The Art of Living Foundation, established by Hindu spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, celebrated its 45th anniversary on May 10, 2026, with a grand celebration at its International Centre in Bengaluru. The event was attended by Prime Minister Modi, who inaugurated a Dhyan Mandir (meditation temple) and underscored the role of spirituality, service, and a sense of social responsibility among the country’s youth in building a developed India.
The Art of Living Foundation has been offering spiritual guidance as well as several programmes, including various yoga and meditation programs, rehabilitation and trauma healing programs to thousands of people in 182 countries. Apart from promoting physical, mental and spiritual well-being, the foundation has been actively involved in several humanitarian and reconciliation initiatives across the world, including Latin America, the Balkans, Iraq, and South Asia.
The founder and spiritual leader of the Art of Living Foundation, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, has emerged as a global peacemaker by resolving several long-standing global conflicts through dialogue, meditation, and trauma healing. His reconciliation and peace efforts brought him many accolades, such as the 2025 World Leader for Peace and Security Award conferred by the Boston Global Forum (BGF) and the AI World Society (AIWS).
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s peace intervention into over 5 decade-old conlfict in Colombia
One of the most remarkable and successful interventions of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is affectionately referred to as ‘Gurudev’ by his followers, came in 2015 in the Colombian civil war, which had been going on for over 5 decades. The Colombian civil war, which roughly began in 1964, was an armed conflict between the government and several rebel groups. There came a time in 2015, when the negotiations between the government and a major Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC–EP) reached a breaking point after the rebel group killed a bunch of young, unarmed soldiers. The incident led to the then-Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, freezing the negotiations.
That’s when Sri Sri Ravi Shankar visited Colombia and met the Colombian President, and discussed the ongoing civil war. Subsequently, President Santos invited Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to Havana, Cuba, where the government and the FARC representatives had gathered for negotiations. He engaged with the FARC representatives directly and listened to their concerns. He encouraged the rebel group to renounce the way of violence and embrace non-violence. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s compassion and empathy moved the rebel group, prompting the FARC leadership to announce that the group would adopt the principles of non-violence.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s valuable and timely intervention saved the peace negotiations, which were on the brink of collapsing. His presence in the negotiations produced an outcome which numerous rounds of formal negotiations and international pressure failed to yield. After the intervention, the peace process in Colombia gained momentum and eventually resulted in the signing of a historic peace accord in 2016. President Santos invited Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to the signing ceremony to highlight the pivotal role he played in the peace process. A year later, following its disarmament, the FARC transformed into a political party.
The trauma healing of the victims of the Kosovo conflict
The Kosovo conflict, which went on between 1998 and 1999, was a war between ethnic Albanian separatists (Kosovo Liberation Army – KLA) and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) over control of Kosovo, a small country located in the Balkans region of Southeast Europe. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar offered post-war healing in the region through his foundation’s trauma relief programs for war veterans, women, children, and refugees.
The trauma relief programs focused on youth empowerment, inter-community dialogue, and trauma healing after a violent conflict that claimed over 13,000 lives and displaced several thousand. Kosovo’s Ministry of Health later recommended that mental health workers in the country receive training in the Art of Living Foundation’s Breath Water Sound workshop, a program specifically designed for trauma relief.
In Kosovo, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was not directly involved in negotiations, but his foundation’s humanitarian outreach and community programs made a crucial contribution in healing and rebuilding trust in a society torn by violence.
The healing of the Yazidi women victims of ISIS atrocities
In addition to bringing about peace and healing in war-torn regions, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s humanitarian outreach also offered a healing touch to a group of Yazidi women, who endured unspeakable abuse and atrocities in the captivity of the terrorist organisation ISIS. The Art of Living Foundation commenced its relief work in Iraq in 2003 by offering trauma relief and meditation programs to locals affected by the violence. The organisation has reached out to thousands of people in Iraq through their trauma relief and meditation programs.
In May 2007, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was invited by the then-Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. This was the first time that a Hindu spiritual leader was officially invited by the Iraqi government. He signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Youth Ministry, under which the Art of Living offered special leadership programs for Iraqi youth. The foundation provided vocational training to thousands of Iraqi women, contributing to their empowerment and financial independence. The spiritual guru also made peace efforts in Iraq in 2008 by holding meetings with Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish leaders at a time when the region was plagued by violence.
In November 2014, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar travelled to Erbil, Iraq, to host a conference in conjunction with the International Association for Human Values (IAHV), a sister organisation of the Art of Living founded in 1997, and the Kurdistan Regional Government on “Protecting Women & Bringing Peace and Stability.” Volunteers of the IAHV organised medical camps and meditation classes in Iraq for the victims of Islamic terrorism.
Later in 2018, a group of Yazidi women came to India to attend trauma-relief and healing sessions at the Art of Living International Centre in Bengaluru.
Other significant contributions of the Art of Living Foundation
In addition to it recoliatory and humanitarian activities, the Art of Living Foundation has also been leading initiatives for environmental conservation. In 2013, the organisation started a water conservation initiative at the pan-India level, impacting over 34.5 million people across 19,400 villages. The organisation constructed over 92,000 groundwater recharge structures, removing 270 lakh cubic metres of silt, and restoring 59,000 square kilometres of land while conserving approximately 174 billion litres of water. The initiative was fruitful as an independent assessment found that groundwater levels in areas covered under the initiative were 20 per cent higher than in comparable areas.
The organisation is also active on the education front, as it established a network of 1,356 schools serving more than 120,000 children from over 2,000 villages. The students enrolled in these schools, most of whom are first-generation learners, receive free and holistic schooling. Moreover, the Art of Living Foundation has also been working with over 3 million farmers across the country. It has been promoting natural farming methods and reducing chemical dependence, addressing both soil degradation and the emotional distress tied to chronic agrarian debt.
