Vageesh Express

Vedic Guru

August 2007 Edition

||Sri Gurubhyo Namah||

In 2006,‘Vedic Guru’ revered the lives of saints who lived in the 19th century and before.

In 2007, we humbly honor Gurus of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

"The sign of life is enthusiasm. The sign of success is smile and joy."

- Sri Sri Ravishankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a spiritual and humanitarian leader, often referred to by "Sri Sri" or Guruji.

Sri Sri was born May 13, 1956 in Tamil Nadu, India to father Venkat Ratnam, a scholar of languages, and mother Vishalakshi. He was named "Shankar" since his birthday matched that of the ninth century Hindu saint Adi Shankara. According to his parents and biographies, at the age of four he could recite verses of the Bhagavad Gita. Even at a young age, he was said to be often found in deep meditation. He is a former disciple of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

According to a biographical article, Shankar "ascended into enlightenment" in 1982, after a 10 day retreat into silence, and emerged with the technique of Sudarshan Kriya, a rhythmic breathing exercise. In an interview, Shankar said that in 1982, while he was on the banks of the Tunga river in Shimoga in Karnataka, India, "The Sudarshan Kriya. It came like a poem, an inspiration. I learnt it and I started teaching it." He also came to believe that regulating breath could help people with their suffering.

He founded the Art of Living Foundation that year to spread this breathing technique. In 1997, he along with Dalai Lama and several others, founded the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) to "foster a deeper understanding of the values that unite a human community on a global scale".

Sri Sri is also a driving force behind charitable organizations such as the International Association for Human Values, which conducts the 5H program.

Shankar emphasizes breath as the subtle link between body and mind, and many of his techniques use the breath as a tool to relax the mind. He also places emphasis on service and volunteers are encouraged to serve others in addition to meditating. According to Ravi Shankar, science and spirituality are linked and not in conflict. Shankar's stated vision is to create a world that is free of stress and violence by globalising wisdom, and his programs aim to offer practical tools to accomplish it. In his view, "Truth is not linear, it is spherical. So it has to be contradictory. Anything that is spherical is always contradictory."

“Enlightenment is the very core of our being; going into the core of our self and living our life from there. We all came into this world gifted with innocence, but gradually, as we became more intelligent, we lost our innocence. We were born with silence, and as we grew up, we lost the silence and were filled with words. We lived in our hearts, and as time passed, we moved into our heads. Now the reversal of this journey is enlightenment. It is the journey from head back to the heart, from words, back to silence; getting back to our innocence in spite of our intelligence.”

Source - www.wikipedia.org

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