Questioner : If we see a man beating a child, should we not voice our anger at him?
Dadashri : He will not stop the beating even if you do get angry. Why would you get angry with him? He may beat you too. Talk to him calmly and explain to him that it is a weakness to react in anger.
Questioner : Then should we let him continue to beat the child ?
Dadashri : No, but you should ask him why he is beating the child. Try to make him understand. If you get angry with him, then this anger is your weakness. First and foremost, you should not carry the weakness within you. Those who do not have any weakness, have impressive personalities. When such people utter even a single word, everyone will listen to them readily.
Questioner : Perhaps they may not.
Dadashri : They would not listen to you because you are weak and lack personality. There should not be any weakness. One should have good conduct. One must have a flawless personality. Even thugs will run away at the sight of such a person. No one will run away from an angry person. On the contrary they may even beat him up. The whole world strikes at the weak.
When can one acquire such a personality? He will acquire such a personality when he understands the spiritual science of the Self. In this world, the relative knowledge is forgotten, whereas the science of the Self remains with you.
Dadashri : When there is frost or an ice storm, it gets so cold that it burns the grass, the trees, and all the crops. Why do you think everything burns when it gets cold?
Questioner : Everything burns because of extreme cold.
Dadashri : Yes, so if you live calmly and remain cool, you will become more effective.
Questioner : But Dada, is it not a weakness to be too calm?
Dadashri : We have to remain within limits. That is called normality. “Below normal is the fever, above normal is the fever, and ninety-eight degrees is the normal”. Therefore only normality is
required.
People are more fearful of those who do not get angry as opposed to those who do. Why is that so? It is because one develops inner strength when anger ceases. This is the law of nature. Otherwise, there would be no one to protect such people. People use anger as a form of protection. In ignorance (ignorance of one’s real Self), one’s protection is through anger.
The way that Dada has explained these examples is just phenomenal. My feelings of utter rage and pain were completely coated with Dada’s words, making them dissolve slowly but steadily. Well, I’m sure you want to know what made me feel this way. It occurred yesterday afternoon.I had plans with a childhood friend of mine since we hadn’t seen each other in months, so thought we’d grab lunch at Cream Centre, Chowpatty, and then walk on the beach for a while to catch up. Everything was going great at first! We enjoyed a couple of mango lassis with the infamous chhole bhature they serve there. We were laughing and really enjoying talking about some childhood moments of ours. Thereafter, we headed to the beach and decided to sit by the water. We were chatting away when I suddenly heard a loud cry from a toddler child, probably 4 or 5 years old.
I ignored it at first, but it got louder to catch everyone’s attention. We immediately got up to see what all the commotion was about. It happened to be that a poor person was walking on the beach with his 5 year old kid, when she started begging him for an ice cream kulfi. Since it was really hot outside, the father didn’t want to refuse; but didn’t have the money to buy it for her. And so, the poor guy tried stealingit from the stand by tricking the seller. However, the seller found out and immediately waved to the police, who came and started beating the father for stealing. The father all this while was yelling, “Sorry Saab, sorry, galti ho gaya! Maafkar do Saab, bachi rorahi thi isliye, galti ho gaya. Maafkar do.”The police didn’t stop though. They kept hitting him, in front of his daughter! They wanted to teach him a lesson. The kid felt it was her fault her father got in trouble and couldn’t stop crying. If that was not enough, the police started laughing at the father, making fun of his screams. That’s when I couldn’t stand it anymore. I was getting so angry internally that I wanted to take the stick from the police and hit them instead, but who would mess with the cops!
“How can they do this,” I kept thinking. “I mean, the father is saying he’s sorry and is being so honest. Why beat a poor guy for such a small mistake, and in front of his little child? This just feels so incorrect. On top of it, they’re laughing and embarrassing him on purpose. Don’t they have a heart?” Out of anger, I started cursing at the police officers, telling them to stop this nonsense! To my surprise, they got even angrier at the father, and beat him more. Enough was enough. At that moment, I noticed my friend’s face. It was calm and peaceful. I didn’t know whether to get angrier since he didn’t seem to care, or to calm down myself. I couldn’t grasp why at that time, but I remember him gently telling the police to stop hitting the poor father and explained them that it was ‘just a mistake’. The police slowly backed away, and the man was free to go. This was still a blur to me because my anger was clouding my vision, but my friend drove me home.
Upon reaching, I was pacing up and down, unable to still my mind. That’s when I inserted the ‘Pratyaksh Dada’ DVD to find peace in Dada’s wisdom. I couldn’t believe how well Dada was relating the science similar to my (inner) situation. There I was ‘getting angrier at the anger’, while my friend was so smoothly able to stop the madness with peace. I realized just how much of a ‘weakness’ anger really is. I’m going to work sincerely on my anger this month, and really learn more about this form of conflict. Catch you later!
Dadashri says...
"How can they do this,” I kept thinking. “I mean, the father is saying he’s sorry and is being so honest. Why beat a poor guy for such a small mistake, and in front of his little child? This just feels so incorrect."
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