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This morning, Swāmījī Jasrāj Purījī spoke about how to overcome anger. I think this is a very important point, so I would like to add some reflections. How often did Swāmījī speak about this? In how many bhajans do we hear it? Kāma, krodha, mada, lobha, īrṣyā—desire, anger, pride, greed, envy—these qualities appear again and again. So many bhajans address these negative forces, and among them is krodha, anger. As Jasrāj Purījī also mentioned, this is not something that concerns only one person; it is for everyone. Perhaps we can briefly ask: is there anyone who has never been angry? Well, the answer is clear. Jasrāj Purījī emphasized one point: it is very important not to hold on. To clarify just how important, I will tell you a true story. I was counting when I heard it and when it happened, so it must have been about twenty-five to thirty years ago in Japan. There was an old lady who suffered from cancer repeatedly throughout her life. She had undergone surgery several times; each time she seemed fine, but after a while the cancer returned. By now she was really old, in her eighties, and once again the cancer was there. She wanted surgery again. The day before the operation, the chief physician thought, “I will take my time and speak with her.” So, in a way, he took over the role of a priest and went to her, simply to give her time and let her talk about whatever she wished. At a certain point she arrived at a moment that had taken place thirty years earlier, and she became truly outraged. She had once been quite rich, with a house and servants and everything. The cutlery for eating was all made of pure silver. One day, it was gone. She was quite sure it must have been one of her servants who took it, but she could never find out who. And now, again, she was so angry. The doctor said, “But it’s so many years ago, and that person might not even be living anymore. Maybe it is better if you forgive it.” That made her even angrier. She screamed, “Rather, I will die than ever forgive that.” Listen to what she said. So the doctor said, “Okay.” He got up, took his coat, and went to the door. Now she was irritated: “Why are you going suddenly?” And like a mirror, he said, “You just said, ‘Rather, I will die than ever forgive that.’ What should I do? I have no job here.” Only through this reaction of the doctor did she become aware of what she had actually said, what she had actually kept in her heart for thirty years. Of course, the doctor then came back. When she calmed down, they spoke peacefully. For the first time in thirty years, she could inwardly release that tension, let go of that inner poison. When everything had settled emotionally, the doctor said, “Okay, tomorrow morning we will have the operation, but before that we will make another x-ray.” The next morning, when they made the x-ray, they realized not only that the cancer had gone back, but it had gone back to such a stage that surgery was no longer even necessary. That is a true story. Of course, this does not mean it will always work like that. It depends entirely on our inner psychic process. If it is more intellectual, hardly anything will change. But for her it was a real experience. This is a very extreme example of how holding on to anger is like keeping poison inside oneself all the time—self-poisoning. Negative qualities like anger are truly like psychic poison, which can even function like physical poison. But how to deal with it? How to purify it? There is always the idea to simply suppress it. But that will not work at all. It is the same as if, during meditation, you try to suppress the thoughts that arise. It will only create an inner tension that accumulates, and one day you will really get into trouble. The right way to deal with this, I think, is to try to transform the energy. Let us go back to Swāmījī’s teaching: Kuṇḍalinī Yoga and the chakras. Kuṇḍalinī is the divine energy, the form of prāṇa. And this prāṇa can do many different things. In the Mūlādhāra Chakra, it can be really negative and destructive. In the Svādhiṣṭhāna Chakra, you might create a child through that same energy. In the Maṇipūra Chakra, you might use it for self-confidence and to rule a country. In the Anāhata Chakra, you might use it to make beautiful pots, or to write poems or symphonies. Do you understand? It is about how we use the energy, not about suppressing it. It is about transforming one quality into another quality, not suppressing it or, even worse, ignoring it. So the very first step is to look. What is there? Oh, there is anger. That simply means to accept reality, your own reality. If you cannot take that step, how will you deal with it if you try to ignore it? And then, as Jasrāj Purījī already spoke about, the next step is to try to understand it. Nothing is without reason. Even if someone is a murderer, even if someone is a rapist or whatever, there is a reason why that person is like that. So try to understand—try to look into the background, how it developed, how it happened. This applies first to ourselves, and then we can perhaps apply it to others. Accept, understand, and then give. For me, these three words are the essence of Swāmījī’s teaching, not just now but for at least twenty years. When you go back to the old videos from 1990, ’91, ’92, Swāmījī spoke repeatedly about exactly this point. That means you develop an interest: What is the background? And that is already a very good step, because in the moment when you get angry, the analytical thought comes: why, what is the point? Let us take a practical example. A man goes every morning to a chai shop before work and drinks his chai. The woman serving there knows him, of course, and would automatically bring the chai when he comes. Now, one morning it happens that she completely ignores him. He does not get his chai. He mildly reminds her, but she hardly notices him, and still he does not get his chai. So he becomes a little firmer because time is passing and soon he has to leave for work, and he says, “I really want my chai now, please bring it.” Finally, she gets the point and brings the chai. But what never happened before happens: just as she is close to him, she slips a little and the chai spills all over his shirt. Tell me, would you not become angry? It is a very typical situation where anger is like a natural reaction. Now there are two choices. The normal procedure: become angry, fight with her, have many arguments. Or think, “Nā jā, this is a dirty shirt, I cannot go to work anyway, I will be late anyway.” But maybe there is a reason for what happens today. Calm down for a moment, and there must be some reason; try to understand. He could say to the woman, “Please, I think you are not in a good condition today. Sit down a moment with me.” And immediately she would start crying. Just take a small step: accept what happened and try to understand. I have another example. I was not the one, but my neighbors were the ones who could find out something. In the last house where I lived before I became a swami in Hamburg, there was one old woman whom no one of us liked. She was like anger in person. She caused trouble with everyone. She had many reasons: people were too loud, they would not clean the house, they did not cut the grass, dogs barked—this type of person, you know, with many, many complaints. Basically everyone in the house had trouble with her. Now, one day some people—actually yoga people who also lived with my neighbors—she could explain about her life, about her person. And what turned out was that this old woman was so lonely. She had no one. And she had never learned another way of communicating with people than through anger. Now, when I tell this, observe your inner feelings. What feeling is now in your heart toward this woman? Compassion, you see. And that is the point of transforming our qualities. Accept, understand, and then suddenly something really changes inside. That is what actually happens between the Svādhiṣṭhāna Chakra, the Anāhata Chakra, and the Maṇipūra Chakra. We just have to take this step: accept and try to find out what the background is. There is another way to transform the emotions, applying that teaching from Swāmījī in another way: through the law of karma. Let us say someone steals from you. Someone hurts you, either physically or through words. When you look at that from a higher point of view, from the law of karma, what does it mean? All these events that make us happy or unhappy are mostly the result of previous karmas we have created. Bhajanandjī lived with me in Hamburg for two years. Then, suppose someone is stealing from you. Naturally, you get upset and angry at the thief. From a karmic point of view, what does it mean for the thief, and what does it mean for you? For me, it means I have done some karma—which of course I do not remember now—and the result of that karma is coming back now. And that is what Bhajanandjī said: “How good, one karma less.” It has already come back, so now one karmic circle is closed, finished. In one of the very first spiritual books I read before I came to Swāmījī, there was a very important, interesting sentence: one wants basically to finish all karmas in this life. What is all our yoga practice about? Mantra, kriyā? About purifying our karmas. So when we experience the fruit of a karma, of course we are suffering for a moment, but in reality it is good, because some karmic circle is closed right now. And mostly, karma comes multiplied back; the thief might suffer a lot. When your heart is really open, you might feel, “Oh, this poor fellow, now he will suffer so much.” Instead of being angry at that person or hating that person, you might think about how to help that person. So there is another transformation of our emotions. You cannot remove the anger; you should not try at all to suppress the anger. But we can transform our emotions. A very important chakra for this is the Viśuddhi Chakra. Viśuddhi is the chakra where we step out of our own personality and look at situations from another point of view. One of the most important forms of giving is forgiving—forgiving myself, forgiving others. I think that is the most essential point when we deal with anger or any other quality like that: we must keep in mind how to transform this energy, which is basically a neutral energy. It is just prāṇa, kuṇḍalinī, raised into a higher vibration. In reality, you want the same. You are spiritual seekers; others, in the end, are also spiritual seekers. We are the same. We are children of God; I am a child of God, he is also a child of God—so we are the same. Can you feel already, when you speak in this way, how your energy goes up? You start communicating with this other person on different levels, on higher levels. It comes to the point that you can even be thankful to certain persons. Thankful to someone who is hurting you. Because we want to find out the truth about ourselves. That is what we call self-inquiry meditation. And that is not easy, because our ego is busy all the time preventing that. We see the vices in all other people, but we are very good at avoiding seeing the same thing in ourselves. Now, when we think of our friends, mostly they are not very helpful in this regard. Most friends are very friendly. But none of your friends ever tells you that. Because you might be offended. But now someone really wants to offend you. And with great anger, he says, “And you are stinking so much from the mouth.” So now, finally, you got the message. Now, finally, you can do self-inquiry meditation. Is this really true, what he says? So, who is now your real friend? Your enemy. Those who want to hurt you will find your weak points. And if we really want to work on ourselves, then we will welcome that. We will say, “Thank you. I will work on that.” You see, from a spiritual point of view, many things suddenly turn completely around. So, this is just a little more inspiration about anger and transforming anger. It is a beautiful bhajan. Time for prayer. Swāmījī always says this bhajan comes in a pair with Sādobāī Ajabaratahamara. Somehow, Sādobāī Ajabaratahamara talks about what this chant and this body are, and how amazing it is, and what a chance we have to do the sādhanā. And then in this bhajan, the refrain says it all: “My brother, my friend, now why do you wait?” Apply your energy and apply your mind to bhajan. Join yourself together with that mantra and that name of God. And put all of your senses to labor and knock down the fortress of delusion. And when you knock it down, then make a road out of it. And put your energy into those horses that will drag that chariot. Take it quickly and put it on the road. Again, get moving. The destination is very far from here. So try to make yourself go as fast as you can. And on the way, there are many rivers and many distractions. Don’t give them any thought, just keep going. With an understanding of this, you can get to that destination. And without taking action, without putting all of this into practice, then you come back again. So Maṅgīlālji is saying, understand this and start. Now, why do you delay when you understand what you have, what you can do, what this human birth is for? Why do you even, sir, wait to get started? I had one little saying regarding anger once again. They say in India that there are three types of people. The first one, the one who is of the most basic level: they carve their anger in stone. And the one who is a yogī who is actually practicing: they write their anger in water. By the time they have finished writing it, the start is already fading away. So let’s write our anger in water when we have to write it. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jaya.