Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

**Theo Von** (0:00)
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Today's guest is a humanitarian. He's a spiritual leader, a soul summoner, if you will. He founded the Art of Living movement, and he's one of the most respected teachers of meditation in the world. A fascinating chat with today's guest, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Shining on me And I will find a song I will sing it just for you Shining on me Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Is that correct?

**Ravi Shankar** (1:49)
Right.

**Theo Von** (1:51)
Thank you for being here today. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your energy that you've put into the world. Thank you so much for your ability to be a guide for people.
For our listeners that don't know, you're a humanitarian, a spiritual leader, a practicer of peace. Is that fair to say?

**Ravi Shankar** (2:15)
Yeah.

**Theo Von** (2:17)
Okay. And Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

**Ravi Shankar** (2:21)
You can just call me Gurudev.

**Theo Von** (2:22)
Gurudev is fine? Excellent.
You had an experience that happened when you were very young, at the age of four years old, from what I hear, if the story is true, that…

**Ravi Shankar** (2:35)
I could recite the ancient text.

**Theo Von** (2:37)
You could recite the ancient text of the Bhagavad Gita. Can you tell us what the Bhagavad Gita is for our listeners that don't know?

**Ravi Shankar** (2:46)
Gita is the scripture, which was written 5,000 years old, but when Lord Krishna gave advice to or lessons to Arjuna, he's the warrior of that time.
So, it's a knowledge of yoga and about everything about life.
So, this is what Mahatma Gandhi had as a handbook.

**Theo Von** (3:15)
Ah, okay.

**Ravi Shankar** (3:15)
And everyone in India, it's almost like a Bible for the Indian continent, you can say, Hindus mainly.

**Theo Von** (3:24)
Got it. So, at 4 years old, you were kind of a prodigy. You were kind of like the Justin Bieber, kind of a meditation maybe, you know? In a way, I don't know if that's, you were kind of the Jambanai of India, you know? Still living, of course.
What was it like to have that much attention at such a young age? How did that affect you?

**Ravi Shankar** (3:43)
I just felt very normal to me, yeah.

**Theo Von** (3:47)
Was there a reason that you-

**Ravi Shankar** (3:48)
I didn't feel any special. I felt as normal as anybody else.

**Theo Von** (3:53)
Was there a reason you felt like you kind of received this download, sort of, that you received this capability?

**Ravi Shankar** (4:00)
You know, there are so many child progenies these days, you can see them all. So, it's a very natural thing. It was not something that you make out of it.

**Theo Von** (4:13)
It was just part of your life?

**Ravi Shankar** (4:14)
Part of your life.

**Theo Von** (4:16)
What effect did that have on your childhood?

**Ravi Shankar** (4:19)
I was a little strange in my childhood.
As you know, I didn't take much interest in normal things that kids would do. So, I spent most of my childhood with elderly people.

**Theo Von** (4:33)
With elderly people?

**Ravi Shankar** (4:34)
Elderly people, adults. And yeah, I felt a little bit out of place many times. But I tried to fit myself in everywhere I used to be.

**Theo Von** (4:46)
Take me through some of what happens after that in your life that kind of leads you into becoming a guru.

**Ravi Shankar** (4:54)
Well, you know, I'm a guru by accident.
In a sense, you know, I just kept teaching or telling people what I know, and then they started taking me as a guide. Well, apart from that, you know, I had deep interest in spirituality and science. As a teenager, I was very much into physics. So, physics and astronomy, science and ancient scriptures, all this interested me quite a lot, because I felt that such a similarity or parallel between the spirituality and science. So, that was very interesting for me. And then, you know, my teacher was one who lived at Mahatma Gandhi for 48 years.