Dear Nu,
I came across your letter to your brother about Art of Living. I found some of the points in your letter are interesting so thought of sharing my views.
Since it is posted on the web by you, it is not personal anymore. Because claiming it as personal email would close some doors to comment on your views.
I don’t know what you both had discussed before and I don’t know what you were asked to expect at ArtOfLiving.org website but it seems you only took what you want. My point is that you would have given much more matured opinion had you considered the following points.
Here you are too quick to jump over the waters instead of jumping into the water to find the facts. Yes, breathing is the core but each breathing technique has specific advantages. You do not seem to know much about breathing and for sure anything about Sudarshana Kriya, so let us leave it there.
You have talked about packing and selling the stuff. You should have thought one more minute before comparing Sri Sri with other profit based companies. Yoga is very old practice and it has bee available to public for free. Even now there are less popular gurus who teach same Yoga for free in
So, if you want to compare apples to apples, let us ask HP, COKE and NIKE to release same quality FREE and PRICED products and see how many people would buy the priced products?
You have cautioned your brother about not having objective validity of your opinion. I am not sure whether this applies to all the points in the article or just to the paragraph above it. You have all the freedom to come to an opinion without objective validity, but unfortunately your letter is posted in public domain by you thus not personal anymore. So, I excused myself and asked the following.
About the third point, it seems you have lost your rational here. Who documented the questions that were asked over the thousands of years? Who gave answers to those millions of people and who documented those answers? Where did Sri Sri find those questions and answers? By the way, some answers change as time changes. Forget about thousands of years, few hundred years ago, the answer to the Black Plague was Death. Now the answer to the same question is vaccine.
About the secrets of “new age” gurus, you must be kidding in your FIRST point. If you seriously think that charisma and long hair are the first qualifications to become a guru, it only shows your ignorance of the subject.
Your second opinion about gurus is that they are good marketers. If you are talking about Indian gurus, you proved your ignorance one more time. Have you heard about Sri Aurobindo, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Dayananda Saraswati etc. What kind of marketing techniques did they use?
You also said that the market demands easy answers and quick results. Can you given me an example of a hard question and the easy answer given by Sri Sri? Coming to quick results, one has to do Sudarshana Kriya at least for several months to get ride of diabetes, but one can get quick relief by taking a modern medicine. Which one looks quicker to you?
Read this to find out whether Sri Sri had talked at the United Nations building. I never visited UN General Assembly halls but it seems big enough. This does not look like general assembly hall but must be somewhere else in the building. .
About the “sound bite”. AoL was started in 1982 in
See this link on AoL web site. Coming to the point, your examples of COKE and NIKE does not apply here. People accepted AoL well before UN “sound bite”. But the UN sound bite definitely helped to expand later on.
About the few dozen gurus who “packaged” the stuff, who are they? I guess one can talk anything if he/she does not have to worry about objective validity. About the $250 course fee, Art of Living only teaches 3 breathing techniques and Sudarshana Kriya is one of them. People can download another prominent Yoga teacher Swami Ramdev’s free video from YouTube and practice. Swami Ramdev teaches 7 good pranayamam techniques. But people are paying $250 probably because they must have seen something more valuable than $250.
Vasu Gokaraju
You say "But people are paying $250 probably because they must have seen something more valuable than $250."
ReplyDeleteBut reality is people paid 250$ because AOL doesnt give any discount. They dont reduce prices. People paid because they HAVE topay that much. I like your optimistic view, but that doesnt change facts.
Plus the course now costs 375$. People who do this course dont know what it is, so they dont pay because they see value in it, but they pay because they are forced to pay that fee andnot any less like 250$ for same technique.
Abhijit, thank you for the comments. Your argument on the price issue does not give any new thoughts. Why are you even expecting them to give discount? Just move on and find some other source. Try Swami Ramdev yoga.
ReplyDeleteAs I have mentioned in the same article, there are LOT of other ways to learn yoga. If people are really worried about price, all they had to do is go to YouTube and search for Yoga. That is all they need to do. Very good videos are available on YouTube.
By the way, when I did the course in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India, I had the chance to ask for refund in first two days if I were not happy with the class.
Now the fitness centers in the US are offering Yoga lessons and the charges are between $ 1,000 to $3,000. Can you blame them?
So, as long as AoL is not making you pay at gun point, you cannot blame them. All you got to say is No Thanks.
I want you to remember one thing, AoL runs lot of social service activities throughout the world and of course they need funds for that. So, when I paid amount to enroll in AoL class, I told myself that I am donating it to a good cause. I never thought that I am paying it receive some services.
Once again I thank you for your comments.
The issue here is not that AOL is not asking anyone to pay at gun point.
ReplyDeleteIf it is really an organization that is totally committed to creating peace and happiness in humanity, why don't they offer the course for free and make the payment optional, at the end of the course ?
I've seen numerous people who have taken the course and it hasn't benefited them. Will AOL refund all the money ?
You are equating AOL with a gym that teaches Yoga. good point, because I see it that way too. Except that I don't worship my gym instructor and consider him a supreme being ,and also, he doesn't like to be referred as His Holiness Sri Sri James.
Dear Ashok, thank you for posting your comments.
ReplyDeleteLot of people made the same argument that why would an organization like AoL need to charge for Yoga classes if their primary motive is to help the society. But how would an organization like AoL, any other organization for that matter, runs its social service programs without financial support? I am convinced of their village empowerment programs, free schooling, prison programs, tsunami relief efforts and earthquake relief efforts. Without sustainable revenues, AoL would not be where it is today. If you are new to AoL and not aware of the big picture, then it is difficult to convince you.
I understand that each participant may experience the course differently. I am not sure whether it is practiced throughout the organization but when I attended course in India, I had the opportunity to ask for refund before the third session. But again, my question to you is whether you could ask your tuition teacher for refund because you did not score to your expectations?
I am not surprised at your question whether you should worship your gym instructor. There are few things that you need to understand clearly. Sri Sri RaviShankar is a Yoga teacher, Humanitarian, Selfless business person, and Spiritual teacher. How you treat Sri Sri depends on how you mix the above four characters. I am not interested in spiritual teacher, so I never worried about spiritual part of Sri Sri. But if you prefer to see Sri Sri as spiritual teacher and yoga instructor, then there is no wrong in worshiping your yoga teacher. In the same way, if Mr. James, the yoga instructor at gym, is also a spiritual teacher, of course you can worship him as well.
Thank you,
Vasu Gokaraju
HE IS NOT ENLIGHTENED FOR SURE. I HAVE DONE ALL HIS COURSE, Basic 6 times, Advance 2 times, DSN 1 times and sahaj ofcourse only 1 time. What I have seen is more of confusing answers. Basic course is good and benefited even I liked but when you do advance course the teachers itself have forgotten the basic points. There the confusion starts. They charge for course no doubt they should but they ask donation in the name of charity.. They make you stand individually and ask what you can pay per month once you give a figure they say now commit it. That is black mailing in the name of spirituality. I have not paid but feel pity on old people who contribute a lot. There is no doubt of the course. It is good beneficial to keep your health and mind cool. You can keep the disease away by practicing the sudarshan kriya. They should charge fees for their course. Since nothing comes free in this world.
ReplyDeleteWhy to force anyone for Charity. He is one of the best Guru but not God or enlightened. Enlighten person has control on all the senses then why this so called enlightened person does not have control on the greed and money. See each of their Ashram, crores of money is spend.
Please don’t name him God, In today’s world the God should carry the best arms and ammunition to protect their followrs, forget he is here to spread peace then why can he be a informer of police that terrorist are attacking this country on this date.
Like Amitabh Bachchan make money from his acting, Like Sachin Tendulkar makes money from his playing, Bill Gates makes money from his technology and others too make money for their service. There are 100 of Gurus in each one of our lifes. Do not forget the one who taught ABCD or cycling or swimming or criket. Do not forget the doctor who treated you so many times with small or big aliments.
Like you can’t do Puja of all the above person, like you can’t donate in the hospital who saved you from illness.
Same thing apply here and be cool with your mind. Paid fees learned yoga and meditation, if you like it continue don’t like to discontinue.. Don’t be a die hard fan of anyone you will always be in trouble, doubtful and confused.
Just seat calm and cool you will always have 2 thoughts in mind. Think little on both and go with one. You will never be in problem. God and nature are there to correct you and take care of you in every step. Have a blessed day.
swapnacdas@gmail.com
Dear Snadeep,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comments. I must agree with you on few points like Sri Sri is not God. I don’t know which part of my postings made you think so. I respect Sri Sri as a great humanitarian and a social worker.
Coming to the fees that AoL charges, I am surprised that you did not see this during your first Basic Course itself. I heard similar opinions from many people and I felt that it has to be something to do with the teacher. Our AoL teacher asked us to do 2 good things per day and not surprisingly he picked 10 individuals randomly everyday and asked them whether they did it. But there was no force or humiliation. There was only friendly-teasing and humility. While I was attending my Advanced Course, they made an announcement about donating x% of revenues for a year. Again, it was completely optional and it was made as a simple 1 minute announcement.
Asking for donations is not a bad thing as long as the organization keeps its transactions transparent. But putting people in uncomfortable position to get their donations is like forcing people to donate to build Ganesh statues in cities. I am not denying your experience but I take it cautiously as my experience differs.
AoL is a huge organization and lot of teachers with different background work for it. All may not talk the same way. If your dislike is about how they asked for donation, then I am sorry for your bad experience. But if your dislike is about the donation itself, then I should remind you that no social service organization can survive without donations from people like you and me.
Thank you,
Vasu Gokaraju
Dear Vasu and others,
ReplyDeleteAOL is such a large organization and therefore it is a possibility to get such people take the timely responsibilities who might become local area AOL leaders because of their CONSISTENT attendance to various sewa activities.They sometimes miss the CRUX (base theme) of such organization which is to bring awareness among the people from the organization's point of view and also to keep spreading itself in size and influence so that more and more people can enjoy live their live to the fullest or AT LEAST acknowledge one more option to live a life in this way. Though there is NO guarantee whatsoever that they will love or even LIKE this way but definitely this provides an alternative approach to live a life or at least inherit and draw out and use some of its useful features like Breathing Techniques.
Generally its our tendency and HUMAN NATURE to judge a country, caste or organization on basis of some individuals with whom we are mostly in contact within that evaluated time frame. So if you or someone has judged AOL or some similar GURU based organizations on basis of some individuals but its upto you to decide are you there for the social networking or for some concept that you want to implement practically in your own live.
Definitively finance is required for any organization to carry or organization its activities, may be for good, bad or general. The reason it is called non-profit is because it doesn't specifically asks anyone to join it and uses a LARGE part of its funds for the activities at the root level of country like India e.g primary school teachers in villages etc.
Generally what happens is that people who have done these courses recently become over excited and as a result starts pushing their friends relatives into this.They forget that people will come automatically IF THEY PRACTICALLY observe some positive change in that person w.r.t their past experiences with them.
Sri Sri have never asked to donate/do sewa/etc with more than our capacities. He has always asked us to keep discretion between what we CAN do and what we CANNOT do.
He has always asked to do service or sewa Intelligently with a discretion.
What happens generally is that people do not know when they want to say YES and what they want to say NO. So they do sewa/service OR donate and eventually just because someone from the organization asks and eventually get burned down due to exhaustion to their limits whether that is financial limit or physical limit. As a result slowly but surely they shy away from any activities because they are not able to actually comprehend their real will in their sub councious mind which can be either yes or no! I quote one of the lines of SRI SRI i.e "Just say NO when you ACTUALLY want to NO and say YES when you ACTUALLY want to say YES !".
There are many real examples where people have been offered courses TOTALLY FREE of charge or 60%-90% discounts provided their economic concessions of the original fees was justified.
It doesn't matter whether SRI SRI is a impostor, con man or something else, what actually matters in the END that how much were you benefited from the time when u joined this organization to the time now. The result of this answer depends and varies differently from person to person on basis of mental satisfaction, fitness based satisfactions or even psychological or spiritual or humanitarian based satisfactions. Just see your personal growth or downfall that might have been triggered by AOL or some similar Indian spiritual GURU Based organization and make your decision.
Regards
Vibs