The Art of Living International Center

Operating in 180 countries, The Art of Living is a non-profit, educational and humanitarian organization founded in 1981 by the world-renowned humanitarian and spiritual teacher - Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. All our programs are guided by Gurudev’s philosophy: “Unless we have a stress-free mind and a violence-free society, we cannot achieve world peace.”

The Art of Living community is diverse and attracts people from all walks of life.

The Art of Living is more of a principle, a philosophy of living life to its fullest. It is more a movement than an organization. Its core value is to find peace within oneself and to unite people in our society – of different cultures, traditions, religions, nationalities; and thus reminding us all that we have one goal to uplift human life everywhere.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher, and an ambassador of peace. His vision of a stress-free, violence-free society has united millions of people around the world through service projects and programs offered by The Art of Living.

The Beginning

Born in 1956 in Southern India, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was a gifted child. By the age of four, he was able to recite parts of the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Sanskrit scripture and was often found in deep meditation. Gurudev’s first teacher, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, had a long association with Mahatma Gandhi. By the age of seventeen in 1973, Gurudev had graduated with degrees in, both, Vedic literature, and physics.