‘Teaching the rich how to breathe is not enough’

Drawing the lines between fanaticism and spiritualism, the proponent of the patented sudarshan kriya said: ‘‘Studies have shown violence is highest where spirituality is the lowest.’’

Akhtar drew laughter from the audience when he said: ‘‘The difference between us in the make-believe world of film industry and the gurus is at the end of the film we put up the card ‘The End’ for the audiences to come back to reality, which the spiritualists don’t.’’

Akhtar added, ‘‘Simply teaching the rich how to breathe is not enough,’’ a veiled dig at Ravishankar, to which he replied that there was nothing wrong in including the rich in popular spiritual practices.

Suggesting that a spiritual leader needs to do more than ‘‘teach cosmic consciousness’’, Akhtar asked: ‘‘Where are the spiritualists when there are communal tensions?”

Ravishankar said he would not accept anything that is irrational: “Indian spiritualism, which goes back as long as time, is based on science.”

Gujarat riots a black spot on NDA: Advani

NEW DELHI: BJP chief L.K. Advani on Saturday said the Gujarat riots left a ‘‘black spot’’ on the NDA government’s tenure but stressed that it had no impact the coalitions’s prospects in the general elections. ‘‘The events in Gujarat were a black spot for us in the sense that during the six-year-rule of Vajpayee government, the communal situation had been good,’’ he said at the India Today conclave. —ENS