There is a good illustration of the nature of anger given by the Perfect Master Ramakrishna. He was from the area around Calcutta and the Ganges flowed by his ashram. One day Ramakrishna was standing by the river with his disciples and, pointing to a boat moving upstream, he gave this parable on anger.
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The boatman rowing upstream sees another boat, far off, moving downstream towards him. He shouts, "Hey, watch out! Change your course, look out!" But the boat continues to rush towards him and, as it comes closer, he sees that there is nobody in the boat. Now is he going to continue to yell at the boat to change its course? No, he is simply going to change his own course and steer around the on rushing boat.
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Ramakrishna said, "The one who is angry is like a boat which has no captain, steer away. Don't stand and throw words back at the boat in anger. Steer aside. Otherwise neither boat has a captain".
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On mastering the mind, Ramakrishna said, "Once I had the desire to put on a goldembroidered robe, weat a ring on my finger, and smoke a hubble-bubble with long pipe. Mathur Babu procured all these things for me. I wore the gold-embroidered robe and said to myself after a while, 'Mind! This is what is called a gold-embroidered robe'. Then I took it off and threw it away. I could not stand the robe any more. Again I said to myself, 'Mind! This is called a ring, and this, smoking a hubble-bubble with a long pipe'. I threw those things away once for all, and the desire to enjoy them never arose in my mind again".
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