All TV channels , news papers and tabloids are agog with violence , murders , loots , rape and rage . These have become very routine so much so that these appear to be very insignificant events which do not merit any mention .
A brother killing brother , son attacking father , wife plotting against husband and a jealous lover kills his beloved because she did not give an ear to him . What exactly is happening ? Why so much intolerance ?
When a person is angry , momentarily the faculty of reasoning fails . It is difficult to judge good from bad . If an action is done during a fit of rage , almost always it backfires . This results in loss of peace , self respect , respect in society and creates enmity . Then whatever a person may try to undo that action , he does not recover that respect and dignity again .
Many a times a situation arises when it is difficult to control one self . My teacher said , “Count ten , your anger would subside , if you are very-very angry , better count hundred ”. What he meant was that one should never take a precipitous action in the fit of anger . Better cool down , relax and then act if at all you must . One of my acquaintance resigned from the job in a fit of rage only to find that he has landed himself and his family in a financial soup. When I look back , I recollect many events when I expressed my dislikes instantly without giving a thought and almost always I had to eat an humble pie .
One of the ways to win over an unpleasant situation is to see the events from opposition point of view . We tend to judge only one side of the story while often the opposite side has also some substance . This simulates situation of Dhritarashtra who never saw anything wrong in the actions of his son Duryodhan . Even in our day today life we tend to over react in a situation which otherwise could have been ignored .
We often form an opinion without judging the circumstances in which an event happens . Once I expressed my displeasure to my daughter for not listening to me . She started weeping with her hands hiding a piece of paper . I snatched the paper from her hand and found it to be a hand made greeting card with the ‘ Happy birth day , Papa ’ written on it . She was busy in drawing the card when I was calling her . She thought that she would surprise me by offering the hand made birth day wish card but instead she got a firing . I had hurt the innocent child without realizing her sentiments . I took her in my arms with moist eyes .
There are usually three driving forces which make us move . These are name ( or fame ) , money ( or property ) and sex . Most of the problems we see around revolve around these three driving forces . We tend to run after these forces . The craving for these is insatiable . The thirst for these can never be quenched .
Most of the crimes committed are due to one or more of these forces . In today’s rat race of life , we have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values . We have reached Moon and Mars but we do not get time to meet our neighbor staying very next door .
We tend to be angry when our ego is hurt . We tend to be egoistic if we are empty within . Every time we get angry , we are in fact defeated by ourselves , for it is easy to get angry but difficult not to be ! Those who are full of love , will always forgive and forget . In the history of mankind we find that only those are remembered with affection who have sacrificed , be it Jesus , mother Teresa , Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King . We would like to forget likes of Hitler and Saddam .
During my childhood , whenever for some reason I got angry on any one , my mother would say ‘ krodhe paap , paape mrityu ’ which means , it is sinful to get angry as anger causes self destruction . There are innumerable incidences in the history where anger resulted in self destruction . Whether we talk about mighty Ravana or Duryodhana , it was anger that eventually destroyed them .
Be a little tolerant , hold little patience , sacrifice few egos and extend your hand of love , try to understand other’s point of view and if all these do not prevent you from getting angry , keep the gun aside and just cool that heat off .
