There
are certain schools of psychology who affirm that reaction of anger,
hatred or violence are but natural reactions to events with which
we may be confronted. If we do not express them we will suppress
them which is even more harmful.
There
are others who believe that these are part of all human nature in
varying degrees. Therefore not to have them entirely is unnatural.
One can and should try to keep them within certain limits but it
is not possible to eliminate them entirely.
Some
go so far as to say that these are ingrained in us, they are necessary
for our growth and an outlet for their expression is indispensable.
However,
the path of spirituality and yoga takes an entirely different-view.
Anger, hatred, violence may be part of the ordinary, unregenerate
human nature. They may also be natural elements of man's evolutionary
growth. But they have no place in feeling, thought or deed for a
person who is aspiring to a higher life, who would like to rise
above his normal humanity into a higher consciousness. Reactions
of anger or hatred have no justification whatsoever whatever be
the provocations and outer circumstances. They are sign of lack
of self-control which make one a plaything in the hands of lower
forces. No right decision is possible under their influence.
Here
are some aphorisms from Sri Aurobindo and some explanations from
the Mother on this topic:
"In
my ignorance I thought anger could be noble and vengeance grandiose;
but now when I watch Achilles in his epic fury, I see a very fine
baby in a very fine rage and I am pleased and amused.
*
Power
is noble, when it overtops anger; destruction is grandiose, but
it loses caste when it proceeds from vengeance. Leave these things,
for they belong to a lower humanity.
*
When
I hear of a righteous wrath, I wonder at man's capacity for self-deception."
-
Sri Aurobindo
"Anger and vengeance belong to a lower humanity, the humanity
of yesterday and not of tomorrow.
*
Any
expression of anger is the sign of a lack of self-control."
-
The Mother
But when
we are possessed by anger we try to justify it, through various
means, both to ourselves and to others. The Mother explains:
"Anger
is a deformation of the vital power, an obscure and wholly unregenerated
vital, a vital that is still subject to all the ordinary actions
and reactions. When this vital power is used by an ignorant and
egoistic individual will and this will meets with opposition from
other individual wills around it, this power, under the pressure
of opposition, changes into anger and tries to obtain by violence
what cannot be achieved solely by the pressure of the force itself.
Besides,
anger, like every other kind of violence, is always a sign of
weakness, impotence and incapacity…
…
self-deception comes solely from the approval given to it or the
flattering epithet [righteous] attached to it - because anger
can only be something blind, ignorant and asuric, that is to say,
contrary to the light…
This
mental habit of always endowing everything with a very favourable
appearance, of giving a favourable explanation to all movements
- sometimes it is rather subtle, but sometimes it is so crude
that nobody is deceived except oneself. It is a habit of excusing
oneself, the habit of giving a favourable mental excuse, a favourable
mental explanation to everything one does, to everything one says,
to everything one feels. For example, those who have no self-control
and slap someone's face in great indignation would call that an
almost divine wrath!
It
is amazing, amazing - this power of self-deception, the mind's
skill in finding an admirable justification for any ignorance,
any stupidity whatsoever.
This
is not an experience that comes only now and then. It is something
which you can observe from minute to minute. And you usually see
it much more easily in others! But if you look at yourself closely,
you catch yourself a thousand times a day, looking at yourself
just a little indulgently: "Oh! but it is not the same thing."
Besides, it is never the same for you as it is for your neighbour!"
-
The Mother
And how
do we try to control the movement of anger? It is definitely not
by giving expression to it. It is rather by growing more and more
in the psychic consciousness. Sri Aurobindo says:
"I
think you have always had an idea that to give expression to an
impulse or a movement is the best way or even the only way to
get rid of it. But that is a mistaken idea. If you give expression
to anger, you prolong or confirm the habit of the recurrence of
anger; you do not diminish or get rid of the habit. The very first
step towards weakening the power of anger in the nature and afterwards
getting rid of it altogether is to refuse all expression to it
in act or speech. Afterwards one can go on with more likelihood
of success to throw it out from the thought and feeling also.
And so with all other wrong movements.
*
Nothing
can spiritually justify individual violence done in anger or passion
or from any vital motive. In our yoga our object is to rise higher
than the ordinary life of men and in it violence has to be left
aside altogether.
*
It
is true that anger and strife are in the nature of the human vital
and do not go easily; but what is important is to have the will
to change, and the clear perception that these things must go.
If that will and perception are there, then in the end they will
go. The most important help to it is, here also, for the psychic
being to grow within-for that brings a certain kindliness, patience,
charity towards all and one no longer regards everything from
the point of view of one's own ego and its pain or pleasure, likings
and dislikings."
-
Sri Aurobindo
