Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar was born to Smt. Visalakshmi Ratnam and R.S. Venkat Ratnam in Papanasam, Tamil Nadu, India. A child prodigy, he was able to recite verses from the Bhagwad Gita, an ancient Sanskrit text and also started practicing meditation with his parents by the age of four.

He began studying Vedic literature with Sudhakar Chaturvedi and simultaneously attended the school at MES in Bangalore. In 1973, at the age of 17, he graduated with degrees in both Physics and Vedic Literature.

After graduation, he travelled with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi under whose tutelage he started giving sermons on Vedic science in Ayurveda centers. During this period, he became the Maharishi’s close friend and confidante.

Through the 1980s, he travelled around the world and preached spirituality wherever he set foot. He established the Art of Living Foundation in 1982 and in 1983 he held the first Art of Living course in Europe, Switzerland. In 1986 he travelled to California for an Art of Living workshop and soon became extremely popular with the masses in America.

Towards the end of the 80s, he introduced a series of effective breathing exercises called the ‘Sudarshan-Kriya’. It is said that the inspiration to come up with a new breathing technique, came to him while he was meditating on the banks of the Bhadra River in Shimoga, Karnataka.

In 1997, he founded the International Association for Human Values (IAHV), a humanitarian organization that aims to bring sustainable development to rural areas and revive human values and morals.

He is one of the greatest advocators of spirituality and has emphasized time and again that spirituality fosters human values such as love and compassion and can be embraced by people of all faiths. In his view, a ‘violence-free society’ can be achieved through spirituality and not solely through religion.

He believes that meditation should be practiced every single day, in order to feel rejuvenated and re-energized. He also arranges for ‘Satsangs’ (group meetings) where his innumerable followers can listen to his discourses and meditate in unison.

According to his philosophy, omnipresent God lies within everybody’s heart. He preached that every religion has three features associated with it, viz. customs, symbols and values, all of which are essential ingredients for building a peaceful and united world.

One of his other standpoints is that it is easy for humans to judge others and that people should not become too rigid when it comes to forming opinions or viewpoints. This could affect their morals or character and can in turn, affect society at large.