Founder

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher and an ambassador of peace. His vision of a stress-free, violence-free society has united millions of people the world over through service projects and the courses of The Art of Living.

Born in 1956 in Southern India, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was a gifted child. By the age of four, he was able to recite parts of the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Sanskrit scripture and was often found in meditation. His first teacher, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, worked with Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom movement. By the age of seventeen in 1973, he had graduated with degrees in both Vedic Literature and Physics.

In 1982 Sri Sri went on a ten-day period of silence in Shimoga located in the Indian state of Karnataka. Here he came up with the powerful breathing technique, the Sudarshankriya. Over time, the Sudarshan Kriya became the central piece of the Art of Living courses. In the same year Sri Sri founded the Art of Living, which is now one of the world’s largest volunteer non-profits, active in over 151 countries.

Through his initiatives and addresses, Sri Sri has consistently emphasized the need for reinforcing human values and recognizing humanity as our highest identity. He encouraged interfaith harmony and multi-cultural education as part of the efforts to achieve sustainable peace on our planet.

His work has touched the lives of millions of people around the world, going beyond the barriers of race, nationality and religion with the message of a “one-world family". He believes that service to others and awakened human values need to be adopted by all to achieve inner and outer peace and a stress-free and violence-free society.

Click here to visit the official website of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar