by Sadhuguru Jaggi Vasudeva: How does one conquer one’s negative emotions and anger?9/6/12  Why do you want to conquer them? You would want to conquer something that you value, isn’t it? Do you want to conquer something that you do not value? Why would you take the trouble of conquering something that is of no value to you? If you want to conquer something, would you go and conquer a wasteland or would you want to go and conquer a rich land? A rich land. If you are a king, what would you want to conquer? A rich kingdom, not a wasteland. You don’t want to conquer a desert. So, why do you want to conquer something that you do not want?

So, first drop the idea of conquering. Right now, are you angry? No. So, why should you conquer anger? It doesn’t even exist. How do you control or conquer that which does not exist? Once in a while, you get angry. Why are you getting angry? Because suddenly your body, mind and energies are not behaving the way you want them to — they are just doing their own nonsense. That is anger. So, anger is not in constant existence. That which is not in existence, trying to control or conquer that, will just be a wasteful and hallucinatory effort.

Sometimes your mind turns unpleasant. One form of unpleasantness is called anger. Or in other words, sometimes you turn unpleasant. One form of your unpleasantness is referred to as anger; other forms of unpleasantness are called by many other different names. We will just take anger as an example. Why would anybody make himself unpleasant? There is sufficient unpleasantness in the world. Where is the need for you to make yourself unpleasant? Right now, you are in a kind of childishness where if situations around you are unpleasant, you will also become unpleasant. But tell me, is there any intelligence in this? Especially when the situations around you are unpleasant, is it not all the more important that you be very pleasant within yourself? But right now, you are in this childish mode that if the outside situations turn unpleasant, you will make your insides also terribly unpleasant. There is no intelligence in this.

Somewhere, when it comes to ourselves, we are refusing to employ our intelligence. I am not telling you, “Don’t get angry.” It is up to you. If it is a pleasant experience, get angry all the time. But generally, whenever you get angry, you suffer more than your victim. What is the point? Why would you create unpleasantness for yourself? There is enough unpleasantness in the world. Whichever way you walk in the world, you will step into something unpleasant here or there. Whichever way you try to avoid it, somewhere you will step into some unpleasantness. Is there a necessity that you have to manufacture your own private unpleasantness? Is there such a need? No.

So… why are you creating things that you do not want? Why are you creating unpleasantness for yourself? You just don’t know what you are doing with yourself; that is the only reason. Absolutely unconsciously, you are trying to go on. Do one thing. With your eyes closed, try to drive to your home. You may make it one day. You may bump a few people off and still make it, but try for a few days. You will not live a few days, isn’t it so? So, right now, it is just like that — you are trying to handle your wellbeing unaware. You will not know wellbeing this way, it does not matter what you do. You have to handle it consistently with full awareness of the nature of yourself.