Anger

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Anger is one of the six ripus as per our ancient wisdom and all over the world people consider it to be the basest emotion which the wise should avoid. Agreed. But why does a man get angry? Anger comes naturally like smiles or affection when confronted with disagreeable situations or when a person speaks something hurtful or does something which causes injury to our ego, pride or self- esteem. The human being is a social creature and his feelings, thoughts and emotions always function in an inter-dependent manner. He has to operate in the society where clashes of feelings as well as symbiotic contacts are inevitable. When someone treads on your corns, slights your ego, contradicts your views, what you think is irrational; causes terrible loss, demeans your personality you naturally get angry. The adrenalin rushes into the blood, the palpitation of the heart increases the eyeballs pop out, the face reddens and you shout straining your vocal cords and rave mad. You speak fast, frothing at the mouth and use even expletives against your grain. At times like termagants you saw the air and often break whatever you lay your hands on.

Anger, however, is not a uniform or standardized reaction to ego hurting stimuli. The intensity and expression or outburst varies according to the situational dynamics of the emotion. A voice-raised repartee to a witticism or sarcasm of a familiar person cannot be termed anger. Similarly a child unintentionally breaking a toy or a tea cup does not evoke anger. At times there is mock anger or simulated anger when a beloved person reacts to a situation that is unpleasant. People often are angry  when the petrol prices rise but they do not show any violent reaction. But the reaction of dissatisfaction which has political overtones may influence the social approval pattern. When one’s reputation is tarnished by unsavoury comments too invokes anger; when a family is defamed or abused one may get irritations bordering on anger. But when a loss of property, prestige and ego happens a man gets angry. The most dangerous kind of anger is the one which seethes a person’s hurt feeling to a bursting point. At times when the person insulting, is stronger and you feel your violence  may be self stultifying you keep it on the back burner of your mind and bide for a chance to retaliate. This anger in certain cases is nursed for a long time in the case of Shakuni in the Mahabharata. This type of anger leads to revenge. Shakuni’s parents and relations died one by one in a slow and cruel death as Duryodhan provided only one meal a day for the entire Gandhar royal family. Shakuni was kept alive by the family on that one meal to avenge the death of the entire clan. This anger resulted in the destruction of the entire kuru clan.

There is another type of anger which is termed as righteous indignation. When moral truth is suppressed by physical powers and a person is ruined, he like glowing embers under a blanket of ash burns into a rising tongue of flame to lick his enemy. Revenge  however is accepted in literature as a heroic value. No legal- moral law is flouted when revenge stems out of moral hurt. But revenge, as is shown in Hamlet, is a destructive value.

We see, often, young persons of thwarted ambition feel totally imbalanced in simmering anger, externally they appear like the Pacific but inside they are violent and rough. In their conversations we notice bitter sarcasm and even universal cynicism. Jimmy porter in Look Back in Anger is a typical illustration of this kind of indignant person who hates religion, love, society and almost everything. His mocking tone hurts people. Even his wife, for no fault of hers, lives a martyred life under his morose temper. Frustrated people and those conscious of their own weaknesses and those who have settled for less in life, are always angry but their anger singes themselves more than those faceless things that caused his sustained anger.

When the self interest of a group of persons who, they feel, have been robbed of their entitlement they too show their  infructuous anger in many ways. But the most harmful anger comes from a realization of inadequacies of one’s own self. When you feel that you are nothing and all your efforts fail to establish yourself in your chosen field of pursuit, not  because of socio- intellectual prejudice of others but by your own failings; you come to the verge of suicide. This may lead one to destroy life.

Is there  any cure for anger? Well, no medicines, (tranquilizers) can restore you to your balanced view of the world. Yoga, Pranayam may help but what is  needed is a proper understanding of your reality and the human condition. How to attain it? Well, I wish I knew. Therefore live as you wish to live without rancour or a sense of inferiority.