The power of desire is the power you are using to suppress it

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question (Q): My question is about anger. A few days back I got angry over the behavior of another woman on the road and bashed her, without thinking anything. I then got this feeling that it should not have been done. I don’t know what I was doing. Inside I was feeling like, “How could I do that?” At the same time what was happening was intolerable.

Acharya Prashant (AP): If it was really not tolerable, why do you blame yourself for getting angry?

Listener (L): No, I am not blaming the anger but this doesn’t usually happen.

AP: Why is the incident still sitting in your mind? Surely there is guilt. Surely you are blaming yourself. Do you remember everything that has happened over the last five days? Then why do you remember this one in particular? Because you do not like that you got angry. It violates the image that your teachers and parents and all the nice books provided you. “The nice lady does not get angry”. Why does the nice lady not get angry?

Everything has its place in existence. Why must you not get angry? Why?

L: Maybe it is morality which makes me think that I should be nice-nice to others.