OVERCOMING ANGER

Six impurities in our consciousness keep us away from Krishna, and anger is one of the most prominent ones. Now, who in this world is entirely free from irritation. Yet, most of us face this emotion, and we fail to understand where to use it and how to use it.

There is a very famous philosopher who said that anger is one letter short of danger. So if you want to avoid trouble in your life. We have to ensure that we don’t get angry, and even if we do, there is a way we control or overcome it.
We find even according to the world’s survey. There are so many broken relationships because of words that are said or pronounced when somebody is angry. So we have to be very calm and composed if we aspire to be on the spiritual path.

Example:
When we sit on the banks or the side of a pond, we should see ripples immediately on the surface; as soon as there are ripples on the surface, you don’t see the fishes anymore. You see the waves now. What is the way to see the fishes well, sit on the banks for some time? Let the water settle. As it determines, you will find that the ripples go away, and now you see the fish as it is.

This example is very relevant in this context. Pebbles are like circumstances in our life; they are thrown by people into the water, the pond of our consciousness and immediately. There are ripples of agitation. As soon as there are ripples of fever, you don’t see the fishes, which means you don’t see the things as they are. When there are ripples, and you try to catch the fish, you don’t see them. However, they exist, so you don’t see them as similar when somebody throws provocative pebbles into the surface of our consciousness. They are ripples of agitation, frustration, irritation and anger.

Way to overcoming negative emotions:

The best way to do is stay calm. Hold your breath, try to count 1 to 30 or something like that as the yoga teacher explains and chant God’s holy names. The names of Sri Krishna are so powerful that they help us overcome all the negative emotions we have on our own. We can not overcome them, but when we surrender to names, forms, qualities and pastimes of Sri Krishna, we can overcome them, so when we are calm and composed, we take shelter of Krishna. The ripples of agitation settle, and then you can see the fishes as they are.

One practical suggestion that we could share is that whenever we find agitation in our life. The best is to stay calm and not react at that moment. Take your time. Stay aloof if that isolate yourself if that helps you. Think about it in a very balanced, unbiased way. Not the fact that I am always right but being humble enough to see the other person’s perspective also so when we try doing that, we often see that the fault is ours. So then there is no need of being angry.

We are angry when we are defensive when we want to smash somebody. Still, a devotee is so humble that he wants to see the good in others and improve the drawbacks in the self, so on that note, we have to be very careful before we blast anyone through thought word.

Example of a Firefall:

What is the first that happens? As soon as you pick a ball of fire intending to throw at somebody. The first thing that happens is we end up burning our hands before burning the other. So, therefore, anger is such a negative wipe or a negative feeling that it causes more destruction to the self than to the person with whom its intended tools.

Even in medical science, we understand that there are so many burnt and destroyed cells when angry. So we must be cautious that this emotion, if it’s there in us that would probably hinder our path on pure bhakti, so let us chant the names of Krishna and serve the vaisnavas who are elevated to us because if we do that, then all the negative emotions are very nicely converted into positive emotions. So hence, another question in connection to this is that.

Is it good for devotees to get angry?

A devotee who cited this example of Hanuman said that burnt Lanka, being a pure devotee, can burn things and destroy everything by shooting bullets. So everywhere, we must understand that Hanuman is an empowered personality if Hanuman could burn Lanka. He could also lift the mountain, so we must be humble and know that we don’t have to get into all this.

If we find somebody blaspheming Sri Krishna or our revered spiritual master, we deal diplomatically with those envious. We avoid them altogether. Suppose there is cursing, and you know that even if you reply based on sastra, they are not ready to listen. In that case, they will listen to what they want to hear. Then to such people, you serve by staying away because you know that even if you reply or answer their so-called allegations, they will still hold the same negative emotion, so why waste our time.

Those who curse, but you find a tinge of sincerity in them in the sense that they blaspheme based on whatever they hear. Still, they are not sure what is suitable for such people. So we have not to be very humble and say yes, you blaspheme Krishna That’s okay at that point. Like a soldier, we stand on that point, and then we tell that person based on gurus, sadhu and sastra. We explained to them nicely all the weak points in the argument and how they could be counted using the sastra.

However, a devotee never acts of his own will. He will never go and slap people. Never become a terrorist. Those who are based on religion or based on spiritual faith. They try killing people. They try to cause harm. I’m afraid that’s not right. This is not at all prescribed, or this is not advised in the Vedic scriptures, so the way a devotee retaliates to blaspheme to Guru and Krishna is based on time, place and circumstances.

Suppose somebody is faithful or a little sincere and cursed. In that case, you tolerate for the moment and then shoot back through the form of scriptural arguments and if there is somebody who’s envious and very much determined to their narrow-minded fault-finding mentality and we just bowed. So we say Hare Krishna and save our time.