Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - The Acclaimed Artist of Living

By Staff

Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 12:20

Widely honoured spiritual leader and humanitarian, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, believes in his message of uplifting communities by strengthening the individual and their connection with their inner self He teaches people how to cope up with the stresses of everyday life and be at peace with themselves. His appeal transcends to a diversity of class, race, religion and nationality. Millions of people worship him as their spiritual leader, and follow his guidance for inner peace.

Ravi Shankar was born on May 13, 1956, in an Iyer family at Papanasam in Tamil Nadu, India. He was born to R. S. V. Ratnam and Vishalakshi. He was born on Shankara Jayanti, the birthday of Adi Shankara. He was a child with precocious mind. At the age of four, he was well versed with the shlokas of Bhagavad Gita. He is a former disciple of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Ravi Shankar underwent training with many renowned spiritual masters and became a scholar of Vedic Literature.

After his enlightenment in 1982, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar founded the Art of Living Foundation, which offers self-development programs designed to eliminate stress and foster a sense of well-being. The central pillar of his programs is a powerful breath-oriented technique called Sudarshan Kriya. It is said to infuse the body with energy and harmonize the natural rhythms of the body, mind, and emotions. His Sahaj Samadhi Meditation practice brings peace and relaxation to the mind and heart.

Today, his foundation is considered to be one of the largest volunteer-based educational and humanitarian organizations in the world, active over 140 countries. In 1997, he also founded the International Association for Human Values (IAHV), an organization that advances human values in political, economic, industrial, and social spheres.

Sri Sri travels to more than 35 countries every year, to unite the world into a violence-free family. He has reached out to an estimated 300 million people worldwide through personal interactions, public events, Art of Living workshops etc. He teaches people to replace hatred and suffering with love and wisdom and spreads the message of universal love, peace brotherhood throughout the world.

Many awards and honours came in the way of Sri Sri Ravishankar, that include Peter the Great Award (Russian Federation), the Global Humanitarian Award (USA) the Sant Shri Dnyaneshwara World Peace Prize (India) and the Order of the Pole Star ( Mongolia). He was a guest speaker at the Millennium World Peace Summit during the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.