NEW DELHI,MAY 06:
Global humanitarian leader and founder of The Art of Living, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was conferred the ‘Order of St. George’, the highest award given by Kottayam’s 462-year-old St. George Orthodox Church as part of the Church’s Commemorative Feast.Along with Gurudev, the event was graced by popular former Kerala Chief Minister, Hon. Dr. Oommen Chandy, and presided over by the Hon. Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Metropolitan, who has led the various programmes connected with the Commemorative Feast.Acknowledging the award, Gurudev pointed out, an award signified more responsibilities that must be taken to serve others. Talking about Gurudev’s role, former Kerala Chief Minister, Hon. Oommen Chandy said that this country and the world was blessed to have the presence of a person like Gurudev, who has been working relentlessly for spiritual awakening of the masses and for the good of society. “He is a symbol of peace and tolerance and he makes the world a better place,” the former CM said. He remembered the times when he was the Chief Minister and the number of times that Gurudev and his organization-The Art of Living served the state by doing lot of humanitarian work in Kerala. Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Metropolitan presiding over the celebrations, said, “It is an honor and blessing for Pudupally that he (Gurudev) is here in person to receive the award.”He further said that though today the world has become a global village but the hearts of people have shrunk and have been filled with selfishness and that love and compassion had gone missing.”Gurudev binds the world in love and togetherness and transforms it so that peace, reverence and tolerance increase in the world around us,” Dr. Thomas said.Gurudev in his key note address said, “When you have love in your heart, the whole world is yours and this is the essence of all religions. When you go to the root of every religion you will find the same message-make compassion, love and service the sutra for your life.” He also emphasised on the need to strike a balance between love and discipline because love alone can bring chaos and discipline alone can be stiffling. Gurudev also spoke about three types of faith one neess to have-faith in oneself, faith in the society and faith in the divine. “Know that there are lot of good people who are doing lot of good work. Have faith in this. If you see from my eyes, there is no bad person on this earth.”The church, which is considered the Georgian Pilgrim Centre of the East, is known for several traditional rituals such as flag hoisting, fireworks, feeding rice to children for the first time, mass luncheon, ceremonial processions and fireworks, family unions, among others , during the annual Feast. Special Holy Communions will be held on May 6th and 7th.
