I have collected some points from people who were critical of Sri Sri and provided my views on those issues.
| Critique | My Response |
| Sri Sri Commercialized Spirituality, Yoga and Pranayamam. | Last time when I checked, people were still selling spiritual and religious books for price. Ayyappa cassettes are among the best sellers. People have to buy pooja tickets in some temples. I guess that is enough to understand the point. AoL needs funds to run the organization and for the social service activities. On the other hand, there are many Gurus who offer free services and people are free to go there. There are many books on the topic and people can read them on their own and get enlightened. |
| Sri Sri (Art of Living) robs people by charging hefty amounts for Pranayamam, which is suppose to be free. | Sounds like Robin Hood. See where the money is going. But the important point is why are you ignoring the social service being done by AoL? It seems you are only interested in blaming some one. |
| Sudarshana Kriya is not new and its effects can be achieved by doing other Pranayamam techniques. | If so, why no one had claimed it before? Please give the specific names of the techniques if you know what you are talking. |
| Sudarshana Kriya is patented in the USA. Never seen a spiritual guru with patent rights. | Sudarshana Kriya is Sri Sri's own invention, so there is nothing wrong in patenting his work. Sri Sri also teaches spirituality to those who is interested. What you are saying is that these two cannot be mixed. You might have your own ideas of how gurus should be but it does not have to be that way. By the way, have you seen a guru doing unconditional social service throughout the world? |
| Sri Sri and his guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had disputes. | Disputes on what? Does it really matter now? See how Sri Sri is resolving disputes. |
| Though it is Bharatiya (Indian) tradition to proudly mention one's guru's name, Sri Sri never mentions his guru's name. Even today, his website (ArtOfLiving.org) does not mention about his guru. | Sri Sri cannot be at fault just because his guru's name is not mentioned. ArtOfLiving.org website talks about so many other things that are truly useful to millions of people. |
| Maharishi Mahesh Yogi scolded Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in public. | Where and when did this happened? What was the reason? |
| Sri Sri distanced himself from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as Mahesh Yogi became unpopular. | When did Maharishi Mahesh Yogi became unpopular and how did Sri Sri distanced himself? |
| Though Maharishi Mahesh Yogi rejected Sri Sri, after Maharishi 's death, Sri Sri, in one of his books, mentioned that he was a close associate to Maharishi. Since Maharishi is dead already, there is no one to question him about it. | So many unresolved points before coming to this conclusion. Better leave it alone. |
| Sri Sri and his cult are so influential that they even nominated him for Nobel Peace Prize. | Thank god he did not get that disgraced award. See this video and tell yourself whether he really needs recognition from a biased organization. |
| Sri Sri has hidden agenda and he has close links with Sangh Parivar. | Either these poor guys did not realize it Or you are desperate to say something. |
| I hate all these Gurus from India. They are nothing but cheaters. | If all Muslims are terrorists, then all Indian gurus are cheaters. |
| Sri Sri offers Sudarshana Kriya as the remedy to the problems of all the people. Stress of an Iraqi is grater than the stress of an American. | If Tylenol (head-ache medicine) can effect the same on both of them, why not Sudarshana Kriya. Anyways, see what these Iraqis are saying. I hope they are not saying it for fun. |
| Sri Sri travels by private jets and lives in costly hotels. | Firstly, what is wrong in it and secondly what do you think he should do? |
| Sri Sri occupied Karnataka government land. | No one can grab land from government. If he really did, then it is time to change Karnataka government. |
| Swami Ramdev, who is a prominent Yoga guru publicly asked people not to practice Sudarshana Kriya as it is not good for them. | Please, see this video. (skip the first 3 minutes) |
| Why Ravi Shankar needs two 'Sri's in his name. Helping himself? | Don't know and probably does not matter to these people who have real issues to worry about. |
| I have attended AoL course and it was great. But I hate the teacher for insisting us many times to bring our friends to AoL classes. | Well, you came to know about AoL because someone brought it to your attention directly or indirectly. |
| Sri Sri is a clever con-man. | Good for him. Even the Russians and Americans could not figure it out. |
| Sri Sri collects funds to support poor children and stays in expensive hotels and travel in first class. | When a person like Sri Sri comes to town, many dignitaries visit him. Probably it is not fair in Sri Sri's part to stay in a motel and expect them to visit him there. If you are expecting him to travel in economy class, why not on a cargo ship which is probably cheaper. How do you draw a line between moderate and expensive? |
| Sri Sri is cashing on people's weakness and stuffing himself. | Sri Sri has no personal life. He lives in a huge ashram with lots of people around. No wine cellar, no antique collection. No cool shades, no wrist watch no gold chains and no armani stuff. He does not drive Ferrari or Rolls Royce. No yacht, no private jets or helicopters yet. No country club, golf club membership. No vacation and no weekend parties (except annoying Satsangs). He mingles with terrorists, naxalites, you, me and the weak people that you have mentioned. Not married and no one to inherit. I heard he sleeps 4 hours a day. Do you really think that he needs to cheat someone to live such life? |
| Though AoL is registered as non-profit organization, it executes like a true profit oriented business. | Yoga is very old practice and it has bee available to public for free. Even now there are others who teach same Yoga for free in Bharat (India). Now AoL charges for its yoga classes and people are paying for it. So, there are two versions of Yoga, FREE and PRICED. Now let us ask profit based companies to release same quality FREE and PRICED products and see how many people would buy the priced products? Also, don't forget to bring the list of schools that the profit oriented businesses built. If you don't have the schools list, at least bring the list of villages that are adopted by the profit oriented companies. |
Sri Sri is just an option in your life. He does not have to prove anything to anyone. It is like either you take it or leave it. Criticism is good. Criticism followed by a Suggestion is helpful. |
Thank you for your time. Vasu Gokaraju |
Dear Vasu,
ReplyDeleteJaiGuruDev!!
Nice of you to have created this blog.
Following are my observations:
Sri Sri Commercialized Spirituality, Yoga and Pranayamam:
Charity does not happen from an empty bowl. On one hand money is collected & used for service projects & on the other hand people who have paid the fees get an opportunity to effortless service. If money collected is being MISused for personal gains, then u can call it commercialization. Here the money is utilized for various service projects benefiting mankind. Moreover courses are conducted free of charge for the poor & needy persons. But people who have money & spend it extravagantly for their personal gains rather than for the benefit of the society can afford to pay some money for humanity development.
This cannot be termed as commercialization.
If u look at it in one way it is a very gentle & dignified way of getting the ‘HAVES’ to contribute to ‘Have NOTS’ rather than the communist’s or the Marxist’s way of forcefully taking away from HAVES by killing them or under gun-point. There is no force involved here.
Let people focus on SPIRITUALIZATION OF COMMERCE rather than make narrow minded comments on COMMERCIALIZATION OF SPIRITUALITY.
Sri Sri needs funds to run the organization:
Sorry, it is not only Sri Sri’s organization, ANY organization need funds to run effectively. Frankly Sri Sri does not need any funds. The organization is run by volunteers & devotees who contribute for the growth of the organization & sponsor its various service projects.
On the other hand, there are many Gurus who offer free services and people are free to go there:
It is a just a matter of pre-payment or post-payment. That is all. The so called Gurus who offer the so-called free services – Just look into the aspect as to how they run their organization.- Only thing is that they take post-payment. Otherwise they would not be in a position to run their organization at all. We have not yet reached the once lost era where Spirituality was given due importance by public & everyone involved in spreading spirituality are given free transport services, boarding & lodging etc
Also if u compare the scale of activities of these so called Free-service Gurus & their organizations vis-à-vis Art of Living there is large difference. In a very short period of 25 years Sri Sri has been able to reach out to millions of people in more than 150 countries irrespective of their caste, creed, race region or religion The organization has become one of the largest volunteer based Non Government Organization. If Sri Sri had followed the same path as these so called Free-Service Gurus, today Art of Living & the Knowledge of Sudarshan Kriya would have been limited to a very small cross section of people.
Sri Sri (Art of Living) robs people by charging hefty amounts for Pranayamam, which is suppose to be free:
Who said that Pranayamam has to be taught free of cost? Yes it can be taught free of cost if transportation, halls for conducting course, accommodation, food etc & all other expenditure are available free of cost. Still in order to get a commitment from the individual to learn the techniques by attending all the sessions & implement it into day-to-day life remains a big challenge.
Unfortunately whenever & wherever free courses are conducted the commitment level of the participants is very low. It is the same people who talk about commercialization of spirituality who would be in the fore front to bunk sessions & set wrong example for others.
As far as ROBBING is concerned, I understand that robbing is an act of force with weapons of violence with an intention to hurt people or actually hurting people. Participants do the course on their own accord, voluntarily.
Yes, Sri Sri ROBS, HE ROBS people of their problems with the weapon of LOVE with an intention to bring Miles & miles of Smiles into their lives
Sudarshana Kriya is patented in the USA. Never seen a spiritual guru with patent rights. (Sri Sri makes lot of money with this breathing technique, so it is patented):
Hello!! The purpose of patenting is not for commercial gains. In fact it is the other way out – to prevent narrow-minded & selfish people from misusing this wonderful knowledge for commercial gains. The money collected in the process of teaching Sudarshan Kriya has to be utilized for development of Human values & humanity. That is what Sri Sri is doing.
Moreover, Sudarshan Kriya is a sensitive technique that has to be taught by a properly trained teacher with a commitment to serving humanity. The teachers who are selected go through a rigorous training & are experienced in handling challenging situations that arise in teaching & practice of Sudarshan Kriya. The selection process of teachers is also a rigorous one. Not everyone who applies & attends the teachers training gets selected.
If Sudarshan Kriya is not patented then some selfish people would distort the original Sudarshan Kriya & teach a totally different version thereby causing undue irrepairable & irreversible damage to the physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health of the participants.
Moreover if you put the entire wealth of the world on one hand & the Sudarshan Kriya Knowledge on the other hand, you will never find a teacher of Art of Living compromising this Knowledge. That is the power of the Sudarshan Kriya & Sri Sri.
Though AoL is registered as non-profit organization, it executes like a true profit oriented business:
Yes, AOL executes like a profit oriented business. If it is not done so, today it would not have been able to benefit millions of people world-wide. More profit in AOL means more opportunity to do more service & reach out to & help more number of people to live a healthy & happy life. The other option is to start service projects & close down each one of them without executing them completely – because of paucity of funds like what is happenning to all the Government sponsored projcts or ones sponsored by UN & other organistions. Rather than begging people for funds & live in tension with uncertainty of incoming funds, it is better to have a professional approach towards managing funds & institutions.
Make a list of all non-profit organizations world-wide, list out their projects undertaken & executed successfully, study them for consistency of operations, no. of failures due to paucity of funds etc, you will know by then why AOL is run in a professional way. For Your Information, most of the non-profit organizations depend on governments for funding their organizations that are very poorly managed.
Just study the audit statements of AOL & other non-profit organizations, definitely the administrative costs of AOL are much lower compared to any other organization. The maximum funds reach the actual beneficiaries in case of AOL.
JaiGuruDeV!!
Bhasker Babu YNS
Teacher – Art of Living
This entire "defense" is based on the premise that it is "ok" to "charge" for Art of Living program. Look at it this way: It is an "honor" to be able to "pay" for any of the Art of living programs as every dollar that we "pay" is earning us merit for good karma.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal experience, I was like many who thought spiritual stuff should be free. In my 13 year association with Art of Living, I found that my "payments" are nothing compared to what I have "saved": When I took my 1st Art of Living class, I had terrible case of sinus and used to go to the doctor every month for allergies, sinuses, fever etc. Each month I would spent on an average of $150 plus 4 hours (wait time included, meeting with the doctor etc. which cost me absence from work- about 2 days of sick leave) Within 2 months of doing Sudarshan Kriya, all doc visits, medications ended. Effectively, to date, I have saved (not adjusted for inflation) $23400 over the past 13 years for not regularly visiting the doctor which I used to do before on a monthly basis. A basic "payment" of $200 has certainly come a LONG way in saving ME time, health and money. There have been years that I have never been to the doc, and given the ridiculous insurance benefits we currently "enjoy", I am so grateful for kriya in my life- it is too invaluable.
In effect, every Art of Living course I have taken since, has paid for itself owing to the "saving" on my medical bills alone, not to mention the benefits I have enjoyed as a cheerful, enthusiastic person who enjoys great relationships with family and friends.
On that note, Vasu, please do not "defend" the "pricing" of the courses. Like you concluded, those who choose to "pay" for it, so be it. Let us not waste our breath in "proving" that is fine to those who do not believe so. After all, opposite values ARE complementary! They are perfectly "justified" in their "criticism" and we just observe it as an opinion and let go. I am personally grateful that a small amount of money that I earn is finding some use beyond my spending it on myself and my family.
Hello Vasu,
ReplyDeleteI am an ardent fan of Sri Sri who has certain disagreements with AOL. I saw your blog. Your response to certain criticisms is not complete or unanswered. In my opinion, its ok to charge a nominal fee but not the way AOL is doing it mainly because he comes from Adi Shankara parampara. We should not make these courses into a joke. People who come for this kind of help have serious problems. We should not make it a mockery by saying join by such & such date and you get an early bird discount else pay so much. When we go to a temple it should have an inviting ambience. It should not throw us off. Temples and Spiritual Gurus should not be so.
Sure make money through certain projects and support service activities. Raise funds through donation. AOL gives free courses for the poorest of poor. But what abt the lower middle class who are barely making ends meet ? You want them to spend for AOL Part I, II and Meditation courses and also spend on Art excel/Yes courses for their kids ? They don't have that kind of money! But theywill benefit from these courses. Just because of the fees they can't do it. AOL course fees are nominal in comparison to many organizations. But Adi Shankara philosophy is to help people in genuine need and not make it difficult for them to get help. And AOL asks other participants to sponsor such people. Do we really have such money to do it ? Not everyone. How many people can we keep sponsoring like that ?
People in spiritual organizations have to follow certain strict disciplines to avoid generating such doubts. Some people will complain no matter what and we can ignore them but not the genuine complaints.
Why does Sri Sri need private jets ? I know he travels by normal planes. Its ok to stay in large rooms as he meets lots of people. But why private jets ?
Anonymous (right above this comments section),
ReplyDeleteCould you please leave a fake name at the end of your message at least?
I have answered your primary concern on the price in one of my responses to similar question. The summary is that if you do not like the price, skip AoL and do Kapala Bhati by Swami Ramdev. Free videos on YouTube. Yoga is free, but if you want AoL brand, you have to pay the price.
You could have been little more specific on what issues my response was not complete/unanswered.
I don't know whether Sri Sri ever mentioned that he is part of Adi Shankara parampara. I don't know much about it.
Private jets...I really don't think he owns them. Last time when I heard, it was courtesy of Ambani family. If AoL is not paying for it, what is the problem here?
Dear Mr. Vasu,
ReplyDeleteAOL is a Rs. 400 cr empire if this is not commercialization then what is not. It starts right from the time you enter the Ashram by paying a parking fee of Rs. 20.
Spiritual gurus are meant to be far away from worldly matters and here you are steeped in commercialization. You yourself call it the AOL brand!!! Ha...This is pure business!!!
Spiritual knowledge is meant to be imparted to humanity and should not be for sale.
We went to attend a Satsang today and were shocked to know that it was priced at Rs. 1600 per head, so it was working out to Rs. 8000 for our family of 5.
You send out your teams to our apartment complexes who like salesmen visit every house urging people to attend your sessions. You guys are making a mockery out of our Spiritual knowledge that is the dharodhar of India. You cannot run away from a debate by saying go elsewhere and join other free courses.
And yes, here is my name TARUN - tarun1012@gmail.com. Mail me if you need more details and I can talk to you as well. Jai Hind!!!
Hi Tarun,
DeleteNice to see your comments. Your examples might differ but the underlying point is the same as others expressed already.
I am not saying AoL is cheap, but one thing that I noticed is that the way it is presented by AoL volunteers has been different. I am from South India and our local teacher has been very open about costs where as the volunteers in your area seems to be keeping few things in dark.
I have learned not to waste my time on things that are not important, but if you see it as running away from discussion, I welcome your views. Spiritual knowledge is still free. Sit with grandma, search on internet or buy a book and learn about it. Why you insist on AoL?
I am sorry about your bad experience. One thing you could do is to report to AoL about their volunteers and hope for the best.
Namaste
Vasu