ART OF LIVING COURSE IN IRAQ

Indian spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is visiting strife-hit Iraq to spread the message of peace armed with three simple but invaluable weapons: yoga, meditation and breathing techniques.
Having succeeded in making Iraqis embrace his Art of Living Foundation with a determination he is known for, Ravi Shankar will meet both government and religious leaders in Iraq besides the royalty in neighbouring Jordan.
The Foundation, which counts millions of followers in India and abroad, is describing the trip which started yesterday as a unique and dangerous one and the first by any Indian spiritual leader “into this hellish war zone”.
Ravi Shankar will spend three days in Iraq at the invitation of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki, who has invited the Indian to be an ambassador of peace.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis, besides American soldiers, have died since the US occupied Iraq in 2003 after ousting president Saddam Hussain. The insurgency, and a bloody Shia-Sunni conflict, has unsettled the once peaceful and proud Arab nation.
It is in such a setting that Ravi Shankar, a Hindu who believes in universal values and respects all religious, is foraying into Iraq.
The guru will interact with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Queen Rania today, the first full day of his trip. He leaves later that for Baghdad where he will call on al-Malaki.
Tomorrow, he will address a public gathering where several political leaders, including members of the Sunni, Shia and Kurdish parties besides ordinary Iraqis would be present.
On subsequent days, Ravi Shankar will visit the Art of Living trauma relief centre in Baghdad and then return to Amman where he will talk at the University of Jordan and attend a VIP reception given in his honour.
Since 2003, the Art of Living and its sister concern, The International Association for Human Values, have been working under difficult circumstances in the country to help Iraqis overcome their pain and suffering.
The Foundation volunteers regularly teach ancient Indian practices such as yoga, meditation and breathing techniques. The volunteers have also conducted trauma relief courses in various parts of Iraq. Medicines, food and clothes have also been offered.
Foundation spokeswoman Sangeeta G Anand said: “For the first time, people who had not been able to close their eyes for days together because of constant bombing and killing were able to sleep, thanks to the breathing and meditation techniques.
Many got relief from depression, anxiety, blood pressure, migraine and other psychosomatic disorders resulting from war-related stress.”
And at a time when most NGOs were compelled to evacuate their volunteers from Iraq in the wake of heightened unrest and kidnappings, the Art of Living stayed put, impressing many Iraqis.

PERFORM A GOOD THING DAILY

1.Every day perform a task which should bring the happiness in some body else life.

2.Every body perform tasks for his and children satisfaction but the man who rises from the normal lifesytle is the one who brings a smile in the life of other people who are not of his equal stature.

3.Everybody appeases his superiors but a man is worth is salt if can take a stand for his subordinates and fight for their rights.

Arthur Road Jail-art of living life courses changes course of life for prisoners

1. Satsang: 1,500 prisoners performing yoga asanas, meditating and singing bhajans in the courtyard. Among them Pravin Mahajan and Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar. Viewed by jail officials as a novel way to counter factionism and violence among prisoners, the 10-day programme conducted by Art of Living as part of the ‘Prison Smart Programme’ ended with the satsang between 7 am and 9:30 am.
2.“These courses are conducted by Art of Living regularly for the inmates here. They serve to bring together rival factions and smooth out tension within the inmates. It becomes easier to deal with them after they have gone through such sessions,” said Jail Superintendent Swatee Sathe. “The turnout was great today.

3.Pravin Mahajan and Iqbal Kaskar were among the 1,500 participants.” Art of Living programme director Vikram Hazra said: “I had conducted a satsangh a year-and-half ago, and it was a big hit among the prisoners. Some of them had even started crying when we sang some old Hindi songs. They had been requesting for a repeat for some time now. They had yoga and meditation sessions, and then we all sang a mix of bhajans, Sufi songs, and some old movie ghazals.”

4.According to Art of Living instructors involved in the programme, the main idea behind the lessons are to destress the prisoners. “The programme was developed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, with the underlying principle that every culprit is himself a victim of his circumstances. Inside every culprit is a victim crying out for help. He should be healed by removing stress from his life. The elimination of stress is the main thrust behind the sessions, as it is the prime cause of crime,” said prison instructor Ami Patel. Since 1992, more than 1.5 lakh inmates from prisons across the world have participated in the programme.

5.One of the main features of the programme is the Sudarshan Kriya, a breathing technique that serves to relieve stress. “I have participated in the programme four times now, and have even taken the advanced course. As a result, I have realised that my past actions were wrong. Sudarshan Kriya has especially helped me a lot,” said Radheshyam Shah, an accused in the Bilkis Bano case and currently lodged in the jail. Another objective of the programme is the rehabilitation of prisoners into the mainstream.

6.“Most prisoners tell us that if we had taught them such lessons before, they would not have committed the crime in the first place. However, they say that they are glad they have gone through the course as it will help them in the future. We have helped lots of inmates from Tihar jail fighting stigma and getting over their past to set up businesses, once they were released,” said Hazra.

BREATHING TECHNIQUES TO ENSURE STRESS FREE LIFE:ART-OF-LIVING-LIFE.BLOGSPOT.COM

1. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar heads the world's biggest non-governmental organization, and 25 million people in 151 countries have attended his courses. His group raises hundreds of millions of dollars a year and spends almost all on running schools, de-addiction centers and on charity.
2. And there are no conundrums of ancient philosophy at his classes -- after a simple physical warm-up, Sri Sri, as he is known, teaches people to breathe.
3. "Everybody breathes and breath is the link between emotion, thought, the body and the mind," he said in an interview. "Using breathing makes it easier for people to calm their mind and go into meditation. It provides physical, mental, emotional and spiritual help."
4. The 51-year-old is a science graduate, but has been a full-time guru for over 25 years.
5. "Life is a combination of old and new," he said. "Like a tree has deep roots which are old and its leaves are always new. Philosophy is never against modern technology."
6. Sri Sri's Art of Living Foundation is based in Bangalore, India, but has millions of members overseas, with more joining each month. This week he was in the Philippines for the first time, and over 1,000 people paid 1,500 pesos (about $32) each for three two-hour sessions of teachings, held in the ballroom of a five-star hotel.
7. "The purpose of the course is wellness," said Sister Angelica Pasqual, a Catholic nun who was one of the participants. "You can feel that it is the plan of God for everyone to be well and happy."
8. Miconia Chan, a 49-year-old Hong Kong woman, survived SARS, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, four years ago but turned to Sri Sri's breathing techniques to overcome the side-effects of the strong medication she was given.
9. "The after-effects were quite serious," she said. "I couldn't remember things, I couldn't walk. But it's been really amazing since I started the art of living. I have had no treatment or medicine for two years."
10. Sri Sri's teachings are based on ancient principles of yoga, but he has added elements of his own and aligned it with meditation techniques. Most of all, he tells participants to lie back, relax and enjoy themselves.
11. "We have forgotten to be like children," he says during the classes. "Let's laugh, relax, be children again."
12. Indian gurus have sometimes got a bad press in the West, including the spat between the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the free sex philosophies of Bhagwan Rajneesh, who later changed his name to Osho.
13. Sri Sri has escaped most of this, but he attributes this to changing attitudes.
14. "There has been a lot of prejudice against Indian spiritual leaders, but that has become less now.
15. "People used to think that yoga was abnormal and to smoke cigarettes was normal. In every airplane armrest, there used to be an ashtray. But values are changing, people are becoming more intelligent and recognize ancient values and philosophy."
16. The aim of the Art of Living Foundation is to make the world conflict-free, he says. He has mediated in conflicts in Sri Lanka and Kosovo, taught the art of living to hardened criminals in jails across the world, propagated chemical-free farming and natural medicine.
17. But personally, he says he has no ambitions.
18. "I am quite satisfied, I am quite content," he says. "I have no ambition or dream to be attained. Things are happening very naturally and I let them happen. I go with the flow."