23 June 2013 - QA 3

Gurudev, The Art of Living is a 32 years old organization that spans across 152 countries and has touched the lives of 370 million people. What is the biggest challenge that you had to face?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I do not really recollect or keep a count of these challenges. Many challenges do come but when your goal is clear to you, you keep walking.
Fundamentalists don’t like this because it is eroding their base as people become more accepting and more broad-visioned. Some people just think about themselves, what they would gain by doing petty things and have different prejudices. They have different prejudice against religion.

In the beginning when I would go around teaching meditation, some people thought that it was like voodoo; not a normal person’s cup of tea. They thought that if anybody meditates then they are someone abnormal. Today times have changed. Prejudices are lesser.

Earlier the dress I wore and the way I looked, race and religion, everything mattered. Everything was an obstacle at one point of time as it was not a universally accepted norm, but now the prejudice is far lesser.