Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS) 

Bengaluru, Oct 11: A talk by Sri Sri Ravishankar, founder of Art of Living and spiritual leader, is scheduled to be held at the J N Tata Auditorium of the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) of the city. However, even before talk is held it has created a controversy. 

Some students and professors of these students met the director of the institute and appealed for the cancellation of the event titled 'Excellence Through Inner Peace'. However, the director of the institute is alleged to have told the students and professors to maintain silence on this issue.

The team of students and professors, who are opposed to the idea of Sri Sri Ravishankar presenting the talk, are saying that events like this will put the reputation of the institute at stake. They are also demanding that if such events are organized in the campus, then the name of the organizer should be clearly mentioned. They said that all the faculty of IISc or students do not agree to the views of the spiritual leader. 

After the petition was submitted by a group of students and professors, it seems that the mentioned event has been taken off the official page of the institute. However, in the archives of the website, it still says that the event is organized by a mix of faculty and students. 

The petition given by the specific group which opposes the event says that the solutions given by Sri Sri Ravishankar are 'Unscientific therapeutic' and will threaten the mental health of the campus of the institution. 

The director of IISc Anurag Kumar could not be contacted as his office said that he is busy with VIPs, which includes the education minister, who will be visiting the organization. 

The faculty members and students of the organization have asked the management to hold lectures by the practitioners and researchers from the renowned mental health institute NIMHANS in order to achieve a stress-free academic life. The present petition that is given to the directors says, "We hereby express our objections to the upcoming lecture by Sri Sri Ravishankar on the grounds of the threat we perceive, it poses to the state of mental health on our campus and because of unscientific claims we found on Sri Sri Ravishankar’s webpage." 

"The campus of IISc is struggling to cope with various mental health-related issues. Sri Sri Ravishankar offers a blanket therapeutic solution to all different types of mental ill health faced by people. Such a blanket solution is dangerous and medically baseless," says the petition. 

It can be noted that Narendra Nayak, well-known rationalist had questioned the management of IISc of holding a pseudo science workshop recently. In the past also, this institute has courted controversies. In 2017 there was controversy over holding a talk titled 'Astrology as Scientific Tool for Individual Progress'.