Achalatwam-part-9

February 22, 2008

Dear LP,

Thankyou for reminding me to continue the series of postings made on Achalatwam and anger issues.Iam sorry that I had been preoccupied these days with certain pending personal matters.

My last posting stopped at the Tantric principles of anger and its management.

Now, there are four rupas of krodha.(Iam using him/his/he only for the sake of convinience, it is perfectly substitutable by the other gender too)

1. Rupa 1--The person and people around him both are aware of his anger--Known anger.

2. Rupa 2-- The person is not aware but the people around him are aware of his anger.--Blind anger

3. Rupa 3-- The person is aware of his anger but the people around him do not know it.--Hidden anger

4. Rupa 4-- Neither the person nor the people around him are aware of his anger.(This is the most dangerous form of anger and results in cretaing psychopaths,serial killers,etc)--Unknown or dark anger.

Now, the first one we all know. Let me elaborate on the second one-Blind anger.Blind anger is never healthy anger.Others see this person as angry, upset, or difficult to get along with, but the person himself is unaware that anger is his basic problem.I had a small misunderstanding with one woman recently and though her accusations were baseless and really idiotic. I kept quite in the end after trying to reason out with her because she was in this "Rupa of Blind anger" and her anger triggered by her strange physical condition and other deeper psychological problems. So, all I could do was pity her mental state and leave it at that.

Hidden anger--At times this may be appropriate. For example, when a perosn is cut off by another driver on the freeway, he may feel a surge of rage, but it is prudent in this day and age that he not express that anger. It is better to pass over the issue. However, barring such stray incidents, if a person chronically uses this method for handling anger, he will become a supressor.

The last of all, and most serious of all, is the person whose anger has been denied and repressed to such an extent that neither the person himself nor the world around him is aware that anger is buried within him. This individual often has difficulty being in touch with his feelings,including joy or happiness.He may have myriad of symptoms.He could appear cold aloof, or even overly nice, but neither he nor the world around him is aware of the important role of anger in the development of his problems.

Obviously, what I have said is oversimplified--people cannot be categorized so neatly into four little squares.Furthermore, we all probably operate, at one time or another, in one rupa. Also, Iam a certified psychiatrist to analyse anger into almost all cases. Iam just being a spiritualist trying to seek solutions from Devi Ma.

Similar to these manifestations of anger , there are also levels of maturity in handling anger.

Iam tempted to here graphically represent anger with visibility of anger on the x axis and ability to handle anger on the y axis and then chalk-peak out a graph but then that would be too much of hubris and deviant from what intend to say.

Many people think erroneously that a matrue person is a person who never gets angry and who is always cool,calm and collected. This is a grave misconception fostered by a wrong understanding of our shashtras and by seeing advanced gentle yogis(who have gone beyond Raga-dweshas, even they can express their anger subtly).A person who follows this type of sterotype of being "always nice" person and also be very mature is a contradiction as he/she is burying a great part of anger into his/her psyche.

If a person takes a stand on righteous principles (without being overly "righteous"), he/she will face conflicts that he/she will have to directly confront.Thus, even the most mature individual will occasionally display some anger.

Before you take steps to handling anger, I would brief you on certain sutras of realization which I learnt in Taoist Tantra which will help you realize certain aspects of 'practical anger'.

Anger is not a bad word. It is a nuetral emotion. It all depends on the vessel of situation/person/event/psyche and then it takes on the color of that vessel.If the vessel is crystal clear, then the anger does not take on any shade. For example, Shirdi Sai Baba used to get angry with His disciples but the vessel was so pure that the anger gave rise to a new meaning of cleaning the devotees' karmas!

Let us aspire for such a clean and pure mind, for which let us pray with folded hands to rAjarAjesvarI ambA-parA!

sadAiva-ambA-chintanA!

Shreeram Balijepalli