Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Post 3 - Anger & Pride

.... Continued from Post 2

Anger

Anger is the irrational in man. Anger does not need logic. Anger is destruction of the other for self. Anger is the admission of one's inability to convince oneself. Anger is the result of shortsightedness. It signifies the indecision within oneself. Anger is all consuming. [Anger is the antithesis of Forgiving]

Anger does not merely mean outward anger but also with one's own-self.  Outward anger, if uncontrolled, is the worst form of anger. It consumes all. It breeds hatred in others. But outward anger, if controlled,   - that means if it is meant to spur someone to work, to rectify someone and does not come from the mind or is rather a showy thing for common good - then it can be a instrument of goodness  (Swami Vivekananda's anger)

But inner anger, of which outward anger is just an outlet, is always uncontrolled. One seething in inner anger always finds reason to be in that anger. He justifies himself for it. Whether it is on the flimsiest of grounds. However, I would like to make clear is that anger, in any form is bad. but anger directed towards oneself and only towards oneself for any bad deed is far superior to any other type of anger.

When we are angry at any other person then we cannot forgive him for any wrong that he may have committed.

But why are we angry ? We are angry  when we feel somebody has wronged us or has wronged some of our principles, and so we feel, there is a necessity for protecting against this [breach].

Why do we feel like protecting or rising against someone ? For he has committed a mistake, according to us, against a principle [or idea] which we love and cannot bear anyone to contradict it.

Pride

This simply means that we are proud of ourselves for following that principle, We believe ourselves to be right in following our chosen path whether good or bad that may be. Therefore we justify ourselves for our anger. Anger arises from pride towards ourselves or regarding one's deeds or others deeds. A man can be proud about good things - like when he considers himself as possessing a forgiving, god fearing nature - or about bad things - like when he rejoices when he defeats a rival. Pride, in any form, is the greatest enemy of man. Every selfish action can be found to originate from pride.

For example, A well-off man wants a job for which there are many rivals some of whom are much better candidates than himself. Why ? Simple reason: every man wants to be better off. This is [grounded in] selfishness although at an acceptable level [going by] the present human standards. He either considers himself good for the post or wants to get in by deceit or wants just to try his luck at betterment. All for himself. For pride in oneself, valuing himself to be good while he is not. This is pride. But if he is really fit and he values himself to be fit then he cannot be said to be as proud of himself as the first man because then he is not selfish but is trying to render best service to all concerned. Albeit for monetary consideration but that is our materialism. Annihilation of this pride occurs when he sacrifices this job for another.

From this I want to conclude that this will occur only if we do not strive for any job (or material possession). If we desire anything to be ours, then we have to compete and that regenerates pride in its subtlest form. So to annihilate pride we have to renounce and that means we have to be a sanyasin [monk]. Then only shall we be free of pride and anger. But most of our monks have anger. Although they have renounced by words and deeds, their minds tend towards desire though they control it in its outward form. They are still mortals but at a higher level [development]. From this we cannot conclude that all monks are better than us mortals. Some ordinary mortals are far higher then all modern monks put together. Because monks may be proud of being monks. They may be proud that they have conquered their senses; they may be proud of being compared ( by foolish men) with Ramkrishna, Buddha, Jesus. They might beget the greatest sin by thinking that they are "above" other men, that they are nearer God, that they are great. These sanyasin or monks are manifestations of the lowest form of pride - pride for self.

Why does Pride arise in man ?

Pride comes only when a man has a sense of achievement in relation to the performance of others. Pride comes only when he feels he is "above" at least one man in the world. Pride comes even when a man knows himself to have a thousand evils but also knows or thinks of having even half-a-good. Why ?

[ You can click Anger and Pride for current information ]


.... To be continued Post 4

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