Ira
Ira means to become angry, furious and aggressive. In Sanskrit it is called krodhah.
You see others like: “They are my enemies. I want to get rid of them.” You get enraged.
You want to damage them. You want to do something to them. This is very dangerous, because in that mood you are actually doing wrong things to yourself and to others.
According to the Bhagavad Gita, anger is frustrated lust.
People in the mood of lust are inviting all the negative things. It is narcissistic, when people are angry with life, angry with the world, and even angry with God. They say: “I don’t think He exists”, or: “Oh, I am complaining about God, He should be criticized for all the bad things He has allowed to happen.” Like that. This is very dangerous.
On the other hand, how can we counteract this statement? What is there to replace it with?
The Vedas provide us with very practical advice. They state: If you want to be angry with somebody, then be angry with yourself. You are the one who is silly and who has made many mistakes. If you really want to chastise someone, then chastise yourself. Do not go around making others unhappy by accusing them or anything like that. This has no sense. Even if you are right in some cases, do not try to criticize others. Someone can be corrected only if they want to be corrected. And they will only accept advice from those to whom they feel connected by faith and trust. Either way around, if we are in the situation to be corrected, or to correct someone, to understand the impact of faith is very important.
Faith is the basis for our recovery. We have to understand that it is also the basis for the recovery of others. In this way we should not disturb the faith of others and we should only have faith in those, who are representing our inner conviction. They know how to speak out about what is in our hearts and their actions are the source of our confidence and faith. When you have faith in someone who is representing your higher ideals, than you are also ready and motivated to overcome your shortcomings and negativities and reach your higher ideals in that way.
You are not ready to tolerate negativity within you, because it doesn’t belong there. You don’t want to have it there. You understand that this is an aberration of consciousness.
“I don’t want to have that. I want to be in the positive field, because I want to please my Lord. I want to please those, whom God has sent into my life. I’m thankful to my father and mother. I’m thankful to have a brother or a sister. I’m thankful to my wife. I’m thankful to my children. I’m so thankful to my teachers. And I am thankful to my disciples.” In that attitude a person can overcome what is called pathology in its various forms. Furthermore, we need intense enthusiasm, intense determination, intense patience, intense strict following of principles, intense association with spiritually advanced people, intense rejection of association with sensual people who follow an egoistic lifestyle. Behaving this way is practical and it will help us improve our lives.
According to the saintly Prahlada Maharaja, it is a demoniac mentality that looks upon others as enemies and threats. Everybody belongs to the Lord and is under His control. If you are the servant of the truth and the servant of all, then you don’t have any enemies. The only enemy you have is your false ego and the mistakes you have made in the past.
Otherwise there is no one in the world who really even bothers to be your enemy. They don’t have any interest in becoming your enemy. Once our spiritual master, Swami
B.R. Sridhar, said to us: ”You think, that you are so important and that someone has decided that you are his enemy? You are in a grand illusion. Everybody is just thinking about himself and how to improve, and arrange his things. No one wants to make you his enemy or meditates upon you as an enemy. He’s not capable. He is so captivated by his narcissism.”
So we have to beware of this trap of thinking in terms of enemies (They are my enemies, I am their enemy) and at the same time we have to develop a positive attitude of appreciation, help and love.
But there are all kinds of justifications which can come across our way. A criminal and envious mentality is very dangerous. When I was a hippy I traveled around the world to try to find an answer to the riddles of life. One day somebody invited me to sleep in a commune. I didn’t know anything about them so I went there. As we were sitting together, the people were coming in and they were sitting around the fire and one was saying, “Oh, do you know what I did today? I stole a television from the supermarket.” “Wow”, they said: “How did you do that?” He said: “I just went in with a workers uniform; I just picked up the set and took it out the main door”. Then another came and said: “I stole a camera today. I went into the store and I said I needed to get one and look at it. Then I just left the store, when there was the opportunity.”
I was sitting there while one after the other presented their stories. Then I realized that I had just come into a community of thieves. They were all telling stories about how they were stealing and how they enjoyed it. They were rejoicing in it and they considered it a “victory”.
They took something away from capitalism, and said: “Yeah, all these big shopping malls. They are all owned by some big demons so we have liberated some items today.” I was sitting there dumbstruck. Luckily, the next morning I grabbed my bag and ran away from that place. This is the type of place where sooner or later everybody ends up in jail. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, something like that. But they had a justifica tion for their stealing and their anger. They would not feel guilty that they were stealing. On the contrary, they were proud of it.
On account of bad association one can become like this and who knows then what’s going to happen? But we should always be aware of how we are choosing our association. If we are honest with ourselves and we pray and worship purity, there is nothing which can take us away from the proper path.