Anger

What is the cause of our anger?

Anger has nothing to do with external situations or people’s behavior. It may seem that these cause us to become angry, but nothing can cause something to come out of us if it doesn’t already exist within us. In other words, it’s not out there; it’s inside of us.

It’s important to know that we keep our anger alive. See it like a fire on a stove. We have the fire turned on and the anger is boiling. The problem is that we keep the flame on.

But we can turn the flame off.

This world has so many lessons to teach us – the main one being we are not controllers. Anger is a response to our frustration of not being a controller. Anger is in the mode of ignorance. We ignore that we can’t perfectly control the details of every situation.

Anger is another aspect of pride. Since I am proud, I expect things to go my way. If they don’t, I become upset. But we are taught to be tolerant and humble. A humble person doesn’t think that they are so important that everything has to go their way and that if it doesn’t they have a right to be upset.

It’s essential for us to accept that anger is not who we are. Anger is our creation. If you create it, you can stop creating it.

You don’t need to punish anyone with your anger. Of course, you don’t punish anyone with it other than yourself.

Here is the most important realization for our Bhakti: the antidote to anger is compassion. Every time we become angry we are withholding compassion upon the person with whom we are angry. Simultaneously, we are adding more anger to the world and withholding compassion from the world.

How would you like to live in a world in which everyone was as angry as you? Would it be a better world? If not, shouldn’t you do something about it?

See every provocation to anger as a test from Krsna. We should think that He is watching us, testing us to see how we will respond. Walk away from your anger. Drop it. Forget it.