Anger comes from not getting what we want. When our desires are not fulfilled, frustration takes over, making it hard for us to think clearly. It’s like being in a dark world where we can’t see the right way to act. Anger also has physical and mental effects. Physically, an angry person’s body goes through changes. Their hearts beat fast, their blood heats up, they start sweating, and they feel a burning sensation all over. Blood rushes to their heads, creating stress in the brain tissues. Their eyes turn red, and their speech becomes unclear. The nerves in their body get overloaded with electrical signals. Adrenaline, a stress hormone, is released in excessive amounts, causing toxic effects. Digestive functions may stop or be affected negatively. In extreme cases, uncontrolled anger can lead to a heart attack or stroke, and sometimes it can be fatal.
When someone easily gets angry, their heart and nervous system slow down because of repeated emotional shocks. Their once peaceful and loving facial appearance turns ugly with contortions that make them unrecognizable. Anger has a bad impact on a person’s mind, hindering their spiritual and mental improvement. It stupefies the mind and can lead to restlessness, blunting rational thinking. Anger’s intense impulses can overpower normal guidelines, dulling the ability to think clearly. The person may act foolishly and aggressively, causing serious consequences, without realizing the gravity of their actions. Anger leads to delusion, putting the person in a psychological stupor that impairs their reasoning.
In a normal state, people know what they should and shouldn’t do, guided by their consciousness. However, anger severs this reasoning, plunging them into darkness and leaving them without a guide for sane actions. In the grip of delusion, memory is adversely affected, causing forgetfulness of one’s real nature. This bewilderment of memory makes normal feelings and sentiments fade away. An angry person becomes highly confused and forgetful, losing self-awareness. An angry person lacks reasonable thought, and attempts to reason with them have little effect. Their confused memory is incompatible with discriminative reasoning, leading them down a destructive path.
If you don’t control your attractions right away, they can turn into desires. When these desires face obstacles, they can create confusion in a person’s mind. This confusion makes it easy to forget one’s dignity and makes it hard to make good decisions. People may end up making mistakes that bring misery into their lives. Desires are like traps that are tough to escape. They can come in many forms, like wanting money, power, status, or pleasure. These desires can be dangerous, and people may not even realize when they fall into their trap. The power of desire can lead to making mistakes that harm one’s moral values. So, desires are tricky and risky. Basically, when a person constantly thinks about things that make them happy, they become really attached to those things. This attachment creates a strong desire to experience more enjoyment. When something stops them from getting what they want, like an obstacle, they start disliking that obstacle, and the dislike turns into anger. This is how desire leads to anger.
When a person is angry, they can’t think clearly. They don’t consider the pros and cons of a situation, and they don’t care about the consequences of their actions when they’re angry. This intense emotion clouds their judgment. As anger grows, it turns into a kind of obsession that confuses a person. They forget about their relationships with others, what they should or shouldn’t do, and even their own plans. Their memory becomes messed up, making it hard for them to follow through with what they had planned. This confusion is the result of being infatuated with anger.
When someone’s memory is confused, their mind can’t figure out what to do. This is called a loss of reason. In this state, it’s easy for them to abandon their responsibilities and choose the wrong path. This can lead to bad behaviour like being harsh, violent, revengeful, and foolish. They quickly fall out of their previous state and face complete ruin. Even someone who has good self-control may suddenly struggle with temptations. For example, an ascetic who gave up everything for spiritual bliss may still desire recognition and respect. The allure of sensory pleasure is hard for ordinary people to resist, leading to their downfall in the long run. No society is free from desire, just like individuals. Desire is the core cause of societal degradation.
All the world’s miseries stem from unfulfilled desires, causing nations to engage in wars. Indiscrimination is the source of evil in civilization, growing unnoticed through stages like attraction, attachment, desire, anger, passion, delusion, recklessness, and forgetfulness of one’s true divine self. Controlling the mind and desires is challenging but crucial. Those who conquer their minds can conquer the world. It is emphasized that freedom from likes and dislikes is more important than renouncing pleasures or disciplining the senses. Proper use of disciplined senses, without being influenced by personal preferences, brings inner peace and tranquility.
(Author is Researcher, Science communicator and academic writer. Feedback: [email protected])
