When you are angry, it is not a pleasant feeling. You feel upset and all the other negative feelings arise within you. In this state of negative emotional arousal, you could cause great damage. What is the driver behind anger? Usually, it is unfulfilled desires or attachments. When a desire is unfulfilled, many people go to great lengths to fulfill their desire and get angry when it is not granted. It also depends on how strong their attachment is for that desire. How far will they go to fulfill it? Will they steal, or even kill, to obtain it. What are they willing to lose in order to satisfy their desire? Their freedom, their families, or their lives? Later, will they regret their choice of actions? How great is their regret?
Anger can cloud your senses. In the heat of the moment, you can forget all restraints and act in an uncontrolled manner. You lose all sense control. How can you prevent such a situation arising?
The Senses
It is only by using the divinely given senses for the purposes for which they are intended that man can rise to the level of the Divine. You should not use the sense organs as you please just because you have them. They are like horses yoked to a chariot. You must know how to handle them properly so that the chariot can be used well. The horses must be in front of the chariot. Today, on the contrary, the horses are behind the chariot. This leads to dangerous consequences.
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 23 (1990)
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, my guru says that abuse of the sense organs creates weakness. Today, all the sense organs are abused. The ear is used to hear so-called music which is loud and disharmonious. The nose is used to sniff noxious smells or drugs. The tongue is used to taste non-vegetarian food, alcohol, smoking and swearing. The eyes are used to watch porn and violent movies.
The senses have a great influence on the body. My teacher also says that there can be no body without the senses, nor senses without the body, they are both inextricably linked. In such circumstances, the weakness of the senses influenced by your behavior affects the body and the sense organs. You will be unable to maintain the already weak control you have over the senses. You will be like a man possessed and have no control over your physical actions. This weakness over your desires, or attachments could create great harm to your spiritual growth. All your spiritual growth could be lost and you could fall from grace.
Discrimination
So, one of the ways around this is to stop watching violent movies, using drugs, eating non-veg foods, smoking cigarettes and destroying your hearing with loud music. Violent movies condition your mind to accept violence as natural and it is not. As this behaviour increases, it becomes part of your character. You become inured to violent thoughts and violent behavior will become your norm. Meat eating promotes only animal qualities and leads to demonic tendencies. They have to kill the animal to eat its flesh and even if you did not kill the animal, the act of eating its flesh makes you an accomplice to its violent death. You will take on the samskara (committing the sin of inflicting cruelty on animals) for participating in its violent death. Drugs create imbalances in the mind and influences you to do actions that you would not do under normal circumstances. You will lose all sense of right and wrong. Smoking will also destroy your health. If you persist on committing all these negative behaviours you will erode all the gains you made spiritually. No one can tell you how to live your live. if you follow the guidance from within and discriminate between the mind and your intuition and follow its direction you can’t go wrong.
If you allow this negative behaviour to impact your life, you will have no control over your anger and all your spiritual sadhana (practices) will be in vain. Your anger will be like a bomb waiting to explode and when it does, it will be too late for regrets. Everything that you worked for will be gone in a flash. Is it worth the satisfaction that you get expressing your anger? I think it is a futile exercise.
Blessings, Eddie
Eddie Appoo is a spiritual teacher and author dedicated to guiding others on their journey of Self-Realisation. He embarked on a journey of spiritual exploration from a young age and had his first glimpse of Self-Realisation in the early 1980s. In 1992, Eddie experienced himself as Atma (One with God) guided by his spiritual master Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Alongside his wife, he co-created LiberatingTouch®, a spiritual development system. Eddie’s teachings and writings, including “Detachment: The Secret to Infinite Peace,” reflect his dedication to sharing joy and facilitating spiritual progression.