Dadashri: What does it mean to become angry? It is like setting fire to oneself and then setting others on fire. Once this match is struck, he burns in the flames and then destroys the other person. Therefore, if getting angry were under one’s control, one would not get angry. Who likes to burn?
Anger is a weakness and that is why it happens spontaneously. God, the Absolute Enlightened Ones, have called it a weakness. God has said that a real man (Purush, Self-realized) is the one who has no weakness of anger,ego (false pride), attachment, or greed at all. These men that you see around you are weaklings, because they have no control over their anger and they do not know how to deal with it. Anger, false pride, attachment and greed are all obvious weaknesses.
How are you rewarded when you get angry? First the sparks set you on fire and then you burn others. To become even the slightest bit angry is like becoming a beast. One becomes transformed from a human being into a beast. To become angry is a terrible weakness.
Questioner: We all know that anger is bad, but still…
Dadashri: It is like this: The one who is angry, is not aware of the anger. The one who is greedy, is not aware of his greed and the one who is arrogant, is not aware of his pride. The ‘knower’ is completely separate from all these weaknesses. All these people feel that although they are aware of their weakness, then why do the weaknesses still occur?
Now, who is it that says ‘I know’? They do not know the answer to this. Because they still become angry, it means that they do not know. There is ego in their saying that ‘they know’. They do not know who the ‘knower’ is. This is what one needs to discover. If one can find the ‘knower’, then all the weaknesses will go. It can only be called true knowledge, when all the weaknesses are destroyed.
You are not the one making things happen. It is the kashayas, the weaknesses within you of anger, pride, attachment, and greed that run everything. Only the rule of these kashayas prevails.
How long can these kashayas last? The kashayas will remain as long as one believes; ‘I am William’. This belief gives support to the sense that the kashayas are his, ‘I am angry, I am unhappy etc.’ When you acquire the knowledge of your real Self, these kashayas leave.
It is when one attains the awareness, ‘I am pure Soul’ that the sense of ‘I am William’ is broken and the kashayas are destroyed. Without this awareness, all efforts to remove kashayas, in fact perpetuate them. When anger is controlled through ego, the ego increases. When greed is overcome with the ego, the ego increases.
An ascetic told me that he had completely eradicated his anger through his spiritual effort. The anger was in fact suppressed. I told him that he had instead created a monster by the name of pride (maan). This monster thrives because he is the offspring of ignorance of the Self. The sons of ignorance cannot be killed. One can get rid of them if one has a solution. This solution is Self realization.
One day teacher went out to a Park with both the disciples and while wandering in the garden they came across a mango tree from which ripe and juicy mangoes were seen hanging. On seeing this, teacher thought of testing both of his students so he called them besides and asked them to observe the tree with mangoes very carefully. Then he asked the first one, “My dear child, what do you think of this mango tree?”