Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Addressed the United Nations; Gallup partners with The Art of Living for a Landmark Study on Meditation and Well-Being

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, December 22, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- World Meditation Day reached a new milestone this year as Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar led a live synchronized meditation from New York City. Millions of people across thousands of cities in 150 countries - including participants from 45 states and 133 cities across America - joined together in a collective moment of silence and reflection, marking one of the largest global meditative gatherings in history.

“Let’s resolve to meditate every day and bring it to every individual on this planet to create a happy and healthy society,” said Gurudev.

The global meditation followed Gurudev’s keynote address and a guided meditation at the United Nations on December 19, where he spoke to senior UN leaders, diplomats, and international representatives about meditation’s critical role in reducing stress, fostering emotional resilience, and supporting peacebuilding efforts across cultures and nations. The United Nations’ designation of December 21 as World Meditation Day reflects a growing international recognition that inner peace is foundational to collective progress.

This year’s World Meditation Day also comes amid rising global interest in understanding meditation’s impact on wellbeing at scale. At the World Meditation Day celebration in New York, Gallup and The Art of Living Foundation announced a landmark global research collaboration to create the first-of-its-kind dataset on meditation and wellbeing worldwide.

“Gallup’s World Poll shows that negative emotions worldwide remain far above levels from a decade ago. We’re proud to partner with The Art of Living, founded by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, to study a widely practiced but undermeasured aspect of wellbeing at a globally representative scale, meditation. Together, we aim to generate the first-of-its-kind global dataset on meditation practices, designed to inform how this dimension of wellbeing is experienced around the world,” said Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup.

Through the partnership, Gallup will integrate new meditation related questions into its World Poll, which has surveyed more than 2 million people across 140+ countries, enabling unprecedented global comparisons on how meditation relates to emotional health, stress, and overall wellbeing. Findings from the study will be released on World Meditation Day in December 2026, offering data-driven insights to inform wellbeing strategies for leaders, policymakers, and communities around the world.

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About Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a global humanitarian, spiritual leader, and peace envoy. He has helped millions of people worldwide find peace and resilience in the face of adversity, learning not only how to excel in their own lives, but also how to become powerful agents for social change.

Gurudev has created trauma-relief and meditation programs for at-risk youth, war veterans, prisoners and survivors of disaster. He has also created numerous educational and self-development programs and tools that facilitate the elimination of stress and foster deep and profound inner peace, happiness and well-being for individuals.

Standing for the Gandhian principles of non-violence, Gurudev has mediated and progressed negotiations for peace in conflict-stricken areas such as Sri Lanka, Iraq, Venezuela, and Colombia, where he is credited for playing a central role in ending the violent 52-year conflict between FARC and the Colombian government. He has received 57 governmental awards, including highest civilian awards from several nations. Twenty-seven universities have awarded him with honorary doctorates for his peace-keeping and humanitarian efforts.

About Art of Living Foundation
Operating in 180 countries, The Art of Living Foundation (AOLF) is a non-profit, educational and humanitarian organization founded in 1981 by the renowned humanitarian and spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. All of AOLF’s programs are inspired by Gurudev’s philosophy of creating world peace through a stress-free and violence-free society. AOLF has touched over 800 million lives through numerous educational and self-development programs and tools that facilitate the elimination of stress and foster deep and profound inner peace, happiness and well-being for individuals.

Media Contact:
Kushal Choksi
[email protected]

Kushal Choksi
Art of Living Foundation
[email protected]
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