Meeting with Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne
On Friday, thanks to Nipun Mehta, I had a chance to speak with Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, a Gandhi International Peace Prize winner who has
dedicated his life to the non-violent transformation of societies, starting with his war-torn nation of Sri Lanka. Dr. Ariyaratne is truly a heroic man, cut from the same cloth as Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Dr. M.L. King Jr.
A Buddhist, and humble to the core, he is a living legend, and the stories and statistics about his life stagger the imagination. For example, through his efforts, 15, 000 villages in Sri Lanka became economically self-sufficient, 11 million (that's correct) people, nearly half the population of Sri Lanka, have recevied benefits from Sarvodaya, his organization, either through education, through elimination of poverty, or through participating in his meditation programs, that have brought up to 850,000 people into meditation at the same time. Please find out more about Sarvodaya here.
Oh wow! He seems like such an incredible man; the numbers are indeed staggering!
Posted by: Julia | October 29, 2007 at 08:28 PM
very compassionate!
Posted by: tammy | November 03, 2007 at 07:48 PM