When We React To Atrocity With Fury We Give The Forces Of Illusion Control Over Both Sides Of War

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
When we react to atrocity with fury, we let the forces of illusion gain control over both sides of the fight.
Suppose two sides are fighting against each other, two countries, because one of them has done something terrible. Suppose further that one country is good and the other is bad. And the good country is trying to bring the bad country to justice.
But suppose the third country takes advantage of this fight and starts supplying weapons, first to the bad side and then to the good side. Suppose it further spreads rumors among both sides and incites them to keep fighting. Then even the good side may end up attacking disproportionately and become simply a pawn in the scheme of the third country to mint money.
Similar can be our side, our position when we react to atrocity with fury. When someone does something terrible to us, we naturally feel hurt, even angered. Though our anger is justified, it often impels us to reactions that are unjustified and disproportionate.
And if we had a measured response, the other party might have become deterred. But when we retaliate excessively, being driven by anger, then what happens? We become as much a pawn in the forces of illusion as the other party. The other party may be controlled by illusion through some vice such as lust or greed.
And that’s why they committed that atrocity. We become controlled by illusion through the vice of anger. The Bhagavad Gita cautions in 1621 that that lust, anger and greed, all three make our life hellish.
We are misled by all three. So when we retaliate disproportionately, they instead of becoming deterred, become inflamed and they retaliate even more disproportionately. And as the tit for tat escalates, we end up in illusion despite starting off as a bad side.
Illusion increases its control on us and through us on the outer world. To prevent being thus deluded, we need to first, whenever something bad happens to us, we need to, rather than reacting, first pray and submit to the divine in a mood of prayer. When we let God control our consciousness, then anger can’t control it.
Being calmed and guided from within through prayer, we can then come up with a measured response that both prevents, deters the other side from repeating their atrocity while also doesn’t fuel the flames of mutual animosity.