ANGER IS OKAY... REVENGE IS NOT


















Pic.: Neerja Panchal 


“Holding on to anger is like drinking poison
and expecting the other person to die.”
 

-         Buddha

Anger is okay. If we bottle it up as victims, it kills us. If we hold on to it with hatred, it turns into revenge… And, hatred consumes us before it consumes the one who we hate… Revenge kills us first, then the other fellow!

Yes, anger is poison.. I have in my heart quite a lot of it… as everyone else has. And like most of my fellow-beings, I, too, express it by shouting and screaming sometimes - and, sometimes, too loudly; and, with that, there it goes – out of my window. I can, happily say that the other person is not hurt badly at all… In fact, after I have expressed my anger, strangely, he comes closer to me… Most of the times, it is so.

It’s a nice feeling. Very healing, too!

Having said such nice things about anger, I still advocate this: Our anger should not be allowed to become hatred and revenge. We have to let the other person know that we are angry and why… That’s fair enough, healthy. But, taking our anger too far is too dangerous. It is an act of self-destruction…

One who does it, knows it. Even though he may not admit it!

Our anger should help us become compassionate human beings… humbler and more spiritual. Luckily, for most of us, it does. Our fallibility with regard to anger, invariably, takes us closer to God… Yes, we seek His help, His grace…

Anger has to be expressed in an appropriate way… If we learn to channelize our anger into some creative work, the work will assume a distinct beauty about it. The mighty revolutions in history have come out of someone’s just anger… The mighty business empires, too, have come up through someone’s just anger… The greatest prayers in life, too, have their roots in anger…



Anger is there… It needs to be expressed in a way that would make us fine humans… Great humans.




I, always, say this: “The end of our anger 


is the birth of our compassion.”




If we ‘see’ the truth that we have anger in us… it helps us release it, end it. And, when it returns, all that we need to do is: ‘see’ the truth, again!




GERALD D’CUNHA


Comments

Heena Desai said…
good insights into anger and revenge. Liked the post.
- Heena Desai
Sushil said…
Gerry Sir

Read this on the internet a while ago..

A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled ‘n asked. ‘Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?’
Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, ‘Because we lose our calm, we shout.’ ‘But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.’ asked the saint.
Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples.
Finally the saint explained, . ‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other.
The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.
What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small…’ The saint continued, ‘When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper ‘n they get even closer to each other in their love.
Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other ‘n that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.’
He looked at his disciples ‘n said. ‘So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, Do not say words that distance each other more, Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.’
Gerald D'Cunha said…
Sushil, it is a touching story, full of wisdom. I have read i many times and tol too in various training sessions. But, u know, when it comes to us at the 'right' moment, it makes a fresh sense... It opens new windows.

That's what it did just now when I read it from u...

Thanks for sharing and adding beauty and value to my Post.

LOVE

SUSHEEL KUMAR V said…
Very profound indeed. It all synonymously relates to the theory of conservation of energy that propounds that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but transformed from one form to another.
Gerald D'Cunha said…
True Susheel. Tomro, I will be writing on ur earlier story.

Love.

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