Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar was born in Papanasam, Tamil Nadu, to Vishalakshi and R.S.Venkat Ratnam. He is the brother of Bhanumathi Narasimhan. He was named “Ravi” (a common Indian name which means “sun”) because his birth was on a Sunday, and “Shankar” after the eighth-century Hindu saint, Adi Shankara, whose birthday was the same day as Ravi Shankar. Ravi Shankar’s first teacher was Sudhakar Chaturvedi, an Indian Vedic Scholar and a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the St. Joseph’s College of Bengaluru University. After graduation, He travelled with his second teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, giving talks and arranging conferences on Vedic science, and setting up Transcendental Meditation and Ayurveda centers.

In the 1980s, He initiated a series of practical and experiential courses in spirituality around the globe. He says that his rhythmic breathing practice, Sudarshan Kriya, came to him in 1982, “like a poem, an inspiration”, after a ten-day period of silence on the banks of the Bhadra River in Shivamogga, in the state of Karnataka, adding, “I learned it and started teaching it”.

In 1983, He held the first Art of Living course in Switzerland. In 1986, he travelled to Apple Valley, California, in the US to conduct the first course to be held in North America.[14]