09 February 2014 - QA 3

Gurudev, what do we have to do to make the stubborn mind shift from a mechanistic reductionist fragmented thought that is leading to so much violence against the Earth, between people, and against women. The violence against women is so intimately connected to this division and separation.
(Vandana Shiva: Author and Environmentalist from India)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I would say, if people become scientists, if they all become physicists, they can see life from a bigger context. Then there is no way they will indulge in violence. It is lack of education, lack of scientific and spiritual education that makes people so hard. Also I see that stress is the main cause of all crime. This is the first cause.

The second cause of crime is alcohol. If you see in India, the violence against women has all happened under the influence of intoxicants.
When I was visiting Tihar Jail, the biggest jail in this country, and I was talking to people there, you know what I found out there? 93% of the crime against women were done under the influence of alcohol, or drugs. So what needs to change is that lifestyle.
We see this here as well, every day in the small villages, men drink in the evening and they beat up their wives. In the morning they fall at their feet and ask them pardon. And women being naturally compassionate, pardon them. And again the same story continues. One or two days they are okay, then the third day again they start abusing the womenfolk.
So, women cannot be safe in the country when the sale of intoxicants in the country has gone up three times in just one year. How can you expect them to be safe? That is why we need to put an end to this, and change that whole attitude, only then we can have a safe society.