Seva Times l Kathmandu (Nepal)

On 5th March The Art of living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar reached Nepal on a 3-day visit. In Kathmandu he addressed business leaders & Industrialists & gave Management Mantras. Here are some excerpets from his speech. n The 1st mantra for management is develop your Intuition .You can't be a good business person if u don't have a good intuition .n You have to be Innovative.You need

to have a sense of belonging with the people working

for you. Do you have a sense of

r e l a t i o n s h i p /ownership with

the company,

with your own employees?n Success is an unshakable confidence within

oneself & a smile on the face!! n Tough people are a boon to the society! They

develop your communication skills or else you will give in to corruption.

n It's not enough to have GDP (Gross Domestic Product) .It is important to have GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness) it’s very important to have a Work/Life balance in your Life!!

n Recognition is not important for work, result is. But if you're in politics, you need it .

n Businessmen, religious leaders and media should remain away from politics but politicians need all these three. If they work together in times of crisis then they can make a big difference.

n Your own life example can inspire your children. Make them do charity from your side, at least 3℅ to 5℅, some amount, make your children participate in it. We have to teach our children how to come

out of their comfort zone and grow. n Insomnia is lack of dispassion. Every night when

you have to sleep, you leave everything and sleep and one day when you consciously recognize this, you will have dispassion. Your garments/shoes have longer shelf life than you. Everything remains, your body is perishable.

n Passion is important to work, to achieve .Dispassion is important to remain sane, happy, to be able to enjoy everything and compassion for all .

n Meditation brings dispassion in your life. For 10 minutes every day, leave aside everything and spend time with yourself. If you cultivate dispassion, nobody can make you unhappy on this planet .So much joy, happiness, ecstasy, so much you can give to others. You take right Decision.

n If you're happy, you can exuberate happiness. We convey more through our vibrations than our own words. You can only give what you have .

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar gave Management Mantras to business leaders in Nepal

Businessmen, religious leaders & media should remain away from politics: Sri Sri

Gauri Shittole l Latur (Maharashtra)

In Latur under the leadership Art of Living teacher Makarand Jadav, Ramegaon became hundred percent ODF village in 20 days. This happened with the collective support of Swach Bharat Mission and Zila Parishad Latur, toilets were constructed in all the homes of the village. 395 homes of four slums with a population of 2235 people in the village of Ramegaon, Himmantnagar, Jhopar Patti, benefited from the collective hard work and efforts. Last year Art of Living invested 28 lakhs for water conservation and also for increasing the level of water in the water table. With these efforts water came through bore well and also showed up in fresh water wells in the villages. Now the farmers are able to grow three crops annually. In the area of water conservation, the local people also helped with 5 lakhs. This encouraged Makarand Jadav to initiate the next mission of making this village clean and free of open air toilets. The sarpanch Sangeeta Seleke, gram sevika Shobha Bhojde, deputy sarpanch Vinayak Jadhav, Shivaji Rameganvkar , etc convinced the people to actively participate in this project. On 25 January the toilets were constructed in the homes of 340 villagers.

Ramegaon became ODF village in just 20 days

Out of 395 houses 75houses had toilets and only 50 toilets were being used. There was a dire need to construct toilets in all houses. Although the government gives grant under the Swach Bharat scheme but the money is reimbursed by the government after the toilet is constructed. Every household had to dig a pit that measured 8 by 4 feet and for the construction, every family had to make arrangements of food for one labourer and purchase the material for construction of the toilet themselves. 13500 rupees is needed to construct the toilets whereas, 12000 rupees is the grant from the government. Art of Living contributed a sum of 1500 rupees towards construction of each toilet in this project. The Art of Living also took up the responsibility and spent money on behalf of the villagers and once the grant from the government was approved the amount of 12000 rupees was returned back to the Art of Living team.

Volunteers have a team of 100 skilled workers. One labourer is able to make 2 toilets in a day. Ramegaon is the first village where this endeavour started but Makarand is continuing with his efforts in Talri district Rerapur, Haansegaon in district Ausaa and Mai of district Latur as the people have contacted him for his support. He is also facilitating villagers to purchase the construction material in bulk so that it is cheaper.

Only 50 households out of 395 had toilets

In Pune, Latur & Amravati

districts 3500 toilets were

constructed in year 2016

volunteers have 100 skilled workers

Volunteers gave money to villagers before the construction of the toilet

Villagers returned the money back on receiving grant from the government

340 toilets constructed in 20 days in January 2017

TIMESSEVAFebruary & March, 2017 THE ART OF LIVING INTERNATIONAL CENTER, BANGALORE

2 Spreading Smile campaign in Kota

p 3 NSDC ties up with Art of Living

to make youth employable

p 4 Farmer practicing organic farming honoured by APp

Rural Development Activities Across India

2 SEVA TIMESTHE ART OF LIVING INTERNATIONAL CENTER, BANGALOREFebruary & March, 2017

85K students learnt to live stress freeSpreading smile campaign in kota gets adulation from Rajasthan govt.

Sidharth l Kota (Rajasthan)

Kota is the coaching hub of India and to keep students free from academic and competitive stress, a ‘Spreading Smile Campaign’ was conducted for the youth, this program was honored by an appreciation certificate by the state government on 26 January 2017. This campaign was started by the Art of Living in June 2016. In this campaign more than 85000 students were taught to do panchkosha Meditation, pranayama, bhastrika and also given tips to remain stress free. More than

6000 children experienced Sudarshan Kriya.A unique breathing technique

which is taught during the Art of Living “Happiness program “. This campaign was successfully completed with the cooperation of district administration, hostel management and coaching centers. This campaign came to a successful end on 14 January with an interactive session in the presence of the chief minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhra Raje and Sri Sri Ravishankar, Founder Art of Living. Gurudev answered the questions bothering the students, which inspired and encouraged the students to excel in their lives. More than one lakh students participated in this event.

Training program in Bareily

Rajesh Kundu l Jamshedpur

In steel city Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, a flower show was organized in Gopal Maidan from 24th to 28 December 2016. During this show, National Instructor Shri Sagar Kumbhle of Sri Sri Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (SSIAST) shared the benefits

of organic farming with the audience. The 25 th Annual flower show organized by the horticulture society put up stalls of more than 100 species of flowers and vegetables .He also shared that organic farming is a must to maintain balance in the environment and how eating vegetables grown in natural and organic way benefits one and all.

SSIAST encourages organic farming

Jamshedpur flower show

Volunteers sharing the importance of Organic farming at the Jamshedpur flower show.

Cook Ayurveda way and stay fit & healthyMamta Dixit l Bareily (UP)

The Art of Living members conducted a five day program and gave tips and taught ways to cook ayurvedic food to the ladies of Bareily. The program started on 6th February, 2017. Women in huge numbers enthusiastically participated in this program. Such a course was organized in Bareily for the first time. In this program the women came to know about good health that comes through ayurvedic diet and cooking that helps people to stay free of diseases. Dr

Preeti Trivedi, the Art of Living cooking expert told the participants that nowadays all the health related problems are due to incorrect eating habits. She also said that if food is cooked properly, we can stay absolutely healthy. It is important to know ‘what to eat’,’ how to eat’ and ‘when to eat’ and through ayurveda cooking, people can cook in a healthy way and lead a healthy life. Tips to oil free cooking and modern cooking using ayurvedic herbs and spices were shared to reap maximum benefits.

Ayurveda cooking tips being taught for better health.

Ambulance service started by the efforts of the village youth in BopapurGauri Shittole l Bopapur (Maharashtra)

The villagers of Bopapur came together to start an ambulance service that will run on ‘No profit and no loss’ basis.

This service was started keeping in mind this quote “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile”. Manish Raut, Art of Living teacher sensitized the villagers for the necessity of an ambulance

service. The youth of the village collected donation to start the ambulance service and give relief to the patients.

The ambulance helps to take the patients to the medical centres at Paratwada which is at a distance of 14 kms and Amravti, which is at a distance of 60 kms during emergency.

This ambulance also will help the surrounding townships in times of medical emergency. Manish Raut, Shankar Malkhede, Banti Pawar, Shubham Katolgar, Roshan Chatur, Amar Hadole, Rahul Khalokar, Rishikesh Pawar, Chetan Pawar helped the villagers in providing this facility.

Officials declined help, youth started ambulance service by donation

Awareness rally by the volunteers to encourage villagers for blood donation.

YLT Program inspires youth to organise blood donation campBardhaman (West Bengal) l In Saamdi district of Bardhaman, Yuvacharyas of the Art of Living along with Muktaichandi Aanand mela Samiti organised a blood donation camp keeping in mind the National Volunteer Day. On 8 January, 52 people donated blood, out of which 11 were women. Prior to this program the volunteers organized the Youth Leadership Training Program (YLTP). This program teaches pranayama, yoga, meditation and inspires them to be leaders and serve the society. The YLTP grooms the youth to become responsible towards self and the society at large. The participants then involve in some service projects, the volunteers decided to conduct a blood donation for the benefit of the villagers, they went door to door and shared the importance of blood donation and encouraged the villagers to participate in the camp. People were invited for the blood donation camp through advertisements, social media, posters, friends and relatives. This blood donation camp was organized by Sanjay, Aparna, Dinu, Rakesh, Rahul, J N Jaiswal from Saamdi.

Embroidery classes for the rural women in Dibrugarh.

Skill development provided to 86 rural women in Assam

Dibrugarh (Assam) l A two day ‘Skill Development' workshop was organized in Atidurgam Tikhang

Kalyanpur,on 13 February .Eighty six women were trained to make paper-bags, cloth-bags, carpets, bathroom slippers, embroidery, etc. This program was conducted under the guidance of Shuvkaran Da and local volunteers of Art of Living. The workshop aims to make the women self-sufficient through this program.

2 Minute Read

Health camp for bone disease diagnosis organised in MirzapurMirzapur (Uttar Pradesh) l Under the aegis of Art of Living, Nav Chetna camp was organized in Sri Sri Baal Vidya Kendra. The camp was held on 26 January, free consultation was given to people about diseases of the bones. 150 patients of Regi village were given medical aid and consultation by Dr Manan Singh from Varanasi. They were also given medicines free of cost. The camp was organized under the guidance of Dr Sadhna Jaiswal , Pratima Verma, yoga instructor shared the benefits of yoga and meditation. She taught yoga asanas that bring relief from bone diseases.

Akash Singh l Buxaduar (West Bengal)

Youth Leadership and training Program (YLTP) volunteers celebrated Swami Vivekananda Day in Buxaduar, this day is also celebrated as the Youth day. The volunteers organized an event to educate the youth about the prevailing laws and showcased cultural dance performances. The event was presided by Shankar Shah, senior officer, consumer court. Biman Bose, secretary from Alipurduar district court addressed the youth and educated them about some important laws helpful to common man in their daily lives. The officers present in the event appreciated the efforts of the Art of Living volunteers to have celebrated and paid

homage to Swami Vivekananda by organizing an event for the betterment of the youth and to encourage the youth to remember and salute , such great leaders and teachers like Swami Vivekananda.

3 SEVA TIMESTHE ART OF LIVING INTERNATIONAL CENTER, BANGALOREFebruary & March, 2017

Seva Times l Raipur (Chhattisgarh)

Thousands of poor people living in the slums of the city have to think so much before buying things of their daily need. In order to help such people, Bhillai Art of Living volunteers started the ‘Wall of Happiness’. Under this drive the youth collected clothes, utensils, books, toys, etc. from homes in various colonies and distributed the same to the people living in slums. The happiness program took place in the on 29th October, 2016.

The theme was, ‘Masti Ki Pathshala ’ Dr Anjali Verma who

is the instructor of this program told us that she had organized the happiness programs earlier also in Bhillai. During the program, a project called the Wall of Happiness is introduced. The volunteers visit homes and ask people to donate and leave items of daily use like clothes, utensils etc, which are not being used any more near this wall of happiness. The items received are distributed among the needy to

bring happiness in their lives. During these project more than

1000 clothes, 800 toys, 200 books, 300 utensils were collected and distributed in the slum areas. In two hours’ time, more than 1000 people received items of daily use. The Art of Living family in Bhillai made the first ‘wall of happiness’ in Nehru Nagar, Surya Vihar. After this on 29 January and 5 February, 2017 other people also participated to create a similar wall in Ganpati Vihar. Clothes were hanged on the wall for the needy and this project became the talk of the town. The volunteers shared that such activities would continue in the future.

Volunteers distributing clothes,utensils,toys collected from the colonies.

Clothes donated to under privilegedn Wall of Happiness

brings Happiness to the needy

Seva Times l Chindwada (MP)

The Art of Living Chinwada chapter celebrated Valentine’s Day as Parents Day. This program was organized under the guidance of Art of Living teachers Sweta Chadha and Nishant Chadha. Art of Living joined hands in the initiative of the district collector J K Jain, who appealed to the people to celebrate Valentine’s Day as Parents’ Day. On this occasion, Art of Living volunteers visited an old age home .The old men and women were asked to cut the cake and also honored them by performing pooja and worshipping them for the role they had played in transforming the lives of their children and society.

Valentine’s Day celebrated as parent’s day in old age home

Celebration at the old age home with elders on Valentines's day

Youth education on Vivekananda Jayanthi

Folk dance performed on Swami Vivekananda Jayanthi.

Seva Times l New Delhi

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Art of Living Digital India Movement to empower the youth of the country with 'vocational training and entrepreneurship development', the NSDC said on its Facebook page.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of

Art of Living on 4 March 2017.The MoU between the

two will also strive to spread

digital literacy and teach entrepreneurship skills to the youth.

NSDC ties up with Art of Living to make youth employable

The MoU was signed in the presence of Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Seva Times l Sant Kabir Nagar (UP)

In the month of February, five states along with Uttar Pradesh started an awareness campaign about the Vidhan Sabha elections. In this endeavor, non-governmental organizations campaigned to spread awareness about voting by all, especially encouraged the adult citizens. Pamplets, banners, hoardings and social media were used to spread the much needed awareness. These campaigns were organized in districts of Sant Kabir Nagar, Shahjahanpur and Sultanpur . The students of Sri Sri Bal Vidya Kendra also contributed enthusiastically by

organizing a rally. A three day rally was organized in Jagdishpur and adjoining villages on 28 February, 1 march and 2 March respectively to educate the illiterate villagers about the importance of casting the vote, to cast unbiased vote, not to fall a prey to any false allurements, not to favour any particular religion or caste. The villagers were impressed by the kind gesture of the students and their simple and truthful slogans.

Students organised Voter awareness campaign in UP

Students in a rally for voter awareness in Sant Kabir Nagar

n The villagers were impressed by the kind gesture of the students and their simple and truthful slogans

Seva Times l Kurnool ( AP)

A. Liganna of Kurnool conducts the Youth Leadership Training Program (YLTP) of the Art of Living. He organizes camps and programs encouraging villagers to involve in the betterment of the village by tree plantation, water conservation, Ayurveda, Panchkarma and health awareness. Since five years, with the permission of DEO (District Education Officer) , Liganna has been organizing programs and giving tips to class tenth students towards being stress free and to appear for the board exams with more confidence. Since, January 2016, he is been working in the field of organic farming by imparting know-how and techniques to the farmers. He has encouraged 245 farmers from Kurnool district, who are growing crops on more than 750 acres of land using organic farming techniques. The farmers benefitted from organic farming inspite of late monsoons in 2016. The farmers had used cow dung of ‘desi’ cow and urine of cow as fertilizer. In September 2016, forty farmers from Kurnool visited the Bangalore International center to meet

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and gift him the produce of organic farming. On 16 January 2017, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Shri Narayan Chandra Babu awarded and honoured the efforts of Ahmed Badshah, a farmer who practiced organic farming to grow chilies. More than 200 trained farmers shared that they have collectively formed the “Podupu laxmi sangham (self-help group)

which conducts organic programs, follow up trainings that have helped the farmers in selling their produce at competitive rates. The group has planned to impart training to 1500 farmers.

Farmer practicing organic farming honoured by AP

Seva Times l Purniya (Bihar )

70 Year old Vinayaknanda is a journalist by profession and has been teaching the Art of Living Program for the past 12 years in

the b i g

a n d s m a l l

p r i s o n s of Bihar. After

spending 31 years in journalism, post retirement

he has dedicated his life for the betterment of prisoners. He teaches yoga, pranayama and the unique breathing technique of sudarshan kriya, which helps the prison inmates to eliminate stress and guilt from the mind and hearts. The motive was to bring a smile on the faces of the inmates.

He has visited 33 jails and conducted meditation and yoga programs . Vinayak Jha stays away from home for 180 days out of 365 days of the year by visiting various jails and juvenile homes

He has conducted programs in juvenile homes of Gayeghat, Purniya and Muzzafarpur along with central jails of Beur, Muzzafarpur, Buxar, Gaya ,Puria, Phulwari Sharif, Darbhanga, Saharsa , Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Begusarai and Arrah.

Vinayak Jha shared, how in 2001 he went to Beur jail as a reporter to cover a story on

the inmates of the jail doing sudarshan kriya, a powerful breathing technique, he also saw the immediate change in the inmates. Vinayak Jha was amazed to see the life transforming power of sudarshan kriya and he went on to become an Art of Living teacher .

Vinayak Jha shared one of his experiences which a prisoner had shared with him. That prisoner had been charged for murdering his friend. He came to know that this criminal was actually from Sikkim and a Jawaan of 14th battalion and his name was Baal Bahadur. His story went like this that one day he was going with his friend who suddenly slipped and fell down and his friend seriously hurt his head. Bal Bahadur rushed him to the hospital but his friend died of profuse bleeding and a case of murder was filed against him and he landed in jail for the crime that he had not committed. On hearing this Vinayak Jha took the professional advice of a lawyer and brought justice to this innocent soldier, now Bal Bahadur is serving the country as he is free from the jail.

4 SEVA TIMESTHE ART OF LIVING INTERNATIONAL CENTER, BANGALOREFebruary & March, 2017

“A portion of your earnings given in service, brings abundance”- H H SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR

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If you are working on any project or YLTP activities, please contact us on 8067433616, 9620169697. E mail: editor.sevatimes@vvki.netYouth Leadership Training Program (YLTP) and Dharma Sthamba Yojana (DSY) are service initiatives of Vyakti Vikas Kendra, India [The Art of Living], a registered charitable Trust, head

quartered in Bangalore with its registered office at No. 19, 39th A Cross, 11th Main, IV T Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore - 560041 - Ph: 080-67433600 | www.artofliving.org | Email: yltp@artofliving.org -

SEVA TIMESProject Director

Venkat Kalyan(National Director, YLTP)

Editorial teamMukta SharmaRam Asheesh

AdvisorsM. Kalyanaraman

Saurabh BawejaKarthik KrishnaMansi Dharmraj

Heroes of Humanity

Vinayaknanda Jha transforming lives of prison inmates

Seva Times l Kurud (Chattisgarh)

The Village of Katalbod has a population of 2000 and is situated in Dhamtari district. Some youngsters of this village are attached to YLTP since 2004. All of them together organized campaigns to make the villagers alcohol and drug free, to sort the quarrels amongst the youth, encourage organic farming and pesticide free farming. The efforts of the yuvacharyas saw positive results in 2009. The Panchayat elections took place without

any disagreement among the villagers. The villagers saw the revival of the old tradition of Panch Parmeshwar and they started settling their disputes if any amicably.Yuvacharya Bhuvaneshwari Godhan Sahu is the Sarpanch and Katalbod village has been declared as the first ODF Village in Kurud. The collective efforts of the yuvacharyas since 2004 has led to the cleanliness of the village and has inspired the youth of the neighboring villages. Most of the farmers

practice organic farming and regularly do yoga, the youth are more responsible and are collectively working towards making a “ Model Village “

YLTP Yuvacharya now sarpanch of the village heading to make a Model Village

Sarpanch being awarded by state minister.