Art of Living - Behind the scenes
A little boy crept through the crowd and made it all the way to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and held out his hand. Sri Sri smiled at him and lovingly placed a sweet in his little palm. Bubbling with excitement, he turned back and vanished into the crowd. Sri Sri continued distributing sweets and had moved just a few steps ahead when the little boy appeared again through the crowd and stretched out his hand. He was given another sweet and he rushed back again. When this happened a few times, the volunteer holding the packet of sweets pointed out to Sri Sri, “He has come for the fourth time.”Without stopping for a moment, Sri Sri replied, “Jab tak ye baant-ta rahega, main ise deta rahunga.”(As long as he keeps distributing them further, I will continue to give him.)
Anybody who has ever come forward to take any initiative with even a trace of sincerity has only received encouragement, appreciation and compassionate guidance from Sri Sri. If not forced by circumstances, most people would spend their lives within the small pond of their limited experiences. What he had to offer opened them so much that in profound gratitude, they disregarded all shortcoming they believed they had and stepped forward with the sentiment, “What can I do for you?” It is very tender and delicate inside the person who feels it but when it acts, it moves with a tremendous force.It is this force which has driven the mammoth expanse of the Art of Living movement all around the world.
For these people, stepping out of their shells and taking responsibility has caused enormous growth in them. Most people who are teachers now had no prior experience of speaking in a group; most people who lead satsangs are not trained singers; people who have done massive construction projects started with hardly any knowledge of construction. “If God has really made me in His own image, what is it that I cannot do?” This conviction comes to them and they are able to do phenomenal things. They don’t do it for their ambition or a sense of achievement. They do it in gratitude for the person who unlocked something profound in them.
Art of Living may give off the appearance of an organization but this whole movement is not run by any management strategy or policy. It is run by an authentic personal experience that deep within, you are love and it is the same love that you are made up of, that moves this world.This realization, because of its purity and universality, has brought so many different people together. Love is the force that binds these people and looking at the magnitude of this phenomenon, it can only be a force of Nature.