15th August, 2014, Bangalore: “Indian youth should take pride in their roots. This will increase their self-esteem. Be creative, equip yourself with different talents along with your degree and become unstoppable in taking India forward”, was the message spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had for the youth as India celebrated its 68th Independence Day.
The Art of Living chose to commemorate the day with “India way Forward”, a lively interactive Q and A event with its founder Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, held at Koramangala Indoor Stadium, Bangalore.
The animated discussion that followed the Q and A session showed the trends of thought dominating public discourse. Entrepreneurs and business persons, students posed their questions to Gurudev on a range of diverse topics concerning the country.
Taking questions from Bangaloreans, Gurudev urged them to work together to root out the label of Bangalore as the suicide capital of the country.
Mr. Vikram Vishvanath, Hon. Counsul for Peru, welcomed Gurudev to the event. Along with Mr. Mohan Das Pai, Chairman Manipal Global Education; Mr. V.P Kiran, CEO, Green City; and Dr. K. J. Purushottam, Hon. Counsul for Republic of Macedonia also attended the event with several other business leaders.
Speaking about how business can not only benefit the individual but help the whole country grow, Prabhakar Jadhav, former Tata Tea executive said, ‘Gurudev guides us to move away from unethical practices and reminds us that business is about CSR and providing livelihood along with making profits.’
Thousands across 64 countries also watched the lively proceedings on webcast. Implementing Gurudev’s vision of creating stress-free individuals and empowering them to create a violence-free world by providing them a multitude of service-platforms, Art of Living volunteers conduct programs for organisations, women, youth, children, rural youth, slum-dwellers, prisoners and farmers, as well as training in income-generating activities. Free education for the under-privileged, and projects and campaigns addressing crucial environmental issues, voting rights, girl-child education, de-addiction and discrimination against the girl-child have been taken up.
In Bangalore, it has held stress-relief programs and awareness campaigns on diabetes, parenting, deaddiction, free self-defence workshops for women, medical camps, stress-relief and skills training for prisoners in Central Jail. Its meditation programs for corporates and voter-registration camps drew enthusiastic public response.