Anger is the lock
If man so desires, he can sow the flowers of joy or grow the thorns of anger.If he wants he can journey through hell or enjoy the pleasures of heaven. Heaven and hell are what you experience in life itself. When you get angry, you experience hell that very moment. The body can be a door to heaven. It can also be a door to hell.There are very few who know the art of how to make the body the door to heaven, the door to God.
If you think that only after you go to a pilgrimage you will get happiness and peace, then you are mistaken. Because the door to God or Heaven is not outside, but is within us. It is not at a future kingdom come date. It is here and now. An important pilgrimage site in India is Haridwar. Hari means God and Dwar means door.The whole point is that your body can become a Haridwar (a door to God). Anger is the lock on this door.
Understand that you don’t get what you desire, but what you sow. You desire ambrosia, but you sow poison. When the fruits appear, they are of poison, of misery and suffering. It is amazing that man sows the seeds of anger and wants to have peace; sows the seeds of hatred and expects to reap love. He curses others, but hopes that everyone will bless him. This is impossible. Understand and get the knowledge of these simple laws of life. To every action, there is a reaction.This is the law of life. Every action will bring a reaction. If you curse somebody, then you throw a stone in the lake of consciousness. The ripples created due to the stone will go on spreading far and wide in the lake. At last they shall return to you. Be aware of the ripples you are causing.
Acceptance is the keyAlong with awareness, a feeling of acceptance of others is critical. Acceptance is the key. Non-acceptance creates hell. Acceptance creates heaven. Even if somebody insults you, accept it. Somebody curses you, accept that too. And as a feeling of acceptance develops, then malice won’t arise inside you, anger won’t arise. Love will arise, compassion will arise. In this way, gradually, your body will start becoming the ‘door to heaven’.
Awareness of destructive anger gets rid of angerThere are two types of anger. One is ‘destructive’ anger and the other is ‘constructive’ anger. Destructive anger can also be called as obstructive anger since it hampers the growth of a person due to which he goes in a negative direction. Its opposite is constructive anger due to which a person moves in a positive direction. ‘Constructive anger’ can be used for creative and formative purposes. Constructive anger is where there is exploration and new creation due to anger. Before understanding constructive anger, it is important to know destructive anger.
Destructive anger creates a vicious cycle. Let us understand this with the help of an example.
A company owner is on his way to the office. A dog bites him. He grudgingly goes to a doctor and therefore gets delayed for office. His work gets delayed. As a result, he gets angry. He lashes out at his manager. The manager cannot reply back to his boss. So the manager vents his anger on his secretary. The secretary in turn lets out her anger on the clerk. The clerk gets angry on the peon. The peon goes home and fights with his wife. The wife scolds her son. The son goes out and expresses his anger by hitting a stone at the same dog that had bit the company owner. Then the dog runs off to bite somebody else.
In this way, the vicious cycle goes on. This has a destructive effect on the family,the society and the nation.The environment in which our children are born and raised and the tendencies created thereof will definitely be imprinted in their minds. When that child grows up, he will lead a life made helpless by the habit of anger. In this way anger will have destructive effects not just on his body, but on his entire life.
Awareness of the negative effectsThe aware way of being free from anger is to understand the negative effects of anger.
Physical effects
Medical research has proved that the cause of many illnesses is only anger and stress, particularly illnesses such as stomach ailments, sinus pain, headache, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, insomnia, etc.
The causative factor for all these diseases is the stress on our nervous system, and this stress is created even more rapidly by anger. There is a gland in our brain called the pineal gland. Whenever we get angry, this pineal gland produces a particular type of chemical which is carried by blood circulation throughout the body, due to which this poison spreads in our entire body.This has adverse effects on every part of the body including the liver, the kidneys and the lungs. Even our heart gets affected by it.
Anger can create disease in that part or organ of the body which is weak or has less resistance. For instance, if somebody already has high blood pressure and he is getting angry, then there is a possibility of rupture of an artery in the brain which can also lead to paralysis.
Mental effectsAnger has drastic effects on the mind. An angry person usually suffers from mental diseases such as mental instability, depression, inferiority complex, insanity, etc. Doctors say that anger can even lead a person to the mental asylum because anger has a direct effect on the brain.
Social effectsClashes in relations, break-ups in relations or fights with neighbors are often seen due to anger. In business also, most people don’t like to deal with an angry person. Good workers also don’t stay long with a boss who has an angry disposition.
The society which is infected by the disease of anger cannot progress. Such societies do not stay together during difficult times, do not help each other and even their financial growth is hampered. A person can even kill due to anger because there is a feeling of vengeance inside. In such a society, very often people kill each other in anger due to the flames of vengeance within. These societies are not even able to develop culturally. They are also not able to produce any outstanding literature because cultural development is a result of love, not of anger. Only a kind and loving society can create beautiful poetry and melodious music.
Spiritual effectsAn angry person cannot walk the spiritual path. This is because an angry person will not be able to explore and investigate within himself. He will move away from himself due to anger.A multitude of problems will keep coming into his life. His life will be spent just in solving those problems. He will not have any time left for meditation, for spiritual discourses, or self- enquiry. As he solves problems angrily, he will create fresh anger and will become more and more entangled within it. Till the end of his life, this chain will continue and he will get more and more alienated from himself.
Destructive Anger in the worldThe First World War, The Second World War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Taliban-Afghanistan War and many more conflicts. In just eight decades, more than eight major wars have been fought. The result – destruction, ruin, innocent people get killed, countless little kids become orphans, and many helpless women are widowed. Wars have given us nothing but destruction. In the Second World War, when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, within a few minutes, millions were burnt to ashes.
If we take a look at history, we find that an exchange of a few words in anger have also led to wars. The mythological war of Mahabharata was a result of Draupadi’s words,“Blind father, blind son.” Words spoken with unawareness can result in massive destruction.There are various cases of friends fighting and nations warring because of anger or differences of opinion. Even today the fire of anger is blazing strong. That is why so many nuclear weapons are being invented; rockets, cannons and missiles are being produced. Scientists are saying that we have produced such an amount of nuclear weapons that can completely destroy 700 earths. We can kill each person 700 times. As if killing a person once is not enough!
This enormous increase in the number of killings is the result of anger.