Year 2004..
Nagapattinam…Tamilnadu..
After the deadliest Tsunami that brought in its wake, mass death, hunger and disease, Sri Sri Ravishankar arrived there to instruct on Art of Living to the helpless and dispirited people whose houses have been smashed and dear have been snatched by Tsunami.
His devotees had readied a huge blue velvet sofa in front of a temple at a small place called Akkarapettai. Red carpet had been laid and rose petals showered on the entire length from the place where he was to alight from his plush imported car, arriving in a convoy of dozen such expensive cars. But just before his arrival, there was a slight tidal disturbance in the sea and it was quite natural that people, already battered by Tsunami once, took it to be a fresh wave of calamity. People started fleeing from the seashore calling out that Tsunami is coming again.
Army men who were busy clearing the debris of destroyed buildings and the organisers who were waiting to receive Ravishankar started fleeing for their lives just as Ravishankar arrived. Ravishankar, who inquired from fleeing people the cause of this flight, stood stunned for a moment. Then with instinct for self-preservation pushing him, he fled faster from the scene.
Though there was no Tsunamic devastation again, Ravishankar did not risk a visit to enlighten the people of Akkaraipettai. Asked when Guruji will enlighten the tsunami-struck fisher folk on the intricacies of Art of living, the disciples informed that Guruji was leaving for America the next day, and that he will be back when the threat from the sea abates fully. Art of living, indeed!
Most of the Indian Human Gods, Gurujis and Babas are uneducated. But that is not stopping them from giving ‘enlightenment’ to the most educated and affluent people of the society! Though he can’t speak much of any language other than his mother tongue Telugu, Sai Baba can easily ‘enlighten’ people ranging from the well educated T N Seshan to the most popular Rajnikant.
The hugging Mother, Mata Amritanandamayi could give hugs, kisses and bliss to her devotees including many corporate bigwigs and extreme celebrities. But the Richman’s Guruji, Sri Sri Ravishankar is a real showman among the current human gods with his stylized eloquence in English and his ‘ultra modern approach’ to living. He was supposed to be amongst the front runners for this year's Nobel Peace Prize claiming that he taught in 144 countries providing tools that improve over-all health, wellness and increase enthusiasm and mental focus!
Vijay Mallya, a prominent star of India’s liquor Industry proclaims that he is a follower of Sri sri Ravishankar. “I have always been a religious person. But Sri sri helped me to enjoy my religiosity. He helped me to impart ‘fizz’ to my religion and business.” ‘Fizz’ is a word that comes to mind in connection to beer, champagne and soda. It is an everyday word for a liquor baron like Mallya. When one goes deep into Sri sri Ravishankar’s Art of Living, it is possible to measure the depth of Mr. Mallya’s use of the word ‘fizz’.
Psychologists have proved that the headiness of alcoholic liquor can be induced even without the intake of it. The pulsating beat of music and sexy talks can excite our senses. Human mind can get agitated or excited by hysterical sloganeering, chanting, group prayers, rousing political campaigns and the emotions they arouse are examples of such orchestrated excitement. Sri sri Ravishankar’s Art of Living is not very different from this. Earlier such god men used to attract mostly the society’s lowest rungs of blind believers with their techniques but Ravishankar casts his net on the educated and rich gullible of the society.
Sri sri Ravishankar, a self-proclaimed modern day ‘prophet’, knows how to market religion and fake philosophy. He says bliss is the goal of life. And he is teaching everyone, regardless of religion caste or creed, ‘how to enjoy’. An ‘Art of Living’ blurb proclaims, “Sri sri has infused play, laughter, wisdom, meditation, song and dance into religiosity.” And it goes on to add, “Sri sri has gifted his Art of Living to humanity to enjoy every minute of life, to make life a festival and to bestow a lasting smile to every human being.”
Everyone desires bliss. But how is it achieved? Let us look at the ways suggested by Ravishankar in his advertisements. “20 – 22 hours of training over a period of six days, provided by the practical wonder called ‘Art of Living’, is an absolute must to face everyday struggles! Special breathing techniques, light yoga, meditation, ‘Star-rays of Consciousness’ (what is that on earth’?) to banish ignorance and last, but not the least, ‘Sudarshanakriya’ are all part of the grand syllabus. By learning to listen to pure conscience, illness is removed and one is able to enjoy the comforts of health!”
This advertisement makes it very clear that Sri sri Ravishankar’s ‘Art of Living’ targets the society’s ‘rich and beautiful’. Is there any need for a farmer working on his field or a labourer working to earn his living to practice special breathing techniques? Don’t we all know that hard working healthy bodies do not need training in special breathing techniques to stay healthy? It is only those leading sedentary life that need breathe control and yogic exercises to recover and stay healthy and there is nothing spiritual about yoga beyond its effects as a physical exercise.
Another claim in the Sri sri advertisement is that, Ravishankar’s efforts are aimed to remove ignorance. But there are many reports in the press that points to his being in the forefront of those who capitalize on human weakness by spreading superstitions and blind faith. A prayer to an imaginary goddess starting, “jai jai bhavani maa, ambe bhavani maa”, a prayer to lord Shiva starting, “hare Shiva Shiva, hare sundaranana” are chants to symbols of ancient caste and creed-based cults. When meditating on a goddess holding a decapitated head dripping blood, only horrid thoughts come to mind. Nor can Shiva’s image with a serpent around his neck and a trident in hand evoke much bliss. Christians also meditate on similar medieval symbols. Cogitating on a crucified Christ dripping blood can only dent the self-confidence of any man!
Sri sri Ravishankar has his 30 acres plus ashram near Bangalore. That the ‘guru of laughter’ is trying to spread blind faith is evident from this sample culled from a report in “Asian Age” on the ashram: The Guru conducts his ‘satsang’ here on moon-lit nights. It is said that there is an ancient Shiva temple on the shores of a lake inside the ashram. Vedic Rishi Vasishta is supposed to have lived here.
No Vedic Rishi is supposed to have lived south of Vindhyas. Vedic texts clearly state that the Vedas were created in an area North of Vindhyas and West of Yamuna. Still, Ravishankar, to establish the sanctity of his ashram, makes Vasishta a Bangalorean.
A 50 years plus Ravishankar, to establish his own divinity, has spread many myths. Ravishankar was born in a Brahmin family in Papanasham in Tamilnadu, to Venkitaratnam and Visalakshi. That he was born on 13th day of May 1956 may be true. But the myth being built around the date is laughable. It is claimed that Adi Shankara, the founder of Advaita School of Philosophy, was also born on 13th day of May. Ravishankar has not cared to enlighten anyone on the source of his information. It is estimated that Adi Shankara was born either in late 8th Century or early 9th century. Clearly, the claim that Ravishankar was born on the same day of the month as Adi Shankara is pure falsehood since such date of birth is yet to be established.
But Sri sri Ravishankar is not quitting with that. His next claim is that he was named on the Ramanuja Jayanthi Day. Ramanuja came 300 years after Adi Shankara (1017 – 1117 AD) and established the Vishishtadvaita School of Philosophy as a Vaishnava Scholar. Adi Shankara propagated Advaita, with ‘Mayaavada’ as component. Ramanuja propagated Bhakti Marga and sought to negate Shankara’s Mayaavada. As against a ‘Nirguna’ (unaffected) character of God proposed by Adi Shankara, Ramanuja established the Saguna (Affected) character of God. But Sri sri Ravishankar seeks to link his name with the two Acharyas with two contradictory schools of thought.
This forced link with two Acharyas are a bit trying, to say the least. Ravi Shankaranarayanan is his original name. According to him, he was so named as there were, in his native village, the deities of Shiva and Vishnu. Alright. But where did the prefix Sri sri found in his name come from ? When a journalist put this question to him, Ravishankar replied like this :
“Adding 108 or 1008 Sris will make the name a long one”. Clearly, we are being asked to be happy with two! We know Shri Shankaracharya, Shri Ramanujacharya, Shri Madhvacharya, Shri Narayana Guru and so on. We do not call them ‘Sri sri” or add “1008 Shri” to their names even though they are respected by many. Even Shri Rama and Shri Krishna, Gods to Hindus, have to be satisfied with just one Shri. But ‘108 Shri’ has become a bit of a privilege of false ascetics in the North India. Now, it is that unholy company Ravishankar seeks to keep. Nobody has conferred it on him. He simply awarded his own holy self the second dubious Shri.
Myths like ‘he learnt by heart all the slokas of Bhagwat Geeta by the age of four’ are being propagated about him. Doubtless, these myths are likely to grow both in number and size.
After graduation from St Joseph’s College, Bangalore, Ravishankar traveled to Hrishikesh to become Maharshi Mahesh Yogi’s disciple. Mahesh Yogi, the Guru of Transcendant Meditation, had set up his Ashrams in many parts of the world. These notorious Ashrams had done some very dubious things on the way to pelf and power. Maharshi’s ‘TM’ as Transcendant Meditation came to be called was subjected to a lot of criticisms at home and abroad. As his disciple, Ravishankar had traveled to South Africa and other places and learnt all the business secrets. By 1982 it was time to branch out independently, but with a different name and style.
Sri sri Ravishankar’s pronunciations incorporated the many blind beliefs already fostered by Yogacharyas and practitioners of Ayurveda. What Yogacharyas taught as Pranayama was repackaged and marketed as ‘Breathing Technique’ by Sri sri Ravishankar. There are people who say that you can cure any disease with pranayama. Our Yogacharyas and Ayurvedic Practitioners were not aware of bacteria and viruses. Ravishankar continues in that tradition. He maintains that our body contains ‘living poison’ and that this causes diseases. But, of course, if you learn pranayama under Ravishankar this poison is negated and you are free of diseases.
An amalgam of Pranayama, Yoga and devious practices of the ancient tantrik religions has been fondly named as Art of Living. Generally, wealthy middle-aged men and women are the ones who follow this ‘Art of Living’. That this is not free and comes with a hefty price tag is its speciality. This hefty fee is shared by the ‘teachers’ and, who else, the ‘Guru’.
This ‘Guru’ of the rich is not for Hindus alone, but also for the wealthy of all religions. Anyone who can afford it, regardless of religion, is welcome to be gulled. Quite appropriately, the ‘Guru’ appears with a make-up that highlights those features where he looks very similar to Jesus Christ seen in some medieval portraits. Ravishankar pays due respects to the ways and mores of different races and peoples as well as widely varying religions. This eases the way for wealthy of all peoples of the world to enter his parlour. Ravishankar concentrates on reconciling his ‘Art of Living’ to strike appropriate chords with different peoples seeing Krishna or Christ or Shiva or Omniscience as Gods.
In Guruvayur, he is the devotee of Krishna and in Sabarimala he is the devotee of Ayyappa. After paying his respects to all brands of faiths and reconciling them to his utmost advantage, he discourses on Vedas, Upanishads and Vedanta, dwelling on their greatness. But his interest is in ‘Rasaleela’ of Krishna, not found in scriptures. For example, he does not approve of the Christian tenet of the ‘Fear of God’. But he advocates Devotion to God through Love of God. Look and marvel at his efforts to reconcile the contradictions, Ravishankar is not against even rationalism. He says:
“In Indian philosophy there is no such thing as a blasphemer. Even an Atheist can be a yogi. To criticize something you must know it completely. Extremism is not right. Osama has read only Koran. God had existed before Koran was compiled. If he had read Vedas, the Upanishads and scriptures of other religions, he would not have become what he is today”.
The decay of traditional and ritualistic Hinduism is the reaping field of Sri sri Ravishankar’s philosophy business. Ravishankar offers the Upper Middle Class and the wealthy an expectation that he will provide the balm for frustrations in their lives. But what they get is a method of breathing and the manner of laughter wrapped in fake philosophy, marketed with a vengeance. Sudarshana Kriya and Art of Living are patented. And as Ravishankar has shown, this is the art of minting money which is exactly the goal of Art of Living.
Unlike many other places, Chennai is not very receptive to the exploits of human gods, though they keep on visiting the city on ‘spiritual tours’. To attract the Chennaites into his Art of living business, Sri Sri Ravishankar’s disciples organizing a one week course in Chennai now! This initial campaign is aimed only at celebrities and it is ‘free’ for them. The reason is simple! These celebrities could easily be converted later in to the brand ambassadors and endorsers of the Art of living business without paying them anything! A meticulously planned SMS publicity campaign is on air. It says.. ‘So and So biggies are participating and you too are invited. The seats are limited. Hurry!
With inputs from Therali
For further reading
BUSINESS OF THE GODS (Tehelka)
A MIRROR OF THE MIDDLE CLASS (Tehelka)
