By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
We have a brother member in our Ananda Marga Yoga Society who was from Russia. I said “was from Russia” because his mindset now, in accordance with the organization’s principles, should be that he is a universal man or a citizen of the universe, a brother to everybody regardless of nationality, sex, religion or creed, or caste, etc.
He had been around for more than a year as he is on training to become one of our yoga teachers. He has gone through the local examination already and will have to go to India for his final examination. If he passes, he will then be assigned to other countries. There are Ananda Marga units in all countries of the world.
Asking him about the number of our members in Russia, he said, there are about 1,500 active members and the organization has lands where they can put up model communities. They already have inns or hostels in those areas. Very soon, they will be putting up orphanages, children’s schools, and other establishments especially for those who are less privileged. They have already started farms being operated as cooperatives especially for the members.
The past four decades, the organization slowly took root even in closed societies like Russia and China. While it was difficult at first, when the Soviet Union broke up, the former soviet states became very fertile grounds for the spreading of our group.
Cited as main reason for this was the hunger for freedom and the thirst for spiritual practices such as meditation and related activities for personal development.
Incidentally, one of the first Russian recruits to the organization was a KGB agent. He was sent to spy on the organization so they would understand why it is very strong in India and was spreading fast all round the globe. To accomplish that the KGB agent had to learn our group’s philosophy and ideology and also had to do the required practices. After more than a year though, he got converted and became an active member and even spent sometime doing some missionary work spreading the group’s philosophy and ideology and its spiritual practices.
The point of this article, however, is the feeling of meeting a Russian who is related to us due to our belonging to the same group. He is as human as anybody else except that he looks different as he is white, has a long nose and many Filipinos would definitely describe him as handsome being slim, tall, with blond hair and nice facial features. Of course, he is not as conversant with English as he must have started learning the language only when he joined the organization.
Being our co-member and his being so human who had been and will be giving up a lot of his time to do social service to humanity as a yoga teacher makes hm special in a way. Now, I could not imagine hating a Russian just because he is that, much less killing one. Even with all the hatred developed in me against Russian soldiers who had been shooting or bombing innocent children, women (one was even giving birth), and old people in Ukraine. What for???!!!!!
Meet a good Russian and you will get the feeling that hurting one would be like hurting your cousin or even your brother. As one philosopher said, humanity is one and indivisible and that we are all brothers and sisters.
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