Today Gurudeva observes that so few of the Hindus of Indian origin who come to the ashram are vegetarians--a lapse of religious observance he attributes to the English education system. He talks at length about anger, and the need to control anger before doing meditation or even japa. A little bit of anger can erase of a lot of spiritual striving.

Unedited Transcript:

Today at Kauai Aadheenam. January 13th.

Well, today we are all sitting together talking about the next 'Hinduism Today'. What are we going to put in it? What is the news that has come in from the Internet? What is the news that has come in on the wire services, Associated Press and writers, faxes, letters to the editor and more.

Wonderful visitors lately, all mystically inclined, and most are long-term vegetarians. How is it, I wonder, that Europeans and Americans are vegetarians and most Indian Hindu's aren't? Wow!

The Church of England dominating India and Sri Lanka for such a long time really did a good job in convincing Hindus who are to be vegetarians by testimony of their faith, to eat meat. Too bad, too bad. Let's correct the situation. Being a vegetarian is being healthy. Being a vegetarian is being strong. Being a vegetarian is being kindly and letting that little chicken live or [letting] that potenial egg to become a chicken.

(Some )People often ask me, 'Well, what about milk?' I say, "Well, milk is not a potential cow."

We don't have any questions today. But there is a typical question that comes up once or twice every year for the last so many years and that is, "I try to meditate, and I become so angry with myself and the more I try to meditate and do japa, the repetition of mantrams, the stronger my anger becomes. What can I do to learn to meditate?"

Well, the first thing to do is to learn to control the anger by not meditating, not performing japa, or the recitation of mantrams. Because, that strengthens that lower chakra where anger exists. (And )That is way down in the nether worlds, way down in the thighs someplace. It is not in the torso and it is certainly not in the head. It is one of the lower worlds where fire is felt.

There is no reason to anger. It is sort of a temporary insanity, I would say. So, angry people should not meditate, should not perform austerities, should do simple sadhanas like karma yoga. Clean the temple. Make garlands. Worship Siva with love in their heart, if they can get up that high in consciousness. This is so important on the path because angry people are on a path, but it's not 'The Path'. It is the path that goes around in circles. It is called the anava marga, the path of the lower ego, the personal ego, the 'i-ness, the little i, not the big I.

Anger is a detriment to sadhana. Someone can perform sadhana for three weeks and do very well in a controlled environment, such as here on the Garden Island of Kauai, at our place. (, and )Then miss his flight at the airport and become angry and all the good energy and all of the good punyam, which is good merit, accumulated within himself through the two weeks of sadhana, flies away, never to return. That is good advice for those who get angry and are spinning their wheels in trying to meditate.

(So )Send in your questions and if you would like to have a brochure about Innersearch Alaska. Innersearch means 'the search within ourselves'. We are going on a big ship from Vancouver, Canada to Anchorage, Alaska to bless a Ganesha temple that is coming up in Anchorage, Alaska, the first one in that state, which we are creating. If you want to go with us, there is a limited group that can go. The ship only holds one thousand two hundred people. Write to us in the little question box and we'll send you some information on this journey. We'll have many, many classes throughout the day and much learning to be done and we can personally become acquainted. So all of you cyberspace babies out there, you cyberspace adults out there, cyberspace wonderful people, let's go up, up and away to Vancouver and then slide across the ocean looking at icebergs and the polar bears but most importantly looking within ourselves to find the glories of the wondeful soul that Lord Siva has created us to be.

|