Sri Sri to 'meet' Facebook users on June 23 for global peace

BANGALORE, INDIA: As the founder of The Art of Living (AOL), Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 'spiritualizes' Facebook by turning it into a tool of meaningful dialogue for transformation, it is expected to be 'liked' by over a million people across the globe - both online and offline.

The Face2Face event with Ravi Shankar on Facebook is aimed at promoting his vision of creating a violence-free, stress-free society and would go live on June 23, from 7.30 pm to 9 pm.

The idea is to make a global connection of responsible citizens, mainly youth who are willing to do their bit for peace and harmony, stated an AOL release, adding that this was not the first time that Ravi Shankar would be using social media networks to share and spread his vision for a 'One World Family'.

On January 26, he was on Google HangOut to reach out to a multitude of people with his call for volunteering for a better society. It drew civil society members, artists, sportsmen, journalists, policy makers from countries like Oman, Taiwan, Paraguay, Zimbabwe, Slovenia, USA, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Argentina, Israel, India and Pakistan.

"Technology has shrunk the world into a global village and spirituality will turn it into a global family," Ravi Shankar has been often quoted saying, which highlights the synergy between technology and spirituality.

"If we can get rid of the stress and anxiety, then the dream of a one world family is not far away," he had remarked during the Google Hangout event.

"Social media such as Facebook are a very effective medium for connecting with youth of today. The efficacy of such medium will be enhanced when it's used by influential people like Sri Sri to energize them for a good cause. Youth all over the world are restless to make their voices heard and do something to better the world. But often their energy ebbs as there is no sense of direction. This Facebook event will help them find their own ways and means to contribute in building a better society," explained Karthik Krishna, media manager, The Art of Living.

During the Facebook event, Ravi Shankar will answer questions from diverse topics of interest. The event will have four segments - the spiritual guru's personal life, Success and Creativity, Global Issues and Love and Relationship - replete with interesting anecdotes, cartoon strips, video clips etc. The event will also include an online guided mediation, which is expected to be joined in by over 1 million people worldwide, said the release.

Participants can post their questions on the event page in Facebook, on the Art of Living website, or on Twitter using the hashtag #Ask SriSri. The best questions will be selected and grouped by a panel based on an online poll for the questions. The selected questions will be posed to Ravi Shankar by a host on behalf of the questioner during the event and there will be multiple moderators from around the world.

The event can be viewed (like a webcast) on SriSri's Facebook page. For more details, log onto www.facebook.com/HHSriSriRaviShankar.

Also, CIOL is facilitating a live feed for the whole 90 minutes of the Facebook event. Watch this space for more.