Anger

Many of us have read or heard the story of Sant Eknath.His story is always quoted as an example for any one and everyone who wants to conquer his temper.Some vagabonds from his village decided to test his patience.One of them waited at the banks of the Godavari river for Eknath.Sant Eknath after a dip in the Godavari walked towards the temple for his regular prayer when the vagabond waiting for him at the banks spat out on the saint.Without a sign of anger Eknath went and had another dip in the Godavari.This continued all daytill dusk and the guy spitting on Sant Eknath got tired and restless but not the saint.Sant Eknath very patiently walked backed to the Godavari and had a dip everytime the fellow spat on him.Finally the vagabond was surprised to see that Sant Eknath was as fresh and smiling as he was in the morning,whereas his mouth was aching stiff due to spitting.He came and fell at Sant Eknath's feet and the saint blessed him with so much love and compassion.The vagabond asked the saint how it was possible for him to be so calm and composed,Eknath replied ,"brother if you can stick so stubbornly to this vice of harrassing a sadhu,then it is isn't the least surprising that I should on my part stick to my virtue of not losing my temper".He goes on to say the dirt in the body can be cleansed by taking a dip in water but if anger enters the mind it defiles the mind and no amount of bathing in any river can cleanse one of that impurity.

It is of course not very easy to attain the level of Sant Eknath but surely we can make an attempt control our temper.There are bound to be instances when we are unhappy or angry with someone or for something.In fact this situation comes in front of us all the time in our lives.

When we are angry we blame everyone except ourselves and so express our anger by loud outbursts,little realising what the outburst has done to the other person.Self awareness is one important way of gaining control over our emotions.

If we just take a few minutes to think about some common reasons we get angry with others:
We get angry when others disagree with us,when they do not understand us,when they do not respect us ,when they obstruct us from doing what we want....,when they control us,(these are I think some of the reasons why we get angry).If we try to replace the word they with 'I' we will realise that the anger we feel towards others is actually a projection of the anger we feel towards ourselves.If we are able to understand and accept ourselves in those situations then we might understand and accept others too.We need to accept and agree that we all have faults.It is important to divert our energy towards correcting or changing that which makes us angry.We need to learn to forgive and forget and love others as we love ourselves,and accept everyone the way they are and not for what we want them to be.

We need to learn to look within ourselves and realise that we are responsible for whatever happens to us,we are the author of our life.


Let us become aware of ourselves and lead a happy and harmonious life.Let us realise that life is short and is not meant to be wasted.Let us try and lead a life of happiness,cheer and joy!!!!
Thinking negatively and indulging in negative acts will only put negative forces in our life.Thinking positively can certainly attract positive forces in our life and we will be able to enjoy abundance of happiness,peaceand prosperity.