Jammu and Kashmir, India
H.H.Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar took his message of peace, and human values to the red zones of Jammu and Kashmir during his three-day visit to the Valley. He addressed a seminar on peace, and human values at the Sheri Kashmir International Conference Center on the banks of Dal Lake.
“While we must continue to preserve our cultural values, we will also have to modernize, in order to keep pace with the fast developing world," he said. In an effort to unite people of different faiths, he visited the Shariqa Devi temple, and Sheikh Hamza Mukhdoom's shrine in downtown Srinagar.
He also visited the famous Sikh temple of Chatti Padshahi. H.H.Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar inaugurated a middle school for young victims of militancy, and orphans from the 2004 earthquake. The school has been adopted by the Art of Living.
H.H.Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar interacted with inmates of the high-security Kothalwal Jail in Jammu, where 300 foreign, and local militants are also incarcerated. Promising to give up their violent past, and work for social progress, many of them shared their experience of the Art of Living Prison program.
One inmate shared: “We supported militancy, and suffered a lot. We now really realize that if we had educated them (the militants), we would not have suffered so much. Thanks to H.H.Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, we now have the tools to transform Kashmir and bring back peace.”