Question: How do we deal with negative emotions like anger, jealousy and fear?

Sri Chinmoy: Sometimes people feel that the more they think of their negative qualities, the more they are conscious of them, the sooner they will be able to get rid of them. Unfortunately, this is not true. In the spiritual life, the more we think of our negative qualities, the more they lord it over us and the more we are caught by them. What we have to do is to see if there is anything in us that we can invoke to solve our problems.

Suppose we are constantly at the mercy of anger. Now, if we can establish peace in our being, we will not have anger. How do we do this? We do not think of anger at all; we pray and meditate only for peace. The very nature of peace is to spread. When peace spreads its wings inside our being, our anger is bound to be transformed because it comes under the influence of peace.

Suppose we are assailed by jealousy. We are jealous of others because we have not established our oneness with them. But if I put the shot with my right hand, my left hand will not be jealous even though it will not be able to throw as far. My left hand and right hand have established their oneness. When one part of my body does something, the other part does not feel miserable, because each knows that it belongs to the same body, and that the entire body is its reality. When I work with my mind, my feet do not feel miserable, because they have established their oneness with my mind. In the spiritual life also, when we establish oneness with the Source, which is God, then we are not jealous of anybody. If we feel that our reality is God, then each individual is like a limb of our conscious, dedicated, devoted spiritual body. If they are all limbs of my body, then they are part and parcel of my existence. So how can I be jealous of them? So if we pray for inseparable oneness with the Source, the problem of jealousy will easily be solved, because God is the root and the tree and the branches. Jealousy can be overcome only by our constant feeling of oneness with others. Unless and until we have realised others as our very own, we call them different personalities, different individualities. But if we can see and feel them inside ourselves as members of our own larger family, jealousy will disappear from our life of aspiration.

Similarly, with all other undivine qualities, the best way to deal with them is to invoke the divine qualities which will illumine and transform them.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Fifty Freedom-Boats to One Golden Shore, part 4, Agni Press, 1974
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