Jai Gurudev.This site is dedicated to his holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar ji.I had recently completed Advance course and my life, way of approach thinking, changed completely.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was born to Sri.Venkat Ratnam and Smt.Vishalakshi on May 13, 1956 in Tamil Nadu, India. His parents named him Shankar since his birthday matched that of the 8th century CE Hindu saint, Adi Shankara. He was named on the 11th day of his birth, which was Ramanuja Jayanti, the day Ramanuja (another important theologian and Hindu philosopher) was born. At the age of three he started learning the Bhagvad Gita. By the time he was nine years old, he had mastered the Rig-Veda. As a child he had deep spiritual insight and liked meditation. Some of the followers of Art of Living movement claim he received an advanced degree in physics at the age of 17.

With the guidance of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar many have moved beyond tolerance to unconditional acceptance and love. In his words Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says a truly religious person will be secular in nature. Secular means one who thinks all human beings are his or her own. All our religious leaders are compartmentalizing humanity, and taking responsibility on a limited scale. Spirituality is taking responsibility for all the people in the world. We need to create this awareness. All the maulvis, bishops, pandas, priests and mahants must come together and only then manav dharma, human values will be upheld.

The Word Unconditional acceptance is the solution of almost all the problem and I am trying to adopt this.

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar speaks on the secret to happiness

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7cvleNdF-g

Rocking Satsang with Rishiji-He Nand nand Gopal anand nand gopal

Bhole Ki Jai Jai-Rishi Nityapragya Art of Living

Who says spirituality is boring? Come and experience this

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mST2Awfq5E

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz8mBXpDwEU

1 Ravishankar on Religion

According to Ravishankar every religion has three aspects: values, symbols and customs. There are differences in practices and customs, whereas values are common to all religions. The growth of fanaticism, fundamentalism and intolerance in this world is happening because people are stuck in the practices, symbols, or customs. He exhorts people to enjoy the diverse variety of creation by honoring them all. He also adds that we should respect and love them. He says this is high time to start loving each other’s religion. According to him, a religion is great not because it is ours, but it is great because of what it is. This understanding should be given to all priests and others who guide religions. He sees an end of fanaticism and fundamentalism in this world. We should have a clear understanding about every religion. That may give us an attitude, which helps us to respect other religions. Ravishankar encourages everybody to work towards that. He warns that, if one abstains from proper prayer and meditation, which are the spiritual aspect of life, it may lead one to a stagnant stage in which religion turns to be a dry skin. So there is a need to enhance that spiritual aspect of life. Until one see god in the person next to you, purpose of religion stays unfulfilled.

II. 2 Ravishankar on God

According to Ravishankar, God is in us. He describes ourselves as God. He quotes Jesus Christ to support his view by quoting ‘I am in my father, my father and me are one [Sic].’ God is the mystical union of ‘presence’ and ‘moment’. In his perspective, we cannot separate god from our life. God is fullness. In god, there is everything. There is nothing out of god. Even good and evil rests in god. Ravishanker further says, the man who thinks is god, as every thought arouses from god. He believes in the omnipresence of god, god is everywhere. He is in the good as well as in evil. The only difference is, one recognizes it and the other does not. Shri Shri believes that no man can meet god. If one does, he will vanish and only god remains. Both cannot exist together in a place. We cannot love God. We can neither measure God nor ourselves. Because we are God.

Ravishankar believes that through him you can see the infinite. God is limitless compassion and grace. To know him is to be touched by his childlike simplicity and joy. In the presence of God, one experiences a profound silence that is beyond words. Joy, love, playfulness, poetry, deep wisdom and a spot of mischief have all come together in the person of Shri Shri Ravi Shankar.

He strongly opposes the God of Old Testament. In his idea, God of Old Testament is a god who waits people to do sin. After sinning he punishes those people. Shri Shri says, a good god cannot be like that. A good god is a god of love, which is unending. He protects and guides his people wherever they goes. Guru asks, “What kind of god is this if he waits his people to sin to punish them? Why couldn’t he stop people from sinning before he commits? Was he sleeping?” He further adds, we cannot rely on a god who allows his people to sin and punishes them. Such a god cannot be an omnipresent and omniscient god.

Shri Shri’s god is beauty. Most beautiful in the world is God . When we think about a beautiful thing, it arouses the desire of the heart to make it for our own. But if we submit ourselves to it, our desire will die off. Likewise when we worship God, the desire to make him our own will die off. Ravishanker regards god as one who loves fun. He explains that, that is the reason why he created so much fun in our life including our sorrows.

II. 3 Ravishanker on Love

For Ravishanker, love is like a liquid. Matter in liquid state cannot be broken. Hence love also cannot be broken. Ravishanker considers love as a solvent, which dissolves everything, which is added to it. Love dissolves both good and bad. A loving heart cannot be broken whatever the circumstances. If somebody hurts us, our mind should not be disturbed. We must continue loving them.

Even though love is good, expression of love is the root cause of problems. According to Ravishankar, if we express our love too much, we will soon reach a stage where there is nothing left over to express. Even without any change in mind, we can utter the words of love. Our self is only responsible for our love and nobody else’s. Ravishankar advise about loving other is that one should not express one’s love too much. Even without words, it should be evident through one’s deeds.

II. 4 Ravishankar on death and life after death

This world is a place where everybody dies. The Learned as well as the illiterate will die, the doctor as well as the patient will die, the efficient as well as the inefficient will die. There is no discrimination in death. Ravishanker compares ‘sleep’ with ‘death’. Sleep, meditation, love- all these are the synonyms of death.

His comparison of life and death has another implication. As we wakes up from sleep into a refreshed morning, we wake up into a new life after death, which is often said as rebirth. Irrespective of the condition of our mind, sleep gives us enough rest and reconditions our mind for the next day. In his understanding, death is the best friend of life. Shedding the identities of the past and consider life as a dream-that is death. In death, as in the case of sleep, we get rest and reconditioning.

There is no need to be afraid of death. Fear of death is the result of ignorance. As from sleep, we rise also from death. Ravishanker understands our mind as energy. Each and every mind contains enormous amount of energy. Energy cannot be destroyed. It cannot be destroyed even through death. At death, this energy leaves our body and lives outside the body for some time. When favorable conditions arise, it re-enters some other body. That shows that death is not the ultimate end. It is a time to rejoice and not to mourn. The knowledge about death, thus gives us the understanding that we are eternal.

II. 5 Other teachings of Ravishankar

Judging others is inevitable, but one’s judgment should not be rigid. Judging a person may be a difficult thing in making friendship with him. Though we have heard that we should not judge, at times we fall in conditions in which we cannot help ourselves without judging. But our judgments should not be rigid. If we stick to our decisions, it will make problems both for us and for others. We have to choose either from good or from evil to make certain decisions. That itself is a judgment. Judgment is inevitable in making good friendships because friendships are strong enough to make you good as well as bad.

Ravishankar has his own insights about the rebirths. He uses an analogy to prove his stand. He compares our body with a washing machine and our mind to a cloth. He says love is plain water and wisdom is soap. If so, life is the cleaning process. Mind is in our body to be cleansed. But if you are applying dirt instead of soap, the cloth will become dirtier, if we use love and wisdom on the mind, it will become clean. If we don’t stop repeating our wrong doings, we have to repeat the cleaning process also. In order to do that, we have to take several births.

Shri Shri understands the crucial part mind plays in one’s life. The most beautiful part of this world is our mind itself. If we are unhappy, even the most beautiful thing will make you irritant. The tastiest food cannot make us happy. But on the other hand, if we are happy, even if the food is not so good, it will be tasty for us. That is due to the game played by our mind. Hence we should turn to our mind and enjoy.

III Ravi Shankar and Christianity

Ravishankar, though he is a scholar in Hinduism, is well versed about Christianity too. Shri Shri Ravishankar has his own unique insights on Christian faith. He points out the similarities between Christianity and Hinduism and argues that both the religions are different paths to the same God. He compares different customs prevalent in the Christian world with those in the Hindu society and points to the many similarities. Some of his unique insights and interpretations about Christianity will be discussed below

III.1 Jesus in India

Ravishankar argues that Jesus lived in India and went back to the Israel and did his ministry there. To support his view, he says that history also supports this stand. According to Jewish custom, at the age of fourteen, Jesus was asked to marry. Jesus was not ready to get married and so fled from his home, travelling a long way and reached India. Jesus spent twelve years in India. Shri Shri points to the dress of Jesus, which is commonly held by the Catholics, the saffron robes, to support his view. Saffron Robes are not a Jewish dress. While Jesus went back from India, He took saffron robes along with him.

III.2 Worship of Mary

The second thing, he brings forth, in order to project the similarity between Hinduism and Christianity is the worship of Mary, mother of Jesus, which is practiced among the Catholic Christians. Worship of a Goddess was not a religious custom of the Jews. On the other hand, female deities are common in India. Hence, Shri Shri views the possibility of this custom adopted from the Indian culture by Catholicism.

III.3 Doctrine of Trinity

Shri Shri Ravishankar compares the doctrine of trinity in Christianity and equates it with the Hindu concept of Trimurti, ‘Brahma’, ‘Vishnu’ and ‘Siva’. Brahma exists in Siva as well as Siva in Brahma. At the same time, they both exist in Vishnu. His stand is that doctrine of trinity is certainly not from Jewish culture. Then the only possible source is Hindu Culture.

III.4 Other Similarities

Another bead in the string joining both religions is the use of bells. That again was not a part of Jewish tradition, but was a necessary part of Hindu worship. He further argues for the similarity by pointing to the different altars used in the Catholic churches. Some for healing of the sick, some for forgiveness of sins, and some other may be for confessions. The only difference between these altars and those in temples he observes is that in Christian Churches, all altars are in the name of Jesus, but, in temples, it is in the name of different gods. But these different gods are the same god in different names. He reaffirms Hindu believers that they do not believe different gods, but same god in different names. He brings out the ‘idol worship’ [Sic] in Catholicism and equates it with the idol worship of Hinduism. He says his listeners, Jews were not idol worshippers, but Jesus promotes it. Unlike Jewish synagogues, Christian Churches are constructed with altars in eastward direction just as the Hindu temples, which is another similar factor. Use of rosary is another tradition came out into Christianity from Hindu traditions.

IV Evaluation

Ravishankar excels in attracting people through his excellent talks. His successful programmes in the western countries shows his influence among the Non-Hindus. As an official NGO of United Nations, it could gather the support of most of the western countries. The acceptance by the government and the authorities mislead the people with poor conscience to think that everything that he says is right in itself. This is a danger. Some denominations among Christians also started inviting him for talks. In such Christian gatherings, he is clever enough to bring forth Biblical verses and stories to support his views.

Comments on Christianity by Ravishankar reveals, either his lack of proper understanding or his purposeful intention to put Christianity down. He deals only with Catholicism. His teachings confuse many Christians who do not have enough knowledge of their scriptures and they accept matters, which even cut the root of their faith along with other general teachings. The nominal believers, who are not so much concerned about their beliefs, will accept whatever he says. Most of his books list Christian names while mentioning incidents. This shows either many Christians are with him or that he is purposely writing those names to attract Christians. Hence we as Christians should be aware of these sorts of traps. Ravishankar’s position that Jesus lived in India for twelve years is a view that hasn’t been proved yet. Nobody could trace satisfactory historical proofs for that. There are no historical records available to prove that Jesus went out of his place, except speculations of some scholars. Hence this argument, which he is making, is almost out of nowhere. His supportive statement, about the robes, which Jesus wore during his ministry, also does not have any proof from history. There is no reason to believe that Jesus wore types of dress other than that prevalent in the Jewish tradition. He must have worn the traditional Jewish robes. Hence Ravishankar’s argument won’t stand. Ravishankar again is making mistake in mentioning Mary as a deity. Mary is not considered as a deity even by Catholics and hence not worshipped as a goddess. Mary is only a mediator between God and man for them. Ravishankar equates her with the female deities in Hinduism. He also failed to remember the presence of female deities in Greek mythologies, which is closer to the land of Christianity than to India. Hence the possibility of the practice of ‘giving honor to Mary’ to come from Hindu traditions hardly exists. Moreover, even this practice is not true with Christianity in general; it belongs only to the Catholicism and some other non-protestant groups.

His background in Physics is evident in his analogies. He uses many similes from Physics to prove his ideas. For instance, he compares Love to a state of liquid, which cannot be broken. Ravishankar observes mind as energy, which again reveals the influence of physics in his teachings.

Ravishankar’s idea about God is absolutely different from which we have. His belief that we are god in ourselves is a form of pantheism. But most of his other teachings about God reveal the influence of Christianity in him. He accepts the Christian concept of fullness of God. But he misinterpreted Jesus’ words to say that we are god. Jesus, as Christians believe, is God. And when Jesus says, “I and my Father are one”, one should not interpret as said by a mere man. Instead, he says it as Jesus’ teaching oneness of God and man.

Ravishankar is good in his teachings about the various issues of life. He is right in most of his teachings. But many of his teachings cannot be accepted. For instance, on stating about rebirth, he says, if one animal had fear about another, in the next birth it will be born as the animal that it feared . On explaining the population of the lions which all-animal fears, he says, its population is not increasing because it catches its prey from the back so that the prey would not see the lion. He failed in explaining about the fear of that animal. The animals are fearing lion, whether they are caught or not, fear is there. Most of the animals fears lion. So all those should be born as lion. Small animals, for example rabbit, fears fox, tiger lion and many other animals. What would be that animal in the next birth?

The fact that Shri Ravishankar could gather multitudes to his side is a testimony to his excellent speeches and teachings. He is very influential and respected not only among Hindus, but also among the other religious communities. His pleasant face with smile while teaching attracts people. He talks on general things as coming to his mind. We have to accept his talent to bring out the issues which common man faces in his day-to-day life and to present it in an attractive way. His illustrations vis-à-vis to the various aspects of life highlights his preparedness before facing the public. The way of transition from subject to subject is excellent His talks don’t have a specific order. But that orderlessness has its beauty. It takes the mind of people to a level, which they never had thought of. Without giving much time for the people to reflect on it, he moves on to another topic. It gives the people an impression that everything he teaches is right. But when we glide through his books, we find many portions, which we cannot agree with. Hence we should be aware of the traps, which many are falling, and make others aware of it.

Dr. Zakir Naik Vs. SriSri Ravi Shankar (Debate) -- Part 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID4p-Kc41uQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX5AtJ0zw2U

Dear Reader Please go through the video and try to understand the logic of killing people and cow by an Islamic Scholar Dr. Zakir Naik.Although this forum is not about Hinduism and all but this Logic can not be digest.Pls put your comments

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4sMSxHbyR4

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