Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, in the ancient times people wanted to give
women total rest because women used to do all the work at home and once she
would start, she won’t stop. Have you noticed? In your home, when your
mother starts her work, she does not leave it until she finishes all the
work. She wakes up the first in the house and sleeps last after everyone
has gone to bed. So full day she would do so much work, isn’t it? She would
do everything, lock everything, give milk to the family members and then go
to sleep after cleaning the kitchen. First thing in the morning, wake up
and clean the house and do rangoli – they used to do all of that. So when
their cycle would start, the Rishi Munis said, ‘ for three days no need to
do anything, no need to go inside the kitchen, just take rest’. With this
feeling it was said but as time moved forward it started to have a
different relevance. The whole idea was to give women complete rest.

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Sri Sri: We are made up of both, matter and spirit. The spirit needs spirituality, the body (matter) has some material needs and our spirit is nourished by spirituality. You cannot live life without spirituality. Do you want peace? Do you want joy? Do you want happiness? We think spirituality means going to a temple, church or a mosque. Spirituality is human values. Without human values, life is meaningless. If someone asks, why do you need human values, you would say, it is a silly question. There is no point in living like an animal, when you are a human being. Living with human values is being human.

Man has some needs and takes responsibilities. When needs are less and responsibilities are more, life is good. When needs are more and responsibilities are few, life is not so good. Some needs could be there but if you take very few responsibilities, then you are unhappy. It is not a spiritual life. Bharathiyaar, Kamraj and Gandhi took responsibility for the whole country and see the way they lived – their needs were minimum.

Take more responsibility. If the father does not take responsibility for the children and their needs, will they listen to him? Only those who take responsibility, gain authority. People in politics ought to take responsibility for the whole nation. But if they rise in power by corrupt means, the fall is certain.
When we take more responsibility, how do we manage them? The ability to take responsibility beyond our capacity and manage it comes from spirituality.

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Sri Sri: How are you feeling now? Failures come in life – do you do sadhana everyday? Chant Om Namah Shivay for ten minutes everyday. The energy you get from chanting is amazing

In China, there was a popular person who had seven diseases. He started chanting Om everyday for two hours and the diseases got cured. Sage Patanjali said this many years ago: if we chant Om every day, it reduces negative energy at home.

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Sri Sri: Yes. It is very interesting. After death, the soul retains  the sight, smell and hearing. Touch and taste will go. The sight, smell and hearing are not retained for ever, but for about eight to ten days. Then the soul goes into a deep state of rest.

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Sri Sri: Take a mirror. It gives you the true picture. If you see yourself in the mirror, you smile. You can’t frown if you are seeing yourself in the mirror. There is a nice tradition that they follow here in Karnataka during marriages. People from the girl’s side receive the people from the boy’s side. They receive them with a kalasam (a container of water with coconut covering the mouth + flowers on top + …) and a mirror behind the kalasam. Nobody knew the reason for these things. I was pondering on this and it struck me. The reason is that if the mirror is shown to you, irrespective of your mood you have to smile. So I found the reason

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