Ravi Shankar

He is involved in interfaith dialogue and currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute. Many volunteers assisted the 2004 tsunami victims and Hurricane Katrina victims, in Haiti and many other regions of conflict and natural disaster. There is a prison stress management and rehabilitation techniques program, known as Prison SMART (Stress Management and Rehabilitation Training), which assists many prisoners and prison staff worldwide.

Shankar's education wing has set up 209 schools across 18 states of India. Many schools are established in rural-tribal areas with mostly first learners, often inaccessible by road. While speaking about the quality of education in government schools at a public event in Jaipur, March 2012, Sri Sri said that some government schools are the breeding grounds of Naxals. This was quoted out of context and there was considerable uproar in the media. Later, The Art of Living founder said that he has been misunderstood. "I said what I said, so I could encourage these private institutions to open up in more places. I just wanted to give some incentive to them to start up more educational institutions. I'm not that foolish that I would say that all government schools would breed Naxalites." Read Less

He was involved in the movement demanding a strong lokpal bill.

Ravi Shankar was born to Smt. Vishalakshi Ratnam and R. S. Venkat Ratnam, who was then active in the automobile business. He was named "Ravi" (a common Indian name meaning "sun") because his birth was on a Sunday and "Shankar" after the 8th century Hindu saint Adi Shankara, with whom he shares the birthday. Read Less