4 Mar 2012 - QA 12

Guruji, my family uses a lot of bad words in their speech. How important is refinement in speech? Does it have any good or bad effect, or is it just to sound cultured?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, you have realized it and you don’t use it. If your parents are using bad words, what to do? You can’t change them overnight.
So, you stop using it and see that your children don’t listen to those sorts of words.
As the sattva in a person increases, the speech automatically gets refined. It is related to the sattva level in our body. Whether you call it culture or habit, this is the fact.