The Management of Anger

None of us are saints not to be moved to anger at one time or other. Command over anger is considered to be a great achievement in all cultures. Some of the great sages even, were known to be moved to frequent bouts of anger. So it is evident that it is not an easy achievement at that.

      Anger is not bad either, if we can use it properly. It was Socrates who said that it is only a great man who can get angry with the right person, for the right reason, at the right time, and the right measure. Many a time we overdo it and make a mess of it. Becoming angry and yet being in control is a delicate balancing act.

      Victory over anger is not an overnight achievement. We have to keep trying though we may fail many times. We have to find the root cause of anger which is not necessarily the immediate provocation. We are driven to anger usually when we are frustrated of satisfying some desire. It was Buddha who said that "Desire is the cause of all evil." Attachment to objects of the world leads to desire and the non-satisfaction of desire leads to anger. Now we may thing that it is the people around us who make us angry. A small story might set this right. A young ascetic was meditating on an ark tied to the river bank. His ark was rocked a few times but he continued to remain with his eyes closed. After some time he became angry that someone could be so senseless as to disturb his meditation. He opened his eyes and found that it was an empty boat that was moving in the wind and hitting his ark repeatedly. The ascetic then realized that the anger was not created from outside. It was within him and the rocking boat was just incidental in manifesting it outside.

      There are some methods which can come in handy when we become angry. Looking at the sky can abate our anger. The vastness of the sky can make us realize our smallness in the scheme of things. Drinking a glass of water sip by sip will also help us in reducing our anger. When water enters our system, the condition of the mind is also soothed. However, these are not permanent solutions nor may they work at all times. To get a firm grip over anger we need to work on ourselves. The mind being the basis of all that we think and feel, meditation is a sure-fire way of managing anger in the long run. Regular systematic meditation moulds the individual gradually and fine-tunes the mind to respond in a balanced manner. 

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