Compassion and Forgiveness at Home

Hi Jim
I was inspired to read your blog entry. It reminded of some of my own experiences with the Foundation...

I remember an amazing story about a woman who was caught stealing at our Indian ashram last year in 2009. It seems that during satsang each night this woman went around cutting the locks off of people’s doors and stealing their things. The woman was caught and handed over to the authorities. However, it turned out that the woman was pregnant and the jail had no room appropriate for her. Guruji was called and his instruction was to return the woman to our ashram, the very place where she had been stealing, where we would care for her. Guruji then asked some teachers to sit with the woman to hear her story about why she was stealing. He also told the teachers to bring the woman gifts of clothes and other things. Our ashram made her comfortable until the authorities could make other arrangements. Since I have known Guruji I see him patiently extending extraordinary compassion and understanding to people again and again – no matter what their mistakes or attitude in life have been.

-Patty

Living Our Values

Being an avid news hound, I’m quite aware of the number of stories in the media these days that center on issues of wealth, greed, power, addictions and self-centeredness. Politicians, clergy, and business leaders all over the world – no one seems to be immune. And what we hear about in the news is just the tip of the iceberg. Who has not been affected by this in one way or another? Having been involved in businesses in various management and contributor roles over the last 28+ years, I’ve found many of the same issues, well out of the media spotlight, but alive and flourishing. Not as big a story, but affecting the lives and careers of many.

I’m beginning a dialog here on these topics to share my related thoughts and experiences from my business, personal and spiritual life. I hope they inspire reflection and responses on your part – whoever might be reading this – so that we all might benefit.

I thought I would begin by writing about the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, as he is very much on my mind right now. Our Colorado state chapter (of the foundation) just finished hosting two public events in Denver and Boulder. Being in the presence of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar reminds me of the importance of leaders ‘walking their talk’. Watching him interact with the public, the media, with government and business leaders, with Art of Living members and with those that could best be described as followers or students, is a lesson in understanding service and humility. I’ll note here that I'm teacher of the foundation’s programs, so I can’t claim to be unbiased. It was 1 A.M. of the morning that Sri Sri was scheduled to depart Denver. After a day full of meetings and public talks which had stretched until midnight, he was packing for an early flight the next morning and was ready for bed. Outside in the hall a young boy waited with his mother to give Sri Sri a gift, and when he was told that Sri Sri was no longer seeing people he persisted and began to cry... When I informed Sri Sri what all the noise in the hall was about, he welcomed the boy into his room, received the gift and sent him on his way with a hug. A simple expression of selflessness but one which I have seen repeated again and again in my twenty years with Sri Sri. This was not a public event. There was no media and few people in the hall that night, but that one gesture symbolized the reason that I'm still volunteering for this foundation several decades after I began this work. Someone famous once said "character is made up of those things that we do when no one is watching..."

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s is a life visibly lived for others. Whether speaking with a child or a head of state, Sri Sri is constantly giving knowledge, encouragement and love in a natural way. He embodies the qualities that I aspire to in my life. The purpose of this post is not to extol the qualities of Sri Sri as there are more appropriate forums for that, but rather to suggest that his life and work is a model that we ourselves and our leaders can look to for living fundamental human values in our personal lives, businesses and organizations.

We don’t all need to be spiritually uplifting public figures, but isn’t it worth modeling our personal lives, and the way we conduct businesses and governments affairs after someone whom we look up to? Someone who lives the values and qualities we aspire to? For me that person is Sri Sri. For you it may be someone else. With so much being driven in the world today by the need for wealth, power, success and status, wouldn’t we all be a bit better off if we came back to the core values of compassion, honesty and integrity?

-Jim