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It
is customary to speak of kama(desire) and krodha(anger) together.
Krsna Paramatman says in the Gita that
desire and anger goad a man into sinful action.
When
we intensely desire an object we try to get it by fair means or
foul. It is a deadly enemy, desire: it eggs us on to commit sin.
Equally deadly is anger. When we fail to get the object of our
desire we turn our anger against the man who, we believe was an
obstacle. Unfulfilled desire becomes anger.
If
we throw a rubber against the wall, it bounces- in other words it
returns to us. The ball thrown is desire and it is the same ball
that becomes anger as it bounces. The attack we believe we make
on others in our anger is actually an attack we make on
ourselves- and we are hurt more than those we wanted to hurt.
When we are angry our whole body shakes. Anger indeed causes pain
both to the body and the mind and we make ourselves ugly when we
are angry. You will know the truth of this if you see a
photograph taken when you are in foul mood.
Hunger
is appeased by eating. But is fire assuaged in the same way? You
keep feeding it and it keeps devouring everything. Fire is bright
but it chars all that it consumes. Or, in other words, it turns
everything black. That is why it is called
"krsnavartman". Kama or desire is similar. It flares up
like fire. The more it is fed the more it becomes hungry. Indeed
kama blackens our mind. When a desire is gratified there is joy
for the moment, but soon it goes in search of more
"food" and the process we lose our peace of mind and
happiness and become victims of sorrow and anger.
Sorrow
and anger are two forms of unrequited desire. If we think that
those who are a hindrance to the gratification of our desire are
inferior to us, we turn our anger against them, and if we think
they are superior, all we do is to grieve within ourselves. Anger
is packed with more evil power than even desire. Naisadham, the
story of Nala, illustrates this truth beautifully. As King Kali
makes his appearance, desire and anger (kama and krodha)
accompany him as his two army commanders. The herald sings their
praises. "There is no place that kama cannot gain entry to.
No, there is a place he cannot enter. It is the fortress in which
anger resides. This fortress is the heart of Durvasas. "
Durvasas does not know desire but he is subject to fits of anger.
We
must be extremely wary of this terrible sinner called anger. A
little thought will convince us that we are not in the least
qualified to be angry with anybody or to shout at anybody. We are
even more guilty than those against whom we turn in our anger. We
know this in our heart of hearts. Even if we are guiltless,
before we rush to find fault with someone, we must ask ourselves
whether we would not have committed the offence we think he is
guilty of were we placed in the same circumstances as he.
We
must try our best to keep anger always at a distance.
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"Hindu Dharma" is a book
which contains English translation of certain invaluable and
engrossing speeches of Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji (at
various times during the years 1907 to 1994).
For a general background, please see here
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