Freedom from Anger

If you never become angry congratulations. You are already enlightened in the sense that you have risen beyond all the psychological bonds. You have developed the highest degree of compassion.

If you are not not enlightened, brace for some unsavory remarks. It is either the enlightened or the stupid who never become angry. If Buddha is the word that stands for enlightenment, Buddhu is the word for stupid.

Buddha is also the word that connotes the ultimate compassion. When you are compassionate, you do not allow the triggers for anger to get activated whatever might be the circumstances. Same way the stupid may not feel anger because he may not become aware that he has been sidelined. He may not know that words have been used to make him feel bad.

So the high majority fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum where stupidity is at the bottom of the scale and enlightenment at the top. No doubt we all feel angry depending upon specific triggers. Sometimes we react and express it immediately. Sometimes we store it to so that we explode at some later stage.

So feeling anger but not expressing it immediately is not the solution. Without being either enlightened or stupid, can we do something so that we cut anger at its root?

It requires an analysis of anger. Without knowing the cause of disease we cannot cure any disease. Same way without knowing what causes anger, we cannot be free from anger.

Let us look at this from the perspective of our ancient seers. Our vedic texts talk of shad ripus – six enemies. There are six internal enemies – Desire/lust (Kama), Anger (Krodha), Greed(Lobha), Obsession (Moha), Self-centeredness (Mada), and Jealousy (Matsyarya).

All these shad-ripus are interconnected. One becomes angry when faced with unexpected obstacles in the fulfilment of desires. The mada-dominated person or the self centered or the narcissist becomes angry or jealous on every social situation when someone else is the centre of attraction.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in one of his talks has explained how these shad ripus are only at the periphery of our being. He has emphasised that these are distortions of the positive energy called love. Love is at the centre. Being at the periphery they do not effect the pure being that is at the centre of all of us. These six so called enemies are actually distortions of love. So when one becomes love, or when compassion increases in us these negative feelings including anger do decrease in intensity.

There can be an Ayurvedic perspective to anger. You might have heard someone say – Hey, why has so much pitta gone into your head”. The humour of pitta is associated with anger. Pitta dominated persons are more prone to sudden bouts of anger compared to bata or kapha dominated persons. Pitta is also associated with perfectionism and precise intelligence. Perfectionists cannot instantly forgive themselves or others. Of course they would regret a lot later on.

You will find hundreds of tips and shortcuts given by self help gurus, youtubers and reel makers on how to manage anger, control anger – or rather on how to control expression of anger. But you might have experienced that when you are under the spell of anger, nothing works. Because your focus is wrong. You should focus on elimination of anger, not on control or management of anger.

But elimination can happen only when you are a Buddha or a Buddhu- when you are fully aware or totally unaware.

Seems too impracticable.

However, what is practicable is taking a step to increase awareness, to increase understanding, to increase compassion, to increase love.