| Anger got the better of me the other day.
I was angry at everyone and everything connected to the murder of Renee Nicole Good. I’m betting you’re feeling it, too. Then I saw a post about Ms Good’s murder. It was well-intentioned, but timid. I thought the person who posted it — who I know beyond the confines of social media — had a moral responsibility to make a stronger statement. I posted a comment to that effect. A reply to my comment soon followed, which prompted another comment, and . . . it was all downhill from there. What I wrote may have been true, but it probably didn’t help and it definitely wasn’t pleasing. So much for the austerities of speech (Bhagavad Gita 17.15). The problem wasn’t that I was angry; it was that I let my anger drag me down into a state of material consciousness, where anger becomes useless and destructive, instead of keeping my anger nested in spiritual consciousness, where it can be useful and beneficial. You might think that anger and spiritual consciousness are incompatible. From one angle of vision, that’s correct. Throughout the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna emphasizes the importance of attaining freedom from anger: “One whose mind is free from attachment, fear, and anger, who is undisturbed by the arrival of sources of misery nor euphoric at the arrival of causes for happiness, is called a sage of steady mind. Someone who is free from anger is qualified to attain the supreme spiritual perfection.” – Bg 2.56 and 18.53
At the end of the Gita, Arjuna declares that his illusion has been dispelled and that he will fight in accordance with Krishna’s teachings, including the teaching to free himself from anger. But as the battle unfolds beyond the pages of the Gita, something interesting happens: Krishna purposely reminds Arjuna of all the terrible things his enemies have done to him and his family in order to make him . . . angry! Why would Krishna stoke Arjuna’s anger after telling him how important it is to become free from anger? Because he wants Arjuna to fight with all his might and you can’t put your whole heart and soul into fighting if you’re not angry. Is Krishna undermining his own teaching? No: he’s teaching Arjuna the art and science of devotional action. Devotional action is about dedication, not renunciation. When we dedicate our anger to a spiritual objective, we’re nesting our anger in spiritual consciousness. How does that work? The thing that makes a feeling or an action spiritual isn’t the content of the feeling or the nature of the action; it’s the quality of our consciousness in relationship to the feelings we have and the actions we perform. For example, if I’m angry because reality is not aligned with my desires, then my anger is based on an illusory conception of myself as the controller and enjoyer of a reality that’s beyond my control and doesn’t exist for the purpose of fulfilling my desires. This illusory conception is the sum and substance of material consciousness. On the other hand, if my anger arises from seeing harm being done to others, then my anger is taking me in the direction of spiritual consciousness, but it’s not there yet. There’s one more step I have to take: I have to remember that I am not my anger; that I’m the person in possession of anger. The difference between identifying as an angry person and identifying as a person who has anger is the difference between being controlled by anger and having anger available as a resource. This is how a sage of steady mind can manifest anger when anger is called for. A spiritual warrior like Arjuna can hold valid feelings of anger and use that anger without identifying as “angry.” Renee Nicole Good showed up as a legal observer to protect her neighbors from ICE. I suppose she was motivated by anger at what ICE is doing — I certainly find it infuriating — but she clearly wasn’t angry at the agents who approached her car: her last words, as far as we know, were, “I’m not mad at you.” If you’ve seen the video, you know that she looked like she meant it. If freedom from anger is the qualification for attaining the state of supreme spiritual perfection, it may be that Ms Good was supremely qualified. May she know such perfection henceforth and forevermore. May her memory be an inspiration to us all. Wishing you all good fortune, – Hari-k |