Why are we Angry?

GET OUT, the swami sitting in a comfortable seat said to the young man sitting there.

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I was visiting south india when a devotee couple came to meet me. Husband was asking me to advise the wife, because she gets angry very fast. Wife said, no it is not like that, if I see some wrong I cannot stop myself from reacting.

I replied, there is nothing wrong in getting angry. It shows we are really living our life. But still, we should enquire why and what makes us angry. If it because of the action of someone, then does not that someone know it. If he/she knows than they are doing it on purpose, if they don’t know still they are doing it, then in both the cases their knowledge says that is the right action for the particular situation. If we see it as right or wrong, it also is from our own limited knowledge. So, judging or reacting to it is futile. Secondly, if everyone in this world sees things as we do and reacts as we do then this world will be a very boring place. We get angry about something or someone, this is because of the short sightedness, if we see it globally, in a birds-eye view, maybe, there is nothing to worry about. Because, everything is functioning very perfectly according to its and our karma.

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Coming back to the swami and the young man. It was during the year 1997 and in the month of march this happened. Yes, you guessed it correctly, the young man who became an angry young man is me. And the swami is Swami Krishnananda ji of Divine Life Society (Sivananda Ashram) Rishikesh. After leaving the house, I stayed for 2-3 days outside in Tiruvannamalai, and once I got a ticket to Delhi to come to Rishikesh, came to Chennai. From Chennai it was a very tough travel for a person who has not done a similar long journey (though I had once come to Delhi for an interview with Indira Gandhi National Institute for Arts and Science, and had been to Agra instead of Hardwar-Rishikesh as suggested by someone who had come from south, staying in the same house as i. Need I add, I did not want to go to Rishikesh). I had a friend Swami Atmananda ji, who was a disciple of Sw. Krishnananda and left Sivananda ashram long back, had come to Rishikesh from Tiruvannamalai, just recently. I had met him and befriended him in Tiruvannamalai. So, after a tiresome journey and the climatic condition I was very tired, so, wanted to stay in ashram for a day or two and go to some cave J. As my fate had decided already, I was not able to meet my friend swami. So, someone suggested to me to meet Swami Krishnananda ji. After explaining about my past and my desire to gain Realization,without any other word, Swami Krishnananda shouted GET OUT. I was angry with him from that second. And when I was studying Shastras and saw to the conditions of the sadhus staying in other ashrams and particularly in Shivananda Ashram I thanked Swami Krishnanada ji whole heartedly in my mind. if he had not said that, then, maybe, I will be one of the inmates of Shivananda Ashram, involved in everything other than realization. As my Acharya Swami Sarveshananda ji says, no one can gain realization in an institution.

And the biggest irony is, Swami Sivanada is a distant relative of mine (according to family tree), our village (root, origin) Rajakkalmangalam (between Valliyur and Nanganeri, close to Tirunelveli or Nagerkoil depending upon from where you come) is close to Pattamadai, the place of birth of Swami Shivananda. These facts I discovered later. So, if we see from a distance everything is very normal. Even a mountain becomes a mole hill when viewed from a distance.