The Truth about Sri Sri

The Truth about Sri Sri

I’m with you.

Something doesn’t quite add up about the man.

Ok, so he’s a spiritual leader. He teaches yoga and meditation. His organization is spread over over 150 countries; they do service activities and have pulled off some big projects etc. etc.

This much is easy to get.

What is not easy to get is the madness around him. Because all of the above does not explain the wild hysteria and attention that surrounds him.

For instance, he was all over Argentina on his current tour of South America. There was a massive crowd to receive him at the airport. He was trending on twitter as soon as he landed. He addressed students and educators who stood in rain in some places, listening to him. Universities and Governors honored him. He went to visit a prison, spoke at conferences and even took a walk through the rural area of Buenos Aires.

Some people kicked up a controversy too about alleged tax evasion and the government having paid him but only until 150,000 people showed up for a massive meditation. That event silenced everything. No matter whether you play fair or dirty, everybody knows when they’ve been outplayed with a bigger hand. And of all places, Argentina is well familiar with the hand of God.

Coming back, what makes all this tick? The obvious answer is - it’s packaged really well. For instance, after the meditation, the huge crowd at El Planeta Medita was seen moving to thumping beats with the band So What Project, chanting “Ganesha Om” and “Namo Narayana”. But even if the presentation is attractive, the dish still has to taste good. An ornate frame will not make the painting itself beautiful.

At the heart of this whirlpool of frenzy around Art of Living and Sri Sri is the truth : there is something about you that you have still not known. He does not explain it. He makes you experience it.

And that experience goes beyond everything you know about yourself, beyond where you are from, what job you do and all other facts that seem to shape your life. Very quietly, without warning, he unveils something life-altering which was right under your nose all this while.

There have been spiritual masters before Sri Sri who have taught the reality of life. They have all been matchless in their own regard and at that scale of greatness, comparisons are pointless. However, spirituality has always remained a personal quest - if you want the truth, seek it and find it. This is where Sri Sri has been a game changer.

While ‘why do I need spirituality?’ is something everybody needs to answer for themselves, he has shown clearly why society needs it. Apart from making your personal life fulfilling, it

• is invaluable in trauma relief and disaster management,
• saves your children from violence and suicides at schools,
• offers a very effective mechanism for rehabilitating prisoners and convicts who have nothing but bitterness and feelings of revenge towards society,
• sets the platform to resolve conflicts among communities,
• cultivates sensitivity for the environment,
• removes the narrow and selfish mindset that gives rise to corruption

He has turned what was thus far an entirely individual pursuit, thought whimsical by some, into a collective need. He has brought the abstract and esoteric into the realm of mainstream comprehension in a way that it has applications and uses for everybody in society.

Sri Sri’s brand of spirituality has no metaphysical jargon. It might break long held notions about life but it does not ignore common sense. His organization and its members are firmly rooted in the world and respond to real world crises with concrete steps. His practices and teachings are simple and give you direct experience. You don’t need any special spiritual abilities, for instance, to feel the difference in your state of mind while singing as a group or to realize that when you help somebody, you yourself feel uplifted.

As a spiritual master, Sri Sri shatters all cliches of the stereotype. He did not wait for people to come to him; he went to them. (All his passport books put together will easily take up a large bookshelf.) He does not reject commerce because its 'worldly'. He is not afraid to comment or participate in political developments. His programs have reached places that have nothing to do with spirituality, from prisons to pubs.

It is also not that his system works only under certain conditions, with certain kinds of people. It works in Russia, in Iraq, places that are cold, that are dry, with youth, with adults, housewives, prisoners, with the educated and the illiterate. What greater proof of its universality than the fact that in a place with no tradition of yoga or meditation, a six digit number sized crowd came together to sit with their eyes closed next to a guru from the other end of the earth who does not even speak their language. How? Did all these people suddenly turn spiritual? No. By sheer hard work, sublime patience and irresistible simplicity, he has made spirituality relevant to their lives.

However, if you really want to find out the truth about Sri Sri, don't take anybody's word. Go by the your own experience. Because even the people who come to him may or may not know everything about him. What pulls them is when, in his simple manner, he says, “You are peace, you are love”, it rings of truth.