•TEENA THACKER: Baba, you once claimed that you can cure AIDS via yoga. Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss sent you a notice thereafter and you invited him over. Do you still stand by your claim?

After all, what is AIDS? The virus hasn’t been detected. The only finding that has come to light is that the immune system of the body gets affected and the CD4 counts decreases and the virus count increases. All I have claimed is that by some yogic exercises and changes in lifestyle, the CD4 count can increase. I have hundreds of examples to prove this. My book has tabulated this data. People whose CD4 count had dipped to 15-25, have taken it up to 500, which is normal. CD4 count goes up, virus concentration comes down — I don’t have a term for this. This is my knowledge of AIDS, which created a stir. But how can people deny my findings? They are true. Whatever I have claimed was never documented. Everything was questioned. When the telephone was invented, people must have questioned its creator with such scepticism. Now even Ramadossji says, ‘Baba, let’s sit and talk.’ And I replied, ‘I’ll see.’

•TEENA THACKER: He then said you were misleading people by claiming magical cures.

I just explained myself. Anything I say may seem like magic. Not just me, even scientists the world over have been suspected. I don’t claim to be a scientist though. Some call me a scientist, some say I am a corporate manager of the religious world, some think I am marketing guru of yoga. People give me names according to their own perception. So it is with Ramadossji.

... contd.