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The coming year, we celebrate the 35th founding anniversary of the Art of Living.
The curtain raiser to this is Anandotsav, the Festival of Happiness on 15 - 17 May 2015 at the Art of Living International Centre, Bangalore.

The highlight of Anandotsav is a special Happiness Program that will be led by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar himself.

Register today: http://aolu.co/Anandotsav-HP | Once in a lifetime opportunity for all!

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Breathe Right For a Better Life

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All the problems in the world are caused by love! Jealousy is because of love. Greed is because you love objects too much. Anger is because you love perfection and you are angry at imperfections. Pride and arrogance come because you love yourself too much.

So, every distortion of love causes problems not only for us, but for everybody. Even though this is the case, without love what else is there in life? Does life have any meaning, any purpose without love?

It appears absolutely depressing, boring, uninteresting. But how do we get to that point of love where it is free from distortions and we are able to be at ease with ourselves?

This is where a little knowledge about us, about our mind, our consciousness, and the root of distortion will help. Every individual is bestowed with all the virtues in the world. They simply get covered by lack of understanding. All that is needed is to just to uncover the virtues that are already there.

Learning something about our breath is very important. Our breath has a great lesson to teach us, which we have forgotten. For every rhythm in the mind, there is a corresponding rhythm in the breath and for every rhythm in the breath there is a corresponding emotion in the mind. So, you may not be able to handle your mind directly, but through breath you can handle it.

Neither at school nor at home does anybody teach you what to do when you are upset or angry or depressed. The first thing we did when we came to this planet is that we took a deep breath in and then we started to cry. The last thing we’ll be doing is breathe out and make others cry. In between these two, our whole life, we are breathing in and out, but, we have learnt very little about our breath.

No breath, no life... know breath, know life! The rhythm in breath can help us get in touch with the depth of ourselves, our soul, our consciousness, our being and we feel connected with everybody, with everything in the world. Deep within, every one of us feels that we have not grown, we have not changed. This indicates that the spirit in you doesn’t change, doesn’t grow old. The body is aging but something in you is not aging. Getting in touch with that something that doesn’t age brings beauty in life. That is meditation.

What I would suggest is to take one week off every year for yourself, like you take your car for servicing. During that time, align yourself with nature — wake up with the sun, do some exercise, eat proper food, just as much as necessary, practise a few minutes of singing and keeping silence. Aligning ourselves with nature, our whole system gets recharged and makes us feel vibrant and enthusiastic.

To me, a successful person is someone who has no fear, who feels at home with everybody and has a smile which no one can take away. We do not have to go anywhere in search of success. The road to success begins from our very own breath.

No breath, No life | Know breath, Know life.

The Happiness Program with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on May 15, 16 and 17 at the Art of Living Ashram, Bengaluru.

Morning batch: 6 AM to 9 AM | Evening batch: 6 PM to 9 PM.

Register now: +91 7894078930 | www.artofliving.org/srisrihappiness

Source: New Indian Express

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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Kicks off Yoga Series in the US with a Talk at the Indian Embassy

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The Embassy of India in Washington, DC, organized a talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on ‘Nurturing peace through Yoga and Meditation’ at its premises on April 29. The talk is the beginning of a series of curtain-raiser yoga events to welcome the First International Day of Yoga, to be celebrated on June 21 this year.

Shankar emphasized the relevance of yoga in today’s world, saying yoga is not only about flexibility in body but also about flexibility in mind and thinking. He mentioned that wars in the world begin when communication breaks down. Yoga creates skills in communication and relating to people. The purpose of yoga and meditation is to unite hearts and minds of people and to unite religions and cultures of the world, he added. The United Nations General Assembly has declared June 21st as the International Day of Yoga.

The Charge d’Affaires at the embassy, Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu, highlighted the words of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the United Nations: “Yoga is an invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition. It embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us deal with climate change”.

The Government of India is planning to celebrate the International Day of Yoga in countries around the world, including the United States.

The Embassy of India in Washington DC is organizing a series of events on yoga which will culminate on June 21. On that day, it would collaborate with yoga and community organizations for a day-long event at the Mall, in Washington, DC.

Source: American Bazaar

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