Sri Sri Ravishankar has been winning over ever diverse adherents to his Art of Living mode to spirituality. He dropped by for tea with The Indian Express team and—with the promise of a special 15-minute meditation at the end—took an array of questions to explain his vision for morality in the 21st century. Sportingly addressing both sceptics and believers, he emphasised the need to come to terms with guilt and to be physically enabled to embrace spiritual understanding

ON HIMSELF: The first sign of intelligence is not to talk. The second sign is not to talk if a question is not asked. The first kind of intelligence is of course that of God. I don’t pay any attention to popularity. Whatever I say is from my own experience. My strength is that I don’t speak anything not in my experience. I’m just natural. You can’t make me feel not at home anywhere. I’m never shy of criticism—either giving it or taking it.

AT HOME IN THE WORLD: There were times when Indian spirituality was not considered respectable. There was a prejudice against it everywhere. When I went to Davos during the World Economic Forum we had a discussion on how spirituality and business were interrelated. Then when I went to speak to Naxalites I felt equally at home. In Kashmir I had an amazing welcome, with youths on a hundred bikes to receive me. It was the same in Siberia, Kosovo, Chechnya. When you have a sense of belonging it gets resonated back to you. What blocks this is your own fear, your own judgement about people. If you have fear that someone might criticise you, that blocks your communication. I usually say I am a child who refuses to grow up.

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