You caught that, didn’t you – that there are three sri’s where there used to be only two sri’s? That’s not a typo.

So before we get to the column, let’s deal with the proliferation of “sri’s”. It used to be that the great and the accomplished were honoured by others with a “sri” to their name – as in Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Sri Aurobindo, Sri Krishna, etc. It’s not something that one plasters on to one’s name. Sticking a “sri” to one’s own name is as like an ugly person putting on too much makeup and pretending to be good looking. Ravishankar sticks not one but two sri’s in front of his name. It is a repulsive sight.

On my way to Ahmedabad on Saturday, at Mumbai airport, I saw a poster which upped the ante of this revolting spectacle and increased the number of sri’s. Sri Sri Ravishankar is now Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar. Now I will have to change the “SSRS” to “SSSRSFKASSRS”: “Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar formerly known as SSRS”. But let’s use the short form SSSRS from now on.

Anyway, back to our column, “In love, losing is winning.”

That line is hard to beat. In just five words, in just 22 characters, it packs so much inanity and illogic that merely reading that line kills a million brain cells. Making such a statement is plain unadulterated nonsense of course but then if SSSRC were to avoid the nonsensical, he might as well take maun vrat (a vow of silence.)

Logic and sense has never been the strong suit of god-men (and god-women) and their sainted followers. If logic was even remotely involved in the deal, that whole business and the attendant followers would not happen.

“In love, losing is winning.” There go another million brain cells. Pardon me for that.

If losing is winning, then the loser is the winner, and the winner is the loser. So by losing, you win – which makes you a winner, and as you are a winner you are a loser, but that only means that you are actually a winner, which means you are really a loser . . . it is an infinite chain of insanity.

See what I mean? Insanity does not come in more potent form than that. What I can’t stop marvelling about is that not only did SSSRS make that absolutely contentless insane statement, but others involved in the chain that terminated in the column being printed in the newspaper – the reporter, the editor – did not find anything the least bit wrong with the statement. Compared to these people, sheep have been known to be more logical.

The headline should keep the wary from reading the piece. But anyway, for a change of pace, I decided that I will actually read the column to see what depths of inanity and illogic the man had plumbed.

For the record, here are a few select quotes.

When in trouble, don’t think “what can I do?” or that you are insignificant. Instead, understand that you, too, have a role to play. Like a tiny homeopathic pill, which has a 1/100th, or 1/1000th potency, makes an impact on a 60-70 kg body, in the same way, every individual has an influence on the cosmos, on this planet.

True true, SSSRS looks average enough but his inanity influences millions of people (or sheeple, if you like). I like the homeopathy bit thrown in: that’s the bright red cheery on top of a heap of idiocy calling attention to itself.

When you point a finger at others, three fingers are pointing back at you. For instance, if I say, “you are ugly!” I am three times uglier; but when I include you into me, then there is no me. Then there is only one – that is ultimate victory.

Did someone say victory? Well, if you have the ultimate victory, don’t you have the ultimate loss? Oh what an idiot! Three fingers pointing back multiplying the effect of a statement is the sort of logic that would fail to impress even retarded people. What does the man smoke that he can make such asinine statements with a straight face? And what do his followers smoke?

Life is so short. We’ll all live for another 30-40 years and then one day, everybody will be dead and gone. But we cry about what we have and we’re upset about what we don’t have. Is it worth living life like that? We ourselves get depressed and then depress everybody around us. We need to shake ourselves up. Wake up! And when we wake up from this slumber, then we have peace in our hearts and we can radiate that peace and love around us.

No, really, I cannot bring myself to comment on this any more. My vocabulary is limited and I can only feebly describe SSSRS’s statements as inane, insane, asinine, silly, ludicrous, ridiculous, senseless, stupid, unreasonable, illogical and empty. Those adjectives are all inadequate.

Related Post: His Most Exalted Holiness Sri Maha Param Pujaniya Gurudevji Bhagwanji Sriman Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji Mahadevji, I presume.

Ram Guha wrote a funny entry in his Oslo diary with the title “Nobel Longings.” (Thanks to Sushant for the link.)

After my talk, a lady comes up and introduces herself as a doctor, and an advisor to the Peace Institute. The names I had mentioned were all very good, she said, but surely it was time that the peace prize went to an Indian? She mentions the name of a fellow townsman of mine, a man who has grown long hair, given himself four fancy initials (HH/SS), and whose name is also that of a very great exponent of the sitar.
The Norwegian doctor had heard that this man had brought peace to Kashmir, and had promoted organic agriculture in thousands of Indian villages. She had been asked to promote his candidacy for the prize, and indeed the man himself had been to Oslo several times recently. She asked me if I would give my opinion on the matter.

I answered that so far as I knew, there was no peace in Kashmir. I observed that what the West refers to as ‘organic farming’ we knew as rain-fed agriculture—and that it is nothing new. Where there was no canal water and where they had little capital, millions of Indian farmers had, for the past thousands of years, grown crops without the use of any chemicals (and without any spiritual counselling) whatsoever.

Finally, I suggested to the doctor that if not giving Gandhi the prize was a scandal, awarding it to my fellow townsman would be an even bigger scandal.

I am not a big fan of Ram Guha and I don’t see eye to eye with him on the issue of Nehru and MK Gandhi. But he appears to share my disdain for the self-promotion of His Holiness (how does one anoint oneself HH with a straight face?) Sri Sri (not once but twice!) Ravi Shankar.

Interestingly, I like Francois Gautier, even though he is a big supporter of SSRS.

I’m writing to thank you for your well-reasoned articles on Ravi Shankar and the Art of Living Foundation. I recently became involved in this group, taking their Part 1 course and just this past weekend completing their Part 2 Retreat. I have had my own doubts about the organization and the founder which crystallized after I left the retreat. Finding your articles reassured me that my doubts are well-founded.

A small, possibly interesting aside on the cultish nature of the organization: Since I have developed some personal relationships with teachers and other students, I felt obliged to write them and let them know I would no longer be participating in any AOL activities. Immediately after sending that e-mail I felt an extreme rush of unexplained anxiety. This may be meaningless, random, and unrelated, or it may be akin to the feelings cult members experience when they contemplate abandoning the group.

Regards,
Bill

Thanks, Bill, for writing. Next up, an email from Sunil (not his real name) which arrived with the subject line, “yet another hapless zombie responds” and said:

Dear Atanu,

I came across your blog recently. Some interesting stuff, I was intrigued till I came across my description as a zombie.

I wallowed in self pity for a while, at this description and then started framing a response; I then came across the following question and answer session with Sri-Sri from the last couple of days, and felt it was appropriate response. (attached below)

Like a true zombie, I felt this answered the need of the moment, and no further thought from me was required in framing a response.
With luck, this is first time you have seen this answer in your in-box.

Cheers,
Sunil

Thank you, Sunil, for writing and for the permission to quote your email.

Following that, Sunil included the transcript of a question-answer session which I quote below with a few of my own comments interspersed:

In a satsang at the Art of Living centre in Germany last night, someone asked Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: “Guruji, I have observed that Guruphiliac seems to follow your every move and then write negative things about you. Why are they doing this?”

This is the gist of what Guruji said: I have inherited an ancient lineage and my job is to further its cause. Neither by thought, nor through word, nor by deed, have I ever done any harm to anyone, nor will I ever do so in the future; it is simply not in my nature. Nobody can expose me because there is nothing to expose: I stand tall, clean and naked in front of the whole world.

Fair enough. As I had assumed before in my first opinion piece on SSRS, he is like you and me: not intending any harm to anybody and by nature a good person; in other words, useful like the rest of us. The mystery is of course the umbrage that some of his followers take at this characterization. They insist that SSRS is way beyond merely mortal. I have not seen any evidence of that. But I have seen plenty of evidence that the Art of Living organization peddles its wares with as much gusto and enthusiasm as any corporation and does so with a deep commitment to making as much money as they can.

I absolutely salute any legitimate organization for doing its best to make money. That is what makes the world tick. But I am reluctant to label the head of a commercial establishment as a supreme being.

I do whatever maximum good I can, and I inspire others to do so. These people who keep writing about me simply cannot leave me alone – they must be in deep love with me! (laughter) When they keep comparing me with other people all the time, I must have made a very deep impression on them. I cannot help it if they can’t get over me – that’s the way I am! If I am that bad and fake, they should simply be able to ignore me and move onto the truth –why are they are holding onto me, again and again?

That bit from SSRS reads funny. It is a mix of arrogance and hurt, with a defensive bit of egotistic self-congratulation thrown in. It is arrogant to imply that one is incomparable — that people who compare him to others are somehow stupid. The defensive self-congratulation is the claim that he inspires to do good like the good he does himself.

I don’t doubt that people do good and inspire others to do good by example. But let others note that fact. If a person himself makes that claim, it sort of sounds cheap and vulgar. One is left feeling a bit of pity for the person. One should not have to say, “Look at me, look at me! I am good, am I not?” if one is totally confident of one’s own achievements.

To me, that answer reveals a defensive posture that is wholly unbecoming of a person who is absolutely confident in his own self. A really honorable person will never have to talk loudly of his honor. (“The louder he talked about his honor, the faster we counted the silverware,” is one of my favorite quotations.)

If they are trying to teach me a lesson, if their intention is to correct me, then I’m sorry, I am incorrigible! (laughter)

Very droll. And in a very I-specialist sort of way. “I know it all and there is nothing that you can ever teach me anything. How wonderful am I, am I not, eh?”

If their idea is to stop people from coming to me, and if people do stop coming just by reading these blogs, then I really thank them; it is good for me, it reduces my responsibility! If they think I am doing this for publicity, they are unaware of the disadvantages of popularity. I pity them. Celebrities enjoy only popularity, but spiritual leaders have a huge responsibility with that popularity. People do not go to celebrities for guidance and blessings, but with spiritual leaders they do.

OK, I get the message. “I am a spiritual leader and you have no idea of how heavy a burden that is. Just look at me! I am shouldering a burden that mere mortals will buckle under. If only, Lord if only, someone will stop people from coming to me, I would be grateful for the relief. My popularity sits like a millstone around my neck. You ordinary folks have no idea how heavy is the responsibility of popularity. Celebrities love popularity because it comes without any responsibility. But look at me! LOOK AT ME!! I am a spiritual leader and for us spiritual leaders, popularity is a matter of grave responsibility which you — you murakh na-layak you — can never understand.”

Yeah, I get the message. It must be a terrible burden to have your Art of Living promoted ceaselessly and strenuously until every nook and cranny of India is plastered with your hirsute visage. (Note to self: must post that picture of SSRS’s promotional flyer I took at the Edison NJ train station last month.)

If they think I have no right to exist on this planet, then they can crucify me; I am afraid neither of death nor of being defamed. I am not afraid, because nothing can destroy me.

Don’t you just love a martyr? “Go ahead, crucify me. I am so wonderful that I even take your ingratitude in my huge steps and think that your criticism is like nothing. Look at me! Am I not the most wonderful thing you have ever laid your eyes upon? Yeah, after Jesus F Christ, I am the greatest. I am indestructible. I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, also.”

We do charity with the hard earned money from our courses. We are, of course, rich with people and with good character, and I am ready to share this wealth with anyone.

Lest they understand that their hatred is nothing but love standing upside down.

Okie dokie. Hats off to you sir. You are most clever. I note that you did not say “I will share the wealth that I have (which goes into the hundreds of millions of dollars.)” He said that his wealth is his followers and he has generously offered to share that “wealth of people”. How very magnanimous of you sir.

I was about to send you my bank account number with the hope that you will share the money you have with me. But I guess that option is out. I see no need for worshipful followers and so you will excuse me if I don’t take you up on your offer to share your “wealth.”

Goodbye, goodnight, and may your god go with you.

[I know that this naming of the man is getting a bit out of hand. Previously I had been persuaded by his worshipers that the proper title for the man should be "the Supreme Commander of the Universe out of whose Nether Regions the Sun shines in all its Splendor" which for convenience one should write as SCOTUOOWNRTSSIAIS. So I say, take your pick -- use HMEHSMHPGBSSSRSM or SCOTUOOWNRTSSIAIS -- whichever you fancy, until of course another embellishment comes along to do proper justice to the amazing abilities of this god on earth.]

One Sri Joe Blow (not the actual name of the person) wrote me an email. As his email to me was in response to something that I had written in the public domain — namely, a post on this blog titled “Is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar a con man?” — I wrote back and asked if he could show cause why his email to me could not be considered to be in the public domain. He replied but did not show any cause why his email should not be part of the pubic record and why I should not respond to his email publicly. So here’s my response.

Sri Jeffery’s email is quoted and my response is interleaved:

Hi!

The note you wrote to your brother about Art of Living was done so long ago that you might have a completely new orientation.

I might. On the other hand, I might not have. You see, just because something is old does not mean that it needs revision. Not all things are in the nature of fads and fashion. There are things that are enduring because they reflect what is true and that which is true need not change.

I would have a completely “new orientation” if I had new information. From what I have learnt since my first tentative conclusions about His Most Exalted Holiness Sri Maha Param Pujaniya Gurudevji Bhagwanji Sriman Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji Mahadevji (HMEHSMHPGBSSSRSM) — mostly from emails from his worshipers such as yourself — I have not found any reason to deviate from my conclusion that HMEHSMHPGBSSSRSM is a very useful person doing very good business and thus promoting social welfare. HMEHSMHPGBSSSRSM is not any more a con man than any other business man doing legitimate business.

What you wrote then was interesting but strange. Looking over a website and claiming to able to declare not only the motives but even the state of consciousness of the founder has got to be a new level of confidence in the world. I wonder how you would evaluate yourself if you ran across your own letter. Or maybe it was some kind of satire on people who make judgments by projecting their experience on other things.

Perhaps I am satirically inclined and do jump to conclusions. But that still does not detract from the fact that HMEHSMHPGBSSSRSM promotes himself to the hilt and has legions of brainwashed morons to do his bidding. I don’t envy him his legions of brainwashed morons but I do take exception when some of them legions of brainwashed morons write to me telling me what I should or should not do. There are limits.

You also claim to know that his technique must be nothing new — even though you don’t know what it is. It reminds me of the Harvard researcher Herbert Benson, who had the theory that you didn’t need to practice TM to get the same results. But to prove his point he only cited research on TM! (And of course other researchers found that the mantra was key in creating brainwave coherence, and that the level of rest was deeper when using those mantras.)

Yes, I do know what he teaches as there are sufficient number of people who have undergone the training and have personally spoken about it to me. His technique is nothing new because it is part of the traditional methods of breath control that have been in practice for thousands of years in India. For ignorant Westerners, perhaps, HMEHSMHPGBSSSRSM’s technique may come as a shockingly amazingly new thing. But for the average well-informed Indian, it is as amazingly novel as the fact that bears shit in woods.

It is also interesting how common it is for people to elevate the consciousness of people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago, and proclaim that no one could possibly have that level of consciousness or grace today.

Thanks for that non sequitur. I will add it to my collection and let you know if it wins the first prize in the “Annual Totally Irrelevant Comment I have Ever Received Contest.”

I would recommend taking the post down, and striving for a bit of innocence and humility. Why not support something that is doing so much good in the world? (If it is a joke, the humor isn’t that good. In my opinion. But even bad comedians seem to get work. Humor is a funny thing.)

You would recommend, would you now? Take that post down? Are you out of your friggin’ mind? I take that back. You have to be out of your mind to have the gumption to write to me asking me to remove a post that has in any way done nobody any harm. All my post did was to reason that there is nothing special about a man who is so fucking full of himself that it has started straining credulity.

Get over it, mister. Judging from the emails that I get from people such as yourself — brainwashed zombies who have lost the power of reason — I am beginning to suspect that the answer to the question “Is SSRS a con man?” to be a most definite yes.

I’m sure you are quite wonderful and like to be able to give your brother advice (and you do advise him ultimately to go with his own experience, which seems very wise), but it would probably help him more to speak about things you know more about.

Feeling a tad patronizing, are we today? Stick it where the sun don’t shine, sweetheart. Here’s what’s puzzling about your attitude. If HMEHSMHPGBSSSRSM is all that wonderful, perhaps he should have taught you some humility. What you display is naked arrogance of a person whose understanding is so little that he doesn’t even know that he is ignorant.

I am finally coming around to the conclusion that SSRS aka HMEHSMHPGBSSSRSM is overall not as harmless as I had first thought. He is turning too many average people into zombies.

In any case, good luck to you.

Mister, it is you who needs all the luck you can get. Don’t go about handing it out so generously.

Anyway, here’s my response to the gentleman, for the record.

Dear Mr N:

Thanks for writing. I believe that you have mis-read my pieces on SSRS. That is easy to do because many people — such as yourself — arrive at the posts with the preconceived idea that I am trashing SSRS. Let me restate my position even though it should not require restating as I have made these points again and again in my posts and in my responses to comments.

1. AoL is a personality driven cult. It makes many of its followers zombies who worship SSRS and have abdicated their reason. I have met SSRS followers in person and in cyberspace. Some of them — not all — are totally brainwashed and can only talk of SSRS as the Supreme Commander and Owner of the Universe. I am serious about this. And if you need some evidence, see some of the comments and emails that I have published from such people on my blog.

I am all for the promotion of good ideas — and Indian philosophy and religions have an incredible store of that sort of thing. But when the personality becomes the focus, the ideas take a back seat. This is a pity because the ideas are important, whereas the person is merely the instrument. Of course AoL is not the only organization which promotes a person over ideas, and SSRS is not the only demi-god in the world. We can name quite a large number of them — J Krishnamurty, Sai Baba, Satya Sai Baba, Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, and so on.

2. AoL is a commercial operation. Nothing wrong with that as I am an economist and fully endorse all commercial activities that contribute to society and make a profit. But to attribute superior motives to it is flawed, in my opinion. Coca Cola company and AoL are in this way doing exactly the same thing: supplying to what people want. There is a difference though: the CC company makes a product and sells it to make a profit. AoL takes donations (and course fees) and part of its income it devotes to social work. In purely economic terms, it is a transfer of resources, not the creation of wealth.

Suppose BigCorporation makes and sells cars and then of the $1 billion profits, contributes $100 million to build schools for the blind. That it makes a profit means that its cost of making the cars is lower than the revenues. And the revenues is a measure of how much value people who buy those cars put on the work of the BigCorporation. The BigCorporation therefore actually creates the wealth and then spends part of that to build schools.

Now AoL takes donations from people and aggregates it and does social work. It does not create the wealth — it only transfers it from a large number of people (who have presumably worked in creating that wealth) to itself and then claims that it has done social work itself. I am not saying that the intermediation that AoL does in taking the money from its followers and aggregating it is worthless. That is valuable. But it cannot be claimed that they created the wealth that they used. They merely took it by persuading people that they are good people.

I think that SSRS can claim that he built those schools only if the funding came out of his pocket. And if indeed it was his own personal wealth that went into the social work, then I don’t see why anyone can fault the position that he runs a commercial organization whose owner he is.

From my point of view, SSRS and Ratan Tata are both useful people. And so are most of us — useful. The scale differs but not the basic idea. We work, we create some wealth, we get paid, we consume some of that income, we give some of that income to charity, etc. Sure I don’t give the same amount to charity as say Ratan Tata gives. But qualitatively there is no difference, even though the quantitative difference is huge.

I note the dismissive tone you took to “logic” and other such things. Perhaps logic is not very useful in your scheme of things. Many people do derisively dismiss logic while quietly enjoying the luxuries that a hardheaded use of logic by others has created. Faith, they say, is more important than logic. OK, so tell me which of the things that you find useful was developed and created by faith? Let me put that in a different way: imagine a poor person who has little food, no shelter, and is materially impoverished. He is given two bundles of goods to choose from. One bundle consists of goods that are the end product of logic and hard work. The other bundle is of goods that are the result of faith. Which one is he likely to choose?

Only the rich can afford the luxury of claiming all sorts of benefits of having faith. The rest of us have to somehow manage to get some stuff so that we can continue to keep body and soul together in this material world. Once that is achieved, I am sure that I will be happy to talk about faith — with a full stomach.

No, I did not make it up. That is what is reported in a recent rediff article. The questions are so profound that I found myself moved to ask such questions. Mine are modest efforts, naturally, as I am not blessed with the immense holiness of SSRS. I am sure that you can also add to the list I present here.

“Does gravitation have anger? Can suitcases be psychic?”

“What philosophy do tables subscribe to? Where do eagles magnetize metaphysics?”

“When are horses psycho-somatic? Can oceans trust tangos?”

“Are unicorns induction resistors? Do white-boards somnolent?”

“Can creative levitate? Will green furious tightness vaporize magical?”

The mind simply boggles at the inanities that flow from pseudo-intellectual fake piety. The mindless bunch of followers swoon ecstatically when they hear those meaningless sentences, their adoration reaching new heights.

SSRS’s followers continue to send me unsolicited mail. Lucky me once again.

They don’t seem to understand that I express my views on my blog; I don’t write emails to people I don’t know forcing my opinion on them. So if they want to express their views, there are dozens of options in terms of blogs. They should avoid sending me mail. Else I publish their idiotic rantings just to underline my case that some of SSRS’s followers are brainwashed retards that don’t have a clue and are clearly unable to comprehend written material.

Here’s one that I got yesterday, posted in its entirety for the record.

Subject:Is Atanu Dey a con man

You too are a con man because you recongnized SSRS so well…of course he is extremely good at marketing…better than you apparently.

He sends a message of peace and love while yours is hate. It is ok to put SSRS in the useful category but which category do you fall into…this is something you should ask yourself.

SSRS has millions of loving homes in 152 countries around the globe. How far has your con job gotten you.

SSRS has created many loving homes around the world…what is your message and what has your message accomplished?

I think you are just jealous that he is better con man than you are…you wish you could con as well he is able to.

Just one suggestion: Wake up first and then get your fetters off!

But then again, the fact that you have fetters on is just my opinion…I am entitled to the right of being wrong. But if you do have them on, take them off and do your research and present real facts, instead of misleading your readers with nonsense. The useless
comments such as yours can only come from a diseased body but then again that too is just my opinion.

Krishna Allam
Houston, Texas

The guy is, shall we say, mentally differently enabled. He admits that SSRS is a con man, a conclusion that I have not been able to arrive at. But his actual complaint is that I have categorized SSRS as “useful” — and not the Supreme Commander of the Universe out of whose Nether Regions the Sun shines in all its Splendor. Mr Allam wants all sentient beings to proclaim SSRS as SSRS the SCOTUoowNRtSsiaiS.

Nope, SSRS is merely useful. It does not matter how many houses he owns or how many people suck up to him. You Mr Allam, on the other hand, are a less-than-useful retard. Take a course in remedial reading.

[Related: Posts on SSRS. ]

I continue to be educated about SSRS and AoL by those who have first-hand experience, as a consequence. From the hate mail I get the impression that to a large number of people, SSRS is a divine figure. But every now and then, I do hear from people who have been there without falling into the spell. This one came as a comment and I thought it best to haul it out so that it would reach a wider audience. The write is one who signs off as AV. Here it is, for the record.

First of all I must commend Atanu Dey on his very well-thought-out and articulate letter to his brother. It has been a long time since I read or heard anything on this topic that was not clouded by either fanaticism or extreme skepticism without willingness to examine the facts.

I’m one of those that was an ardent devotee but I snapped out of it in a year (and thank goodness I did). Why? I found SSRS hypocritical. Allow me to narrate just one incident:

Just last week he was in a 4-hour stopover at Bahrain airport. He has a fan following in the country and it would have been no trouble at all to get a visa so he could see them, but he refused. It seems he needed a State invitation! If that isn’t hugely egoistic I don’t know what is. I was totally disgusted. And then he had the audacity to add, ‘the people of Bahrain are not ready to meet me yet.’ Yeah, right.

In the private lounge at the airport where he met a few people, everyone sat on the floor, but the Indian ambassador to Bahrain sat next to him on the sofa. Why the distinction?

Meanwhile, outside, the devotees conducted themselves in a deplorable manner over the matter of who would get a pass to go in and meet him. Instead of exercising the love and compassion and detachment that they are taught about in the course, they fought about it, hurt each others’ feelings, and were generally bitchy. I’ve seen less ‘enlightened’ people behave with more decency.

I think it’s great that he’s improving so many lives, but I have also seen families ruined by this juggernaut that is the Art of Living Foundation. The tragedy of these people is that they think they have been ’saved’.

I don’t begrudge the man his millions and his terrific booming business, but I do mind him preaching about love and humility when he does not practice what he preaches. One only has to look at the two ‘Sris’ to see just how ‘humble’ he is.

Peace.

Thanks, AV, for adding your perspective.

Here’s an informative letter from someone who has attended SSRS’s Art of Living course, for the record. The writer wishes to remain anonymous.

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your post – Is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar a Con Man?

I did Art of Living Part I course last October and just the last weekend I did the advanced level course called Divya Samaj Nirman. Overall, my experience has been somewhere between very nice to excellent. I learnt a well packaged yoga, meditation, pranayam schedule that I could follow every day morning. Plus, I got immense motivation to follow the routine on a regular basis. Plus, I got some very good knowledge points that I could apply when life is rough to me. Plus, I got highly motivated, freshened up and free. The experience of the course itself was amazing. It was a very professionally conducted course, I did it in USA so may be that counts. I think it will help me a lot in my life.

On the flip side, I was torn apart by their very very very pushy branding. Not only they sell the organization to me to extreme irritation (which I suppose I should care less), they even made me do the advertising, very forcefully, as part of the course.

Secondly, I certainly sensed that the followers of the organization treat him as God. I was kind of offended. I know couple of enlightened gurus in my family. I would not consider Sri Sri Ravishankar Guruji any different than them. I don’t believe in miracles. I need direction; however I don’t want to make myself handicapped – mentally emotionally and spiritually. They tell me that it’s all about the faith. I understand, but somehow I don’t find associating myself with him as my God. For that matter, I grew up learning from my parents that they would associate with any saint or guru or sage as such, even greats like Ramakrishna Paramhansa. At least, I would like to gently grow into the faith, rather than forcing myself.

And then I read your article, very nicely written. It gave me some relief from my ambiguity. I would still follow teachings of Art of Living, but I would not be part of the cult, if at all it is one.

Regards,
HS

I don’t think I have fully understood what I find so creepy about SSRS. Of course, I am generally against personality cults — which is why I consider Christianity (the Jesus personality cult created by Paul), Islam (the Mohammed personality cult promoted by Mohammed), Scientology (the L Ron Hubbard personality cult created by LRH), Mormonism (the Joseph Smith, Jr personality cult), etc, creepy to the extreme. Perhaps I intuit that SSRS aims to attain divinity through modern marketing techniques.

I am fairly certain from what I have read about him and what I read by him, that he is not himself deluded that he is the Supreme Creator of the Universe (TM). But I think he does not mind it that his worshippers do consider him the SCotU. Indeed, he smiles benignly and indulgently when they bow and scrape in front of him and kiss his feet.

Perhaps it is not him that I find creepy but rather his worshippers that I find creepy. That feeling of mild disgust aggregated over a large number of instances gets associated in my mind with SSRS. The problem is that I think that SSRS is a very useful person. He is a defender of the Indian religions against the onslaught of the crazy intolerant monotheists, and Hinduism desperately needs as many defenders as it can get. It would have been better to have a few of the caliber of Sri Aurobindo or Swami Vivekanand. But one is grateful for small mercies.

I realize that I am too critical of people who peddle vacuous homilies. But then, I also realize that the average person is not too bright and if presented with something substantial will not be able to grasp it. So it could be that the vacuous homilies are calculated to appeal to the masses even though the peddler is capable of something more. Or perhaps that is all they are capable of dishing out and it just happens to resonate with the masses. I know that I could not keep a straight face while mouthing that sort of nonsense. Anyway, I enjoy the spectacle even though it comes at the cost of having to see SSRS’s face plastered all over the place. Creepy.

However, my conclusion that SSRS is a “useful” person, just like you and I, did not go down too well with those who are persuaded that SSRS is God Almighty incarnate (whatever “God” is.) So I get nastygrams from these fairly regularly. But once in a while I also get letters from dissatisfied AoL customers. The curious thing is that the nastygrams from SSRS worshippers are pretty incoherent rants; and the dissastisfied customers are generally pissed off but coherent. Because I have published one recent incoherent rant from an SSRS worshipper, I am publishing one from someone who has an opposing point of view. Here it is, for the record.

Atanu,

I wish I had read your Web site, long before my fiancé and I were lured into registering for the Part 1 course of the Art of Living Foundation. We walked out on the last day of the course because we couldn’t stand it any longer. I couldn’t have written or explained the experience better myself. You have beautifully verbalized your opinion of the Art of Living Foundation.

I have lost my money permanently, and I am also, without permission, included as a statistic in the set of AOL “followers” of 20 million or so now, even though I strongly oppose the organization. I have to believe that are many others like me. Only about 30% of the Part 1 course was about breathing and the remainder was ear-splitting, fear-psychosis propaganda (for example, “A question is a hook that tears the brain”, and “Questioning SSRS’s principles and teachings can prove costly”), illogical analogies and anecdotes, and disguised pressure to encourage more people (friends and family) to give their credit card numbers to sign up for the course.

It is a totally for-profit, commercial, very well-marketed product and organization. I do see some token projects here and there in poor and tribal areas of India and around the world, the expenditure on such projects is negligible compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the organization earns from a single “US tour” of a “specialist teacher” from India. I have not seen any document showing or even referring to exactly how much money the organization is really spending on building schools or hospitals for the disadvantaged, other charitable projects. Since the organization is so fond of shouting out the numbers of their followers and so fond of promoting themselves as a philanthropic organization, why not reveal how much they are actually spending on these philanthropic and charitable projects? Wouldn’t that make them more credible? Almost everyone that “works” for the organization does so on a voluntary basis. Almost every piece of land that the organization builds something on, is donated by the government or a wealthy but gullible member of the AOLF. So where is all the money that is collected from their members really going to? What is being done with the profits?

During several of our Part 1 propaganda sessions, we were told we would be the “privileged few” whose place would be reserved for the “coveted” Part 2 course, if we signed up right now. The whole six day course looked like a live version of one of those late night paid commercials that we were participating in and listening to. People from the class were picked on, randomly, to come up to the front and dance and sing, “so that all inhibitions would be vaporized and self-confidence would be developed”.

“Jai Gurudev” had to be the greeting instead of “good morning” or “good afternoon”. I cannot think of a better way to humiliate and control masses of gullible people than to make them do what is being commanded of them to do in front of uncontrollably laughing people. What upsets me more than my loss of money, is the sheer number of followers this organization has. When you can control a small class to dance on command, you can use that power to control the entire 20 million. SSRS is gaining popularity around the world, like never before and he loves to paste pictures of himself shaking hands with world leaders, on his Web site. “Wow, if he is shaking hands with world leaders, he must be good”.

He certainly falls in the “useful” category. Who is stopping all this madness?

Regards.
SG

Well, I sympathise with SG’s situation. But I don’t think that “this madness” has to be stopped. You pays your money, you takes your chances. SSRS and his Art of Living courses are products that are sold in an open and free market. Caveat emptor and all that. I am sympathetic towards those who get cheated but the burden has to be on the consumer to exercise proper care before forking out cash for a product.

My position arises from my conviction that free markets are best for all concerned. That is, everyone should be allowed to bring their wares to the marketplace and hawk them. There cannot be restrictions on what can be put out for sale. After all, who can decide if what is on offer is good or not? Surely not some bureaucrat or some self-righteous busy body. The consumer is the sovereign. Let the consumers decide if the product is good for them or not. So if the snake oil salesmen make a killing, so be it. It is part of the risk we take and part of the price we pay for the benefits that a free market delivers.

PLEASE STOP WRITING NONSENSE ABOUT OUR GURUJI SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR JI. HE WILL NOT EVEN GET A SINGLE PENNY OUT OF ART OF LIVING ORGANISATION. HE IS STRUGGLING SO HARD DAY & NIGHT TRAVELLING ALL OVER THE WORLD FOR PEACE AND A SMILE FROM HEART. I GUESS YOUR LIFE MUST BE FULL OF TROUBLES..NO DOUBT ABOUT IT….STOP JUDGING ABOUT GURUJI..YOUR LIFE WILL BE PATHETIC AND IT IS ALREADY PATHETIC…STOP ALL YOUR BULLSHIT AND RUBBISH. ATLEAST JOIN THE BASIC PART 1 COURSE YOU WILL CHANGE. MY LIFE TOTALLY CHANGED BECAUSE OF GURUJI OTHERWISE IT COULD HAVE BEEN MISERABLE. TRUST ME HE IS GOD.. YOU WILL REALISE ONCE YOU DO THE COURSE. I’M NOT HERE TO HURT YOU..PLEASE REALISE GURUJI IS A GOD’S GIFT. HE IS VERY VERY NICE PERSON ON THE EARTH. I CAN NOT REPAY HIM FOR EVER. MY FEE IS NOT AT ALL WORTH…I GIVE MY WHOLE LIFE TO GURUJI..ONCE AGAIN PLEASE STOP ALL YOUR RUBSIH AND REALISE….YOU WILL SEE A BEAUTIFUL WORLD.

JAI GURUDEV

HEMANTH

[Thus wrote Hemanth {previously published email address removed}. I would be embarrassed if I had such worshippers. Sri Sri Ravishankar, please read and weep. To answer your worshipper who asked if I was mad, I assure you that I am merely confused, not mad. I am confused regarding why your worshippers write such emails to me when I have not written a single negative comment about their "Gurudev." Gurudevji, if you are here for the first time, please read my final word on you.]

I have a very deep-seated distaste for personality driven movements, as opposed to idea driven movements. Personalities are people and people are human and therefore fallible. When the core is a person, and the masses follow that person, grave danger lurks. From what little I know of the world, it appears to me that all movements that center around a person invariably end up in disasters. Just to name a few names, in no particular order: Lenin, Marx, Gandhi (the Mahatma first, later Indira, Rajiv, and in a few years Sonia, Rahul, Priyanka, their children, their children’s children), Nehru, Mohammed, Jesus, David Koresh, etc. They degenerate into cults one definition of which is an “obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.”

I am all for ideas but when the person is elevated above the idea, my bullshit detector meter registers in the red zone. I realized that SSRS is doing useful work and people are willing to pay for it. But even so many years ago, before SSRS was as famous as he is now, I realized that he will be worshipped in a few years. And so it has come to pass: I see the picture of SSRS jostling for space on many a shelf holding images of Shiv, Ganesh, Durga, etc.

I wrote to my brother saying essentially that SSRS is doing good work and therefore belongs to the category I define as “useful” (which includes you and me and billions of others) but I would not put him in the categories I define as “good,” “enlightened,” or “great.” He was disappointed. I later posted it as an article with the title “Is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar a Con Man?” and answered the question saying that SSRS is a good marketer of wholesome Indian wisdom and is running a very useful business. As an economist, I am all for producers producing stuff that consumers want and benefit from and applaud people who provide useful services. SSRS meets a demand and is amply financially rewarded for it.

I have been consistent in my view that SSRS is doing good. Yet, some of his followers are offended that I don’t consider him to be the 11th incarnation of Vishnu, so to speak. This mystifies me: why do they care what I think of SSRS? Is their faith in their Gurudev (as they prefer to call SSRS) so fragile that the opinion of a nobody like me gets their hackles up? I should stress that I don’t believe that all of the millions of SSRS followers are whacky. I think only those who have a very tenuous grasp on reality in general mis-read what I wrote and they write to me angry emails which are more often than not incoherent and misspelled to boot. In all fairness, one should not judge SSRS by these mentally challenged followers of his.

I think ridicule is a great weapon against puffed up pretensions. I think it is appropriate for me to poke fun at an email which gives me unsolicited advice on how I will see the light if only I enrolled in a AOL course. There is nothing privileged about such a communication and contrary to what one commenter wrote in connection with my recent post, there is nothing the least unethical about making publicly available such an email as long as the personal details of the writer are not revealed.

So now it is time to say goodbye to SSRS and his AOL on this blog. It has been fun but one has to move on. Life is short and there are other things and people waiting to be made the object of one’s fascination.

Goodbye, good night, and may your god go with you.

A simple straight forward piece I wrote some years ago (Is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar a Con Man?) does get a lot of attention. I get emails from people, some of which is the average “I agree with you” type. Then there is the “How dare you even suggest that SSRS is not god almighty himself and that the sun does not shine out of his butt? You are an evil person” type. I would like to share part of one such exchange I had today with one SSRS worshipper (initials “AG”).

AG read my article on SSRS and wrote

U r right when u talk about ‘marketing & packaging’. To quote ur example to u, Tell me wud u buy a Pepsi or a coke without their jazzy punchlines and star power? . . . Are u aware that AOL has 20 million+ followers, by any standards. . .

‘SSRS’ does not has to travel anywhere. He can construct any modern state of the art works monument on the most expensive piece of real estate available on planet earth and stay there as long as he wants. Instead he travels more than 290 days a year. So much so that he is 2 time zones on the same day sometimes. And still he gives talks with same compassion, calmness & love. I wonder how much deciet, hidden agendas and money power u need to become like that in today’s world? . . .

I suggest u do 1 course, and then form ur opnion. It won’t take anything out of u, but will give u a lot more than u can possibly think of. And then form ur opnion and add a follow up to this post of urs with ur experience. . .

The presence, the strength, calmness, peace and love from ‘SSRS’ eyes & voice will shake u to d very core of ur being.

Otherwise u can be as closed as u r right now and use ur intelectual knowledge to reject things such as this as illogical, repacked material etc.

It was a long rambling email and I have quoted just a bit to give you an idea of what it was about. I wrote back saying:

Whatever AOL does, it clearly does not teach one how to spell or write coherently. Besides, I did not say even one unkind word about SSRS and yet you have been shrill about how great AOL is. That indicates that you have reading comprehension problems.

PS: The spelling of the pronoun is not “u” but “you.” Get a spelling lesson for SSRS’s sake — otherwise people will think that you are totally illiterate.

AG wrote back. Since it is brief, I quote the entire message.

Thanks for the prompt response Mr. Dey,

As I said U r a typical person who uses his intellect to prove things logically. Well, faith doesn’t works that way. U can’t reason everything untill u have faith, as it’s not an exact science, sir.

Probably in 5 years time when u r mature enuf to understand the scale of work and the mamooth size of comittment AOL has undertaken to make people peaceful and acknowledge and imbibe right values towards other people and towards life in general; around the world, then I shall talk to u again.

BTW are u aware that SSRS has been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for the second time?

P.S: Please get ur facts straight first and get a clear 360 degree picture. Plus thanks for ur suggestion. My english is gud enuf and I am happy the way it is & if proper english is a MUST for healthy & happy living it will be taught in AOL shortly. U on the other hand r not fit for any AOL program coz ur time has not arrived yet.

Thanks but no thanks for ur grave sympathies.

Nothing personal and no offence meant watsoever.

Jai Gurudev!!

Well, slap me silly! I am so sorry that I lean so heavily on logic. Excuse me, I will try to be illogical and stupid. And how do I get there? Why, by joining an AOL course, of course.

Seriously, isn’t it worth noting that some movements depend on numbers? It is a defining characteristic of a cult: the followers repeat to themselves and others how many of them there are and how fast their numbers are growing. It is as if they are validating their belief by telling themselves and others that they cannot be wrong because there are many others who also share that belief. But delusions don’t stop being delusions when it is widely shared.

I have a theory about this fascination with numbers. In popular perception, a movement is a cult if the delusion is shared by only a small number of people; if there are a large number of followers wallowing in the same delusions, say one billion, then it is no longer a cult and becomes a religion. People involved in the movement want their set of beliefs to be regarded as a religion and not as a cult. So cults try to enlarge their membership constantly. And with time, it becomes second nature to them and thus are born proselytizing movements such as Christianity and Islam — essentially cults but because of their numerical strengths, they command respect.

Cults are personality based. There is one person who is what I call the “god equivalent.” Some examples: Jesus the Christ, Mohammed, Jim Jones, Sai Baba, Satya Sai Baba, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. What the first two have and the rest of the list does not is numbers. If only a few millions share in a set of delusions, it is a cult; if there are hundreds of million, then it is a religion.

The AOL movement is a cult. It is totally benign from what I can tell. It is doing at least one valuable thing: it propagates yogic practice and thought. Yoga is part of the world lexicon and yoga is entirely Indian. (I cannot resist pointing out that Hinduism contributed yoga to the world, and Islam contributed jihad.) SSRS, the charismatic leader of the AOL cult, is doing valuable service by promoting peace and understanding between people.

Yet, I find the worshipping of SSRS distasteful and undignified. But then, that is what the common lot does, doesn’t it?

[Related post: A Letter from a SSRS Worshipper.]

[PS: The last and final post on the subject is here.]

Subject: Blog on Sri Sri Ravishankar and Deepak Chopra

Dear Mr Atanu dey,

I read your blog on both of them. I have read about both of them and also know the services rendered by Sri Sri Ravishankar.

I don’t know what you do? and also not interested.

I want you to keep your personal view points to yourself and not put it on the net.

You have written history only by reading the website. It is not simple.

They are contributing to the people and to the society and if they have to hire teachers, travel all over the world, give free food, build schools, develope villages, bring knowledge, empower women,
bring a change to prisoners,, they require money. How much is a question which can be answered only by involving oneself into these services. Not by reading website.

They are doing good, that matters.

Please keep your opinions to yourself and let it not float.

raghu