lessons to disciples and realized the need to popularize this ancient art among the Indians. He went on to establish the Divya Yoga Mandir Trust in 1995 and became a popular yoga guru over the years. His fame reached new heights when he started appearing in a television program aimed at promoting yoga and he gained a large following. He is also the founder of Patanjali Yogpeeth, an institution for promoting the practice of yoga and ayurveda.
He read a book called ‘Yogik Sadhan’, written by Aurobindo Ghosh and was deeply influenced by it after that he decided to renounce the worldly ways of life and adopt Sanyas. He was initiated into the ascetic order by Swami Shankerdevji Maharaj and after becoming a sanyasi, Ramkrishna Yadav adopted the name “Baba Ramdev”.
Baba Ramdev’s educational shows have been broadcast on many religious TV channels like Aastha, and other TV channels like Zee Network, Sahara One and India TV; and the swami holds many yoga camps across the country and even abroad.
In 2007 the KIIT University (Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology) awarded the swami with an honorary doctorate degree for his contribution towards popularizing the Vedic science of yoga.
In December 2006 the press reported that Swami Ramdev had claimed that he had found a way to use yoga to cure AIDS. As a result of these press reports the Indian Union Health Ministry sent him a cease and desist order and threatened legal action if he did not stop making these false claims. Other claims of the Baba include being able to cure cancer of the liver, breast, prostrate, uterus and brain (including brain tumours) by practising seven breathing exercises; Ramdev allegedly has documentary evidence for the same.
Baba Ramdev preaches that God resides in every human being and that the body is a temple of God. The swami believes in Vasudaiv Kutambakam (the whole World is one family) and does not support discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and religion. One of the most essential beliefs of Baba Ramdev is that showing true love and compassion towards all living things is true worship.
The Swami has taught many elements of the Indian scriptures such as the Ashtadhyayee, Mahabhashya and Upanishads and has set up many gurukuls in Ghashera, Kishangarh, and Mahendragarh in India. The yoga guru also teaches “Pranayama”; which is series of breathing exercises that were a part of the ancient Indian system of yoga. The Baba’s educational show is broadcast on TV with a total viewer ship of millions. People who watch his TV show’s have given examples of how they have been cured from diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, stomach ailments, thyroid problems, heart diseases and cancer after practising yoga and breathing exercises prescribed by the Baba.
Swami Ramdev has even claimed that he was paralytic before he took up yoga, and since has been completely cured. Baba Ramdev has been conducting Yoga Science camps all across the country and abroad and even spent a month in London teaching Pranayama and Yoga.
Swami ji promoted Yoga & Ayurveda at higher pedestal and enthusiastic to bring India forward as world’s spiritual and economic super power. His expertise & knowledge are being admired by one and all in India and abroad.
For his divine and excellence services to the welfare of mankind, he was felicitated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji as a National Icon, Tarun Kranti. He received several prestigious awards namely Padma Vibhushan, Surya Ratna and Mahaveer Award. Swami Ji has been conferred with recognized honors. Among, the few are: Surya Ratna, Mahveer Award from United Kingdom, Chandrashearendra Saraswati National Eminence Award, Mahamahopadhyaya globoil India Award. Swami ji is honored from British House of Commons, Legislature of state of New Jersey, USA, ASSOCHEM’s 5th Global Knowledge Millennium Summit, Brand Ambassador of Yoga by Government of Haryana. Swami Ji is honored and celebrated 30 June 2007 as Swami Ramdev Day by Nassau County. Swami Ji was as “Most Creative Business People of 2016”, and “5th India’s 50 Most Powerful People” by American Business Magazine and India Today Magazine respectively.
Dayananda Saraswati was an Indian philosopher, social leader, and reform movement of the Vedic dharma. He was the one who first gave the call for Swaraj as “India for Indians” in 1876, a call later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak.
As per the traditional Hindu calendar, Dayanand Saraswati was born on the Dashami Tithi of Phalguna Krishna Paksha. In India, all the Vedic institutions and religious establishments celebrate this day with great pomp and enthusiasm. Several schools and academic institutions hold debates, essay competitions etc.
The founder of the Hindu reform organisation Arya Samaj, Swami Dayanand Saraswati was born as Mool Shankar Tiwari on February 12, 1824, in Gujarat. He was named Mool because he was born when the Mool Nakshatra prevailed. His father was Karshanji Lalji Kapadi, and his mother was Yashodabai.
He was deeply devoted to God and translated the Vedas from Vedic Sanskrit to Sanskrit and Hindi so that the common man could also read them. He brought about a revolution in the social life of Indians to spread Vedic teaching and his ideas he travelled all over India and he roundly condemned the caste system, he was bitterly opposed to untouchability. “Untouchability is a dreadful curse of our society every living being has a soul, which deserves affection, in every human being there is a soul worthy of respect, one who does not know this basic principle cannot understand the true meaning of the Vedic religion.” Though acknowledged to be one of the greatest men of his age, even by those who differed with him on many points, Swamiji was simple and unostentatious in his habits and tastes.
He always laid stress on female education, equal rights and pure conduct in life. In his opinion over the centuries, with the passage of time some wicked customs had crept into Hinduism, these customs dimmed the greatness of this religion.
He was the among the first great Indian stalwarts who popularized the concept of Swaraj- the right to self-determination vested in an individual -when India was ruled by British. It was his philosophy which inspired nationalists in the mutiny of 1857 as well as champions such as Lala Lajpat Rai and Bhagat Singh. Dayananda’s Vedic message was to emphasize respect and reverence for other human beings, he related Atma with Param Atma. In the 10 principles of the Arya Samaj, he enshrined the idea that ” All actions should be performed with the prime objective of benefitting mankind”. Dayananda’s ‘Back to Vedas’ message influenced many thinkers, Sri Aurobindo who decided to look for hidden psychological meaning in the Vedas, Many Padri’s , Sanyasi’s were influenced by Swamiji’s updesh, Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Jammu and Kashmir went to see Swamiji during the Darbar which was held at Agra (November,1866 A.D.).
Swami Dayanand wished that his work of social reform should continue even after his death, so he founded an institution called ‘Arya Samaj’ at Mumbai on April 10,1875. It grew into a huge institution spread beyond the shores of India. Millions of Hindus were influenced by Arya Samaj, which rendered boundless and unequalled services to society, through its religious centres, gurukuls, schools, colleges, women orphanages and asylums for women. He was fully convinced that Indian could’t prosper unless education spread. He said that, there should be a law to compel the parents to send every boy or girl who is eight years old to school. The King’s son and the farmer’s son should be equal in a gradual. They should all be made to work and live alike in Gurukuls. The chief objective of Swami Dayananda’s teaching are that all should be treated with love and justice. One should always be ready to accept truth and give up untruth, be good to the world, i.e., to make physical and social improvement. To achieve these we should dispel ignorance and diffuse knowledge.
He had a sensitive and compassionate heart that melted at the sufferings of the poor. ‘To love the creation of God is to love God Himself- so he taught people. He always advocated that those Hindus who had gone to other religions and wish to come back into the Hinduism fold by performing purification rites for them.
Eduindex News 
You must be logged in to post a comment.