Recently
I had been to Ravi Shankar’s Ashram located close to Bangalore to
take part in what was announced as an NGO meet to discuss environmental
protection and access to social justice. Within few hours of its inauguration,
I fled from his ashram which was looking more like a jail with several
security guards and hundreds of spy like volunteers.
This is
one of the cleverest hoaxes perpetrated in the name of spiritual movement
using the facade of NGOs. I came with a distinct impression that Ravi
Shankar is a great genius like Dhirubhai Ambani or yester years US barons,
Rockefeller, Morgan, Mellon etc. One needs to admire his entrepreneurial
capability of earning huge profits from a simple idea of organizing
an NGO summit in collaboration with UN’s END POVERTY MILLENIUM CAMPAIGN,
advertising as speakers such famous people like Dr. Pachauri, Vandana
Shiva, Bahuguna, Surabaya etc.
Shanakr’s
ashram is a commercial operation doling out psychological products specially
for some foreigners and middle class men and women who have studied
in English Medium School. Surprisingly there were more women volunteers
than men. It was impressive to see how so many could be motivated to
give their services to produce profit for an institution. This requires
genius of the highest order.
I even
met a professor from IIT Mumbai who is a volunteer there! When I expressed
my disappointment with the whole show, she was very “sympathetic”
and assured me that she felt the same way first and later thanks to
“guruji” she could see the light. Uniformly every volunteer to whom
I complained about the NGOs being taken for a ride, responded in the
same manner as though all of them were robots programmed by some unknown
force!
After
charging Rs. 5000 as a delegation fee, Art of Living was providing delegates
a room with three persons and no towels, soap, drinking water, etc.
Food was sub standard where we are expected to wash dishes after eating.
I do not think delegates were taking part to learn about self help as
his disciples/devotees may be expected to do. We did not go there as
his disciples. I refused to wash dishes which was not liked by some.
This is not because I dislike it. I have done it often. But I did not
pay Rs 5000 to do that. Moreover on the web site I was offered
better lodging and food facilities in “International Center”.
What
a wonderful way of advertising Shankar’s product by charging us!
Companies pay money to advertise their product and here Shankar collects
money from us for the privilege of learning about his products and services.
This requires unusual capabilities. There were ‘Satsanghs’, “free”
introductory yoga classes, visit to his first abode, etc. I am sure
some NGOs would have decided to buy his products and will act as his
emissaries. Of course there will be few like me who will attempt to
do just the opposite. There were spies in the ashram observing people
like me. It was obvious and at one time I was even frightened.
During
an evening ‘Satsangh’, there were some planted questions put to
Ravi Shankar. Still his responses were pedestrian at best. One of the
questions was about the new burning topic of global warming and climate
change and what does Shankar think about them. First he ridiculed those
who are worried about such things and proceeded to give the example
of Y2K phenomenon.
Ravi Shankar
dwelt on how foolishly people worried about Y2K, the world coming to
an end, places exploding, etc and how nothing of the kind took place.
He was suggesting that Y2K was not a problem and so also global warming.
Little did he take into consideration elaborate precautions taken by
the world to prepare for Y2K and how India became of world capital for
IT outsourcing as a result. What a pity such an ignoramus is considered
as a “guruji” even by the fire brand Vandana Shiva. Some one asked
the question about the unrest and violence in Kashmir and his response
was to pat the questioner and to state youth should get involved. Is
it possible he has the ability to negotiate with Naxals, LTTE, Al Quaida
in Iraq etc? How media has created this “guruji” with such supernatural
powers?
After
spending less than 24 hours, I decided to leave the place. The cult
like environment was suffocating. Some other delegates from Mangalore
with whom I have been conversing also decided to leave after the inauguration.
One of the speakers Ananth Nadakarni, vice President for Tata Council
for Community Initiatives also decided to leave early. Another speaker
who was to talk on HIV left even before the first day.
But for Vandana Shiva, none of the experts and well known speakers (Pachauri,
Ashok Khosla, Bahuguna etc) were present. Is it possible that their
names were prominently placed to sell the Sangam? We were told that
about 500 delegates have registered and there were three silver sponsors.
They must have raised at least Rs 30 lakhs of rupees and incremental
cost would be no more than Rs. 3 lakhs. This is an excellent and clever
way of making huge profit. Business colleges should use this as a case
study. We should admire the entrepreneurial capabilities of Ravi Shankar.
It needs genius.
Despite
being a key note speaker, Vandana Shiva spoke just for few minutes and
that too in a rambling manner. She took the opportunity to bash Tata’s
Nano. Her so called key note speech was dull and did not dwell on the
main subject. A high school student could have delivered a better speech
with greater insight. One High Court judge also gave an uninspiring
talk making no points on topics except offering “pranams” to “guruji”.
What a joke! I attended the first workshop and it was also equally boring.
Speakers were more interested in offering pranams to “guruji” than
dwelling on the subject. Since the completion of the summit, I have
learnt from a participating activist that the meeting was a total failure
and many were totally disillusioned.
I am planning
to demand the return of payment since facts were misrepresented to me while
registering. I am exploring the possibility of filing a case in Consumer Forum.
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