Kiran Sawhney

Montreal, Canada, Nov. 25:  Q. How can I not see ugly feelings behind ugly words? Sri Sri: Sometimes people say words and they really don’t feel that way. Don’t you do it sometimes? As children, you say things that you don’t really mean. Kids usually say things they mean. As we grow older, our feelings and words grow apart. They are not the same. Now, don’t worry about what other people are. Sri Sri in Montreal: "When I am happy, let me do seva and when I'm sad give me the strength to renounce."

T ihar Jail The Prison SMART program was introduced in Tihar Jail in 1999. More than  120,000 inmates from prisons in India have undergone the Prison SMART program  with spectacular results. In Tihar Jail (Asia's largest prison) alone, around 48,000 convicts have benefited from the program. Special courses have also been conducted for the prison staff to cope with the stress owing to the nature of their job. There are a total of nine jails within Tihar jail, that are divided area wise or court wise. Jail number 1, 3, 4, 5 is the old jail. Jail number 5 is for youths of 18-21 yrs old. Jail number 6 is for women. Every month two courses are conducted and follow up sessions are held every weekend. Since 2000 to date,  48000 prison inmates  have done the course. Every year two courses are conducted for the prison staff and almost  130 staff members  have done The Art of Living Introductory Course. SRIJAN Project SRIJAN - Social Rehabilitation of Inmates in Jail...

Canada, November 26: Q. Why do so many religions face east when praying? Is it good to face east when meditating? Sri Sri:  Different reasons exist. The sun rises in the east. So, in the morning, you meditate facing east. But in the evening, you face west because the sun sets in the west. Energy flows from where the sun is. So, when you face the sun, you are balanced. For prayer and meditation, you need balance - balance of mind, posture… See, it does not matter which direction you face when you meditate, as long as you are facing a direction and meditating. Q. Why did God create so many galaxies, universes, people etc? What was His purpose? Sri Sri:  Well, he couldn’t find a better job to do (smiles)! It’s obvious - you ask someone who is playing soccer. When so many people are fighting over that little ball, if an alien comes and watches 22 people fighting over one ball, he will ask, “This world has so many things, why don’t you just give a ball to each player? They are busy...

Divinity permeates everything in this Earth. Puja is not complete without honoring the trees, mountains, rivers, Earth and the people living on the Earth. Honoring everyone is Dakshina. Da means to give and Dakshina means giving something that will cleanse us of all impurities. Offering with which all your sins vanish. No puja is complete without Dakshina. When we act in society with skill and free from the distortions of the mind, all negative tendencies like anger, worries, sorrow are destroyed. I will say give your tensions, worries and sorrows as Dakshina. {Knowledge Sheet} Subject: Look around and see who is not smiling. Now for the next few days you should take care of them. Q: I am often outraged by the injustice happening around me, but realize there is also a need for love and understanding. How can I balance these feelings? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When many bristles are put together to make a broom, they are far more effective in sweeping a large hall than they would have been ...

Sri Sri: Faith is a wealth. If you think, by having faith in God you are doing a favour to God, you are mistaken. Faith gives you strength instantaneously. Faith brings you stability, centeredness, calmness and love. You having Faith In The Guru Or God, Does Not Do Anything To Guru Or God. Your Having Faith Gives You Immediate Strength. Faith is a great wealth; it is a blessing. If you lack faith, you have to pray for faith. But to pray, you need faith. This is a paradox. (Laughter) People have faith in the world - but the whole world is just a soap bubble. People have faith in themselves - but they don't know who they are. People think that they have faith in God - but they have no idea of God. If you want to doubt, you have to doubt everything There are three types of faith : faith in yourself, faith in the world, and faith in God. You need to have faith in yourself -- without faith, you think, I can't do this. This is not for me. I will never be liberated in this life. You m...

Have faith in the sound and move on to have faith in the silence. Have faith in sound when it is pleasant and have faith in the silence when the sound is unpleasant. When some one says something bad you immediately believe it and the mind becomes more disturbed. Believing in an unpleasant sound creates more turmoil in the mind. In that situation shift your faith to silence. Have faith in the sound, like the chanting of mantras. People seem to have more faith in chatting and gossip rather than chanting and knowledge. Have faith in the knowledge and chanting and have faith in silence. - Sri Sri Anecdote: On the day of the full moon, Sri Sri visited the ancient temple of Kollur where there was an elaborately decorated chariot of the goddess being pulled around the temple. Explaining its significance, Sri Sri said that each one of us is like a chariot carrying the power of God within. We are the real chariot of the Divine. Our body is the chariot and the soul is the deity which is being pu...

This weekend, I went with family to Kingdom of Dreams, India's answer to Sydney's Opera House, Paris's Moulin Rouge, Thailand's Phuket FantaSea, Singapore's Esplanade and London's Broadway.  Set up by `Great Indian Nautanki Company' in the Millennium City. It is built at a cost of more than Rs 200 crore and will emerge as a major tourist destination. Within the centre, Culture Gully, Patli Gully, Nautanki Mahal and ShowShaa Theatre each offer a unique entertainment proposition. Culture Gully, an air-conditioned boulevard spread across 100,000 sq. feet, showcases India's cultural and artistic diversity, heritage crafts and culinary delights  under India’s first ever sky dome. There are theme restaurants and over 350 exotic food preparations by certified chefs from across 14 states. There are  performing arts, which are beautifully synchronized with spectacular technological wizardry. But the centre of attraction and jewel in the crown at Kingdom of Dre...

Sri Sri: It is only through merit that you can have faith. When you lack faith, happiness is neither in the inner nor the outer world. Happiness springs forth from faith. Happiness is forgetting the body consciousness. Pain or sorrow is holding on to the body consciousness. Whenever you are happy you don't feel the body and when you are miserable, you have aches and pains. Question: Then why in meditation is the attention taken to various parts of the body? Sri Sri: For an arrow to go forward, you have to pull it back. In the same way when you take the attention to the various parts of the body, it frees you from body consciousness. * * * NEWS SPLASH! Nov. 28, 1996. Guruji's first whirlwind tour in the Punjab was exhilarating. Joginder Sing, an 86 year old man, was color blind for the last 10 years and he regained his sense of colors. The world which was black and white once again became a color movie. Mr. Sunif Gulati, the Director of the Government Dept of Health, had lost mo...

Projects › Disaster Relief › Case Studies › Earthquake Relief Efforts Merapi Volcano 1 2 3 In the aftermath of Indonesia’s volcanic catastrophe, the country is gradually on the road to recovery. Mount Merapi or The Mountain of Fire, which erupted five times since October 26, 2010, has left in its wake, chaos, death, a ruptured economy, non-existent agriculture, and so many missing and homeless. On November 2, five days after the deadly eruption, The Art of Living Indonesian chapter sent aid in the form of blankets, sarongs, milk, medicine, masks and toiletries. Volunteers visited a few shelter homes, camps and a village at the base of the mountain. Followed by yet another eruption on November 11, thousands of inhabitants were relocated to temporary shelters near the central Java city of Yogyakarta (famous for the Borobudur temple, and hub of higher education). Evacuees Anxious An Art of Living volunteer team from Jakarta visited the evacuees on November 22. It was found that although t...

Since a young age, life and God presented a constant puzzle to me. Nowhere God to be found and the purpose of life seemed hidden. I voraciously devoured all great literary works, biographies of stalwarts, philosophies of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi, Nietzche, etc.  While the intellect delighted in the temporary pleasures of books, life remained empty of meaning and purpose. Soon after finishing my studies in social sciences, I joined India’s top media house and made quick progress in career. Yet I was bothered by the inner urge to find the real purpose of life. Sudarshan Kriya Experience As if it was a divine intervention, an elderly Reiki master advised me to join the  Art of Living  classes. I immediately signed up for the course. Though I started with lots of doubts, I was totally bowled over by the  Sudarshan Kriya  and the  knowledge sutras . I felt very pure and clean from inside. The course rekindled my faith in the goodness o...

Do I recommend energy drinks to my clients? No. Do I recommend supplements to my clients? No Do I recommend steroids to my clients? No Are my clients able to achieve their target fitness goals? You bet they do. I can vouch on my life that they do. Do I formulate a diet plan for my clients? Sure I do. Energy drinks - Coconut water is the best Gatorade. I recommend having coconut water, buttermilk, lemon water, etc instead of so called and marketed energy drinks. Supplement s- Human body is the best machine made by God. It is perfect. It has the power to cure itself, survive on natural foods given by nature without the fancy supplements marketed by big companies. Yes, with changing fast paced lives and imbalanced nutrition, what you can have are few basic things like calcium, protein, multi vitamin. But what I do not recommend is those big jars with a body builder's body on top, showing a flexed bicep. Those expensive supplements are recommended by personal trainers who make more mon...