Dear Mr. Jonas Slaats,
Thank you for publishing the article “How genuine is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar?”, I have recently came to know about AoL and started searching for content about the organization. 90% of the content is on his achievements and your article is one of few who criticized the organization and their practices.
By the way, my name is Vasu Gokaraju and I am from Andhra Pradesh, India. I have been living in the USA for last 10 years.
The article title “How genuine is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar?” sounded very encouraging as I was looking for some critiques, but at the end it left me mixed opinions. Here is my feedback.
The paragraph numbers that I have mentioned in my further discussions are referring the article published at
http://www.yunusnews.com/node/486
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To be frank, I never studied about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi before. Since it is mentioned in your article, I searched on the web and found the following page.
http://www.mahalo.com/Maharishi_Mahesh_Yogi
If you are basing such allegations to conclude Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as fraud, you have very weak argument. In your article, you have mentioned that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi became popular because of Beatles. As you have mentioned, his fame did not go away, even the Beatles left him. I don’t know about you but it tells me that his fame has nothing to do with Beatles. I am not discussing further as it is not the main topic.
I have visited ArtOfLiving.com website and noticed that they did not provide anything about Sri Sri’s pre-guru life. I don’t know why they did not mention about it but that should not put them at fault. But when I came to know about Sri Sri first time from my sister, she did mention about his association with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, so it is not quite hidden from Indian public at least.
Paragraph 6…: When you are after finding the truth, you cannot use guess work basing on the rumors on the Internet.
Paragraph 7…: It is hard to believe what Sri Sri achieved at early age. But if you look into other gurus that you seem to attest, they have similar abnormal stories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi#Spiritual_quest_begins_in_childhood
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18716/BIOGRAPHY-OF-SWAMI-VIVEKANANDA
Paragraph 8…: Can you provide more details about what is the name of the “other yoga technique” that was suppose to be the original of Sudarshana Kriya? If those “Others” are familiar with the technique, they should know the name of the technique. In Yoga, each technique/posture has a name.
Paragraph 9…: I do not see anything wrong in registering the Sudarshana Kriya brand name. Sri Sri needs money for his charity activities so he needs a way to generate revenue. As Sri Sri said, “charity work can’t start from an empty bowl”.
As you know, the Sudarshana Kirya is patented in the USA. If you believe that this knowledge is not Sri Sri’s invention, you can disqualify his patent by providing the proof. That not only helps your frustration but also saves the world from another fraudulent Indian Guru.
Paragraph 10…: What breathing exercises the Sudarshana Kriya is centered around? Can you name those breathing exercises? Generalization might not help here?
Paragraph 11…: I do not know who those are but, if someone can experience the same effects of Sudharshana Kriya by doing “other” yoga breathing exercises, so be it. If there was such an alternative to SK, the original article would not be that lengthy. I feel that you are trying to prove a point that does not exist.
Paragraph 12…: Here also you have failed to name the other meditation techniques. Generalization only weakens any argument. Yoga/Meditation practices are very old and freely taught before. Now people are paying to learn Sudarshana Kriya.
Paragraph 13…: This paragraph did not offer anything new. Since Sudarshana Kriya is nothing but a form of breathing exercise it gives same effects. Sudarshana Kriya is the product of AoL and naturally they talk good about it. I do not know why you find it difficult.
Paragraph 14…: I do not know why you had to bring Sri Ramdev into this article. But coming to the point, I have personally met and talked to a 50 year old cancer patient in Vijayawada, A.P., India. She is an attorney by profession. It seems that her doctors told her that she only had 6 months to live. Now, after 5 years, she is still alive and leading a healthy and active life. Well, since she is an attorney, let us not take her word at its face value, just kidding. But she turned her house into an ashram for local Sudarshana Kriya practitioners. She dedicated her time and resources to propagate SK. As if it is not enough, her husband, who is a government servant, also bought into this by the facts. So, not having a scientific research on Sudarshana Kriya is not a big issue for me to believe its positive effects on Cancer. Surprisingly, less people are questioning the English medicine though their scientific predictions are not exactly true.
Paragraph 15 and 16…: I see you are desperate to prove that Sudarshana Kriya is no different than any other meditation technique. You should complain if AoL claims that none of other meditation techniques work.
Paragraph 17…: I personally convinced that Sudarshana Kriya can cure/delay cancer effects on human body. But you seemed to be research oriented person and you can understand the following articles better than I do.
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050831071025.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7915
Now and then I see reports that a new research proved that previous findings were wrong. I do not know why you are so desperate about scientific research when it only helps to understand things up to certain extent.
Paragraph 18…: It is too technical for me, so no comments.
Paragraph 19, 20 and 21…: Again you have failed to provide the names of other breathing exercises.
Paragraph 22 and 23…: Yes, it is not very clear why Sri Sri had to initiate another organization.
Paragraph 24…: I am not sure what is the point here. To me, AoL generates lot of revenue thus made it possible to expand in many directions. Most of the service is being done by volunteers, I believe. Did I miss your point?
Paragraph 25…: AoL claims that SK is the medicine for depression and stress. If the outcome of all the mentioned problems specified in this paragraph is depression and stress, what is wrong in offering SK as treatment? What is your point? Should the SK not be offered as single treatment for all?
Paragraph 26…: I think it is a good question to direct to people who made the claims.
Paragraph 27 and 28…: I spend lot of time and resources in social service and I know what it takes to execute a public event. I checked artofliving.com website but could not find what you have mentioned in this paragraph. They have specified about their services in various countries but no mention of a specific number.
Paragraph 29…: Are you expecting him to engage in different type of discussions? If so, you should have mentioned what they are.
Paragraph 30…: Same point is repeated with frustration in this paragraph. If the same Tylenol could treat headache of American housewives and the people of war torn Iraq, why not SK?
Paragraph 31…: Here I feel you are running out of ideas. Are you in any way suggesting that encouraging dialog between the parties is not a good idea? Gandhi engaged civil disobedience to kick british out of Bharat. But here the Iraqis should live together in their country. I see Lot of difference.
Paragraph 32…: Gandhi and his practices were uncalled-for in this discussion. How do you know what would have happened had Gandhi asked people to meditate to get ride of their anger? You are talking about conditions that you are not familiar with. Let us focus on Sri Sri.
Paragraph 33 and 34…: So Gandhi was nominated for Nobel Peace prize 5 times and did not get it. So, where do you think is the problem…..Gandhi or the Noble Peace Prize Committee. I hope you are not suggesting that Gandhi’s non-violence and civil disobedience were not peaceful enough to win the peace prize. Guess who won the Noble prize, Henry Kissinger.
Again, I don’t see your point in comparing Sri Sri with Gandhi. Did Sri Sri ever said that he has done more than Gandhi did OR is it just you trying to make a point that fits your argument?
Paragraph 35…: I cannot stop noticing your hurry to conclude Maharishi as bogus. Is there any scientific way to prove that those who complained on Maharishi were telling the truth? If word of mouth is good enough for you to determine Maharishi as bogus, why not apply the same rule in believing Sudarshana Kriya. In case of Sudarshana Kriya, you seem to be interested in scientific research.
Paragraph 36, 37 and 38…: It would be helpful if you could elaborate what part of his practices/teachings make him criminal or beyond?
Paragraph 39…: I am sure the world is full of intelligent people and they can distinguish between good and bad. I know you are trying to talk for the world but not everyone in the world may accept with your opinion.
Paragraph 40…: I pray all the gods to work against Sri Sri getting so called Noble “Peace” prize. It is my opinion that there is no greater insult to Sri Sri than receiving Nobel prize.
Some points from the follow up discussions on the original article:
(further discussion can be found at http://www.yunusnews.com/node/506)
I could not stop noticing that you have addressed Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as “Ravi” and “Shankar” in your article. I understand that you are not a big believer of Sri Sri but you could have shown minimum curtsy by addressing him as Sri Sri or SSRS as millions of people in the world believe in him.
In one of your responses, you have tried to bring the point that AoL did not spend any money that it had collected in 2004, in the USA. Well, as you are aware, AoL has been raising funds from more than 140 countries for more than 20 years. Probably they used funds raised from other countries in that year. You could have left this topic out as you did not have full information. Because you have been bashing AoL for not having enough proof on SK.
You have mentioned about Sri Sri misusing Gandhi’s concept of non-violence. I did a search on the web but could not find even one countable reference on the subject. I found some third party sites mentioning that Sri Sri is the next person after Gandhi in uplifting the poor. If this is the information you are basing on, this topic is not even worth discussing further.
Since you liked the methods of Gandhi, I have very fitting questions for you. During the Indian freedom movement, Gandhi had collected funds from people. I know this because my grandparents told me that Gandhi visited our neighboring village and almost every family in surrounding villages gave gold, silver and cash to their capacity. Gandhi never took accountability nor provided transparency in funds manipulation. When Gandhi does not even use private vehicle to travel, why does he need funds? What happened to all the millions of rupees? What freedom activities were conducted with that money? I am not suggesting Gandhi used all the money for his personal benefits, but the funds were collected on his name so I am curious what answers people like you could offer? Because, the reasons Sri Sri has been presenting to the public have striking similarities to Gandhi’s.
Here I have few questions out of topic. You are one of the editors of this website and this website seems to cover many things happening in India. But what I have noticed is that there is not even one article about the atrocities the Christian missionaries have been doing in India.
I am sure you know how the missionaries raise money under the name of helping poor people in poor countries like India. But they never mention about how the money is being used. They do not mention about how they abuse the religious freedom in India and force people into Christianity. They do not mention how they trick people into Christianity under the name of service or miracle.
The website also publishes very interesting articles on Islam and its intolerance. But surprisingly it does not even find one article that criticizes how the Christians are systematically killing/converting people from other religions. Initially this website seemed neutral but not until I started searching for articles on Christian activities. Here I am not providing any links to Christian atrocities in India as you can find them very easily, if you are really interested know.
If possible, please publish my comments under follow up discussions.
Thank you for your time.
Vasu Gokaraju
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