Ravi Shankar was born May 13, 1956 in Tamil Nadu in India. His parents named him Shankar since his birthday matched that of the 8th century CE Hindu saint, Adi Shankara.

It is said that at the age of four he could recite verses from the Bhagavad Gita and was often found in deep meditation even at a young age. Some of his followers of the Art of Living movement claim he received an advanced degree in physics at the age of 17.

At early age, Shankar's father delegated him to the care of the known guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Shankar became a disciple of him. Shankar joined Maharishi's entourage, taught the Vedic pundits at Maharishi's charities, and soon became the Maharishi’s favorite disciple.

In the early 1990s, Shankar added the honorific Sri Sri to his own name Ravi Shankar after the renowned sitarist Ravi Shankar claimed that the guru was capitalizing on his fame.

Shankar said that in 1982, after a ten-day retreat into silence on the banks of the Bhadra river in Shimoga in Karnataka, India, the "Sudarshan Kriya", a rhythmic breathing exercise which is the foundation of the Art of Living courses, came to him "like a poem, an inspiration". Shankar says that every emotion has a corresponding rhythm in the breath, and believes that regulating breath could help people with their suffering.

Shankar founded the Art of Living Foundation in 1982 to spread the breathing technique. Along with Dalai Lama and others, he founded in 1997 the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) "to foster on a global scale a deeper understanding of the values that unite us as a human community."