Anger in Devotional Service to God - The Science of Raudra-rāsa
While mundane anger leads to bewilderment and a loss of intelligence, spiritual anger is an entirely different phenomenon. In his extensive purports to the Vedic literatures, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that anger, when directed toward the service of the Supreme Lord, becomes a transcendental mellow (rāsa). By understanding the intricate rules of raudra-bhakti-rāsa, a devotee learns how even the fiercest emotions can be utilized to achieve the highest perfection of love of God.
The Classification of Indirect Mellows
The relationship between the soul and the Supreme Lord is not monotonous; it is painted with twelve distinct emotional colors. Śrīla Prabhupāda outlines that beyond the five primary relationships (neutrality, servitude, friendship, parenthood, and conjugal love), there are seven indirect mellows, of which anger is a prominent feature.
- Direct devotional services are as follows: neutrality, servitude, fraternity, paternity and conjugal love. Indirect devotional service is divided into laughter, compassion, anger, chivalry, dread, astonishment and ghastliness.
- Besides five primary rasas, or relationships, there are seven secondary rasas which consist of laughing, having wonderful visions, entering into a chivalrous relationship, experiencing pity, feeling anger and experiencing ghastliness and devastation.
- In the fourth division of Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami has described seven kinds of indirect ecstasies of devotional service, known as laughing, astonishment, chivalry, compassion, anger, dread and ghastliness.
- Indirect devotional service is divided into laughter, compassion, anger, chivalry, dread, astonishment and ghastliness. Devotional service can therefore be divided into twelve types, each of which has a different color.
Raudra-bhakti-rāsa and Emotional Enhancements
When anger is perfectly synthesized with devotion, it elevates the devotee's experience. Śrīla Prabhupāda references the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu to define this specific taste as raudra-bhakti-rasa. Furthermore, he notes that as primary relationships like servitorship or parenthood deepen, they naturally expand to include symptoms of anger and affection, culminating in the highest ecstasies.
- Raudra-bhakti-rasa is described as follows (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 4.5.1): When devotion is mixed with anger in the heart of the devotee, the taste is called raudra-bhakti-rasa.
- The flavor of servitorship increases to include affection, anger, fraternity and attachment.
- In parenthood the attachment increases to include affection, anger, fraternity, attachment, and devotion.
- These different stages of gradual development increase love of God to the highest stage, and in the highest stage there are still more symptoms, such as affection, anger and attachment, gradually rising in exceptional cases to the maha-bhava stage.
The Science of Compatibility
The blending of transcendental mellows is governed by strict spiritual science. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that certain emotions naturally harmonize, while others clash. For anger in devotional service, mixtures with compassion or chivalry are aesthetically and spiritually compatible, but combining anger with laughter or conjugal love is strictly incompatible.
- With the ecstasy of anger in devotional service a mixture of compassion or chivalry is compatible, whereas a mixture of laughter, conjugal union or dread is completely incompatible.
- With the ecstasy of chivalry in devotional service a mixture of conjugal union, laughter or anger is always incompatible.
- With the ecstasy of devotion in astonishment a mixture of chivalry or neutral love is compatible, whereas a mixture of anger or dread is always incompatible.
- When in the rasa of neutral love (santa-rasa) there are found traces of ghastliness or astonishment, the result is compatible. When with this neutral love there are manifestations of conjugal love, chivalry, anger or dread, the result is incompatible.
Utilizing Anger for the Supreme Lord
The practical application of anger separates the materialist from the transcendentalist. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that a pure devotee never uses anger for selfish reasons, such as financial disputes. Instead, a devotee utilizes anger strictly for Kṛṣṇa's service, exhibiting righteous indignation when individuals refuse to take to spiritual life or when the Lord is offended.
- We're angry. This anger is service of Krsna. How can I give up anger? But we use anger in a different way, not for our sense gratification: "Why you have not paid me such-and-such money?" No, we don't say like that. "Why you are not Krsna Conscious?" That's our anger.
- One who approaches the Supreme Lord to render devotional service, but who is proud of his personality, envious of others or vengeful, is in the mode of anger.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead advised the two doorkeepers, Jaya and Vijaya, that by dint of bhakti-yoga in anger they would be delivered from the curses of the Four Kumaras.
- The above attitudes of dissatisfaction and anger in devotional service are called irsyu.
Conclusion
In conclusion, anger is not an emotion that must be artificially extinguished, but rather a powerful force that must be spiritually redirected. Śrīla Prabhupāda masterfully teaches that through the science of raudra-bhakti-rāsa, anger is purified of its material contamination and transformed into an ecstatic offering to the Supreme Lord. By aligning one's indignation entirely with the mission of Kṛṣṇa and carefully observing the rules of emotional compatibility outlined by the ācāryas, a sincere devotee can utilize every aspect of their being—including their wrath—to achieve the ultimate goal of unalloyed love of Godhead.
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