Control of Anger

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Hints For Control Of Anger

<br>-----------------------------<br><br>1. Be alert. Pray. Do more Japa.

Practise Vichara.

Keep a watch over your mind. Be silent. Observe Mouna

daily for an hour. Forget and forgive. Bear insult and

injury. Observe Brahmacharya. <br><br>2. See God in all.

Submit to God’s will. Then you cannot get angry.

<br><br>3. In the morning meditate on the virtue of

patience. Manifest it during the day. Take a vow ‘I will

practise endurance and Kshama (forgiveness) during the

day’. <br><br>4. Speak sweetly. Speak little.

<br><br>5. Mix little. Have congenial company. Have

Satsanga. Read spiritual books. <br><br>6. Remember the

lives of saints like Ekanath, the Avanti Brahmin of the

llth Skandha of the Bhagavata. You will derive

inspiration. You will develop love and Kshama. <br><br>7. Give

up intoxicating liquors, meat and tobacco.

<br><br>8. Remember the Gita Slokas describing anger as

monster and gate to hell. (Ch. III-37 and Ch. XVI-21).

<br><br>9. If you find it difficult to control anger, leave

the place at once. Take a long walk. Drink cold

water. Repeat ‘Om Santi’ l0 times. Do Japa of your Ishta

Mantra or count from 1 to 30. Anger will subside.

<br><br>10. Stand as a witness of the Vritti of anger. Be

indifferent to it. Do not identify yourself with it. Identify

yourself with the Atman. Fill the mind with ideas of love,

joy, etc. <br><br>11. Develop patience to a

considerable extent. People lose their temper when they become

impatient. Allow the mind to dwell constantly on the

opposite of anger, the virtue of patience. This is the

Pratipaksha Bhavana, method of Raja Yogins. <br><br>12. Do

not give vent to anger. Control the body first. Have

physical control. Practise this again and again. Be

regular in your Japa and meditation and Kirtan. This will

give you great inner spiritual strength. <br><br>13.

Food has a great deal to do with irritability. Take

milk, fruits, Moong-ki-dall, curd, spinach, barley,

groundnuts, butter milk. Do not take carrots, onion, garlic,

cauliflower, Massoor-ki-dall and drumstick. <br><br>14.

Observe Mouna for two hours daily. Occasionally observe

Mouna for a whole day. This will put a check on the

impulse of speech. When a man gets excited, he speaks

anything and everything. He has no control over the organ

of speech. <br><br>15. Prana entwines the mind like

a creeper. Pranayama leads to the control of mind.

Pranayama will put a break on the impulse of speech. It

will give you abundant energy to check anger.

<br><br>16. Do not argue much. Do not retort. Speak sweetly

always. Do not use abusive words. Become a man of

measured words. If a man abuses or insults you, keep

quiet. Identify yourself with Atman. Atman is the same

in all. It can never be hurt or insulted.

<br><br>17. A Vedantin denies the body and mind as illusory

sheaths. He does Vichara, enquires, ‘who am I’ and

practises ‘Neti-neti’ ‘not this, not this’. ‘I am not

body’. ‘I am not mind’. ‘Chidanandarupah Sivoham’. ‘I am

blissful Siva or Atman.’ He identifies himself with

Brahman or Atman, the Eternal. The world is unreal for

him. He chants OM, sings OM and does Japa of OM and

meditates on OM and derives soul-power and spiritual

strength. <br><br>18. If you entertain Mithya Drishti,

Dosha Drishti, if you look into the defects of anger

and the benefits of patience, you will never become

angry. <br><br>19. The combined method is more

effective. If one method fails, take recourse to the

combined method. Do Japa, Pranayama. Sometimes do Vichara.

<br><br> -- Swami Sivananda<br><br>Hari Aum !!!