Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Biography: Birthday, Early life, Career, Works, Achievements, Facts

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Biography: Ravi Shankar (born 13 May 1956) is an Indian yoga guru and a spiritual leader. He is commonly known as Sri Sri (honorific), Guru ji, and Gurudev. Beginning in the middle of the 1970s, he served as an apprentice to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the creator of transcendental meditation. In 1981, he left the Transcendental Meditation (TM) organisation and established the Art of Living Foundation.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Biography

Early Life

Ravi Shankar was born in Papanasam, Tamil Nadu, to Vishalakshi and R.S.Venkat Ratnam. He is Bhanumathi Narasimhan’s sibling. He was named “Ravi” (a common Indian name that means “sun”) because he was born on a Sunday, and “Shankar” after the eighth-century Hindu saint Adi Shankara, who shared the same birthday as Ravi Shankar. Sudhakar Chaturvedi, an Indian Vedic Scholar and close associate of Mahatma Gandhi was Ravi Shankar’s first teacher. He graduated from St. Joseph’s College of Bengaluru University with a Bachelor of Science. Following his matriculation, he travelled with his second teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, delivering lectures and organising conferences on Vedic science, as well as establishing Transcendental Meditation and Ayurveda centres.

Career

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was a world-travelling spiritual teacher who espoused spirituality. In 1982, he founded the Art of Living Foundation and taught the first Art of Living course in Europe, Switzerland. In 1986, he travelled to California for an Art of Living workshop and quickly gained widespread popularity in the United States. He established the International Association for Human Values (IAHV), a humanitarian organisation with the mission of bringing sustainable development to rural areas and revitalising human values and principles. Ravi has emphasised that spirituality fosters human values such as love and compassion and that people of all faiths can embrace it.

He arranges ‘Satsangs’ (group meetings) where his numerous devotees can listen to his discourses and meditate in unison. Shankar is widely recognised as a peace ambassador, spreading his vision of nonviolence through the Art of Living Foundation and performing innumerable other charitable acts to this day. Numerous honours and distinctions have been bestowed upon him for his work as a peace ambassador, for which he has received worldwide recognition. Through the Art of Living Foundation, he has spread his vision of nonviolence, and he is currently involved in innumerable other charitable endeavours. In 1992, he initiated a programme to rehabilitate prisoners and assist them in finding respectable employment upon their release.

He travelled to Pakistan and Iraq in 2004 and 2007, respectively, and became involved in ‘interfaith dialogue’; he is presently a member of the ‘Board of World Religious Leaders. In the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami, volunteers from the ‘Art of Living Foundation’ provided aid, food, and sanctuary to tsunami victims. The ‘Volunteer for a Better India’ initiative was introduced on December 5, 2012, in response to the 2012 Delhi Gang Rape Case. Recently, he initiated the NONVIO Movement with the intention of permanently eliminating violence.

Awards & Achievements

• In 1986, he was awarded the title of “Yoga Shiromani” by the President of India.
• The Government of Maharashtra conferred him the Guru Mahatmya Award in 1997.
• In 2005, he received the prestigious ‘Global Humanitarian Award’ in Illinois, United States of America.
  2007 saw him receive the ‘Leadership Award for Extraordinary Promotion of World Peace and Harmony’ from Amity University, New Delhi.
• Forbes Magazine ranked him as the fifth most influential person in India in 2009.
• In 2010, he received the ‘Atmajyoti Award’ for his humanitarian work in New Delhi.
• On September 13, 2012, he was awarded Paraguay’s highest civilian honour, the National Order of Merito de Comuneros.

Legacy

Today, the Art of Living Foundation is present in more than 152 nations and has more than a million followers. Other institutions and ashrams, such as ‘Ved Vignan Mahavidyapeeth’, ‘Sri Sri Ayurveda’, ‘The Sri Sri School for Performing Arts and Fine Arts’, and ‘Sri Sri Pre-University College’, continue his legacy.

Facts

• In 1956, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was born in Tamil Nadu. At the age of four, when most children cannot even correctly speak, he was able to recite the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit.
• In 1981, he founded The Art of Living
• Sri Sri founded his first international non-profit and humanitarian organisation, The Art of Living, in 1981, after having followed the path of meditation from a very young age. The organisation provides a variety of courses to reduce tension and promote a sense of well-being.
• Sri Sri was awarded the ‘Title of Yoga Shiromani (Supreme Jewel of Yoga)’ by the President of India in 1986 for introducing yoga and meditation to many people’s lives and having a significant impact on many.
• In 2012, Sri Sri visited the Peruvian site of Machu Picchu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to spread a meditation revolution. On the ancient site, he led a meditation session for world peace with one thousand individuals.
• Sri Sri was troubled by the long-standing conflict in Ayodhya, and he actively sought a resolution in 2001-2002 and again in 2017. The Supreme Court of India appointed the leader as one of the three mediators to resolve the dispute after reviewing his efforts.
• To provide free education to the disadvantaged, the foundation of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar operates 702 schools and provides learning opportunities to more than 70,000 students.
  Contribution to the environment Sri Sri is actively engaged in bringing about environmental changes and revitalising India’s 49 rivers and countless water bodies.
• Sri Sri has received numerous honours, including the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian honour. In addition, he has received the highest civilian honour in Colombia, Mongolia, and Paraguay, as well as 23 Honorary Doctorates worldwide.