Yogi Adityanath has been sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh at Lucknow’s today. The oath-taking ceremony of the second-time Chief Minister was attended by prominent personalities, including many saints, seers and politicians.
Do you know that the now CM of Uttar Pradesh was once known as Ajay Singh Bisht?
Let us take you through his journey of becoming Yogi Adityanath from Ajay Singh Bisht.
Ajay Singh Bisht was born in born on June 5, 1972 in Garhwal (Panchur village) of Uttarakhand. It was when he was pursuing his MSc in Rishikesh that he met his guru. At that time, the whole country was witnessing the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Consequently, Ajay’s mind diverted from his studies towards this issue.
In 1993, he visited the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur and met Mahant Avaidyanath. This was his second meet with the Mahant after the brief encounter in 1990.
Mahant Avaidyanath told Ajay that “You are a yogi and you have to come here one day”. In the same year, Ajay went to the Gorakhnath temple and expressed his desire to learn yoga by meeting Mahant Avaidyanath.
Mahant Avaidyanath urged Ajay to stay back, but until then he couldn’t decide.
After a couple of months, Mahant Avaidyanath fell seriously ill and was hushed to AIIMS Delhi for medical treatment. This shocking news led Ajay to come to Delhi. There the Mahant asked Ajay to return to Math. While the latter went homewards at that time, it was in November 1993 that he left his studies family and his village to come to the Gorakhnath temple.
At this time, Ajay’s family was unaware about his plans of going to Math. They thought he was going for work. Later, Ajay took initiation from Mahant Avaidyanath on the day of Basant Panchami, about two months after coming to Gorakhnath temple, and left his old life for a new one. There he got the name 'Yogi Adityanath'.
After the death of Mahant Avaidyanath on September 12, 2014, Yogi Adityanath became the Mahant of Gorakhnath temple.
The book 'The Monk Who Became Chief Minister' by Shantanu Gupta beautifully describes this journey of Yogi Adityanath. According to the biography, Yogi Adityanath wakes up at 3 am everyday and does kyiya and yoga till 5 am. Thereafter, he finishes study till 8:30 am.
Referring to the words of Pradeep Rao, who was a close acquaintance of Yogi, Shantanu states that the monk does not eat lunch. Instead, he enjoys eating light food like daliya, buttermilk and fruits for breakfast.
For dinner, the monk relishes boiled vegetables, roti, rice along with lentils. His food is prepared with minimal salt, spices and oil.
As per Shantanu, Yogi Adityanath has been following the same routine even after becoming the CM.
Also, READ: Yogi Adityanath begins second term as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
