Bali – Emotional problems are the problems most often faced by human beings. As long as human beings live, this emotion will always remain. This emotion has to be managed in such a way that it does not destroy the person himself or herself and others. Anand Krishna Center in Denpasar organized a heart to heart gathering with Anand Krishna on Saturday March 3rd, 2012. In this occasion, every participant was invited to manage this emotion. According to Anand Krishna, emotion is not limited to anger. A cry is an emotion; laughter is also an emotion. And so are sadness, happiness and many others.
The participants who attended that evening’s gathering were more than one hundred people. “Let us not mind other people’s business, let’s mind our own business. Drop anger, scream… Those who want to cry, just cry”, so Anand Krishna guided each present participant. Each participant found some relief after venting out their emotions by screaming.
In every discourse Anand Krishna always delivers something new. This time it was about money. “Before I came here I read an article about money. Money is the main issue for many people. Money becomes very important. If you have a lot of money, you have to use it.
Like the stories about Mullah Nasruddin. Every morning he felt like his neck is being strangled. He went to a doctor but he doctor was confused about his illness. He finally went to America where he found some information about his disease. The doctor said that this disease affects one in six billions people. And the Mullah could only live for 29 days. Mullah contemplated on his life deeply and he thought, I don’t have the chance yet to enjoy my life, I have been working all my life and now I almost die.
He saw he had three billions on his bank account. He then planned to travel abroad for sightseeing. He bought himself a ticket and stayed in starred hotels. The Mullah was really enjoying his life. The next day at 9 o’clock in the morning he would die. At that moment he was in Britain and he still had 100 pounds leftover.
With his 100 pounds leftover money the Mullah wanted to buy a shirt because before he died he wanted to spend all his money. He went to a shop and bought a shirt for 99 pounds. He needed a certain size. Some shirts had the colors that he liked but their sizes were not good. Usually he wore size 15 but because size 15 was not available he took size 17 which was rather loose.
At 9 A.M. sharp he put on the shirt he had bought yesterday and he was immediately cured. It turned out he had gained more weight so that his neck circumference also grew. He still wore size 15 while he should wear size 17. As it turned out he had been wearing the wrong size. So is our circumstance; most of us wear the wrong size.
Anand Krishna always presents stories about our absurdities so that we can laugh at our own stupidity.
Relating to world peace, Anand Krishna said we have to be at peace with ourselves first. It is not the world first. “A lot of people talk about world peace. A lot of people yearn for world peace. The fact is that there are always wars, wars never stop. Peace never gets to happen. What’s wrong here? We are wrong. We are never at peace with ourselves, rather we never reconcile with ourselves. We carry out a Ruwatan ceremony for the Archipelago as if the Archipelago were ill while in fact we are ill ourselves.
Anand Krishna continued his talk, “If you talk about world peace, look at yourself. First of all, peace must start from ourselves, inner peace. Secondly, communal love; this love should be shared with others, with the community. The Prophet Mohammed said, Love thy neighbors. To love your neighbors is not easy because we know all their badness.”
Speaking about his experience with Baba, Baba said that the vibhuti which came out of his hands was our egos. Baba had burned them. There is also a story about was a woman whose face was ugly but her voice was very melodious. Baba asked her to sing. The music group and the people who performed the bhajans generally came from South India whereas this woman came from North India. She was called Usha.
The music was confounded by the musicians. She complained to Baba and Baba said, “Did you ever see the god Shiva? There are snakes around his neck and in his hand. Well, the people close to me are such snakes. I keep them here because if they are out there they will be very dangerous and they will bite others.”
Baba said nowadays we focus all our attention on money. If money can make us happy why don’t we ask for happiness directly? Why do we have to have money first and then be happy? People look for a spouse for their happiness but once they found their spouse they are still unhappy.
If you want to stay celibate like Baba, fine. It’s also fine if you want to get married. Fall in one hole. Usually after having married several times, the couple notices his or her partner’s resemblance with his or her previous spouse from their previous marriages. Like Mullah Nasruddin when he gets married for the 37th time he is shocked. “I think I knew you,” says Mullah. His wife also thinks the same. And it turns out they were once a couple in their first marriage.
With this story, Anand Krishna closed the heart to heart gathering of that evening.
March 5th, 2012
Reporter and Photographer: Made Mulia, Translator: Sylvia Antaresa
