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The White Wing Report 2009
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is one of the great spiritual leaders of our time, a living embodiment of peace, joy, and spiritual action in our world. Sri Sri began his worldwide organization the Art of Living Foundation in 1981. It has spread worldwide perhaps because of Sri Sri’s great personal personification of the spiritual truths and the Foundations ability to help millions on a very practical scale.
The Art of Living teaches the essence of life through aspects such as powerful breathing techniques, how to eliminate daily stress, improve relationships, and helps youth stay away from influences of drugs and violence.
Other humanitarian organizations Sri Sri founded
include the International Association for Human Values, organizations to help with sustainable growth in over 30,000 villages, disaster relief,
(including providing aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the United States) conflict resolution, prisoner rehab, helping women,
and youth. Close to Sri Sri’s heart are several organizations and Trusts to help with education in rural poverty laden areas
running more than 50 Indian schools, to help ease children from child labor, providing them with a free education, meals and a school
uniform.
Sri Sri also offers free programs under IAHV for all Veterans and their families called Project Welcome Home Troops.
It is currently helping many Veterans transition back into civilian life by releasing powerful stresses. The program helps veterans
focus, connect, and live a more healthy life. The YES! program for high school students and YES+ for college students are
being taught in cities around the country in the US and around the world.
Sri Sri's ogranizations truly help on a global scale.
2 1/2 Million People Attend One Event
Over 25 million people have been influenced by Sri Sri’s programs. In fact in perhaps one of the most amazing achievements in the 21st century, Sri Sri gathered two and a half million people on 243 acres outside Bangalore India. Why? To celebrate peace. These 2 million plus people did not make a splash on the mainstream news. They were too peaceful. During the three day event they sang, meditated and became the essence of peace. Over 1000 saints and religious leaders attended. This gathering should have been a world-wide historic news event. That’s almost 1/10 of the population of the United States.
The Art of Living Silver Jubilee event was a powerful statement to the world of the ability to organize quickly such a grand force not FOR peace – but actually OF peace itself.
Thank God we have Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. The world was calling for him.
1. What is The Best Spiritual Advice You Were Ever Given and Who Gave it To You? "When I was very young, about 10 or 12 years old, an elderly saint told me: “My dear, if God wanted you to be in the Himalayas or in some cave, He would not have given you eyes, nose, ears, tongue, hands and limbs. He would have just made you a ball of muscles and put you in a cave. The very fact that you have been given all these faculties is so that you can communicate with the world. So, it is not just enough that you experience the inner bliss, but you need to communicate this to people around you.” This was very interesting for me as I only wanted to be in the atmosphere of Divinity and wanted nothing to do with the world. At that time, this piece of advice that inner spiritual awakening is to be communicated to the world around you was invaluable."
2. What is The Best Spiritual Advice You Can Give To Help People Today? "My advice to seekers on the path would be to balance your life with what I would call pravritti and nivritti: Activity and prayer/ meditation. By doing service to society, you gain merit and with this merit only can you go deep within and experience the unconditional love and bliss of Divinity. Both these aspects are necessary: Meditation or your spiritual inner development and that expression of it as service to the world. If you are just engaged in service activity, you will miss a lot. You will miss the very purpose of life. If you are only locked up within yourself in prayer and meditation, you will find it incomplete. It can’t be successful. We need to find that balance between inner wakening and its expression as service to society. Then you will see there is no difference between the inside and the outside. Be natural. Spirituality is against all kinds of pretence."
3. What is Your Vision For 2010 and Beyond? "My vision is a world that is stress-free and violence-free where each one of us takes responsibility for our dear planet. In ancient India and other ancient civilizations, the world was honored as a manifestation of one Divinity. One God manifested as the 5 elements. We need to bring back that idea that this planet earth is sacred." His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Quotes "Is there one thing that everybody can have the same? Yes. Divine Love. To blossom in Divine Love, there is no distance. Everywhere the same Love can shine."
"Like when a movie is projected on a screen, all the figures in the movie are made up of one light. In the same way this earth is made up of five elements, earth, water, air, fire and ether. And our bodies are made up of it. Plus one sixth element which is the life force." "Life is existence, awareness, and love. This is the whole universe." "As long as we're alive on this planet, keep smiling and make others smile."
"There should be a balance between service and meditation. Those who do a lot of service get burnt out, if they don't make time for meditation, and those, who only meditate, become 'dry', if they don't make time for service. So you need both - service and meditation." "So very often your anxiety will hamper the process of growth." "If you just look at the phone bills, you will see 60% of your problems are your talking the problem out to people who cannot do anything about it. The definition of a "good company" is when you go and sit with someone and say your problem and you walk away feeling there is no problem at all! You feel lighter. The bad companies, you have a problem, you go and sit and talk to someone and you will feel it is much more than what you thought it is! You walk away from them with a heavy heart. Such bad company cannot let the love blossom in your heart." "You can hide thoughts. You can hide feelings also, but it's a little more difficult than thoughts. When you look at a man or woman you don't know what they are thinking, but you can make out what they are feeling sometimes... An intense feeling shows up in the face, in the expression. Look at someone in the eyes. You can see what is there behind those eyes. Feelings are subtler than thoughts so they are difficult to hide. And finer than feeling is love. Love is almost impossible to hide. And the more you hide, the more it comes into expression."
"Do you feel you are merged into this existence? That is Divine Love."
"What is the use of breathing?... What is the use of Love? You can't use breath. The breath uses you. You can't use Love. Love uses you, consumes your life."
Contact Sri Sri: through www.srisri.org or www.theartofliving.org
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