Baba Ramdev, whose birth name is given as Ramkishan (or Ramkrishna/Ram Kisan) Yadav, was born in 1965 into a farming family in the Mahendragarh district of Haryana, India. His early years unfolded in village surroundings, where he completed his primary schooling in local government or village schools. During childhood he is said to have faced health challenges, which later became a significant inner impetus drawing him toward yoga and traditional healing practices. From this rural and modest background emerged a seeker whose path would be shaped less by conventional academics and more by traditional spiritual disciplines.

After his basic schooling, he left the usual track of formal, secular education and entered the world of gurukuls, the traditional residential schools of India. He studied at Kalwa Gurukul in Jind district, Haryana, and became associated with the broader gurukul tradition in the Haridwar region. In these settings he received training in Sanskrit, classical Indian scriptures such as the Vedas and Upanishads, and other śāstras, along with yoga, pranayama, and Vedic philosophy. His engagement with Ayurveda also arose through these traditional modes of learning and guru-disciple transmission, rather than through modern professional degrees.

His spiritual formation deepened under the guidance of various yoga masters and spiritual teachers. He took monastic vows (sannyasa) under Swami Shankardevanand and assumed the name Swami Ramdev, dedicating himself to yoga practice, meditation, and spiritual discipline rather than to university-based study. He is not known to hold conventional higher-education degrees, whether in general academics or in modern systems of medicine. Instead, his authority in yoga and Ayurveda rests on traditional gurukul education, sustained self-practice, and long engagement with classical texts such as the Yoga Sutras, together with years of teaching and spiritual training.