They come with tales of how they got hooked, how anger vanished

Inside the Shakti Kuteer, a hillside cottage which is Srisri Ravishankar’s personal quarters, bursting with trays of strawberries, boxe...

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Inside the Shakti Kuteer, a hillside cottage which is Srisri Ravishankar’s personal quarters, bursting with trays of strawberries, boxes of foreign chocolate and luxe laddoos (and a red heart-shaped cushion with Jai Gurudeva on it) sits an attractive, composed lady in her forties with twinkling eyes.

Poonam Aziz, an ardent follower of the technique of Sudarshan Kriya — discovered by Srisri Ravishankar and the crux of his Art of Living (AOL) foundation headquartered outside Bangalore — is the daughter of Sartaj Aziz, former finance minister and later foreign minister in the ’90s in the Nawaz Sharif government.

Aziz is an inconspicuous presence in the throng of 2,500 devotees gathered at the ashram today, 25 km south of Bangalore, from all over India and the world for the five-day spiritual conference on ‘‘Spiritual Regeneration and Human Values’’.

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Aziz’s husband was Pakistan’s ambassador to Italy when she made a trip to London five years ago and, on impulse, joined a basic Art of Living course, conducted by Rhea Pillai.

‘‘I was hooked instantly!’’ laughs Aziz. ‘‘I gave up my smoking habit of 25 years and my sleeping pill habit of 10 years. Just like that, cold turkey! I haven’t been tempted back even once.’’

Thereafter, Aziz began to practise regular meditation and helped AOL teacher Naushad from Mumbai get a visa to Pakistan so that he could conduct classes there.

‘‘But perhaps the atmosphere was more sensitive just then, pre-Agra summit days. I set up classes at the house of a lady with the APWA (All-Pakistan Women’s Association) set up by Lady Liaqat Ali Khan herself. The ladies were so excited. But when they saw Naushad take out the guru’s picture, the hostess cancelled the classes then and there!’’

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Nevertheless, Naushad, who ran a printing business before AOL swept him up as a devotee and then as a full-time teacher, has conducted breathing and meditation classes in several Islamic countries and says he has been well received. ‘‘Guruji uses me specifically to interact with Islamic countries since I am a Muslim,’’ he says.

Naushad was attracted by the ‘‘natural personality and calmness’’ of Srisri Ravishankar. This is the reason also cited by Sevetlana, a dark-eyed 32-year-old from Belarus. She was a student of medicine when Srisri made a trip to Belarus in 1992. ‘‘I expected Hollywood, this great light of enlightenment. Instead, nothing happened. He just came and sat down, so naturally. He made no attempt to impress, which impressed me. Now I am a fulltime teacher!’’

Meanwhile, Jyothi Sreedhar of Noida and Sujata Bansal of Bhopal compare notes. Both handle prison courses. Jyothi has been through all six wards of Delhi’s Tihar Jail in the last two years. Sujata has just been invited by Rajan Chaturvedi, DG Prisons, Madhya Pradesh, to work with the 36,000 jail inmates that are said to cram all of MP’s jails. In all, 20 AOL teachers work the jails — with gratifying results, sometimes.

Senior teacher-management consultant Tripta Dhawan points out a shy 40-year-old man to Bollywood actress Punarnava (Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai). He’s Pradeep Kurra, a former drug peddler she taught Sudarshan Kriya to in Tihar Jail. ‘‘I was working in Customs Clearance and met a lot of foreigners who dealt in drugs. The money was big, so I got into it. I did the course twice before it hit me inside. All my anger went away. I trained as a rural and urban slum teacher and now I get the respect given to sant-mahatmas. The same mothers who told their sons to avoid me now say, take them with you.’’