H H Sri Sri Ravishankar Heals the wounds of Nandigram

Ravishankar, who reached the troubled area in the morning, went to a camp at the Brajamohan Tiwari Sikhsayatan near Nandigram market and gave sarees, fruits and dry food to nearly 1,200 inmates.














"I would like to bring the warring groups across the table and work out a solution," the Art of Living founder said. Noting that identification with ideology has taken precedence over human values in Nandigram, he said the need of the hour was to reorient the embattled groups towards loyalty to human values.



Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has offered to mediate for peace in Nandigram, saying he will soon seek an appointment with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to work out a solution.
"I would like to bring the warring groups across the table and work out a solution," the Art of Living founder told reporters here after a day-long visit to the troubled Nandigram area.
Asked whether he would seek an appointment with Bhattacharjee, he said, "Yes, of course. I would love to meet him. But I would not go with any proposal of my own. I would ask him in what way he wants help from me to bring peace there."

Renowned spiritual and humanitarian leader His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has condemned the ongoing clashes in Nandigram in West Bengal. In a statement from Bangalore, Sri Sri said, "The continuing violent actions against innocent people of Nandigram are highly deplorable. More so as they came even on the day of Diwali."
Regretting the loss of life and suffering of innocent people, Sri Sri urged the government to offer suitable compensations to the victims. He expressed his heart-felt sympathy to the traumatised people of Nandigram, who have not only become targets of violence, but also being brutally uprooted from their own land.



Ravi Shankar, however, expressed doubt whether the government of a Left-ruled state would take help from a spiritual personality like him.
"I have been given the highest civilian award of Communist Russia. But here, people like us are treated as untouchables," Ravi Shankar, who has a growing following among the higher echelons of society especially among the corporate brass, said.
Noting that identification with ideology has taken precedence over human values in Nandigram, Ravi Shankar said the need of the hour was to reorient the embattled groups towards loyalty to human values.
"We have seen a number of empty villages. Some are inhabited by only women and children. The women we spoke to were afraid even to tell their names. The government must remove the fear psychosis," he said.
Noting that his visit to Nandigram was the response of a human being to suffering fellow men, Ravi Shankar said inmates of the relief camps that he had spoken to wanted to return home.
"The immediate task is to instill confidence among the people. The political parties cannot do it. It has to be done by only apolitical people and NGOs," he said.
Followers of Ravi Shankar are running 50 schools in Sonachura, Mahestala and Tamluk. "We have doctors visiting there from time to time. Our volunteers are also helping rebuild damaged homes. Our teachers are also talking to the families to bring them out of their psychological trauma."
In reply to a question, Ravi Shankar said volunteers were beaten up in the area around March and April this year. "Since then, there has not been any attack on our men. I spoke to a large number of children. They said that all schools in the area, apart from those run by us, are closed." "They told me they were afraid of being beaten up the moment I left. I have not seen such physical and psychological subjugation even in Iraq," the guru, who was reported to be mediating between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE for a lasting solution to the Tamil problem, said