Conquering Anger through Cosmic Love

Podcast Transcript

Avi Gordon
Some background on Swami Priyaananda. Swami Priyaananda has been studying and practicing yoga for four decades. She has lived at integral yoga institutes and ashrams at both on the West Coast and on the East Coast, and she currently serves as the vice president of spiritual development at yoga Ville, and she also manages Satchidananda archives. So Swami prinana, thank you so much for taking this time to be with us today,

Swami Priyaananda
pleasure.

Avi Gordon
And I know you wanted to start out with a quote from Swami Vivekananda,

Swami Priyaananda
yeah, yes. Since we’re working at this time, trying to find some yoga tools to deal with the anger that is quite prevalent. I don’t know about other parts of the world, but certainly in our culture right now, I thought that I would give you an idea of whatever practice we put in place to develop the qualities that will help us use anger and not be used by anger that I wanted to share with you a quote from the great Swami Vivekananda. He was an incredibly accomplished yogi, and he said this is the way he attained success in his spiritual life. And I quote success take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. Think of it. Dream of it. Live on it. Let the brains, the muscles, the nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, Leave all other ideas alone. That is the way to success. So that’s the premise that we’re going to start on. We’re going to take up the idea of how to practice that universal love, that cosmic love, and that in itself really becomes the vehicle to overcome and to manage any anger that the mind may be struggling with at this time or in the future. Okay, so, so

Avi Gordon
is the idea then, that cosmic love. The feeling of cosmic love is held very steady. That is the point of focus, and everything else kind of is secondary to that. Is that right? Yes, correct. And specifically, you know this talk, the idea is around like conquering anger through cosmic love. So can you explain directly how kind of holding cosmic love steady might allow us the ability to navigate emotions of anger when they come up,

Swami Priyaananda
yes, absolutely. I think we see that in the lives of all of the great sages and saints who have struggled with this emotion and who learned to take that emotion and bring it into a positive way of functioning in the world before, before moving into cosmic love. What I would like to explain is that anger is something that dissipates our energy. It, it’s it. It never, ever achieves the goal to which we are moving toward, which is to be a peaceful, joyful human being living in a harmonious way with all of those in the world around us. So what we have to do is to look at anger as a tool, not a strength or a weakness. It’s simply a tool that enables us to function well in the world. I’ll give you an example, the great Mahatma Gandhi had his the his he originally moved from India to South Africa and worked with the people of South Africa trying to help those who were continually discriminated against. And while he was in South Africa. He had his children, and when he left South Africa and returned to India, his children were grown, and they stayed in South Africa. So his daughter had a young boy named Arun Arun Gandhi, and this boy being of brown skin, coming from an Indian family, said it was miserable for him in South Africa because he said one day he passed through a white neighborhood and someone pushed him, hit him, pushed him to the ground and kicked him because how dare he come into their neighborhood with his dark skin? He said, a month later, there was a big holiday in South Africa, which his parents had taken him to, and he was heading off to his parents friend’s house by himself, and he passed through a predominantly black neighborhood, those boys punched him and hit him and made fun of him because he was so light. So by the time he was coming toward his teenage years, he was a very angry little boy because he didn’t seem to fit in any place. And he was also sort of a tiny little guy, so he tried to lift weights. He wanted to become strong so he could deal with any aggression coming toward him. And his parents saw this tendency building up in him, so they said, Well, this is not the way we want our child to grow up. And at that time, Mahatma Gandhi was really starting the movement in India toward freeing the Indian people from the British rule. So they contacted the grandfather, Baba Ji. He was called and ask, could they bring his grandson to be with him for a while, to learn his principles? So they arrived in India and went to Gandhi’s ashram, and this young boy started living with his grandfather, and he admired his grandfather so much. He seemed so joyful, so calm, so balanced, and he thought that’s the way I want to be. But one day, he went out to play soccer with his friends, and while they were playing, one of the boys came over and intentionally tripped him because he wanted to get to the goal first. And Arun said, he jumped up, he grabbed a rock, picked it up, and was about to throw it at this kid, and something inside of him said, Don’t do it. Don’t do it. So he ran to his grandfather’s little home, and he was crying, and he told his grandfather, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I have failed. I’ve gotten angry. And his grandfather said, come here. Arun, sit next to me. And one thing that Gandhi always did was he ran a spinning wheel because he was trying to free the Indian people from the expensive clothing that they had to purchase from the British at that time. So he just told them, make your own. So they all said that was a hobby of everyone at the ashram, everybody did spinning. And so when Arun came, he had his own little spinning wheel also. So the first thing Gandhi did was sit his grandson down next to him, and they began to spin. That in itself, as you know, it focuses the mind and calms it down. And then he began to talk to his grandson, and his grandson said, I’m so sorry, grandfather. I know I have failed you. And his grandfather said, you haven’t failed, he said, but I got angry. He said, Son, do you know what anger is? And he said, No, grandpa said it’s a gift. Anger is a gift. He said anger brings energy into our system and enables us to stand up for those things that we feel are unjust. So it’s a motivator. He said it’s like gasoline needs is needed for a car. Sometimes that energy of anger is needed to motivate us, but he said what you have to do is you have to take that energy and then direct it in a positive way that. Will enable you to do good in this world. And so he said he never forgot that he was completely amazed that his father grandfather felt that it was a gift. And he said, but, but Baba Ji, you never get angry. And he said his grandfather just started laughing and laughing. He said, Son, I do get angry. He said, But and he said, and when I was a young person your age, I was very angry. And he said, Do you know who taught me how to overcome that anger? And Arun said, No. And he said, your grandmother, he said, we were married at a very young age. They were married at 13. And he said, so we had a lot of anger and passion and frustration. And he said, What I noticed is when I would get angry at her, she would completely calm down and speak to me with all kindness, gentleness, focus, and I’m in this very distraught state, and she’s completely calm. And I thought that’s how I want to be. So thanks to your grandmother, I began working on my anger and all of the great ones like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, you see what they had to face, what they had to face, would make anyone angry. But what Dr King said is, you have got to love the oppressor. You do not have to like him or her, but you have to love them, because that the divine energy that made that being loves that being. So our job is to love the person, but at the same time to work to change the injustices in the world. So anger in itself is something that will come up in us, but we have to move to that higher platform and call on that divine love and say, I do not know why this person is this way. All I know is that they are my brother and they are my sister.

I asked Guru Dev once, how do you love everybody equally? And he looked at me and he said, Oh, is everyone equal?

And I said, well, in whose eyes? He said, Okay, in your eyes, is everyone equal? And I said, Well, ideally, everyone is equal. He said, No, not really. He said, some people are tall, some people are short, some people are professors, some people are students, some people are poor, some people are wealthy. Said, many, many differences, many differences. But he said what you’re seeking for is that love to bring you into the spiritual realm. So when you can see each one of those people as a divine expression of the Spirit, then you love that Spirit in them in that way. He said, we’re all equal on the spiritual realm. And I kept thinking, Well, how do you do that? And he said, There are two ways to do that. One is you love them the way a mother loves she just loves her kids. She knows that they have their strengths and their weaknesses, but she loves each one, and she knows that they are different stages of growth, and so she lovingly, patiently navigates those souls until they bloom into accomplished, ethical beings. So he said, the love of the mother is the best love to bring in to be able to see everyone as equal and if not, then just think we’re all at different stages. Maybe I was like that person some time ago. So let me love them no matter what he said, even if you think, but oh, that person really irritates me. Okay? He said, then look at that irritation. Do you expect that person to change and deal with their irritation? Probably you’re irritating them too. No. He said, You look at what is irritating you, and you find a way to overcome that. It’s you’re the only one that you can change. So he said, either look at them as the mother looks as their child, or look at them as a soul on this earth in a process of growth, knowing that they have not developed that kind of harmonious interaction that you’re wanting to see in this world. So those were some principles upon which I’ve tried to bring in that cosmic love to remember Guru Dev guidance in that way.

Avi Gordon
Thank you so much for sharing all of that. So much there, I want to ask, though, on a practical level in the world that we’re living in right now. To me, it feels

so polarized, so competitive, in terms of, if only, you know, kind of my team were in charge, everything would be different. And it seems like it’s a very common tendency to vilify, you know, or create an enemy which is very different from what we’re talking about here, to instead, perhaps, say, you know, okay, you have different views than me, you know. But on another level, I I love you, you know, and I have compassion for you, and we’re all connected and part of the same thing. So is there anything that you can share, in general, maybe, or personally, that that you use to be able to kind of shift the way of thinking or and even to share to what happens when you are able to shift, when you are able to shift and and then turn a person from being an enemy to then being a teammate. What happens then?

Swami Priyaananda
Yeah, let me pull something up here from Dr Martin Luther King. He says the non violent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. Okay, it first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. So those of us who are trying to practice that universal law, our hearts, our minds, our souls, are changed by engaging in that practice. And what Dr King goes on to say is it gives them a new self respect. It calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally, it reaches the opponent, and so stirs his or her conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality. I’ll tell you what I one thing that really inspired me was, you know, we recently had a lot of people marching in the name of white supremacy. We know the incident that happened in Charlottesville some years ago, and following that, there was a march in Richmond. Female opposing may be remembering that and the thing that something occurred at that march that absolutely opened my heart. One of the gentlemen whose skin was darker than what these people had come to want to have in the city of Richmond, simply walked up to one of those folks and said, Hi, my name is so and so I’d like to get to know you, and I’d like you to get to know me. If you dislike me, I need to know what am I doing that causes this dislike? And where can we come to some sort of understanding so you can come into this city and feel welcome, and so can I? That blew my mind. I was so touched by the courage of that man, and it transformed that whole event so that to me, that’s what I call on. I look at those who have gone before me, and I look at all of the challenges they have faced and how they handled it, even to treat the oppressor with respect and those who are being oppressed. You’ll see in guru devs biography. When he was he was a. That time, still studying with Swami, chidbhava, Nandy and chidbhavana Ji, had him go to study naturopathy, and Guru Dev and some of the monks were would set up little tents, and they would go into these villages and use naturopathy to help people, because there were, you know, in these villages, it’d be 2030, miles to go to the closest hospital. So they were going out trying to share health care with the villagers. And the often that they were actually by invited by the upper class to come into the area and set up their tents, and the upper class would allow them to give medicines to the untouchables. And the untouchables were all the workers of the upper class, but the sannyasis were not supposed to touch the untouchables, right? That’s their name. And Guru Dev had a young lady come from a village, a young girl, and she had a very infected eye, so he went to her eye and started working on it with he put on different patches and poultices to draw out the infection, and then he had her parents take her home and and see that she would be he felt that she would be okay. Well, the people, the landowners, heard about this, and they were furious, and they came to Swami G and the other monks and said, You are not allowed to go against the guidelines of class distinction in these villages. And And Gurudev said, we’re here to help the people. And so it was a necessity in order to offer that healing was I had to put the poultice on her eye. They said, No, we will not hear that. And if you do that again, if you violate our class rules, we will come in and we will burn this hospital down, not really a hospital, but little hut. And Guru Dev said, and they said, If you don’t, you think we’re not serious. Wait until we come back tonight. So Guru Dev went to the village where the little girl’s eye had been treated, and he inquired how she was doing. And the villager said, Oh, Swamiji, she’s all better. Do you need to see her for some reason? And he said, no, no. And then he explained to them what was happening. He said, Because I treated your daughter now the your bosses basically are threatening to come and burn down the naturopathy tent. And the gentleman said, That can’t happen. We won’t let that happen. And Gurudev said, Well, he said, What will you do? And he said, we’ll send our strongest young men, and they will surround the tent and they will protect you. Ingrid said, Okay, that seems like a good idea. And so that night, about 30 young men came with bamboo sticks, and they surround they were away from the hut a bit, and then the landowners came, just a small group of them, maybe five or six people with torches, though. And they came and talked to Swami G again, and said, Okay, have, do you have we have your word that you will not in any way touch the untouchables in future health care and good have said, No, I can’t do that. He said, I came here to care for all people. And they said, then we’re going to torch this building. And at that point, all of the 30 young men moved out of the dark into the light. And these people were shocked, because these were their employees, and how dare they do something like this? But they were totally outnumbered, so they had to negotiate a little bit, and Guru Dev spoke to them. He said, Don’t you see, in order for you to enjoy the nice fruits and vegetables that these people grow for you on your land, you have got to care for them. They’re like your family. We’re all one family with God, so your job is to care for them properly. You can feel that you’re the brains and the stomach of this family and that they are the limbs, okay, but do it in a way that takes care of everyone. So if you take care of the people who are working for you, then you will reap the benefit of their work and but you must care for them in order to do that. So the landowner. Saw that they had a nice talk that evening, and when girdle and the seniors left, then things had changed in and a small way in that area. So he he understood the class system. He grew up with it as a child, but and he didn’t chastise the people who were engaged in it, but he showed them, there’s a better way. And that’s what yoga and cosmic love can do. It teaches you not You’re such a bad person for doing what you’re doing, but there’s a better way to be a better person, and then everyone is uplifted. That’s how the love comes in.

Avi Gordon
Yeah, I want to focus on the point from the quote from Martin Luther King about the non violent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. So I’m sure that there’s, there’s stories too, about, you know, situations where, you know, love is shown, an act of courage is taken, but it doesn’t change anything or still, like in a violent act still comes from the other side. But to me, this is an important point, because it seems that patience is is vital on this path, that that even though I genuinely love this other person who maybe is on the other side of the fence as me, they’re still maybe going to do something that is going To be distasteful. So is it important for us to kind of not be invested in how they react to our love, that we just we just love we just love them, and we don’t know how they’re going to react we they’re going to react to it. Is that an important component, as opposed to hoping that it has a certain effect on that

Swami Priyaananda
yes, and it takes, I think, in a situation like that, it takes three things. It takes remembering guru devs, teaching of love. Knows no bargain. You just love and you may not like the way a person is, but you love them that also you see in the civil rights movement, there’s a beautiful speech where Dr King said, you can beat us and make us suffer, and we will still love you. You can drag us out of our houses and almost kill us, and we will still love you. You can bomb our churches and threaten our children, and as hard as it may be, we will still love you. He never backed off from love, and he and an incredible human beings in this country during the Civil Rights Movement, absolutely, you know, there were, there was a constant struggle of, are we going with violence, or are we Going with love? And people said his way was weak, but it Love is the only way and but what it takes Abby is patience. It’s not going. No one changes overnight. No one changes overnight, but over time, a human beings conscience and their brothers and sisters around them begin to expand their awareness, because a lot of these people come they grew up in a family with a particular attitude, or in an area of the country with a particular attitude, and then all of a sudden, you walk onto the world stage, and you realize not everybody is applauding you for that, not only not applauding you, they really are trying to move you in a different direction. And so it all takes time, and while we’re waiting, that’s where prayer is needed there. I’ve seen issues in my own family where there was conflict, and I did my best to resolve it, to bring people together, to send them yogic information. I did. I tried every trick in the book, and nothing budge so I just put their pictures on my altar, and I pray every day I prayed, and I just, it just became second nature to me. And one day, one of those ladies said, I’d like to go see my sister. Would you take me? They were coming toward the end of their life, and I said, Sure, I would be that would be great. But it took, I don’t know, 10 years or more before that kind of energy changed in any way. And that, you know, if you remember what Mr. Ramaswamy said last week, he said he had an idea as a young boy that was his goal, and then he began to work on it and to develop his idea. It took him 12 years before that came into fruition, and then with guru devs teachings that took another four years to really get that into his belief system, in a way that it became something really real, and then it took another five years to pass that belief on to the, for instance, the teachers of the school. So that’s why we have to have patience and perseverance. People will change over time, and if not, then the universe will put them in a situation where they’ll have to learn a very harsh lesson. So ours is not to do the putative thing or to push someone to change, but we support their awakening as best we can with by sharing the integral yoga teachings with them, all or all spiritual teachings with them and in our own practice, I

Avi Gordon
Want to ask if you’ve experienced a difference between loving on an intellectual level and a feeling of love that permeates your whole being Yes,

yes. And does one usually come, you know, before the other? So that, you know, maybe I kind of on an intellectual level, I see that I’m connected. I’m a part of of of everything else. Therefore, you know, I love everything, okay, I understand that intellectual, intellectually. Now, does that lead to the ability to actually feel that, experience that?

Swami Priyaananda
Well, I think first you have to, if you’re not experiencing that kind of all encompassing love, you have to learn that it’s hot, that it’s out there, that it’s possible that people do have these kinds of experiences. So that intrigues the mind a little bit. Oh, is that possible? I don’t feel that way. I’d like to, but I don’t, and then you find something. So there’s the mind first gets intrigued, perhaps, or someone walks into your life and totally blows your heart chakra wide open and in that and whether it’s a love of your spouse or whether it’s the love of the guru, wherever that love may whenever it opens the heart to that level that you experience that cosmic, spiritual energy, then the mind stuff just goes it’s the heart is the first thing to open, and then the poor mind is sitting there trying to figure out what happened. How did that happen? You know? And it’s not, it’s not with the mind. It really the heart goes way beyond and opens everything, and then the mind catches up later and figures, well, how can I continue now to cultivate this loving experience? What do I need to do in my life to either engage the person and serve the person who’s opened my heart, or just continue in my own practice to move into it more cosmic consciousness and awareness.

Avi Gordon
And how about when we go back and forth, or if we go back and forth? So, you know, I experienced this cosmic love, and then, you know, maybe the next day or a few hours or even moments after that, then the anger, I feel, anger come up because, because of a reason, right? And so there’s this experience of going back and forth. And, you know, when this anger comes up, I think what you were discussing before of how to utilize, you know that anger, because, at least for me, you know, especially after having, you know, if I do have a deeper experience of feeling some kind of universal energy or love, and then I feel anger. There’s a little bit of shame associated, like, what happened to that cosmic love, you know, went away. She knows so fast and and so anything to say about, you know, when that anger arises, maybe not to necessarily feel shame or how to utilize it. And. Allow it to be okay and to be transformed.

Swami Priyaananda
Well, one thing that Gandhi did with his grandson is he gave him a notebook, and he said, when that anger comes up in you, I want you to sit down and write, write out what what happened? What led to those feelings opening in that way. So he kept a little spiritual journal, and he was then able to see what in himself was, what, what got pricked, what, what is sensitive, what was really unsettled in him that someone may have brought out by a comment. So having a spiritual journal was very, very helpful to him. And then Gandhi said, All right, now what I want you to do is, after you make the notes and you see where the mind has gone and why that emotion came up. What motivate? What motivated, what brought it out in you? He said, Then you have to deal with that energy. So he had him go in, and he said, I want you to go in, and I want you to sit down and either find a beautiful picture or a flower or something, and I want you just to gaze upon that. Just focus on that, and then close your eyes and see if that image is retained. And if not, open the eyes again. Gaze a little more steadily. And he said, over time, you will be able to retain that beautiful image. And in the process, the mind will also be brought in to a calm and steady state. So it was basic, basically product that he had him do. And sometimes that’s what we need to do. We need to in a situation. We need to immediately remove ourselves from that situation and simply say, I need a little space here. I had a friend, and we net. We made an agreement. We would never fight inside. We would only fight outside. So we would walk around the block and we would have our say over the way we thought things should be, but it’s embarrassing with the neighbors to get too loud or too crazy, and so we would get that energy out by simply having our disagreements in the external world, so to speak. And another thing is, Walt Whitman said he what Walt Whitman was, uh, did a lot of wandering. He was an outside person. He used to wander about and sit under trees and write his poetry, and he did a lot of that. Kind of spent a lot of time in in the outside world. And he said, I often feel that, that when I walk under great walk under trees, that great, melodious thoughts fall into my mind. So there is something so soothing about being out in nature. And that’s another way when this kind of of thing comes up, just to excuse yourself from the situation, or be able to then later on, sit down and journal why it came up. I can tell you, for me, the more I didn’t realize I had so much anger until I became part of the administration. It’s amazing, you know, and somehow, in the midst of decision making and sharing points of view, this incredible little demon would pop up, and I’d go, who is that? You know, where did that come from? And so that one I’m still working on in our to be able to calmly say, Oh, could you please explain that, as opposed to reacting to it? Because that’s what will happen. The mind will hear that someone has a perception or a decision has been made in an area that I’m supposed to be overseeing and and I wasn’t consulted, and the ego comes up and the anger follows. You know, that kind of thing has to recede, because if we don’t listen to one another and move from reason, we can’t in any way help to move a group of people in a good direction. So that’s, that’s that’s been a wonderful exercise for me to in a situation, life situation like that, to realize it comes so fast that it’s very hard sometimes, to like, sit there and take a deep breath and say hi. Yom, this is my higher self looking at my anger. I would like to do that, but I don’t always have the opportunity to move into that.

Avi Gordon
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that and everything. Wow. Okay, I think we’re we’re at a time where we can open it up to questions from all of you. So if you’d like to turn on your video, please feel free. You could raise your hand or go to the participants button and do the little blue virtual hand raise as well any questions for Swami G app,

Swami Priyaananda
they’re all such peaceful beings. I don’t know about the struggle with this crazy anger stuff. Yeah,

Avi Gordon
and also,

Swami Priyaananda
yeah, go ahead. See all of you from all over the world, it’s such a joy. Viman tamuki, great. Let me tell share one more thing. I woke up Thursday morning angry, and I thought, Oh, how embarrassing. My god, I’m about to get a sharing on anger, and I wake up angry. What is this? So I had to really look back at the day before and say, What did I eat? What time did I eat? What did I look at before I went to sleep. You know, I had no idea why I woke up. In my mind, was in such a cantankerous mood, and I realized right before I went to sleep, I heard being which meant someone had sent me a text. And I thought, oh, I should look at it. And it was the most frustrating text. And so I went to sleep, and I thought, Oh well, I’ll deal with that tomorrow. But apparently my mind was not convinced of that. And so it was quite a battle all Thursday, and I was really glad that you were not watching that moment,

Avi Gordon
but the vulnerability too. I’m very interested in this too, like I clearly want to, you know, portray a good image for others. But I’m starting to realize too, that if I can be more vulnerable, that really, that is a way to serve other people, because there’s a good chance that they can relate to my situation. It’s like what happens on social media a lot, right? Everyone’s taking, you know, the best pictures of themselves, you know, all happy and looking pretty and all of that, and it creates this kind of skewed view. So in a way, it seems important to say, Okay, this is this is my humanness, this is how I am, and I can step into that in a way, right?

Swami Priyaananda
I think that I know when we teach Raja Yoga and meditation, we will often people want, they want to know your story. They’re having all kinds of struggles. So they want to know, do you, I mean, you’ve been doing this for so long, it must be a breeze for you. And they really appreciate when you share that you too have, that you make yourself vulnerable to them, and you share. I remember reading, you know, in the book of joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, where the Dalai Lama said, people said You’re always so peaceful, you’re always so wonderful, you’re always so forgiving. He said, Well, maybe in the early part of the day I am, but he said, in the later part of the day when I’ve been working very a lot or and I’m extra tired, he he said, The Human irritability is there, and we all have that because we do feel ashamed. Someone seems, you know, in the Raja Yoga, you take a delight in the virtuous. And when you see someone who, in your eyes, is a very virtuous human being, and you don’t feel so virtuous, then it’s you feel, there’s a little feeling of shame, but you talk to that person and you see, I have, you know, I had the same struggles, and in some on certain areas, I still have such struggles. So don’t give up. Keep going. It doesn’t mean that you’re in any way not progressing in the spiritual life and vulnerability makes us human. And even, you know, I was reading in the Bible about Jesus. I thought we know the story of Jesus going to the temple and to. Turning over the tables of the money changers and having the people get the animals out. He said, You know this is supposed to be, this is my father’s house. It’s supposed to be a house of prayer, but you’re making it just a den of thieves or merchants and and there’s another, but it doesn’t talk about him being angry. There’s nothing in the Bible where it talks about him being angry, except, I think it’s in mark two verse five, where there he comes into the synagogue, and there’s someone with a withered hand, and the Pharisees are have been following him around. They’re just waiting for him to do something wrong so that they can show that he’s needs to be taken out of the society. And Lord Jesus knows he can feel what’s in their hearts and minds, and so he looks at the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and he says to them, so tell me, are we to do good on the Sabbath or bad? Is Is it is it wrong to do good on the Sabbath? And they wouldn’t answer. He said, Is it proper to heal someone or to allow them to die. And they wouldn’t answer, and it said, and he looked at them in anger, for he knew of the hardness in their hearts. So all of us on the spiritual journey, all of us, God has come in the form of each one of us and we all are by looking at those beings of Divine Light who have mastered these struggles in themselves, we see, oh my gosh, they too struggled with that. If they can do it. I too can do it. We just said, let me just tell you one other thing. Who’s the the English actor, the from the 30s that did the little the hobo. It’s called The One of the greatest movie actors, he was in silent films, and his mother was always in the poor house. And so his children, they would go in and be in an orphanages, and then they would come out. And he asked his mother once, he said, she said, You know, I feel awful because I failed you children so much. But she said, I’ve just doubted myself. But she said everyone doubts son, and she said even Jesus doubted his father when he said on the cross, why have thou forsaken me? So you see, in these little human, vulnerable moments in our lives, we give teachings to others that enable them to face the challenges that they’re going through. Charlie Chaplin, that’s the actor, sorry.

Avi Gordon
One thing you said, you know that trying to think of the exact words that you use, but we are, in a way, incarnations of God, right? Or do you remember the language that you use, that that we are, we are, in a way, ourselves, a product of of God’s energy, or included in that energy?

Swami Priyaananda
Yeah, what? What is anything in this universe made of, except that divine presence, that divine energy? Yeah. We all have flesh and bones. And, you know, we we look and we have different designs, but we’re all the same and and where did we come from? We came from that divine energy. So to me, that means we all were just at different levels of waking up and experiencing, oh, whoa. That’s, I’m divine. I’ve come from divinity. I’ve done everything I could in this lifetime to conform, to cultivate that divinity within me. And wow, I’m awake. So that’s all we have to do. Just wake up.

Avi Gordon
Just wake up. A couple questions actually in the chat bar that I’ll ask for the participants.

Okay, so let me

priyananda, what and how did you change your way of responding, rather than reacting to situations that. Triggered your anger. Yeah, hmm.

Swami Priyaananda
First I watched for a long time. I watched those people that I saw had equanimity and peace. Swami Satchidananda was one, and having walked this earth 37 years, somewhat close to him most of my life, that enabled me to watch how he did that I also had a close friend, Sudarshan solicito. He, too had that equanimity, and I wanted what they had. And so I watched how they would do that. I would watch somebody come at them with a lot of intensity, and they would just take a deep breath, focus in on the moment, listen carefully and either respond or not. And so I really have learned from those around me on the spiritual path, and they’ve been my lanterns. They’ve lit my way and and it’s, it’s a constant it’s, it’s constant vigilance. Though it’s not like, Okay, I figured out how to do it. I’ve got this one now. What’s next? No, it’s constant vigilance. When something comes up. I have to remember, step back, take a deep breath. Think about this. If I engage in an argument over this. It’s what’s going to happen to that person. To me, not good. So that’s what I do. I really try to remember those who have that, those qualities, and step back from all of the chaos that’s rising in me, use the breath, use the mantra, and then make the proper decision.

Avi Gordon
Okay? Another question. My cat meow is so loud and I scream at her, where does that come from? Not really about the cat. Is it? No,

Swami Priyaananda
oh, well, where does that come from? It comes from you wanting to have the cat be a certain way. So your desire for that being to manifest in your world in a certain way is creating immense tension in you and also probably in that little kitty. I I would perhaps you could try when you that meowing starts to just lie down on your belly in front of that cat, stroke its back and talk to it very gently, sweetie. Why so loud? I know you’re here. We’re in the same house. I love you. I’m going to feed you. So just really tune into that little being and give them all the attention, apparently, that they need. And then, if you can’t do it, find a cat whisperer. There are these people all over the world who really understand animals, and they connect into them so deeply, and they can have a way to teach you how to do that kind of connection too. So that’s my all I know on cat yoga. I love it.

Avi Gordon
I love it, especially it just feel so powerful that, you know, wanting other beings to behave in a certain way, that that feels really true to me, that that happens for many of us now. Swami G, would, would you be up for leading us and maybe closing maybe a few minute, closing practice,

Swami Priyaananda
final chant, maybe. Yeah. So all of you are great yogis. I’m certain you have nice erect spines and you’re well balanced in your seat, so please close the eyes. Have a gentle exhalation, slightly contracting the abdomen, and then have a full, expanded, deep inhalation, exhale, slowly and. Inhale fully

and let the breath come back to its natural rhythm.

Just watch the breath for a moment and

can you can either do this mentally, or those of you who feel comfortable touching the face. Can do it physically, or you could use a pencil. We’ll do a little alternate nostril breathing. So close off the right nostril, exhale gently through the lap, inhale through the left Switch, open the right, exhale, inhale, switch, exhale, inhale and of switch exhale, and as you exhale, release all the tension, all of the stress, all of The heat, anything that causes contraction in the body. Inhale, cool, soothing, opening, expanding pranic energy switch, exhale, release the heat and the tension that contraction and anger builds up in the system, just let it go, inhale, feel that cosmic love is Flowing into you, permeating every cell in the body and and continue choose whatever quality that you would like to release and whatever quality you would like to increase, and as you inhale, bring in that positive quality. And as you exhale, release that which is not serving you. You

when You come to the next exhalation out of the right nostril, bring the hands back to the lap, and just observe the mind. Bring the awareness slightly beneath the skull, a little in from the sides of the head, from the front and the back of the head, and just bring the awareness to that inner core of your being and observe you.

Let the awareness come back to the breath, to the ease of the body, in the calmness of the mind,

you can open your eyes and

Avi Gordon
every time I practice, it amazes me the effects.

Thank you so much. Swami priyananda really appreciate this time. I hope everyone else has as well. Thanks for listening. If you’ve enjoyed this content and think others might as well please feel free to share and subscribe.