All these negative emotions such as anger, pride, ego, jealousy, stubbornness, etc. are actually our enemies. Because of them, we lose our peace and happiness. And when we become unhappy, we make others also unhappy.
These faults are present within, and each fault has multiple layers; there are layers and layers of every single fault. This is the reason we keep experiencing these emotions throughout our life.
So what’s the remedy now?
Since you’ve asked for a solution that can take care of these faults forever, let’s seek the remedy from Gnani. Gnani is the Enlightened One; therefore the remedies suggested by Gnani are not only forever but for sure too. So come, let’s have a look at the remedies that Gnani suggests:
Suppose somebody says bad for Ramona (you may insert your own name here), you get hurt, isn’t it? That time, the anger present within you comes out.
Due to ignorance of the Self, you believe, ‘I am Ramona.’ That is why when somebody insults Ramona, anger comes out. Now, if same bad words are said to Ramona, but this Ramona is some other person (and not you), then you do not feel bad.
Talking about himself, Gnani explains, “If somebody says bad words to Deepak, with knowledge of Self-Realization, I will know, ‘this is with Deepak, not with me. I am a Pure Soul. So I don’t have any anger. Due to knowledge of Self, I can remain in a state of bliss all the time.”
Thus, anger is due to ignorance of the Self. Not only anger, but pride, deceit, greed, lust, everything is due to ignorance of the Self. By attaining knowledge of the Self (Self-Realization), we can come out of all of these enemies!
- Pratikraman.
We found that the root cause of anger is ignorance of the Self. After Self-Realization, now new faults shall not be generated. However, what about the old stock of faults that are lying within us. We need to clear that too, isn’t it?
For that, we practice pratikraman. Whenever we become angry on somebody, or feel proud, egoistic, jealous or stubborn, we shall immediately do pratikraman. Pratikraman means repentance or feeling sorry for our mistake. Here, we apologize for our mistake, repent over it and also ask God for strength to not do this mistake again. We practice pratikraman by making a heart-felt prayer to the God residing in the person whom we’ve hurt through our negative emotions. We could hurt someone not only through our words or actions but also through our thoughts.
So, before going to sleep, everyday for ten minutes, close your eyes and see ‘where I became angry today, on which person and for what reason.’ And then, do pratikraman by praying to God, “Dear God, I am sorry for having hurt this person due to my anger. Please forgive me and give me strength so that I do not get angry ever again.”
Pratikraman will help wash our mistake. But that is not enough. Still the mistake is likely to occur again and again, as we have not yet cleared the cause of our fault. To clear the cause, we need to find out why we became angry or jealous or stubborn? What do we want? Find that out.
When we find out the cause that why is this happening with this person and not for anybody else, this introspection and visualizing the cause helps us come out of the problem.
- First and the root cause we have already found out, i.e. ignorance of the Self.
- Second is, we believe, ‘I am always right.’ So, when somebody finds out our fault and says, ‘You are wrong’, we feel insulted. That’s why we become angry so as to protect our ego. That’s another cause of our negative emotions.
- When our expectations do not get fulfilled, again negative emotions arise.
- When we are not able to adjust to a situation or when we are explaining something but the other person’s not understanding, we get excited – all these are various causes why negative emotions arise.
As we find out the cause of each negative emotion, and start solving the causes by the understanding of reality i.e. the right understanding as per the teachings of the Enlightened One, then these emotions begin to dissolve.
- Separation from the fault.
When we observe the negative emotion as it arises, by maintaining separation through the awareness of the Pure Soul (the Self), then that layer of the fault goes away forever. Slowly, slowly, layer after layer, anger and likewise all other negative emotions too get removed forever from its roots, and our behaviour becomes very normal and amicable in every situation and with every person around us.
Thus, to conclude,
When will our negative emotions go away forever? when we observe them being separate from us!
When can we observe them so? Only after we’ve attained Self-Realization!!
How do we attain Self-Realization? With the grace of the Living Gnani!!!
In Akram Vignan, we can attain Self-Realization, directly with the grace of the Living Gnani, in just two hours time, for no cost whatsoever, and get free from not only negative emotions but from all kinds of sufferings in life, forever. And until we attain Self-Realization, we can begin with practicing Pratikraman rightaway.