India’s yoga-loving prime minister Narendra Modi proclaimed the ancient Indian practice the “biggest mass movement in the world” as he rose early on Tuesday to lead 30,000 devotees through a series of complex asanas in the city of Chandigarh.

Baba Ramdev, one of India’s most-celebrated yoga gurus and an outspoken critic of Western capitalism, has built a consumer-goods empire using his fame to peddle an ever-expanding portfolio of products based on traditional Indian medicine. Patanjali Ayurved Ltd., the company he founded in 2006 near his ashram on the Ganges in this Hindu holy city, has blossomed into one of India’s biggest brands by making creams, cleansers and supplements infused with centuries-old Ayurvedic remedies.