Beauty ＆ Pure 40

I [Annamalai Swami] often had to get angry with the [building] workers in order to get the work done. I discovered quite early in my career that if I didn’t shout a lot the quantity and quality of the work deteriorated. On one occasion I went too far and actually hit one of the workers because he had deliberately disobeyed me. It happened on a day when I was supervising work on the dining room. Early that morning, before the workers came, Bhagavan had asked me to tell the stonecutter to cut a stone one and a half feet long. The dimensions had to be exact because it was needed for a particular place in the dining room wall. Because Bhagavan had given me very precise orders about this stone, I told the stonecutter to be very careful when he cut it. I gave him detailed instructions on how to cut it in such a way that it would not break. While I was away supervising another job, the stonecutter ignored all my instructions and broke the stone by trying to cut in a different way. When I returned and saw what he had done I got so angry with him that I gave him a blow on the back.
This happened at about 9 a.m. For the rest of the day I felt very guilty about losing my temper in this way. That evening, when I gave my daily report, I confessed to Bhagavan and apologized for my action.
Bhagavan asked me, ‘When did this anger come and when did you hit him?’
I told him that the incident had happened about 9 a.m. that morning.
‘This anger that came at 9 a.m. has already gone,’ said Bhagavan. ‘Why are you still thinking that you got angry and hit someone? Why are you still carrying these thoughts in your mind? Instead of feeling guilty about what you have done, enquire, “To whom did all this anger come?” Find out the real nature of the person who got angry this morning.
‘For activity, that anger was needed. Now it is all over, you do not need to think about it anymore. So drop that memory of anger and proceed with the next job.’