Author: T.R. Gopalakrishnan &
N. Bhanutej
Publication: The Week
Date: February 10, 2002
In the 70s, Mahesh Yogi was going
around the country popularising his Transcendental Meditation. In Bangalore
was a young man whose name-Pandit Ravi Shankar-made Mahesh Yogi's head
turn. "Join me," said Mahesh Yogi to the young man, who jumped at the offer.
The young man travelled the world as Mahesh Yogi's devotee. His flowing
beard, his pleasant smile and immaculate manners disarmed the west. Thirsting
as it was for Indian philosophy, the west could not ask for a better interpreter
than Ravi Shankar.
Our media has a self-blame culture.
We think everything Indian is no good. For example, the label Godman they
give only to Hindu religious and spiritual leaders. Not to the Pope or
any bishop or mullah. That is what I do not understand. This kind of attitude
towards our own people and culture has to change
Ravi Shankar has since grown out
of Mahesh Yogi's shadow to become one of India's best known spiritual leaders
(he hates to be called a godman). Guruji or Master, as he is referred to,
is today more than an individual or an institution. His Art of Living course-which
are workshops for spiritual growth and self-development-has reached more
than a million people in over 100 countries around the globe. The Sudarshana
Kriya breathing technique is becoming one of the most popular stress-busting
techniques today. Two psychiatrists from the National Institute of Mental
Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, who conducted an unofficial study
on people practising Sudarshana Kriya, recommend the technique as a cure
for depression.
Born in 1956 in a middle-class upper
caste family, Ravi Shankar is the only non-westerner to serve on the advisory
board of Yale University's School of Divinity. He is the founder of the
Art of Living Centre, an official non-government organisation in special
consultation status with the United Nations. On the 50th anniversary of
the UN, Ravi Shankar spoke at the UN on how to raise awareness about human
values. In 1996, he and the Dalai Lama were guests in a special programme
broadcast by Swedish Public Television on Effective Living and Peaceful
Coexistence.
The Art of Living Centre, known
also as the Ved Vignan Maha Vidya Peeth, was established by Ravi Shankar
in 1982 on a sprawling 60-acre hill about 25 km from Bangalore. Today,
the place is thronged by followers from India and abroad. During the public
darshan at the ashram every day he is mobbed by people who are laughing,
screaming, crying and chanting.
While the following around him strives
to build an aura around Ravi Shankar, Sri Sri himself is a simple and informal
person who enjoys cooking. On some days, the two Brahmin cooks in the kitchen
have no work as the master wields the ladle himself, though his own favourites
are a simple curd rice and paayasam. Excerpts from an interview:
What force other than police and
military can play a role in combating terrorism? Education. Because
terrorism is indoctrinated in the education system. So changing the education
system-bringing a wider range of knowledge to people... creating an open
mind-will combat terrorism. People take pride in violence. It was not so,
especially in this country. Non-violence was the pride of people. But in
the last 30 years or so, that has shifted to the pride in violence. Even
in schools and colleges, the one who does more dadagiri, gets more attention.
Their voices are heard more. The voice of non-violence should be heard
more.
Revolution need not mean bloodshed.
I think there can be a very peaceful revolution too... for which India
has been an example. India has shown to the world that a peaceful revolution
is possible.
Q.: What role does wealth play in
this?
A.: Wealth definitely has a role
to play. Chanakya said dharmasya moolam artha. That when there is prosperity,
there will be righteousness, and arthasya moolam rajya. That development
depends on the state... how the state develops the economy. Wealth is linked
to one's peace of mind, one's righteousness. But wealth should always be
treated as a means, not a goal in itself. This can happen only if there
is attention on human values. It is the greed in the person that alienates
him.
Q.: How have you synthe-sised these
values in your own Art of Living philosophy and work?
Stress is the cause of all ills
in society. Whether it is a family dispute or a personal health problem
or bad behaviour in society, all these are caused by stress and lack of
broad vision in life. The main purpose of Art of Living is to give a broad
vision about one's life, and to set a course-what is it that you want in
life. How you can be happy and make others happy. This is our main focus:
to make you healthy and stress-free.
Q.: Do you see an erosion of values
in the young? In your programmes in the Art of Living, how are you addressing
the youngsters?
A.: Yes, yes. Human values are
not being given importance anywhere... neither at home nor in school. Children
are just being given information and are loaded with inhibitions. So they
cannot communicate well with anybody. In the US, children fight each other
with guns. We don't want such things to happen in this country. For that,
we have to bring in the values of non-violence, love, caring for each other,
an attitude of service, respect for each other. These values are a part
of us for ages. Only in recent years they are eroding. We have to re-establish
them.
We have a programme for them called
'Young Adults' and 'ART Excel' which means all round training in excellence.
In these we tell them that most of their problems are due to communication
gaps. The objectives are to bring about better communication between them
and adults and to create self-esteem in them.
We need a lot of education in behaviour.
Even our parliamentarians need this. They also don't know how to behave.
Q.: Talking of parliamentarians,
do you thing Indian society has a leadership crisis, and not just in politics?
A.: Definitely. For leadership,
you need good self-esteem, confidence, a shining personality, a sense of
fulfillment and broad-mindedness. Without that, we cannot have proper leadership.
Q.: In your programmes for young
people, how is the issue of spirituality addressed?
A.: Spirituality does not exclude
anybody. It means learning and upholding the value of spirit and what spirit
represents. So you teach consciousness, beauty, friendship, joy, love and
so on. And enhancing all that the spirit is made up of. You do not need
to make any extra effort to make spirituality charming. By nature, spirituality
brings about charm. It is like the food for the soul. Once we sit together,
sing together, play together, spirituality can be taken as fun.
Q.: Spirituality is often confused
with religion.
A.: I clearly make that distinction.
Spirituality is like the banana and religion is like the banana's skin.
Q.: Would you like to see spirituality
becoming part of the school curriculum in some form?
A.: Not as part of the curriculum,
but as an extra-curricular activity. But it should integrate well with
their games, their attitudes and their behaviour. Because, anything which
is part of curriculum loses its life. It can be encouraged in various ways.
Such as making a new friend every day; learning about things that are not
usually taught in the schools such as ancient philosophy of India. Our
children do not know how many Upanishads there are. Many universities in
America have a seat of Indology. But there is only one university in the
whole of India which has a seat of Indology. This is a pathetic condition.
Our people need to know about our huge wealth of philosophy texts.
The problem in Afghanistan and Pakistan
is that they have forgotten that they were also Hindus once upon a time.
They have no respect for their past. If they had learnt a little about
Buddhism, about the vedas and upanishads I don't think the Taliban would
have done what they did
But why does Indian philosophy always
boil down to Hindu philosophy? Hinduism is not a religion; it is just a
way of life that thousands of rishis have written about. It is such a democratic
religion where everybody has the freedom to think, write or say whatever
they want. We have no opposition for any other philosophy coming into us.
We have no opposition for the Bible to be part of our own study. Nobody
here will say, 'If you read the Bible, you will go to hell'. It is an inclusive
way of looking at life, and that is what we need in the world today. We
have no objection taking food from every part of the world, listening to
music from every part of the world. So we need to globalise wisdom too.
Q.: How do you react to fears that
western influence will wipe out Indian heritage and culture?
A.: I don't think that is the right
approach. To act out of fear is not the right thing. Fear of annihilation
of culture is not the way to look at this. You should educate people in
the values that are present here. You should highlight the heritage that
you have. That itself will sustain you. Our problem is we do not highlight
the nice things we have, but we are afraid of something from somewhere
outside. So we are neither here nor there. We need not be afraid of American
influence. We should know that the wealth we have can overpower anything
else.
Q.: What role do you see for the
mass media in this context?
A.: Our media has a self-blame
culture. When WTC was attacked the US media did not say it was a failure
of intelligence, nor did the opposition demand the resignation of anybody.
Here, when any small incident happens, we blame each other and demand a
resignation. This is destructive criticism. This, in the media, should
change.
For example, Hindu swamis are called
'godmen'. But when the Pope speaks, he will not be called a 'godman'. They
would never call Mother Teresa a 'godwoman'. This godman type of label
they give only to Hindu religious and spiritual leaders. Not to any bishop
or mullah. That is what I do not understand. So this kind of attitude,
towards our own people and culture, in the media, has to change.
I think low self-esteem is the problem.
We think everything Indian is no good. Also we just copy the western media.
For instance, see how newsreaders presents news. You can read the news
sitting in front of a hut, in a village set up. I think they should have
some originality.
Q.: Technology is said to be the
antithesis to religion and philosophy.
A.: No. Technology is meant for
bringing comfort to the body and spirituality brings comfort to the mind.
In the west, religion was always opposed to science. Scientists were persecuted.
But in India that never happened, religion has always encouraged science
(gyana vigyana trithatma, Krishna had said). Here, religion and philosophy
were never isolated practices. They intertwined with life, in music, art,
drama, dance, painting, sculpture. This you wouldn't find anywhere else
in the world.
Q.: The other issue is politics
and religion.
A.: In the Indian context, we have
respect for all religions. Privilege for one religion above the other is
not right. In our country the majority religion does not get facilities.
Minority religions have become a vote-bank for politicians. That is the
problem. Those people who go to the kumbh mela have to pay taxes whereas
people are given a grant to go to Haj. These are disparities. That's why
there is a sense of resentment in the majority community. The minority
community institutions are fully exempted from taxes whereas majority community
institutions are not. In Karnataka, we have 40,000 temples. The income
from these temples is Rs 40 crore. Only Rs 50 lakh is spent on the temples,
the rest goes to the government. Whereas grants are given to the minority
communities (to an extent of Rs 8 crore) while their income is only Rs
50 lakh. These disparities should go. Everybody should be treated equally.
Q.: What about separation of politics
and religion?
A.: Religious leaders should not
be in politics, but politicians should be religious. Because, religion
is meant to bring righteousness and politics is there to care for people.
If politicians become irreligious, they become corrupt, which is what has
happened in our society. Because, the conscience is gone. So maybe, spirituality
is the answer to all this. We don't have to be religious, but we have to
be spiritual.
Q.: How do you see the development
process? Poverty is looked at purely raising the income levels. How else
would you measure development?
A.: The panchayat and village level
should not wait for the district or state to improve their situation. We
in the Art of Living, have started doing this. We have adopted 3,000 villages
where we encourage local youth to do the '5 H' programme-health, hygiene,
home, harmony in diversity and human values. Soon, we will take up double
this number.
Some help from the state is necessary.
But this works much better. When they construct their own toilets, they
take responsibility to maintain it. We encourage farmers to sit together
and plan. You see, we have plenty of resources, but there is no planner.
The boys from villages who get education do not think of going back to
the villages. They prefer the towns. But our strength is in the rural areas.
Q.: How do you see the issue of
religious education in schools?
A.: They should be given multi-religious
education. Every child should have access to all the wisdom of all religions.
That would broaden their whole outlook towards life. The problem in Afghanistan
and Pakistan is that they have forgotten that they were also Hindus once
upon a time. Their ancestors also chanted 'Sri Ram'. They also were Buddhists;
they worshipped Buddha. Why do they simply watch in silence when the Bamiyan
Buddhas were destroyed? They have no respect for their past. Because they
are totally unaware of what Buddhism is. If they had learnt a little about
Buddhism, I don't think the Taliban would have done what they did. If they
had known something about the Vedas and Upanishads, they would have simply
loved everybody.
So, this sort of education is needed,
specially in madrasas in this country. Let them study their scriptures
as the main subject. But as a subordinate subject, they should study a
little about all other religions. Every child should study science and
other religions. Otherwise, India will see once more the rise of fanaticism
and fundamentalism.
Q.: What are your views on Dalits
deciding to convert?
A.: I think we are politicising
the Dalit issue. Don't make Dalits just a vote-bank. This is how religion
is misused by politicians.
We have highlighted in our book
Heritage of Dalits how many saints in the past have worked for upliftment
of Dalits. Many of the saints we believe in and adore do not belong to
upper castes. Among the thousand-odd rishis, just a handful of them are
Brahmins. These facts are not known to people. All that they know is Ambedkar.
It is very easy to get converted
to some other religion. Then, you will not teach acceptance to those who
have to learn. But if you stay and get people to change, you will have
to have a very different "warrior" attitude. Fight against discrimination,
fight for your rights.
Every Dalit has a right to the Hindu
heritage-that's what we say. In our schools, 80 per cent of children are
from the Dalit community.
Q.: Art of Living is Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar. How would you describe the essence of your life and the programme
that you have launched?
A.: Love all and keep an undying
smile.
