Inaugural Address by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Many men think, woman is the source of disharmony. But I want to remind them as someone here said," We need to have an orientation for men" and actually this is needed.

In this part of the world, women have already taken the reigns in the Judiciary, the past President of this country was a woman, the Speaker of the House is a woman, the Leader of Opposition is a woman, and the Ruling Party Coalition Leader is also a woman, so we have women ruling this country; and also in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan; all these neighboring countries have been empowered by women quite a bit.

As I said, harmony dawns from within, so it needs to be promoted from childhood, that when anger comes, greed comes and all negative emotions come up in the mind, how do we handle these. We need to teach this to our kids.

So, women play a very important role. The woman is the source of harmony in a family, and she can create such a harmonious environment and society through her actions, through her music. That is something every household knows here and everyone hums her (referring to Ms Asha Bhosle in the audience) songs all the time, whether in the shower or whether eating or going for a walk. You know, her songs are the most popular.

Music is something that brings harmony; wisdom, music and a context to life; a bigger context to life. Who we are? What we are? See life from a bigger context. The three Cs - Context, Commitment to a cause and Compassion can elevate our life and really bring harmony.

I am so happy all of you are here. There are so many beautiful sessions. More accomplished women are arriving today and tomorrow. I am sure you are going to have rocking sessions; flowering sessions.