Our Undoings

Hari Om

Each 'Choose-day' we will investigate the process by which we can reassess our activity and interaction with the world of plurality and become more congruent within our personality.

MANAGING THE MANAGER (cont'd) - Swami Swaroopananda

Managing the Six Mighty Forces.

There are six main 'forces' within us fighting to win first place in keeping us low in life. There are many techniques given for the taming and control of these forces… but the fact of the matter is that the one thing the mind will always submit to is Love. Love is the antidote for all the negative influences of the mind. These six, though, are very powerful and will do their best to torture the mind, causing agitations and sorrows. In brief, they are /kaama, /krodha, /lobha, /moha, /ahankara,  and /matsarya. We will look at them individually. They are a constant bother and trouble to us, coming not from the external world, but from our own inner depths. How to replace or manage them?

Kaama - lust or desire.

Note that kaama does not have to mean only carnal lust, as some have portrayed it. We can lust for many things in the material world! What is more, we are very adept at justifying our submission to the desire. 

As already explained, desire is always born out of imagination; therefore, keep the mind busy, do not allow it to brood. Turn it towards something higher. When the mind is devoted to something higher, lust gets easily controlled. In a way, this is substitution. There is desire, still, for that which is the chosen higher - but it is a very positive step! The minute the mind starts wandering off and thinking "If only the funds were there for the new clothes…" we are succumbing once more to kaama. This is when we can take control and laugh at ourselves, saying instead, "...ah, but instead lets afford the cloth and make the clothes ourselves!" Equally, we can do this with high philosophical principles and ethics. Instead of hankering after the material, desire the eternal. 

Krodha - Anger.

This is a biggie. Anger comes from unfulfilled desire or from not getting things our own way. No matter how calm we may think we are, there is anger in each and every one of us. There is a difference between showing anger and being angry. A teacher, a mother, a father, might show anger when a child is at risk of harming himself - or at risk of it. Their anger arises from concern and they must show the child that the behaviour or action is not a good one; the short, sharp shock of such anger is a learning tool - as long as it does not stretch beyond that of course, whereby it becomes abuse. Gurudev said, "to be angry is to revenge yourself for the faults of others." Anger is more harmful to you than to anybody else. After a bout of real anger, your whole body trembles, the body systems (hormones, enzymes, blood pressure) go haywire. The mind will simmer and it is often self-perpetuating.

 

Anger arises also because we insist on something. Everything can't be our own way. Yes, you have a right to your opinion, but so does everyone else.

Anger can be overcome by cultivating forgiveness; first the other for the perceived infringement, but also ourself for having jumped off so fast and hard. Forgiveness is an art in itself and something to be practiced regularly. Another technique is, to give yourself the 'praayschitta' (act of recompense) of bowing at the feet of whomsoever you dropped your anger upon. The thought of this promise to yourself will often be enough to manage the mind - for the ego part will struggle with the outcome of letting loose in anger. Allow the mind to get humiliated once and it is much less likely to get angry in such a hurry again.

Be ever alert to your anger - no matter how quietly it simmers. A man took himself off to a forest retreat in order to overcome his anger. He spent quite some time there in meditation and solitude, finding great relief and calmness. Then his mind told him that he was a little lonely and ought to return to society. Not long after, he met an old friend who asked where he had been. "I have been to a place where I conquered my anger."

"Is that so? I think that this is not easy - I doubt that it is true."

"Oh but it is," said the man.

"I think it is not possible to be truly in control of one's anger," said his friend.

"I tell you it is," said our man, again.

"Really," teased his pal… "I am doubtful."

"IT IS TRUE I TELL YOU, I HAVE CONTROLLED MY ANGER!!!………."

...tbc...