ANGER: A Letter Short of Danger
“Never make a decision when you are angry; never make a promise when you are happy”
In the Gita, Krishna identifies anger as one of the three gates to hell, the other two being lust and greed (16.21). What is the root cause of anger? The all-devouring, most sinful inner enemy of all people is lust, which, if not fulfilled, emerges as anger. Lust is nothing but excessive desire. As you think about sense objects, you develop attachment toward them. The attachment breeds desire, and when it remains unfulfilled, the desire leads to anger. And, then what happens?
“Krodhat bhavati sammoha: sammohat smritivibhrama:
Smritibhramsaat buddhinaso buddhinasat pranasyati” (2.3)
Anger breeds delusion, which in turn causes loss of memory and, as a result, the person suffers from the decay of the power of discrimination. Once his intelligence is destroyed, he perishes. This observation goes in tandem with a previous statement in the Gita (2.56) that a person who is free from anger only can be called a man of steady intelligence (sthitaprajna). From the second chapter onwards, Krishna underscores the importance of controlling and managing anger because freedom from it is an essential condition for attaining spiritual wisdom (4.10) and happiness in life (5.23).
After detailing the causes and effects of anger, the Lord discusses the means to conquer it. Earlier, He said that there should not be an attachment to the results of one’s actions. We also found that attachment to the outcome of one’s karma will fritter away the focus from the process of actual work on hand, which will adversely affect the quality of the output. Not getting the desired results could cause disappointment and simmering anger. When you pick a stick at one end, you’re picking at its other end as well. The anger leads to its inevitable consequences. The means to conquer anger is not to be concerned about the results of our actions. But it should be noted that karma does not mean physical action alone. Our thoughts and words also constitute karma, just like our deeds. In other words, feelings and emotions like desire, longing for something, aversion for certain other things, etc. also are part of karma. These are the precursors of lust or excessive desire, which are the seeds of anger.
Anything in excess, even a virtue, turns into a vice. Understanding this, a man of wisdom loathes the desire to possess the objects of his senses. For, he doesn’t want to become a slave to the attachment towards them. He also discerns that excessive likes and dislikes will hinder his spiritual growth as well (3.34).
Prevention is better than cure.
Why should you try to manage anger after its cropping up? A man of discriminative intellect pre-empts anger by taking charge of his senses through self-discipline and moderation in thoughts, words, and deeds. This is the way to attain purity of the self as well (2.64 & 3.41). A man of detachment will never be overwhelmed by the pairs of gain and loss, success and failure, happiness and sorrow, etc. for he knows that ‘even this shall come to pass off’. He will maintain equipoise under all circumstances. This is the nature of a person of steady intelligence.
Akrodha
Krodha in the Sanskrit language means anger and the letter ‘A’ prefixing the word means ‘without’ or ‘non-’. Krodha is excessive mental turmoil caused by failure or obstacles to the gratification of some desire. Demonic in nature, it is a manifestation of the quality of ‘tamas’ (dysfunctional, dark, and destructive) within. Hinduism considers akrodha as a virtue and a desirable ethical value. To remain calm and composed, even when one is insulted, rebuked, or provoked, shows that the person is in control of himself (internal locus of control). On the other hand, if you get agitated by an insult or a provocative word or a statement made by another and react angrily towards that person, that shows the ‘control switch’ of your behavior is held by him (external locus of control).
Akrodha does not mean one is not angry because there’s no reason to be angry; it means, despite valid reasons to be angry, one keeps his cool, calm, and composed nature. The following episode from Swami Vivekananda’s life illustrates this point very well:
Once, a preacher from the society for the protection of cows came to Vivekananda for some donation. The conversation between them went like this:
Vivekananda: “What is the object of your society?”
Preacher: “We protect the mother-cows of our country from the hands of the butcher. Cow infirmaries have been founded in some places where the diseased, decrepit mother-cows or those bought from the butchers are provided for”.
Swamiji: “That is very good indeed. What is the source of your income?”
Preacher: “The work of the society is carried on only by gifts kindly made by great men like you…”
Swamiji: “A terrible famine has now broken out in Central India. The Indian Government has published a death toll of nine lakhs of starved people. Has your society done anything to render help in this time of famine?”
Preacher: “We do not help during famine or other distresses. This society has been established only for the protection of mother-cows”.
Swamiji: “During a famine when lakhs of people, your own brothers and sisters, have fallen into the jaws of death, you have not thought it your duty, though having the means, to help them in that terrible calamity with food!”
Preacher: “No. This famine broke out as a result of men’s Karma, their sins. It is a case of “like Karma, like fruit”.
Hearing the words of the preacher, sparks of fire, as it were, scintillated in Swamiji’s large eyes; his face became flushed. But he suppressed his feeling and said: “…..With regard to your cause also, it can be said — the mother-cows through their own Karma fall into the hands of the butchers and die, and we need not do anything in the matter.”
The preacher was a little abashed and said: “Yes, what you say is true, but the Shastras say that the cow is our mother.”
Swamiji smilingly said: “Yes, that the cow is our mother, I understand: who else could give birth to such accomplished children?”
The up-country preacher did not speak further on the subject; perhaps he could not understand the point of Swamiji’s poignant ridicule (CW.6 450–451).
The Naradaparivrajaka Upanishad in ‘Atharva Veda’ states the nature of akrodha of a person who seeks self-knowledge and liberation (kaivalya) thus:
“All cruel words should be endured. None should be treated with disrespect. No anger should be directed towards one who is angry. Only soft words should be spoken even when violently pulled by another”.
The quality of sahya is considered an ethical value in Hinduism. The word means ‘to bear’, ‘endure’, ‘suffer’, or ‘put up with’. It is the attitude by which a person willingly, not out of weakness to react, bears negative cognitive inputs in order to win over the opponent or whatever is offensive — for the cause of the Ultimate Truth. Peace and happiness indicate a state of contentment thanks to the absence of spite or envy, anger, and violence. Dharma relies on akrodha because it creates an environment of serenity, a rational principle of life, and also because it is a moral value fuelled by love. When angry, a person loses his self-identity because anger clouds his reasoning as a result of which he loses the power of discrimination between right and wrong, virtue and vice, etc.
Why anger should be conquered?
The Mahabharata states: “Anger is (at) the root of the destruction of mankind in this world. The angry man sins, the angry man murders his preceptor, and the angry man insults using harsh words. The angry man cannot distinguish what should be and should not be said by him; there is nothing that cannot be said or done by an angry man. Out of anger, a man may kill the one who should not be killed and adore one that deserves to be slain; an angry man may even despatch his own self to the abode of Yama (the god of death). Reflecting on these evils, anger must be conquered (Vana Parva, XXIX 3.7).
“Ahimsa satyamakrodha: tyaga:santirapaisunam
Daya bhuteshvaloluptvam mardhavam hreerachapalam” (Gita 16.2)
‘Non-violence, truthfulness, freedom from wrath, renunciation, tranquillity, absence of envy, kindness to living beings, non-covetousness, gentleness, modesty, dignity.
Akrodha is one of the twenty-six divine attributes a person can have, says the Gita. As we have seen previously, Manu also had included akrodha in his ten dharma-lakshanas (attributes of dharma).
Can an ordinary mortal be detached from anger? The Gita further says (in 5.23):
“Saknotihaiva ya; sodhum praksareeravimokshanat
Kamakrodhotbhavam vegam sa yukta:sa sukhee nara:”
The shloka obliquely states that as long as the soul is indwelling in a body, and the body encounters troublesome situations, emotional outbursts are natural. However, slavery to negative emotions is a sure recipe for self-sabotage. The above verse identifies the inner forces of lust and anger as the enemies of man’s peace and happiness. As we have understood, anger is a spontaneous reaction to injustice or unfulfilled desires. And it is a natural reaction for an ordinary human being. But what is natural need not always be desirable or ideal.
Misconstruing akrodha as suppressing anger and laboriously repressing the inner turmoil will be counterproductive to the physical and mental health of the individual. Per contra, letting loose the anger will exacerbate the situation, as explained earlier. It is tantamount to pressing the accelerator and the break of a moving car at the same time. We end up overreacting and compounding the problem. It happens because delusion, arising from anger, subdues our discriminative intelligence, which should otherwise be guiding the mind and helping it to respond appropriately, rather than react, in a given situation.
Four unique human endowments
A famous saying goes like this: “Between stimulus and response, there is a space; in that space lies our freedom and power to choose; in those choices lie our growth and our happiness”. Everything we encounter in life is a stimulus, which calls for a response. Among the living beings, human beings only are endowed with self-awareness, conscience, independent will, and imagination, which are the ‘birth gifts’ deposited in our minds by the Creator. Your success or failure in life depends on your ability or inability to employ one or more of these four unique endowments profitably and to respond to every incoming stimulus appropriately.
What happens when you’re angry is that the progressive steps of delusion, loss of memory, and destruction of intelligence cause the said four endowments to enter into a sleeping mode. As a result, instead of a well-thought-out response originating from a reflective mind, what comes out of a dulled inner self is a spontaneous reaction, which is a reflex action. The reaction is unconscious and automatic sans application of mind as against response, which is the outward manifestation of a contemplative mind. The difference: it can make or mar a man.
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What’s in it for us?
1. Lust, greed, and anger are the three gates to hell.
2. Lust is the precursor to anger.
3. Freedom from anger is an essential condition to attain spiritual wisdom and happiness in life.
4. Cultivating self-discipline and moderation in thoughts, words, and deeds helps develop steady intelligence.
5. Not being angry does not mean repressing one’s emotion and feigning calmness, which is more harmful to physical and mental health. Not to be affected by anger even amidst provocative situations is an art learned as one develops non-attachment to results of actions, abhorrence of lust, greed, etc.
6. Effectively controlling and managing anger is an important part of healthy interpersonal relationships.
7. Anger fails and destroys a person because of his inability to kindle the four unique human endowments, viz., self-awareness, conscience, independent will, and imagination.
To be continued
Dr.K R S Nair
keyares51@gmail.com
