Thousands gather to greet Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

KOLLAM: Thousands of devotees from different parts of the country and foreigners have arrived in the district to receive Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Ravi Shankar, who is on a five-day visit to the State, arrived here at 1.45 p.m. He travelled in an open ‘rath’ to the venue of the mass wedding ceremony of 56 couples, including four from Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

The wedding ceremony took place at the Swaralaya open air auditorium, Kadappakkada.A wedding feast for 15,000 people was also arranged. Each couple was given 24-gm gold ornaments, Rs 10,000 bank deposit and dress worth Rs 5,000.

Ravi Shankar blessed the couples and advised them to be good citizens working for the prosperity of the country and the world.

‘Rishimukh’, a Shivaratri special issue and ‘Current Affairs’, a publication of the Art of Living family were released at the function by Ravi Shankar by handing over the copies to Water Resources Minister N K Premachandran.

Ravi Shankar blessed the Minister, who is a member of the Art of Living family for the past several years, and urged his followers to help the Minister by conserving water.

CPM LEADER LAUDS RAVI SHANKAR

CPM state committee member and Consumerfed chairman A.K.Narayanan shared the dais with Ravi Shankar and lauded his activities.

In his address, Narayanan said that the humanitarian and charitable activities of the organisation should be appreciated by all. However, Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran was conspicuous by his absence though he had earlier agreed to participate in the function.

Around 5,000 youth in the age group of 18-35 participated in the special programme called ‘Utsav’ held at the Asramam Maidan in the morning.

Ravi Shankar will interact with the Utsav participants on Monday. He will also lead the Mahasudarsanakriya and Maharudrabhisheka pooja at the Maidan at 6.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m., respectively.

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