Sri Sri Ravishankar- Being blessed by a living master

April 24, 2024

Being blessed by a living master.

By Nash

Chronologically speaking Mahavira, Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad, Gurunanak are some of the greatest spiritual masters whose followers founded 5 great religious traditions of Jainism Buddhism Christianity Islam and Sikhism respectively. All of them was born and lived in Asia. 3 of them in India. To say India is a land of great masters is an understatement.

And Hinduism, the worlds oldest religion, had a plethora of Gurus (including Buddha and Guru Nanak who were born Hindus) who showed millions of followers how to live a good life by their own example.

Unlike other religious movements, Hinduism does not have one single founder. We had Gods who existed from time immemorial. Many Hindus consider them (Rama, Krishna, Narasimha, Shiva, Shakti) as historical figures (not mythological) who lived thousands of years ago and showed the right path to live life.

The closest thing to God, by historical measure, we have are the Gurus or spiritual masters who walked the planet at a point in time which can be dated by modern historical standards.

These enlightened sages or masters were called by various names in India. Rishi, Guru, Sant, Siddha, Yogi, Baba, Acharya, Swami etc.

While the list is countless, I'm just mentioning a few who made great impact on millions of people with their teachings and also social service.

From 6th century BC to 5th century AD, we had great poets like Valmiki (Ramayana), Tiruvalluar (thirukkural), Chanakya (Arthashastra) who sort of codified human values of health wealth family Kingdom Governance via stories (valmiki) or allegories (Tirukkural and Arthashastra). But these were still considered esoteric.

From 5th to 7th century, we had Alwars and Nayanars who were pillars of Bhakti movement and created the concept of personal god (as opposed to esoteric vedic god). They sung the praises of God in local language Tamil (vs Sanskrit) literally as poetry and songs which can be sung on the street. This concept eventually spread from Tamil Nadu to as far as Punjab in North West India, allowing a break from strict Brahminical traditions to a spiritual movement of the masses, eventually having Bhajans, Kirtans, Song and Dances and Plays praising Gods and their lives to common folk, in local language from Tamil Bengali Hindi Punjabi Gujarati vs Sanskrit.

From 8th to 12th century, came great teachers like Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhavacharya, Tupil Vedanta Desikacharya (of whom we are descendants) who further simplified the Vedas for common man in lucid easy language.

From 13th to 17th century we had, Tulsidas, Kabirdas, Surdas, Meerabhai and Chaitanya Mahaprabu who composed beautiful and simple poetry and songs in praise of the gods.

From 18th century to 20th century, when the concept of modern and scientific education started, we had a new generation of masters - Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Shirdi Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, Swaminarayan, Chimayananda, Narayana Guru, Ramana Maharishi, Prabhupada (ISCKON), Chandrasekara Saraswati (Shankaracharya), Shivananda, Kripananda Variar, Paramahansa Yogananda, Sadhu Vaswani, Ahobila Mutt Jeer etc. I would also add Mother Teresa here, who was eventually recognised as a Saint by the pope just a few years back. And HH Dalai Lama. Both Teresa and Dalai Lama was born outside India, are not Hindus, but became spiritually Indians and contributed to Indian spirituality too.

In this tradition, we are truly blessed, to still have a few living masters, alive and active. These masters not only live the path, they also show the path to others and make such a huge impact on society, very quietly, even Governments marvel at how they accomplished so much with so little.

I have personally experienced, three of these living masters. Met two of them physically (Sri Sri Ravishankar and Jaggi Vasudev) and one spiritually (Saibaba). Countless miracles have happened in my life due to these masters.

I'll just give two examples:

1. An almost incurable ailment of many years, was cured with the blessing of one of these masters.

2. My professional career took a turn for better, with a simple prayer to one of these living masters.

Why am I saying all this?

When you meet one of these living masters in person, even for few seconds Darshan (meeting), like what happened to me last week when I met Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar at AOL Ashram, your life is transformed for the better permanently.

His Highness Sri Sri Ravishankar has a following in over 150 countries. And has touched the lives of millions of followers like me.

Be it combating Drug problem, prison rehabilitation, carbon emissions via tree plantations and river ecosystem rejuvenation, giving free education and meals to millions of poor students, getting fresh water to villages, to ending conflict in places such as Colombia, Iraq, Kashmir, Nagaland he has done many things which even Governments find it difficult to do.

I was marvelling at the 10 min video on his accomplishments. not one Political leader, or even a businessman Philanthropist, from Gates to Premji, I know of, had achieved the impact he has on millions of people around the globe. That's the power of love and selfless service.

Listen to world leaders right from Indian President (Kalam) Colombian President, French President, Canadian PM, to USA President Elect (and earlier VP Joe Biden) talk about the work of this living master in this short video.

Youtube Video title:

The story of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Link: https://youtu.be/QyqUBgl4ogs

Love and service move the world. Feel inspired.

Gautama Buddha