Petals of Life

Today I wish to talk about the shloka "Karyeshu Dasi, Karaneshu Mantri, Bhojyeshu Mata, Shayaneshu Rambha, Roopeshu Lakshmi, Kshamayeshu Dharitri, Shath dharma yuktah, kula dharma patni" There have been many interpretations of this shloka. The most accepted one is "a woman who works like a servant, advises like a minister, feeds you like a mother, pleases you in bed like sylph (a beautiful goddess), is the embodiment of goddess lakshmi, forgives you with patience as that of mother Earth, that woman who possesses these six virtues is your true wife who can share the dharma of you and your family". So, is this the interpretation? But this makes no woman eligible to be a wife. Not every woman is sylphlike, not every woman possesses intelligence enough to advise you, not every woman can please you in bed, not every woman can dress up and prance around in anklets, not every woman can forgive your monumental mistakes and definitely not every woman can feed you unle...

I read a story sometime ago, about how two old men in an infirmary give company to each other and one of them uses his imagination to enliven their lives. The story goes like this. " Two old men, who were almost confined to their beds in an infirmary, occupied adjacent stalls. One man had a wall beside his bed, while the other had a huge glass window beside his bed. Both of them struck a friendship and would spend most of their time talking through the curtain that separated them.  The old man beside the wall, George, would almost all the time talk about how much he missed his family and especially his grandchildren. He would sometimes be profoundly sad and would lapse into long moments of silence. But the one beside the window, William, was ever so cheerful. He would talk about his family and grandchildren with cheery reminiscence and would tell George various anecdotes about his family. But mostly he would describe what was going outside of the window beside his bed. Willi...