Anger is a very strong emotion which flows strongly through us when we are in danger or feel a perceived threat. The threat or perceived threat can be to our lives, property, self respect, image, dignity, power, position, status etc. The natural and immediate response is that of rage. When rage flows through us, we become blind to reason or logic and commit shameful acts without second thoughts. We are also physically affected. Our teeth clench, the blood races in our body, the heartbeat accelerates, face flushes and our hands fist. In extreme anger there is physical violence.
Greed and possessiveness spark off anger. Anger is like a forest fire. A mere spark can burn down an entire forest which took many thousands of years to grow and attain the shape and size it is now. Similarly, in a matter of seconds, there is a spark of insanity and violence and we commit acts by which relationships which are long standing are destroyed in matter of minutes. Most of the times, there is no logic in anger. A parent sees his children fight. The elder one is hammering the younger one. In order to stop the anger and violence of the angry child, the father will raise his voice and his hand too! He does not stop to think what example he is setting. Is it alright to stop anger and violence with more anger and violence? We see such instances regularly in our daily lives and we are also guilty of such offences. A lifetime of discipline and love are thrown out of the window. We are unable to think and we become insane. The story of the monk and the gem polisher teach us valuable lessons in anger management:
Once, there was a Gem Polisher who was religious and charitable. His family offered alms of food daily to a certain monk. One day when the monk was entering the Gem Polisher’s home to collect his daily alms, the King’s messenger also arrived carrying a giant ruby for the Gem Polisher to work on. The Gem Polisher was in the kitchen cutting up some meat and his hands were covered in blood. He accepted the ruby and put it on the table to work on it later. The stone was red with blood from the man’s hands. He then washed his hands and went to get alms for the monk. In the meantime, their pet bird noticed the ruby red stone dripping with blood and thought that it was something to eat. It picked it up and swallowed it before the monk could prevent it from doing so. When the Gem Polisher came back into the room with alms, he noticed immediately that the giant ruby was missing. He called his wife and son and questioned them and the monk about the missing ruby. All of them denied taking it. He assumed that since the monk was the last one in the room with the gem, the monk was the thief.
The Gem Polisher feared the consequences of loss of the giant ruby and decided to beat the truth of the monk. His wife warned him repeatedly that the consequence of doing harm to a noble being would be far more severe than the punishment which would be meted out by the king. The man was far too furious at the thought of theft and betrayal by the monk to listen to his wife. He tied up the monk and beat him up severely and the monk began to bleed from his head. The pet bird noticed the blood flowing from the monk’s head and flew close to see. It received a stray blow from its master and died on the spot. Then only the monk told the Gem Polisher that the bird swallowed the ruby. The Gem Polisher quickly cut open the dead bird and found the gem. He realised the huge mistake he had made in anger and fell at the feet of the monk trembling with fear. The monk forgave him and said he felt no ill will towards him. What the monk had undergone was an old karmic debt and now he was freed.
The monk gives us a fine demonstration of how to face unbridled wrath. There was no way the Gem Polisher would believe that the bird ate the gem and he would surely kill the bird to check the truth. The monk protected the life another being and was gentle and compassionate in his response to the violence of anger expressed toward him. When anger clashes with anger there is only more violence and bloodshed and the problem cannot be overcome. While we may not face such a dramatic situation in our daily lives, we must remember not to respond to anger with anger and hold on to compassion and peace in our response. Then we stand a chance of helping the other to overcome his anger and also get better hold over our emotional disturbances. Let us remember the peace and love of the Lord and hold on to the SitaRam Mantra and overcome our anger.
