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Outside a hotel where Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar stays on Friday, dozens of people are holding flowers and gifts…hoping to greet their spiritual guide for life.
“Very excited to meet him at at last.”
“So my son here, he sneaked into the line but he made sure he got to touch Gurudev’s feat.
“It was pretty special, I had no gifts I thought I’d bring myself that’s it. I’d like to think we had a brief moment where we exchanged eye contact.”
One of the world’s most prominent spiritual leaders along with Pope Francis and Dalai Lama, Gurudev has hundreds of millions of followers worldwide, including a devoted community in Australia.
The 68-year-old is known for promoting meditation and his philosophy of creating a world free of stress and violence.
He’s also famous for inventing the breathing techniques for mindfulness, which he claims to have discovered after a 10-day period of silence.
In 1981, he founded the Arts of Living Organisation, which is now available in over 180 countries, serving around 500 million people.
And for Australia’s Indian diaspora community, Gurudev is also a community leader that they look up on.
Nirav Vaidya Maharaj is a Perth-based Hindu priest. He says he’s been looking forward to meeting Gurudev, his spiritual teacher, in person.
“Whatever that good message he gives me, I’ll spread that message on behalf of him, to the community. So that’s why I am very excited to meet him.”
Outside the Indian community, Gurudev also has a huge base of social media followers.
Some critics of his have questioned his commercialisation of the breathing techniques, as well as his extensive daily engagement with people on social media platforms.
Gurudev has tens of millions of followers on YouTube, X, Facebook and Instagram.
In an exclusive interview with SBS News, Gurudev says his proceeds are directed towards charitable causes, and his social media presence connects him with his followers around the world.
“About today, what I’m teaching and what I’m giving these techniques are very very useful to people, and we need it, because it caters to the mental health for the population. Through COVID, the mental health has become a very big challenge. In the world you want to be in a happy world right? Everyone wants to be free from stress, people want to feel happier, feel better, all of these needs meditation, yoga and meditation, some techniques that will help one to get through the downside.”
Gurudev is also outspoken on his opposition to conflicts, as well as his views on democracy.
One issue he’s focused on is India’s caste system, an ancient social classification system within India’s Hindu society that remains powerful today, with people from the lower class still suffering from discrimination, despite the system being outlawed.
Gurudev says the system is no longer relevant to modern society, but it’s been used by politicians for their own gains.
“Sometimes, it’s very easy for politicians to use the caste system to connect to power, that’s one disadvantage of the system, it’s [on] not allowed to die or disappear, like it does happen in that when it needs us. In the religions, it is still kept alive because it’s very convenient for politicians.”
After delivering lectures in Perth on Friday and Melbourne on Saturday, Gurudev will be giving another lecture in Sydney on Sunday night, before finishing his Australia’s tour on Tuesday.
