The topic for the Hindi Satsang on Sunday, 5th May, 2013 was ‘Ahimsa.’ (Non-violence)
Following is the transcript of the speech made by Smt. Hansaji Yogendra on the topic.
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Listen to the Audio:
“The first step in the path of yoga is Ahimsa (Non-violence) – How should you deal with the external world? Because unless we do that, we will not be able to internalize ourselves as we are stuck in dealing with the outside world. So the first step is not to hurt others, or speak to them harshly or think badly of them. We do Karma through our hands, legs and speech. Intellectual people generally do Himsa through speech. When angry, even when you are quiet, you express anger through the eyes. Getting disturbed by anybody and hurting others so that they get disturbed, both are Himsa. Both are wrong.
A happy person does not disturb others. He only starts hurting others when he is disturbed or uncomfortable with a situation. So do not allow yourself to get disturbed in the first place, no matter what someone says. Suffering because of others is wrong. So learn to manage that. Accept others they way they are. You are not born into this world to try and improve others. Just do your duty, just like everything in Nature does. Why are we not able to do this? We get hurt because we expect. Expectation is the root of all problems. ‘I gave him so much but still he is unhappy.’
Our history talks a lot about Ahimsa. For example, a king’s duty is to enlarge his kingdom, gather more money for running the kingdom, do good for his subjects. Now, two kings were at war. Both their armies were equal in strength and so the war went on for a long time. Finally both kings came face to face and fought. After a lot of hard fighting, one king defeated the other and was about to kill him. At that moment, the fallen king cursed the other king and spit on him. The other king stopped his sword in mid-action, dropped it and walked away. People were surprised with his behaviour. He quietly returned home. The fallen king also returned to his home but could not sleep. He felt he was alive because the other king allowed it. He didn’t want the king’s pity. The next day he went to the king and demanded that he kill him as he didn’t want pity. The king replied, ‘I did not pity you. I felt very angry when you spit at me. Anger takes over and when in anger, a person should not do any action as that would be Adharma.’ The other king was very impressed and gave up his kingdom to him.
The point of the story is that the king was alert about his state of mind even when at war. Himsa stems from anger. But the problem is that we are not aware enough to realize that we are getting angry. Yoga says that the moment anger comes, we should not do any action because even when we reach the last stage of Samadhi, we have to face the repercussions of all the Karmas that we have done, only then a person achieves Moksha. So be aware when doing any act. Don’t expect anything from others. Be content with what you have in life.
Just see how anger comes, in the Mahabharat, Krishna is the charioteer and he guides Arjuna through the war. But when Arjuna finds out that his son had been trapped by the enemy and killed, he became very angry and vowed to kill the king who shot the first arrow that killed his son. Whatever decisions we take in anger, are wrong.
What we learn from these stories is that we must work with a balanced state of mind. Be aware in every minute of life. Do not keep any Himsa in your mind. Have faith and accept everything as it comes in life. Keeping this philosophy in mind, do not expect, or become anxious or tense as this would be Himsa towards ourselves and even others. So we need to decide that we will not do Himsa. Let’s keep trying.”