Narendra Modi | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Yoga: Stilling the Mind

There is a new icebreaker in the international diplomatic circuit. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call at the UN General Assembly for declaring an International Yoga Day has gained support from several quarters – many representatives from Congress and President Obama as well have shown keen interest in yoga.

Reflections on Prime Minister Modi’s Swearing in Ceremony

Rituals and ceremonies are inevitable in any public function. Man cannot live without ceremonies nor society can survive without one. Whether religious or secular, ceremonies are vital to human society. Having said that, India needs to move past the types of official ceremonies that are simply the lackluster, regimental remnants of the colonial era. One such event was Prime Minister Modi’s oath taking ceremony.

My First Meeting with Narendra Modi

As the new millennium approached, the buzz about the end of the world and impending catastrophe raised great panic in the West. People had gone paranoid selling their homes and hoarding groceries and I was travelling from coast to coast assuring them that no such thing would happen. Thankfully the World did not disappear and it was business as usual! In August, 2000, I was in New York City to address the UN Millennium World Peace Summit, which opened with an address by the UN Secretary General...

Hope Quashed, Opportunity Missed

When the Aaam Admi Party emerged on the Indian political horizon, the country was stirred by the prospect of young and dynamic leaders serious about cleansing the system. Although it began as an apolitical movement, I concurred with Arvind Kejriwal’s view that to cleanse politics, one must move into politics. For this reason, I have been telling the Naxals to move from bullets to ballot. I was happy to see many young people participate in the last Assembly elections in Jharkhand. The coterie...