In 2015, Colombia was at a breaking point. The peace talks between the government and the FARC guerrillas had been going on for four long years, yet progress felt painfully slow. Then came the tragedy that nearly ended it all: The FARC killed a group of young, unarmed soldiers. The country was outraged, and President Juan Manuel Santos, who had invested so much in the peace process, announced that he was freezing negotiations. It felt as if decades of efforts toward peace were collapsing before our eyes. It was during this tense moment that Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar arrived in Colombia. I had approached the government before his visit, sharing Gurudev’s work around the world and suggesting that perhaps a new perspective, a spiritual one, might break the deadlock. Even President Santos’ daughter, who followed Gurudev on social media, offered to help arrange a meeting.…