Krodh is hard to describe. Literally krodh translated to english can be defined as wrath, rage or uncontrolled anger. Anger is something that changes us. We become a different person when we are filled with anger, we’ve all felt this before. Our mind fills up with angry thoughts, we boil up with anger, we are ready to unleash this angry fire inside of us. A simple analogy to describe this is when we are angry towards someone or something we are holding a burning hot candle. By doing this we aren’t hurting the other person we are hurting ourselves. The candle is only burning us.
And to be honest it is hard to stop and think when we are angry. This is an issue that I struggle with. I can easily become pissed or irritated and then it is all downhill. My mood can switch quickly. It is something that I’ve been trying to work on so I researched more about Krodh which is what led me to write this. In no way am I totally over my anger issues but I am slowly, hoping to get there.
One of the first things I’ve learned is that when we are angry we think of ourselves as the higher person. When we are angry at somebody we think that we are on a higher level and the other person who wronged us is lower than us but instead we should keep the mindset that everyone is higher than ourselves. By having this mindset we are able to think with more clarity, this way we ignore our ego but instead focus on the issue. This can be easy to read but it is actually hard for us to implement in our daily lives.
To start we have to understand that our anger stems from something. This can be external or internal. It could be simple things like homework, traffic, social media but these are our triggers. To control our anger we have to be able to understand our triggers. A lot of these triggers stem from our own expectations. We expect stuff, “I believe”, “I want”, “I expect” and ultimately when these expectations are not met we feel hurt, upset and ignored. Our ego feels attacked which results in us being angry.
In order to stop ourselves from these angry thoughts we have to refrain and prevent. In order to do this we have to detach from the problem. Look at it from a third person point of view. We have to look at the situation from a positive perspective and we have to think of ourselves as lower in the situation. This is very hard to do in real life but with a different point of view we can see the situation clearly.
Another thing that helped me was focusing on what I was taught when I was younger. My whole life I’ve been taught that there is waheguru inside of everyone. It is helpful to think of this when we are angry. We have to understand that waheguru is within everyone. It is a hard concept but it also keeps us grounded and in reality.
There are many things we can do when we are angry to stop our these angry thoughts, for example:
Exercising
Taking a timeout
Practice not holding a grudge
Another thing we can do is practice Simran. Personally I have a hard time focusing on Simran but it is super helpful. By doing Simran we are able to clear our minds. We can think consciously and clearly. It allows us to step away from the problem and think in a more positive mindset.
But of course anger is a hard thing to control because most of the time we don’t take that second to think instead we jump head first in the situation. But we can take small steps to understand ourselves when we are angry. The first thing we can try is when we get angry or after is to try and figure out what was the trigger and to keep practicing this. Hopefully this was helpful to you and just remember this is my understanding.
ਹਰਿ ਕਾ ਨਾਮੁ ਮਨਿ ਵਸੈ ਹਉਮੈ ਕ੍ਰੋਧੁ ਨਿਵਾਰਿ ॥
हरि का नामु मनि वसै हउमै क्रोधु निवारि ॥
Har kā nām man vasai ha▫umai kroḏẖ nivār.
The Name of the Lord dwells within the mind; egotism and anger are wiped away.
-Amanpreet Kaur, 17, Wisconsin