Anger

Question: How should one deal with anger?

Sri Chinmoy: One has to conquer anger. I am not criticising anybody, but even some great spiritual Masters used to have unbelievable anger. They were realised persons, but sometimes their anger was terrible, even to the last moment. There were many, many, many great spiritual Masters who expressed terrible anger.

Question: Does one ever get rid of that?

Sri Chinmoy: Some of the Masters could not get rid of it. In their soul, heart and mind they had realised God, but their nature’s transformation was a different matter. Many spiritual Masters could not conquer anger and a few other weaknesses. But they definitely had realised God.

Let me tell you a story. Once, hundreds and thousands of people were invited to a function by one particular Master. When everybody had come and the function was about to take place, the Master went to his spiritual Mother and prostrated himself before her. He said, “Mother, now you have to forgive me. I am entering into a private room and I am closing the door and the windows. If I see children fighting and talking, then I know that I will slap them. I will not be able to control my anger.” For a whole month he had worked to make this function as nice as possible, but he knew the power of his anger. So, knowing his weakness, he entered into a room and remained there alone until the function was over. Then he came down again, and he said to the spiritual Mother, “Now, Mother, I have succeeded.” But what kind of success did he have? Thousands of people were invited, but he could not control his weakness.

Suppose a disciple does something wrong and the Master is terribly angry with him. He does not appear before the Master, but unfortunately another disciple happens to come up instead. Then what will happen? That poor disciple will see that his spiritual Master’s eyes are absolutely red, as if the Master were going to burn him to ashes. He will not dare to confront the Master. He will say, “I have done nothing wrong today and yesterday I was so nice. Why are you so displeased with me, Master?” Then, if the spiritual Master has sincerity, he will say, “Oh no, I am not angry with you. I am angry with someone else.” The Master may be angry with someone else, but all his anger will enter into the disciple who is standing before him. I have seen many, many cases like this when spiritual Masters were angry and they did not want to control their anger. Then some unfortunate disciples would come before the Masters and get all their anger.