On Tour with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar  

Sri Sri was central to the opening ceremony for the largest and most diverse multifaith gathering of religious and spiritual communities in the world, The Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne.

Sri Sri was a key speaker, urged people and communities of faith, spirit and goodwill to “Make a World of Difference” in the midst of the challenges facing the global community. “All religious leaders have to take on this role. We cannot lose sight of that one Divinity, which has created this beautiful diversity.

Otherwise we won’t have a symphony, we will have a chaos. The world has witnessed so much chaos, now let’s focus on one conductor – GOD – Generator, Operator and Destroyer. Focus on one aspect, but play your instrument.”

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Without failure is possible if you are able to use your intuition perfectly,” said Sri Sri, during an interaction with students of the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai, – on November 26.

“Both should act perfectly to achieve zero failure in innovation,” he said, adding that meditation would help an individual to get ahead despite failures. Sri Sri inaugurated the MILK (Meditation and Inspiration Center for Living and Kindness) on the campus.

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Sri Sri spoke about the spiritual and philosophical aspects of wealth at the Forbes launch of its first list of 100 richest people in India for its Indian edition.

Sri Sri was part of a panel discussion which explored the purpose of wealth through economic and spiritual perspectives.

He launched the Forbes edition as well. Incidentally, the Forbes Power list for 2009 named Sri Sri as the fifth most powerful person in India.

Honorable Minister-President of Baden-Wuerttemberg praised Sri Sri’s efforts to resolve conflict and bring peace at various fora. He said: “I am from a Christian country and have a vision to unite all religions and culture across the globe.”

He paid a visit to the Art of Living International Center with a government delegation from Germany comprising the Ministers of the State for Finance, Economics and other parliament members.

Honorable Minister for Large and Medium Industries, Karnataka, Mr. Murugesh Rudrappa Nirani and President of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Crasta were also present.

While addressing the delegation, Sri Sri said, “India always stands for fostering the vision of a One World Family. Human values have to be an integral part of all facets of life; be it business, politics or society as a whole.

“The economic meltdown is the result of greed. Ethical and moral values are the backbone of business and business is the way to sustain the world.”

During his visit to Israel, 19th - 22nd October 2009 Sri Sri was a speaker at the Presidential Conference - 'Facing Tomorrow' 2009. In an interview with renowned talk show host Dan Shilon, he shared that the Middle East crisis could be solved through educating people with a multi cultural, multi religious and broader spectrum of knowledge”.

He addressed a group of business leaders at the Tel Aviv University, an address at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and also gave a public address where people had an opportunity to ask questions on spirituality and how to overcome problems.

During his visit to Israel Sri Sri highlighted the need to secularize religion, socialize business and spiritualize politics. Addressing the business leaders Sri Sri said:

“I feel Fanaticism and fundamentalism can be quelled through educating children in a multicultural and multi religious manner. When a child grows up thinking, “Only I go to heaven. Everybody else is going to hell,” they create a hell for everybody else.

The two streams of thought, torah and veda are the most ancient on the planet. The oldest of all the religions is Judaism on one hand and on the other hand the Hindu way of life, Hinduism.

There are a lot of similarities, but we both say one thing: you say, “Shalom,” and we say, “Om Shanti, Om Shanti”— “Let there be peace!” Let us all be united. The world is one beautiful family. This message we need to take everywhere, to every doorstep”.

Diwali means the festival of lights. Each one of you is a light to yourself. To light one candle is not enough. Everyone has to be happy and light up. Symbolically this signifies igniting the light of wisdom. There are 27 countries in Europe, so we will light one lamp for each country.

The Diwali message is: Let go of the past. Celebrate life with wisdom. Without wisdom it is not true celebration at all. The wisdom is in knowing that the divinity is with me.

A talk was organized with the theme of “Warai to Kokoro,” or “Laughter and Heart”. Sri Sri began his address by saying:

“India and Japan have had a long-standing relationship. In fact I would say the whole world is one family whether it is America, Europe, Japan, or India.There is a saying in India that says ‘The World is one family’.

Matsuda San concluded the meeting by remarking, “When I visited India, I found many people who like Japan. However, not many people in Japan know much about India.

They know about IT, turbans and curry, but they have not understood the heart of the people. Sri Sri shared that heart with us”.

At a public gathering in Tokyo Sri Sri emphasized the importance of observing the tendencies of the mind, of being established in the silence within, as well as being dynamic in outer activity.

He said we should have a centre here where we can teach this beautiful knowledge which can bring good health and happiness to the people of Japan. We must do something for the old and young.We want to have a physical place where anybody can walk in, learn meditation and remove the anxiety in life.

Sri Sri’s final words were; “Be like a child. Be with enthusiasm. Dance and sing and be joyful. Life has problems, but they come and go. Don’t mind what is happening in the mind. Don’t mind what is happening in life. Just move on. When you share more and more comes to you. When you spread love, love comes to you”.

In his address in Gangnam, Sri Sri said Korea must look towards its education system in order to institute the multicultural mindsets that will see them overcome racism. Regionalism will be a problem for the country until it starts out on the process of multiculturalism.

"We have to teach people a multicultural and broad mindset, otherwise, you know, a sort of narrow racism and regionalism will be a problem for people," he said.

Sri Sri is in Korea to give a talk at the World Knowledge Forum being held in Seoul this week, where former U.S. President George W. Bush is also a speaker. The Gangnam event was one of two sideline events he is holding.

When asked about the involvement of fellow speaker Bush, Sri Sri said, "Well, that is good. Everybody is welcome in knowledge. It is a lack of knowledge that gives a different color to your personality."