As I move through Day 4 of Navaratri ritual with my kula, we are talking about destructive vs constructive anger. Durga helps us to dissolve the tamasic energy of destructive anger known as krodha.
Ram Dass says "If I protest against war angrily... I am creating the very thing I'm trying to get rid of." He says our attachment and our righteousness creates polarization and feeds the perpetual illusion of separateness..."It keeps us down."
For a while, I was an angry vegetarian, an angry Democrat... but my anger was destructive and it came from a place of superiority. It created the same thing I was trying to get rid of.
In recent years, I have let people go I was close to because their anger was filled with shame, blame, and guilt... it pointed fingers and ultimately created more polarization.
Constructive anger feels different... it energizes and nourishes.It doesn't weaponize or externalize. We can find pleasure in this place, because it comes from pure Love... and when we are unattached to outcome, the walls of perpetual illusion and separateness fall away.
MahaLakshmi... the Remover of Sorrow... grants us Pleasure and Spiritual Wealth. She helps us to use our anger constructively. She nourishes us with Discernment, Deep Listening, and Intuitive Knowing. May we all find the perpetual abundance of these virtues within.
Jai Maa!
By Bonnie Divina Maa, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
