Keeping Anger In The Pocket

Swami Chinmayananda

oi-Staff

By Staff

Thursday, January 22, 2009, 12:08

Once when he was travelling with Gurudev, Swami Shantananda recalls that a devotee had changed Gurudev's flight plans without telling him. Just as Swamiji was getting ready to board the plane, he was informed that he now had to board another.

Swamiji got very angery. Enraged, he told the man that he had to follow directions, and that if anything ever changed, Swamiji was to be told. The man was quivering in the face of Guru dev's fury. Just then, a couple came up to Swamiji and prostrated before him. Apparently, they were unaware as to what dialogue Swamiji was just then engaged in. Gurudev's mood changed immediately. He welcomed them with open arms, blessing them with a big smile and much love.

"This is what Gurudev taught us; to keep anger in the pocket, take it out when necessary, and then put it away," says Swami Shantananda."

Gurudev warned us not to become too involved with the vagaries of the mind while we struggled to create some semblance of control over it.