Anger - Burn It. Harness It.

June 20, 2012

(This guest post is by Smt Arundhati Sundar. She heard Swami Swaroopanandaji's talk on Anger in Singapore on May 27, 2012 at the RELC Auditorium organized by the Chinmaya Seva Centre. This post is not intended as a report of the talk.)

The topic was "Anger: Burn It, Harness It."

Pujya Swami Swaroopanandaji was talking about an emotion that is universally experienced,  equally deplored, to a jam packed auditorium.

Swamiji painted vivid word images of anger in all its gradations from its mildest form to its gloriously full-throated form. Irritation, annoyance, exasperation, - the commonplace mild forms of the emotion appear innocent enough, yet end up clouding our days. But the emotion that ends up hijacking our happiness is self destructive.

• Like the soda bottle, just open the lid, it fizzes up and equally quickly splutters out;
• Like the meteor, enter into our inner space with a sudden flash, blazing trail burning bright, but also burns out quickly;
• Like the volcano, building up pressure over maybe years, and suddenly erupts causing widespread destruction, burying all around in heaps of ashes;
• Like the smoldering coal, it appears to be off but maintains the heat within for a long, long, time. Given the right condition it can even start a blazing fire, devouring all.

Bhagavad Geeta Chapter 2, shloka 62-63 describes the slippery downhill path to self destruction.
ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते |
सङ्गात्सञ्जायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते ||२-६२||
क्रोधाद्भवति सम्मोहः सम्मोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रमः |
स्मृतिभ्रंशाद् बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात्प्रणश्यति ||२-६३|| dhyaayato vishhayaanpu.nsaH saN^gasteshhuupajaayate .
saN^gaatsa~njaayate kaamaH kaamaatkrodho.abhijaayate .. 2\-62..
krodhaadbhavati sammohaH sammohaatsmR^itivibhramaH .
smR^itibhra.nshaad.h buddhinaasho buddhinaashaatpraNashyati .. 2\-63..
When a man thinks of objects, "attachment" for them arises; from attachment "desire" is born; from desire arises "anger" . . .
From anger comes "delusion" ; from delusion "loss of memory" ; from loss of memory the "destruction of discrimination" ; from destruction of discrimination, he "perishes."

The inexorable, downhill slide is described by Śrī Kṛṣṇa:

• Brooding over some imagined want
• If that is not satisfied, it leads to frustration and anger that simmers
• One looks for a person or circumstance to blame
• Feeding the anger with justification, one goes over and over the events to self, and repeating endlessly to others
• Stoking the embers, in turn intensifies the emotion, distorts perception and twists understanding of the situation 
• It burns the person on the inside and the intense heat is felt by all those close to the person
• The language reflects the intensity of the emotion: one literally 'sees red'
• The intellect becomes clouded by the fumes of anger, one becomes incapable of judging
• The language reflects the condition of the mind: one has 'lost it', i.e. any possibility of self-control
• Any words or action under such circumstances cause long term harm

Yet we justify, the 'other' was wrong. Swamiji recalled a beautiful quote by Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji:



Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

Anger is revenge on oneself, for the fault of others

Exploring the the cause is a necessary first step to burning 'anger' itself. In a future installment, I will discuss the solutions recommended.

In the interim, if you want a CD of the full talk by Swami Swaroopanandaji, please contact sarabkapoor A|T g|m|a|i|l|.c|o|m