Sri Sri Ravi Shankar reiterate out-of-court settlement for Ayodhya issue

Thanjavur: Founder of ‘Art of Living’, Ravishankarji, has reiterated his stand for out-of-court settlement for Ayodhya issue.

“I have been insisting on an out-of-court settlement in the issue, because a win-win situation should come for both parties. In a court settlement, either of the parties involved will be aggrieved,” Ravishankar said.

He told presspersons at his residence at Papanasam near Kumbakonam, that Art of Living has taken up various projects as part of Swach Bharath. “Cleanliness should be given importance,” he added.

Stressing that skill development is the need of the hour, the swamiji said that many youth in India are unemployed because they are not skilled. “We are imparting various skills training to youth. We have so for trained 67,431 youth in various skills. India and Japan have entered into an agreement for exchanging youth. Under the programme, youth from India will go to Japan for taking up various employment. But they should be equipped to take up employment. They should know Japanaese language, and also be skilled. We are giving training to youth in this aspect,” Ravishankar added.

“We have started today two projects in this direction in Kumbakonam area. The first, an organic waste composting unit has been commissioned at Swaminathaswamy temple at Swami Malai and the other is a skill development centre launched at Papanasam,” the swamiji said.

Earlier, he inaugurated the organic waste composting unit at Swamimalai temple. Donated by Art of Living International Centre at Bangalore, the '10 lakh worth unit can handle 1,000  kgs of flower wastes per day and convert it into rich manure that can be used to improve and rejuvenate soil.Such units have been installed in seven major temples in India like the Kasi Viswanath temple in Varanasi, Kamakhya temple in Guwahati, Tarapeeth in West Bengal, Dakshineswar in Kolkatta, Vidhyavasini at Mirajpur in Uttar Pradesh, Krishna Math, Udupi, Karnataka and Dargha Sarif, Ajmer. Apart from generating compost, such units are being set up in temples to ensure flowers offered by devotees are not lying in a trash bin. Such units reassure and assuage devotees feelings with which the flowers are offered.The skill development centre will train youth in various skills. These trainings will eventually help in them set up their own business and industries. 

Art of Living has done training programmes in solar, computer, tailoring, electrician, beautician, and yoga in 34 skill centres, and reached out to 2,030 youth in the last financial year. Art of Living has held skill programmes in six jails and will commission more in another 11 jails this year. Under access to employability programme, Art of Living has trained 67,431 college students across 17 states in soft skills, retail and sales, interview skills and entrepreneurship development.