Ravi Shankar (spiritual leader)
| Ravi Shankar | |
|---|---|
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
|
|
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Founder of | Art of Living Foundation, International Association for Human Values,World Forum for Ethics in Business |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Born | Ravi Shankar 13 May 1956 Papanasam, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Religious career | |
| Guru | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi |
| Literary works | Celebrating Silence, An Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker, God Loves Fun, Ashtavakra Gita, Patanjali Yoga Sutras, etc. |
| Honors | Sri Sri |
My Vision is a violence free, stress free world.
Ravi Shankar was born on 13 May 1956 in Tamil Nadu, India. He is also frequently referred to simply as "Sri Sri" (honorific) or as Guruji or Gurudev. He is a spiritual leader and founder of the Art of Living Foundation created in 1981, which aims to relieve individual stress, societal problems, and violence. In 1997, he established a Geneva-based charity, the International Association for Human Values, an NGO that engages in relief work and rural development and aims to foster shared global values. For his service, he has received some of the highest awards of several countries including India, Peru, Colombia, and Paraguay. In January 2016, he was awarded the "Padma Vibhushan" by the Government of India.
Ravi Shankar was born in Papanasam, Tamil Nadu to Visalakshi Ratnam and R. S. Venkat Ratnam. He was named "Ravi" (a common Indian name meaning "sun") because his birth was on a Sunday, and "Shankar" after the eighth-century Hindu saint, Adi Shankara, because it was also Shankara's birthday. Ravi Shankar's first teacher was Sudhakar Chaturvedi, an Indian Vedic Scholar and a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the St Joseph's College of Bangalore University. After graduation, Shankar travelled with his second teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, giving talks and arranging conferences on Vedic science, and setting up Transcendental Meditation and Ayurveda centres.
In the 1980s, Shankar initiated a series of practical and experiential courses in spirituality around the globe. He says that his rhythmic breathing practice, Sudarshan Kriya, came to him in 1982, "like a poem, an inspiration," after a ten-day period of silence on the banks of the Bhadra River in Shimoga, in the state of Karnataka, adding, "I learned it and started teaching it".
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