Personality Development thro' Gita - 5 An Angry man knows no reason.

Here is a conversation between two neighbours. Gokul ‘Hari, I always hear laughter from your house. If you don’t mind my curiosity I would like to ask you one question! How can your couple be so friendly? Don’t you ever fight?’

Hari laughed at the question and said, ‘Who said we don’t fight? We fight between ourselves more than any other couple. My wife has the habit of throwing things at me whenever we fight. If the thing hits me she laughs at me. If it doesn’t hit me, I laugh at her. As simple as that!’

But how many of us treat our fight as simple as that? We are irritated at the slightest provocation, we are angry at the silliest excuse and we fight at the smallest cause! We don’t reason out for a minute the aftermath of our anger.

These lines describe the fateful step by step descent of potentially noble man down the ladder of temptation into ruin.

krodhad bhavati sammohah
sammohat smriti-vibhramah
smriti-bhramsad buddhi-naso
buddhi-nasat pranasyati Bhagavadgita 2- 63

Synonyms
krodhat—from anger; bhavati—takes place; sammohah—perfect delusion; sammohat - from delusion; hypnosis smriti—of memory; vibhramah—bewilderment; smriti-bhramsat—after bewilderment of memory; buddhi-nasah—loss of intelligence; buddhi-nasat—and from loss of intelligence; pranasyati—one falls down.
Translation

From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down.

Anger leads to a dazed, state dazed state is like being hypnotised. One who is hypnotised doesn’t know what truth what is falsehood is. This state destroys his intelligence. He forgets the good deeds done by the other person in his anger. When he forgets this, he loses his reasoning power. When he loses his reasoning power, he is as good as dead. It is because, this reasoning power alone differentiates man from the other creatures.

Even according to science, ten minutes of anger disturbs the body for a few hours. On the contrary ten minutes of laughter keeps the body fit for a few hours. This is one facet of anger. If it disturbs only the angered man, it may be a lesser evil. But it disturbs the mental peace of the others around him. An irritable man gets irritated at the slightest opportunity, bangs the person involved, and forgets it the next minute after his downpour. If he is a good man, he may even apologise later. But imagine the plight of the sufferer. He will never forget it for the rest of his life.

Sanjay, a twelve year boy, fought with everyone around almost the whole day. The father had to apologise on his behalf to the neighbours all the time. Once the father hit upon a plan. He called his son and said, ‘Look, my son. I won’t tell you to cool down. You carry on! But every time you fight with somebody, hit a nail to this wall.’ The son asked why, but the father asked him to wait for a few days. The son agreed. The very first day, he had to drive atleast 10 nails into the wall. Within a week the wall was more than half filled with nails. The boy was surprised at his own anger and expressed the same to his father. The father said, ‘Now that you have realised the intensity of your anger, see that you reduce it gradually. I won’t ask you to give it up totally, but try to control it.! Sanjay was convinced of the argument. Slowly he learned to control himself. Initially if he was angry ten times, it came down to five times and so on and so forth. Finally he had a mastery over his mind and he gave up anger totally. Then his father asked him to remove all the nails. He did accordingly, but the holes continued to remain. The wall could not regain its original beauty. The father explained, ‘Even if you forget your anger, people who are victims to it, continue to remain offended. They cannot be friendly with you with the same tempo.’ That’s why our elders said, you can take back one step you put forward, but you cannot take back one word you put forth. The damage is done in a split second.

Joseph was the only lonely son of a millionaire. Whatever Joseph wanted, nay whatever Joseph liked, that was in his lap next minute as a surprise gift. He never had to express ‘Dad’ please buy that.’ Just a word of praise of any item was a sign for the father. This custom continued till his 21st birthday. On that birthday he expected his father to surpise him with Mercedes Benz car since he spoke about it two, three times to his father of late. He gave furtive glances at the portico, but no trace of a car ! His father greeted him at the breakfast table and handed over a brand new Bible. The boy was so angry, he threw the Bible to the floor and without uttering a single word, walked out of the father’s life. After three years, his father died and he had to come back home to settle financial matters. As he was looking through the files, he came across the Bible he threw away. Recollecting the scene, he was going through the pages. He found a cheque in it. It was Rs.50 lakh cheque given to him by his father to help him fulfil his desire! Tears rolled down his cheeks -but it was too late. The loss was irreparable. Could he get back his father? The son could not reason out, in his anger, something else was yet to come and that his father wouldn’t give him such a simple gift!
Joseph’s anger arose from his obsession for his car, which stopped his reasoning power and which drove out his intelligence. The result was he suffered and made his father suffer!

A man with a cheerful countenance carries the sunshine of happiness with him. Angry man causes harm to his body, keeps others on tenterhooks. He suffers and makes others suffer.

Gardiner that says only a vulgar mind will command a thing when he can get it done with willingness and love for a mere asking.

All the same sometimes we cannot get things done unless we display our anger. In other words an expression of anger is required but not a feeling of anger. This is explained beautifully by Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda of Y.S.S. He states “Righteous indignation may inspire a man to extra ordinary efforts to right some wrong. A righteous anger employs reasonable and constructive methods for the attainment of good end.