The Sri Sri Complaints page came first. The intro to that page mentions allegations that he doesn't acknowledge his guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The following letter addresses that and much more, particularly the service and healing / miracles aspects. Some parts of the author's own life of prominent Seva have been cut, as she does not wish to have her name bandied about. "AOL" in her letter refers to Sri Sri's org, Art of Living . . .

I saw where someone wrote about dear Ammachi's healings, and no one wrote about any Sri Sri has done and there are innumerable healings and miracles. Many times He is pulling devotees or their relatives out of crashed vehicles, all of a sudden they are standing, safe, and uninjured, outside of totally wrecked cars, etc., landing safely on their feet with no injuries when their motorcycle has been hit. This car accident miracle was the case for one of my sons and for the daughter and son of one of my friends, they were in 2 separate accidents. I have heard of so many of these, having been with Guruji now for many years. He pulls them out, while He is some other part of the world, taking care of people, busy, and still this occurs, like taking a Kleenex out of a box. My other son was to have emergency major heart surgery and have his mitral valve replaced with a pig valve. The opening of the valve had been measured 5 or 6 times with valid and reliable instruments, at .7 (mm? I do not know this myself, just from my son at that time.) . They told him that people were usually fainting when it was at .8, and he was asymptomatic. 

I emailed Guruji immediately to ask for His help and really did not worry about it further. I asked Him to do something so my son did not have to have the surgery. Just before the surgery, they decided to do one more measurement, with another valid and reliable instrument of some kind, and found that the valve was open twice as far as they had measured previously (5 to 6 times my son had told me), and he did not have to have the surgery. I was doing AOL work and yes, He does inspire people. And I am a very grateful Mom. I cannot express how much He has improved my life, especially the inner, which reflects in the outer.

Sri Sri is too busy to bother contesting all the drivel that is written about him. Remember that Maharishi bore the charges of sexual misconduct for years when it did not happen and was many years later retracted by those present at the time it was to have taken place, and apologies made by George Harrison before he died.

What had Maharishi said, that the Beatles were beautiful, "angels" he called them, and that they had made so much wonderful music for people, that he could not be angry with them! And the day he went to mahasamadhi, a prearranged event occurred NASA beamed the Beatles song out into space, singing "Jaia, Jaia, Jaia, Guru Deva"!! A sweet good bye joke from Maharishi!

Maharishi is so great, and so many who are or were in TM have said that Maharishi and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are like John coming before Jesus, preparing the way. Maharishi was to be a shooting star and my friend and teacher, a TM Teacher and my Sahaj Samadhi Teacher, a Sanskrit Scholar, said then that Sri Sri is a super Nova. Another friend said she would go to a Course with Maharishi and His energy would be so powerful while He was doing something to help her that she would feel as though she was being slammed back against the wall. Sri Sri's energy is so gentle, pervasive, a light tickle, maybe not even, and so powerful. 

Did you look at the research on the efficacy of the Sudarshan Kriya? And know that Guruji was Maharishi's favorite student, that Maharishi's work was to go on titled as "The Art Of Living"? He always had Sri Sri sit with him, not on a level below him? and that Sri Sri was the one chosen to bless the ghee that burned his Guru's body? 

If you go to the videos on youtube with Maharishi and the Beatles, and see them on stage, it pans over once and you see a young bearded man sitting a little away from Maharishi, but not lower than Him and I am sure it is Guruji. 

I have not had the education to understand the relationship as Indians do, raised with all this knowledge about the relationship with the Guru, and I was not getting to see Him, having been called called from Rishikesh by Him. This is so He can work on you, which in the L o n g run is wonderful but when it is happening is very painful - what is an issue for you in your life, He will make happen at the ashram, and it will be so intense, so painful so in your face, but when you leave, it will be gone forever. When you have it under His care in the Ashram He is taking it away and His mercy is intense!

We were at Navaratri there, in the Yagna Shala, and I was to His right in the Internationals area, and during some puja He was performing, (I was being neglected I felt, and abandoned, an issue for me as I was adopted as a child.) This prayer came from my heart, it cried out, "Have I ruined the relationship, has He left me?" IN THE MIDDLE OF WHAT HE WAS DOING IN THE PUJA HE TURNED EVER SO BRIEFLY AND LOOKED ME IN THE EYES, AND DID NOT PAUSE, WENT BACK TO THE PUJA, LETTING ME KNOW THAT ALL WAS ALL RIGHT. 

So we deal with our projections and the true Gurus are there, giving love and giving love and giving love and we are so fortunate to be here in this time with so many wonderful Beings around. And in Rishikesh, the Gurus refer to Sri Sri as "The Guru MahaRaj". 

I worked on the AOL magazine, "Rishimukh" and still now, as then, we could not find out about all the AOL Seva going on helping others, as PEOPLE WERE AND ARE TOO BUSY TO TAKE TIME TO WRITE AND LET US KNOW. There is also the thing about not bragging about Seva, in this vein some of our very busy AOL Teachers in HIV and AIDS Projects are not speaking up a lot. We have a huge and impactful program that went early to the earthquake site in China, tsunami, New Orleans, New York after 9/11 thousands were taught for free (!), the longest standing medical unit in Iraq (Ayurveda) as well as a Center there in Baghdad staffed by native Muslim Iraqi AOL Teachers; courses in Iran, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Afghanistan, so many other places, a team that went to Beslan after the tragedy there and taught the kids, parents, teachers, administrators, and the Special Forces, with many, many commendations. 

Water reclamation, organic farming, mobile units to help poor farmers, programs to keep poor farmers from committing suicide, anti female foeticide programs, vastu, ayurveda, multidisciplinary medical teachings, a huge Prison Program around the globe, the Course 1 is taught in the Delhi Police Training Academy and to many military personnel now and Guruji was given a special award by the National Veterans Foundation in the US for our work with US Vets; secret work done with renowned terrorist groups as well as the publicized, Non aggression Programs in the European schools, programs in universities (Stanford, USC, UCLA for some) and colleges, high schools and elementary schools in the US. Like they have said of Maharishi, He keeps coming up constantly with so many new programs and ways of helping people that no one can keep up with Him. People used to go to ashrams and give years of their personal service to learn the knowledge, and He travels constantly, takes it out to people and yes, He charges, they are not coming to an ashram and spending years of service to get it, we are in this century and money is the exchange instead of years of personal service, as well as all too many people do not respect, value, or practice what comes cheaply or free.

So many people are benefiting from these teachings and if they did not hear of it, would they seek it and then receive this benefit? would they improve their lives and then effect the lives of those around them? a big probably not! What happens instead is that He publicizes it, people benefit and then with new feelings of confidence, responsibility and belongingness, they want to help others. If you want to have fun, I suggest you might want to make some game or something like that, not approach this area of spirituality and giving too lightheartedly, it needs much responsibility in attitude, not to get heavy! If you want to help people, take a project for the poor, help end the sex slave marketing of women and children, as Guruji encourages us to do, take on something REALLY BIG!

He sleeps maybe 4 hours a day or night where ever He is, with people calling Him all the time with their emergencies, by telephone and through the heart communication.

Best and hope your ideas get even bigger,

~~ anon