The need of super-rich spiritual Gurus in India!

As a Bharatiya and as a Hindu, I see the great need of super-rich Hindu Gurus in present India. I am not talking about Gurus who are only popular in local crowd. I am talking about the high-profile Gurus with great financial power.

Typically a Guru is seen as one-way bridge from Ignorance to Enlightenment. Since I am not into spirituality, I see super-rich Gurus as a two-way bridge between rich and poor.

Bridge between rich and poor:
Well, not much explanation is needed here as the sub-heading is self explanatory. Lot of rich people make rich donations to AoL for whatever reason and the money is being spent for the benefit of poor people. In return, the donors get well needed and well deserved satisfaction or mental peace (whatever you call it).

The point that One needs to know is the grand scale of the social service activities and the responsibility taken by the AoL organization. When a good task is done in a grand scale, the ripples of it awakens the enthusiasm in people. This enthusiasm is what we need to bring change in our mother land Bharat.

Why only Hindu Gurus:
Because I have not seen any Gurus from other religions taking up social challenges. Christian organizations in India have been getting billions of dollars in the name of charity. But I have not seen any project that is done for the benefit of general public. They have established good number of schools to expand their faith. That is called business not social service. Coming to Muslim organizations, where is all the Gulf money going? If there is any project done by Muslim organizations, it should be visible to the public. I don't see any. The only significant and self-less projects that I see are listed below.

Great works done by super-rich Hindu Gurus:

Satya Sai Baba Water Project :: Super Specialty Hospital :: Sri Sri Schools :: Rural Development :: Sri Sri University :: Swami Ramdev Patanjali Yog Peeth

When it comes to super-rich Gurus, they have the well needed money power to get things done. The guts behind the success of AoL is the largest volunteer base and financial strength. There are many other Gurus who limited themselves to teach spirituality. But money is what allowed Sri Sri to reach out millions of needy people.

My wish list:
I wish Sri Sri would help Hindus to take control of their temples from the government. When Masques and Churches are controlled by religious organizations, why the Indian government still wants to control Hindu temples. I think it is time to speed up the "take control of our temples" movement and request Sri Sri for help to achieve this.

It is my wish that we Hindus should have vote bank to counter the tactics of the political parties that play vote banks politics. In a multi cultured country like India, vote banks are not desired at all. But to counter the enemy, I feel the great need of Hindu vote bank by next election in 2009.

It is my wish that Sri Sri would raise a strong voice against illegal religious conversions in India. Religious conversions are not good at all for the stability of our mother land Bharat. Sri Sri had volunteered to resolve issues between LTTE and Sri Lanka Governemnt. If religious conversion are not stopped, India will have similar conflicts in near future. To avoid such situation, I wish Sri Sri would initiate a movement in his mother land.


Thank you,
Vasu Gokaraju

My take on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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