О пользе страсти

pretre_philippe — 04.12.2015 Многие православные настолько привыкли воспринимать страсти как что-то однозначно предосудительное и негативное, что даже не подозревают подчас, что всё может быть совсем иначе. И именно потому у нас вокруг жизнь бывает такой, какой есть, на общественном уровне, что в плоть и кровь многих буквально "въелось" это далеко не правильное понимание, что со страстями надо обязательно бороться и их непременно искоренять.
Когда-то я специально переводил на русский одну статью по этому поводу епископа Каллиста (Уэра)
- "Умерщвлять или перенаправлять страсти?"
А недавно тут попались рассуждения одного индуса - "How to make peace? Get angry!" -, который почти мысль в мысль, только более заостренно и просто, без всякого богословия, говорит о том же самом! Кто понимает английский - вперед.

Today, I am going to talk about anger. When I was 11, seeing some of my friends
leaving the school because their parents
could not afford textbooks made me angry. When I was 27, hearing the plight
of a desperate slave father whose daughter was
about to be sold to a brothel made me angry. At the age of 50, lying on the street,
in a pool of blood, along with my own son, made me angry.

Dear friends, for centuries
we were taught anger is bad. Our parents, teachers, priests — everyone taught us how to control and suppress our anger. But I ask why? Why can't we convert our anger
for the larger good of society? Why can't we use our anger to challenge and change
the evils of the world? That I tried to do.

Friends, most of the brightest ideas
came to my mind out of anger. Like when I was 35 and sat
in a locked-up, tiny prison. The whole night, I was angry. But it has given birth to a new idea. But I will come to that later on. Let me begin with the story
of how I got a name for myself.

I had been a big admirer
of Mahatma Gandhi since my childhood. Gandhi fought and lead
India's freedom movement. But more importantly, he taught us how to treat
the most vulnerable sections, the most deprived people,
with dignity and respect. And so, when India was celebrating Mahatma Gandhi's
birth centenary in 1969 — at that time I was 15 — an idea came to my mind. Why can't we celebrate it differently? I knew, as perhaps
many of you might know, that in India, a large number of people
are born in the lowest segment of caste. And they are treated as untouchables. These are the people — forget about allowing them
to go to the temples, they cannot even go into the houses
and shops of high-caste people.

So I was very impressed with
the leaders of my town who were speaking very highly against
the caste system and untouchability and talking of Gandhian ideals. So inspired by that, I thought, let us set an example by inviting these people to eat food
cooked and served by the untouchable community. I went to some low-caste,
so-called untouchable, people, tried to convince them,
but it was unthinkable for them. They told me, "No, no. It's not possible.
It never happened." I said, "Look at these leaders, they are so great,
they are against untouchability. They will come. If nobody comes,
we can set an example." These people thought that I was too naive. Finally, they were convinced.

My friends and I took our bicycles
and invited political leaders. And I was so thrilled, rather, empowered to see that each one of them agreed to come. I thought, "Great idea.
We can set an example. We can bring about change in the society."

The day has come. All these untouchables,
three women and two men, they agreed to come. I could recall that they had used
the best of their clothes. They brought new utensils. They had taken baths
hundreds of times because it was unthinkable
for them to do. It was the moment of change. They gathered. Food was cooked. It was 7 o'clock. By 8 o'clock, we kept on waiting, because it's not very uncommon
that the leaders become late, for an hour or so.

So after 8 o'clock, we took our bicycles
and went to these leaders' homes, just to remind them. One of the leader's wives told me, "Sorry, he is having some headache,
perhaps he cannot come." I went to another leader and his wife told me,
"Okay, you go, he will definitely join." So I thought that the dinner
will take place, though not at that large a scale.

I went back to the venue, which was a newly built Mahatma Gandhi Park. It was 10 o'clock. None of the leaders showed up. That made me angry. I was standing, leaning against Mahatma Gandhi's statue. I was emotionally drained, rather exhausted. Then I sat down where the food was lying. I kept my emotions on hold. But then, when I took the first bite, I broke down in tears. And suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. And it was the healing, motherly touch of an untouchable woman. And she told me, "Kailash, why are you crying? You have done your bit. You have eaten the food cooked by untouchables, which has never happened in our memory." She said, "You won today." And my friends, she was right.

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