Talk:Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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[edit] Section 1

This guy is NOT any spiritual guru but a shrewd businessman. He keeps smiling and has a habit of evading questions with depth, infact his talk shave no depth or thought provoking stuff like Jiddu or Rajneesh had. He loves public endorsement and has poor oratory skills. Anyway the type and quality of his followers says it all , unlike Jiddu or Rajneesh.

Anandakshar 15:21, 7 January 2007 (UTC)Anandakshar

The current article is a sales brochure, talks about Ravi Shankar's self proclaimed achievements and any material otherwise is claimed to be unencyclopedic and deleted by some zealous disciples of this guru. I paid and attended this course years ago when he was not that famous outside of Bangalore; and this is what I found.

• This is a cult like organization which claims to do charity work and accept only donations, but in reality Ravi Shankar is no different from scores of controvertial gurus like his own guru Mahesh Yogi and likes of Rajneesh.

There is abolutely no substantiation for you claim "claims to do charity work". Please visit IAHV.org, take the effort to go out and talk to people who have worked in Tsunami hit areas, worked with abused children in New York and Johannesburg, South Africa, and provided school and free medical facilities in tribal areas of Bihar, India. I know someone who is closely involved in these projects and hence the direct knowledge and quantifiable proof !

• Ancient Pranayam exercises, which I have been doing since my childhood in India, have been packaged under registerd name "Sudarshan Kriya"; and now he is claiming a patent on public domain unpatentable process.

This is something totally untrue. Pranayam is not Kriya in Yogic science. If you really had deep knowledge of Yoga sadhana (practices) you would have hardly made such a blatant comment. Pranayam technniques taught in the course are definitely ancient Yogic practices. Sudarshan Kriya requires Pranayama to be done before practising it. I really wonder if you indeed did the course, I guess your comment here is just an exhibition of consumate lack of complete knowledge on ancient yogic practices !

• His accounts are not open to public scrutiny, hence no one knows what he does with the millions he makes.

Another random comment shot in the dark ! Btw, I guess you must be educated. Did you ever bother to ask your educational institution/university to account for every penny they make? I am referring here to the prejudiced mind which because of many false teachers has conditioned ourselves to look at all those who teach meditation/yoga etc. also to be crooks ! and as regards his personal accounts, I would say definitely go and ask for them, did you ever make an effort there? As for the organizations' accounts I have personally seen them in US, India and Canada..I mean the entire cash flow, I do not remember a single penny in suspicious accounts, names whereby money could supposedly go for expensive enjoyments for the founder !

• His main source of income is the fees charged to teach "Sudarshan Kriya" doesn't even have the usual cost element to it, as he brilliantly manipulates volunteers to teach for free or almost negligible pay. Until about couple of years ago, these volunteer teachers were not only teaching for free but also used their own homes as schools.

Now if somebody is inspired to go and do service free of cost which according to them is creating a violence-free and stress-free society you have a issue there too ! If that is the case then people like John Wolfensohn, former President of World Bank, Dr. Myron Scholes, Nobel Prize winning economist at Stanford Univ, T N Seshan, former CEC of India who wholeheartedly lend their hand in the service activities of AoLF also seem to have been manipulated hmm...!

• It is a commercial enterprise but cunningly garbed as a not for profit religious organization; and is marketed like the infamous pyramid plans such as "Amway" and others.

Amway growth is spurred by the motivation of everyone who is involved in it to make money, nothing wrong in that, it is business that is their goal. As regards, AoLF you mention that almost all volunteers are doing work free, now what similarity do you see here with Amway ? Nobody in a business would do work if there is no monetary gain for themselves...do you see any in AoLF working for financial gain ?

• Ravi Shankar and his sister are treated like gods and his disciples never graduate to be independednt as he himself once did from Mahesh Yogi.

So many of the senior teachers (swamis) independently manage work and live in Poland, Canada, South Africa and times even in Mongolia. Just as Swami Vivekananda tirelessly travelled when he was told by his teacher Ramakrishna Paramhansa to do so after his death, so are his senior teacher selflessy doing work. Absolutely anyone can leave anytime...also I would suggest getting some knowledge in the Guru-Shishya parampara, the ancient master-disciple relationship of India and its traditions. I wonder how someone with half-baked information can have the audacity to make random comments in a fact based community like Wikipedia !

I will delete and keep deleting the sales brochure material from this article as it does not give any useful encyclopedic information. His claimed achievements are not encyclopedic. --141.150.135.51 15:08, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

In its current state, this is an ad, not an encyclopedic article. --Pjacobi 15:07, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

• Oops, should have put my original reasoning here. As follows: Is 10 days of silence notable? Our entire class did 5 days to raise money for charity, 10 seems trivial for a holy man; should the celebration further down the page not be moved to the Art of Living page? It's more relevant to that than to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, especially if the details of the ceremony refer to the musicians without referring to him himself. Needs a look by someone who has come across his work before.

It seems that he may well be notable, which is why I tagged {cleanup} rather than {afd}... but yeah, not currently encyclopedaic and needs some help from someone unbiased who is familiar with the subject. If after a while that doesn't happen it may be that he's not as notable as the article suggests and may then be valid for afd. --Firien § 16:23, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

It is not the 10 days of silence that attention is being drawn to. However, it is noteworthy indeed that after this, he became aware of a breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya. It is this technique which is the foundation of all courses of Art Of Living. And yes, the Silver Jubilee Celebration should be moved to Art Of Living page. I am familiar with AOL activities and would soon do a "clean-up" as suggested.

Abhishek —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.200.95.130 (talk • contribs).

If 'cognised' is meant to indicate 'became aware of', then perhaps these words should be used instead, as the dictionary definition of 'cognise' is not 'become aware of'. Also, for the article to be taken seriously, it should avoid unnecessarily obscure usage, which could easily be mistaken for the kind of mumbo-jumbo religions and cults use to impress the gullible and ignorant.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.132.238.58 (talk • contribs).

[edit] Copyright

Some of the material in this article appears to have been copied from external sources. While only small amounts have been copied, which is OK, editors of this article please bear in mind that in general it is not permissable (<-- learn to spell, dumbass) to copy material from other sources into wikipedia articles, unless that material has been released under the GFDL or there is an express authorisation to use the material. Kcordina ^Talk 09:14, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 3 million

That figure of 3 million got to me again when checking watchlist; did a quick google and found this page stating when people are crammed in tightly at a rock concert it's 5 sq ft per person; across the 265 acres of the airfield this multiplies up to 2.3 million people, at maximum capacity. 265 acres of people crammed in at 30% over physical capacity? Even if you argue that people are thinner there and add some religious fervour, there'd be deaths and/or news stories around the world about it. Reverting to the more sensible figure of 250,000 seen on the page earlier for want of a better figure; leaving the citation tag in place. --User:Firien § 16:42, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like a lot of sardines turned up that day ;) It's funny that in this article they claim to have fit 2.5 million in the hall, giving an unreliable source from the organisation itself.

This seems to be a trend coming from this organisation. I have removed the exagerations and unsourced figures given for the instruments, as well as removing some of the flowery language used without giving much real information. Sfacets 16:59, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Update: I had a look at the coordinates posted on the aforementionned website (via Google Earth), the airstrip area is quite large, and could possibly fit the amount of people on it, however, that isn't saying 3 million actually turned up. Sfacets

I'm actually a student at Princeton University (pretty unbiased) who was skeptical of this stuff at first, but I did research on this organization and about 3 million people actually did show up (more like 2.7, to be exact)... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 125.22.2.116 (talk • contribs).

• If you're a student at Princeton University, why does your IP resolve to dsl-kk-dynamic-116.2.22.125.airtelbroadband.in? That's .in for India, not Princeton Uni in New Jersey. Maybe I'm on a suspicious day; maybe it's another edit by the AoL foundation trying to boost the limited credit for the figures in the articles. If you did research, where did you get the information from? Why were those sources not added as sources in the article? And again, how do you get 265 acres of people crammed in tight, without deaths or pickup by other news reports around the world? --User:Firien § 14:32, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

It's funny how even though this organization is doing more to help people out of depression and sufforing than anything else on the planet, it still draws so much skepticism. But people were also skeptic when Christ was on the planet too. That is just the nature of the small mind.... jgd —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.68.102.242 (talk • contribs).

• I don't believe your "more than anything else on the planet"; however on the other hand I don't doubt that the foundation exists to help people. The problem with this article was that it was grossly unencyclopedaic, using copyrighted text from elsewhere, biased language and wording, and exaggerative wording that cast doubt on the numbers on that page. Attempting to verify that information turned up numbers that pointed out that the figures posted were 30% greater than physically possible. That kind of error casts doubt over the entire rest of the article, expecially since the text was exaggerative too. This is an encylopedia - a place for facts, not exaggeration and speculation. The text is worthy of the company's own website - promoting health and happiness and positive feelings. That's not what an encyclopedia is for though. Secondly - this article is on a person, not on the AoL foundation. Information for the AoL foundation should be in the page for the AoL foundation; it's not relevant here unless properly put into context. When an article has been written inaccurately and outside many of the guidelines and rules of Wikipedia, it will be slammed, whether it's about a religious figure or about historic empires or about small animals or song lyrics or things that explode. It doesn't matter what the subject of the article is - if it's wrong, then other editors who come across it will either make it right - for which they need source information - or remove it.

It's nice that there's yet another organisation working on spreading peace and happiness. But if you or anyone else is going to write about it, at least do it right. When watching an article I've seen major problems with and biased editing of, I will be skeptical and attempt to verify information. When someone posts that they're from Princeton and that they've done research, that adds credibility; Princeton is highly regarded, and the people who get in aren't idiots and are generally of a better mindset of verifying information. That's nice, for an encyclopedia. But that credibility is destroyed and more when it turns out that the edit is not made from Princeton, but instead from the home of the subject of the page and the associated foundation.

As the editing history of this page gets worse, more and more doubt will be cast on its alleged facts. What seemed unlikely before seems like made-up crap to boost sales/visitors/etc now; that goes entirely against the spirit of Wikipedia.

To future editors: Just underneath the edit box is the line "Content must not violate any copyright and must be verifiable." In Template:Welcome you will find other guidelines on editing; these include "Wikipedia is not a place for advertising" and "No biased language". Make it factual and credible. AoL is happiness; good for them. However people don't come to Wikipedia for happiness - they come for information. --User:Firien § 09:30, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I see what you are getting at but thet fact is all the things on sri sir's page are not exaggerations. CNN can 'prove' to you that there really were 2.5 + million people at the india ashram. The fact is however, if you're going to put all your faith into citations, that still doesn't mean what you believe is the truth or facts. Citations are just numbers and words that we take on faith to be facts. But there isn't any proof these are facts is there? The only real proof would be if we had a time machine. I'm not avoiding your question, I'm just broadening it :)To give you an example of how this program is really helping the world, you can research it's effects on teenagers and grade school kids in schools. It's being taught in public schools, why? Because it makes them much more focused, more relaxed, less impulsive, and much healthier. The health benefits of sudarshan kriya are going to be studied for a long time.Wikipedia is a place for facts you say, well the fact is AOL is about 'happiness' and joy and love. Fact. Do some research on AOL. :) You just might be as lucky as I am. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.68.102.242 (talk • contribs).

• Oh, I don't contest that. But to rephrase your sentence - AoL is about happiness and joy and love, while Wikipedia is just there to point at AoL and give some information - it's the place to DO that research on AoL, but isn't there to promote the actual happiness and joy and love. Wikipedia isn't miserably unhappy - it's supposed to be neutral, letting the reader decide for themselves. Also, I don't need to do research on AoL - I know there's hundreds, probably thousands of groups and activities that promote happiness, whether it be dressing up in flowers and dancing in the grass, or simply-guided meditation, or skydiving, extreme sports, mountain climbing, juggling, or just talking to friends. AoL isn't unique. It's nice to have information on it available to those who are interested; but keep in mind that not everyone NEEDS more happiness, joy, and peace. I personally am happy, calm, and non-violent; I don't participate in any group that seeks to spread love/happiness and so on, preferring to do things that exhilarate my body or mind, whether that be the challenge of sport, team challenges or personal challenges, mental challenge or skill challenges. I don't need AoL in any way, and as such can be an unbiased editor on the subject. With that in mind, as discussed above the exaggeration and bias has caused suspicion to fall on this article; Wikipedia, as a factbase, strives and must strive to be accurate. Citations will never be perfect, but they're an extra layer of credibility.

I can throw out the message that I made 250 people happy today; maybe it's true, maybe it's not. Flagging the information as requiring a source does not force me to remove the information, nor to find a reference. However it does flag the information as being questionable. A further problem with the information was that it conflicted with itself - this article's page stated over 3 million on the airfield, the AoL article mentions 2.5 million. That's not an insignificant difference, especially when the physical capacity of the airfield is around 2.3 million. The inaccuracy - whether in this article, the AoL article, and/or the calculation of maximum capacity - is huge. 2.5 is close to the theoretical maximum of 2.3; this makes it more credible than a figure of 3 million. It still requires verification, because while it doesn't really matter how many people there were, there are some places where it does matter - the recording of the size of the largest festivals in history, and there the difference between 2.5 million and 3 million people is vast.

There will be those who come to this article looking for truth and understanding. It's not the place for lies, whether or not the lies are well-intentioned. --Firien § 14:52, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I see what you are getting at, but this is a world of faiths, not facts. Very few actual facts exist, and even those can be argued once you bring in relativity and context/perception. We live in a world of faith, feelings and our perceptions. But you are incorrect about saying AOL is not unique. You haven't tried it, so how can you say that? Sudarshan Kriya is not taught on any other program, and nothing in this world will give you the same experience as kriya. The real proof in this world is by experience. jgd —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.237.239.202 (talk • contribs) .

Guys, you have talk pages for this kind of thing... Sfacets 15:38, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Just wanted to clarify a small fact over which this debate seems to be flowing. In all presentationss the organisation claims that over 2.5 million people attended the funtion over 3 days (cummulative). This information is based on a presentation/dvd I saw in California.

[edit] Everyone has enemies

What isn't right about this article is that there is zero representation of anti-sri-sri views. This just flies against common sense, whatever your personal opinion of the man might be. Everyone has enemies and detractors, even real saints. A fairly simple web search is enough to show that sri sri is no exception, although it will take a bit more research to establish how widely believed the various anti-sri-sri views are and which carry some authority. Those I have come across so far suggest that he is the gormlessly beatific face of a cruelly greedy family business run by his sister and his brother-in-law, and that his meditation techniques are commercially packaged hyperventilation. Ireneshusband 03:18, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Listen, i PROMISE i really am from princeton :)...im in doing an internship/research with a democracy institute here in Bangalore, which is the reason why it took me so long to get back to you...haha i dont know how you expect me to prove it to you, but honestly you really are very skeptical...anyways i dont know what im trying to prove to you, but i dont want you to think im someone im not...

"commercially packaged hyperventilation" lol... jgd

• If you're going to laugh at it, how is it different? jgd, you have done nothing here except attempt to get people to take the course. Looking at the Sudarshan Kriya page, it /is/ either deep or fast breathing, with some extra words thrown in to convince the user. As a sportsman and sports coach, I know how simple words can have major effects on people; making people pay for a course that teaches them to breathe deeply and think about it certainly pushes me towards also classifying it as above. IF it's different, then WHY is it different? Any further 'haha, take an AOL course' will result in me removing your comments as linkspam. This is a place for information, not for advertising. --Firien § 09:05, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

i will not argue as arguing only increases ignorance in the world. sudarshan kriya is a very simple and powerful technique that i have seen first hand and experienced incredible positive benefits from daily practice. after the first practice, many people see the bags from under their tired eyes disappear, as did i. nothing else is like sudarshan kriya, it is not hyperventilation... and it is not breathing really deep, it's done with normal breath. the breath is the link between mind and body. for example, when you are tired you breathe a certain way, when you are angry, you breath a certain way. kriya works by controlling the breath gently in certain rhythms that release stress and depression, creates tremendous energy, improves memory and intellect and most noticable in myself- boosts the immune system like nothing i've felt. incredible effects on the immune system. so much that HIV and diabetic patients are gaining great help from this. before i learned kriya i would get ill about once a month. now i get ill maybe once every two years.

i wish i could explain this to you, but it's really something that can only be experienced. although it's very simple to do and easy to learn, if it's dont wrong it could possibly be harmful. just so you know, i was very skeptical about this before i tried it. the only way to get rid of skepticism is by experience, not by explaining or words. our parents tell us to brush our teeth, but it is only when we know from experience why this is a good idea that we understand why it's important to do.

jgd

Speaking as someone who took a 2 week retreat at the ashram in Montreal, I can confirm that it isn't 'something you must experience' and is just 'simple hyperventilation'. I met the giggling guru himself, and he's not particularly impressive. Worse yet, they had us doing all kind of horrific activities, like lying on our backs and pretending to cry like babies to 'free ourselves'. It's all bunk, and I've lived through it so I know.

Speaking for myself and many of my close friends and those who did this course (numbering precisely 27) over the past 3 years...each and everyone of them can endorse its positive effect on their life such as great improvement in energy levels, getting Ashtma cured, a complete change in confidence levels, facing large audiences (which she couldn't do for 36 years !). So there is a direct effect on the body and the mind. Now when there is so much research that is cited, complete with clinical trials over several years, there is a much scientific system of validating Sudarshan Kriya and the processes, not just random testimonials.

As for the Hyperventilation...let me get this clear for the ignorants (with due respect) let me cite one of the basic differences between Hyperventilation and Sudarshan Kriya among many. The metabolic rate simply goes down in Sudarshan Kriya whereas it goes up in Hyperventilation. (reference Dr. Richard Brown, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.34.112.145 (talk • contribs).

Then cite it. Find a reference and add it. Link to an article. Hyperventilation, hypoventilation are both recognised techniques in themserves for different uses. How is Sudarshan Kriya different from breathing slowly and counting backwards from ten? How is it different from taking deep breaths and closing your eyes to calm down? These are also 'recognised techniques'. Every supporter on this page alludes to the success of Sudarshan Kriya and says "go try it" without making any clarification on why it's any different. I have low blood pressure, I can speak to large audiences, I'm already confident and happy with my life and non-violent. STOP telling me to go try the course, because I don't need it. Do not attempt to use this to leverage your sales; if it's different, then verify and cite it by linking us to independent scientific research. Otherwise it becomes worthy of deletion as unencyclopedaic. --Firien § 08:26, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

three points i would like to make as a junior wikipedian 1. sudarshan kriya is not just hyperventilation and hypoventilation.it has to be noted that the experiencs ppl have in his prescence/his voice recordings are substancially superior to those when they practise the same at home independently (where most inexperienced ppl only do systematic speed breathing). There must be some reasoning to this. 2.it is great that you are already confident and happy... thats one more person to make the world a better place. 3.the proceeds from the workshops (sales) are used to fund the activities of art of living like %H initiatives and disaster relief. not a single ruppee goes to him or his family directly or indirectly.--I.aditya 05:39, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• I do not know what is the source of Aditya's information about financial properiety at AOL. I was with AOL for seven years but did not get to see the audited copy of its accounts. Secondly, the organization collects money under the banner of different fronts such as VVK and Ved Vigyan Vidyapeeth, which prima-facie looks suspicious. Thirdly, charges for AOL courses are pretty steep ($200-$375) and going by the growth rate as claimed by the organization, the net revenue must be in millions of dollars. For a cash flow of this size, a responsible organization should proactively publish its financial statements for public scrutiny or use some other tangible method to convince the donors that the money is going where it is supposed to rather than relying on simply issuing unsubstantiated statements: "not a single ruppee goes to him or his family directly or indirectly." Canons of financial properiety put the onus on one who claims that money is being judiciously utilized, not on the questioner. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.105.7.54 (talk • contribs) .

was with aol for seven year? i mean what does that imply... i gues you have to be in the finance section to see the sudits and all. ou ould ask your friends. but the fact that the courses in the villages and all who cannot aford to pay are run free of cos and iahv is adpoting 50k villages surely poitns to well utilised funds.203.199.213.130 18:01, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

• It doesn't matter what user opinions on the matter are - what matters is conveying a neutraly-worded description of practices. In'nit? Sfacets 05:44, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

I like it how everyone is complaining about citations and then there's some troll posting rediculous false, un-cited info about how sudarshan kriya. Why are we not so quick to ask the negative responses for citations? Why do we always trust the negative?.... mm? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.155.228.193 (talk • contribs) .

Please check this : Check this out http://esa.un.org/coordination/ngo/search/DisplayOrgInfo.asp?OrgID=831

ashwin

[edit] Some Facts

• Here is the 2004 tax return for AOLF (the American Chapter) [1]. As seen from the return, AOLF had total revenues of $2.1 M (mainly from course fees and public support) and expenditure of $1.3M (mainly in salaries, occupancy expenses and travel) in 2003. Its only reported accomplishments were to "teach art of living courses"; not any developmental programs, disaster relief, humanitarian programs, scientific/medical research or any charitable activity. (See Section III on Page 2 of the return) This is not meant as a praise or criticism, but simply an attempt to inject some facts into the Talk page discussion. If anyone, can provide simlar information for AOL's activities in other countries (especially India) then we can hopefully reach an informed NPOV consensus. Abecedare 08:06, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Help wanted to deal with a Sri Sri Ravi Shankar spammer

Every so often a spammer using an IP address that starts with 64.228.225. spams links to bogus web sites. I have tracked down and reverted all I could find, but I'm getting a little sick of tracking all these articles on my watchlist (it's up to 263 pages by now). Can I ask the regular, frequent editors of this article to keep an eye out for this person? If they hit again, please revert the edit and warn the spammer. If you have the time, check out what other edits they made that day and revert them as well -- or just let me know and I'll do it.

The link they like to add to this article is [http: // www angelfire com/me2/sutras/ssrs html A Selection of Quotes from Sri Sri Ravishankar]. The real point of the link is to build search engine rankings for the commercial links at the bottom of the page; the same spamdexer is linking similarly bogus pages for Hindu mystical figures and U.S. country music stars -- all with the same links at the bottom of the page.

The spammer also recently created an account, User:Borgengruft.

For more info, see:

• Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive117#Link-spamming from someone in the IP address block 64.228.225.xxx
• Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive118#Update -- now using Borgengruft?
• User:A. B./To do list#Abusers

Thanks for your help.--A. B. 06:12, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

• • Have you had any response on this? I generally follow the same practises (if I see a vandalism/adspam/etcetc I'll go through that contributor's contribution and leave something on the talk page) but I'm not sure I can devote the time to track 263+ pages... I have enough with my 40... --Firien § 15:57, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Biography

Template:Blp In its current form this article does not confirm to Wikipedia's rules for biography of living persons. Addionally, the three revert rule does not apply to removal of poorly sourced negative material for living persons. In accordance with wikipedia policy I am deleting negative comments and links from this article. Also in its current form, there are no tags for citing information and the formating appears to be in line with wikipedia policy. 24.5.139.61 15:56, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

How does the removal of critical links conform to Wikipedia policy? I have re-inserted the links. Sfacets 05:20, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Move Proposal

[edit] Requested move

The article as it stands now is also not neutral, but conveys insubstansiated Anti-Sri Sri bias.

1. It says: "Similar breathing exercises were also taught by controversial Acharya Rajneesh Osho with a difference that they were performed in standing position, whereas Sudarshan Kriya is done in sitting position."

There is no reference for this assertion. A strong assertion like this needs to be referenced.

2. The article says the course fee is $200 ($375).

Actually that is only in the US. The course fee varies from country to country (and from state to state in India). For example in india the course fee can vary from Rs. 500 ($10) to Rs.1500($30). In addition, there are many donation courses held.

Secondly, this is not subject matter for a biography. It is better put in the wiki for the organization.

3. Critics claim that AOL is the first religious organization that charges fees to teach ancient science of Pranayama under a different but registered name of Sudarshan Kriya

This needs to be referenced. Sudarshan Kriya is different from pranayams.

Secondly, there is nothing wrong with charging money for teaching something that is in the public domain. Most universities also teach physics,chemistry and mathematics,and charge a fee for that. AOL is certainly not the first organization to charge money. Most schools of yoga do charge a fee.

What one is paying for is not propieatary information, but knowledge and experience of the teacher.

Also, while it is based on an aincient science, the specific format is proprietary. This is perfectly okay. Most spiritual traditions in india do that....although they may not make you sign a non-disclosure statement.

4. As far as numbers for silver jubilee go. I think 2 million is the aggregate for the 3 days. 1 million meditated together on the third day. Check out this link for this and other numbers: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main16.asp?filename=Ne030406Nirvana_CS.asp

5. People seem to be ticked off by the title "Sri Sri". Sri Sri is a very common title for spiritual masters. Others being swami, sri sri sri, Sri Sri 108,Sri Sri 1008. I don't understand what the fuss is about.

6. At the beginning the page mentions "Sri Sri Ravi Shankar" is a new age guru. The word "new age" is a western term, which comes with its own set of connotations. It is incorrect to label someone that, unless he himself claims to be that. You don't call the Dalai Lama a "new age" buddhist monk, even though he has a lot of "new age" western followers. Then why call a spiritual master from India "New Age".

7. Finally, I would like to say that while blind faith is certainly not good, blind criticism is equally bad.

I second Bhaskar. I.aditya 19:10, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

-- Bhaskar