8 June 2015 - QA 5

Gurudev, I am unable to control my anger even after meditation. What do I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Go deeper into meditation. Practice more pranayama. It is impossible that your anger does not quieten down after meditation as well. And if you still feel that your anger does not subside after meditation, then you should start observing yourself very carefully.
Earlier when you used to get angry, your anger would last for a long time. If you have started meditating very recently, then you would have noticed that anger still comes, but it subsides quite soon as well. In a matter of four to five minutes your anger disappears, isn’t it so? If yes, then you should see it as a big step in the positive direction.
When you felt angry in earlier days, when you did not meditate, your anger would last for hours, days, months or perhaps even a year. But now that you have started meditating regularly, anger does not stay for long. Why is this so? It is because when anger comes, that moment the attention shifts to the breath and you remember your breath – and this helps to regulate your anger. The experience of past meditation immediately takes you back to a calm and serene state and stops the anger midway itself. Has it happened this way or not? How many of you have had this experience? (Many in the audience raise their hands).

See, others may think or say that "He has been meditating for some time now, yet he still gets angry”. But you will know from within that you have changed after meditation. There is some transformation in you. Any meditation that you do never goes waste.