Questioner: We often talk about anger management, anger control.
But if our soldiers don’t show their anger, how are they going to fight wars at the border?
Sadhguru: If they shoot in anger, they’ll miss.
They’ll waste the cartridges.
To shoot you must be in a very even, balanced, equanimous mind; otherwise, you cannot shoot.
You don’t have to be angry to shoot.
If you’re angry and shoot, you’re not a soldier - you’re a vandal.
A soldier is standing up for a cause,
he's not shooting because of his personal enmity with somebody. Yes!
He’s standing up for our nation, he's not standing up for his personal anger, or enmity, with somebody.
So, if you want to shoot straight, you try and see
– they can take you to the range today, you try and see –
if you want to shoot, one thing that is necessary is, you have to be balanced.
Even if you have to… you know, even in a golf game it's called shooting score.
If you want to shoot straight, you got to be level-headed, otherwise you’re not going to shoot straight.
This is especially so with the bullet, because of the velocity, and even the smallest variation,
a micro millimeter variation will take it somewhere else.
In many ways, United States in their conflicts,
probably of all the nations, US army has used snipers extensively,
like no other country, probably.
It's a brutal game, but if you're angry, you will never shoot straight;
you're shooting half a mile away, you're not going to shoot straight, for sure!
So, soldier need not be angry.
That’s why I told you, Krishna chose to give the Gita in the battlefield.
He’s talking about equanimity, not anger;
because if you want to win the war, you must be stable.
Angry people will get killed.
Please don’t react to what I say,
but consider this.
Armed forces, especially those who are in active service,
who every day face situations which is life and death in some way…
I know Indian army is not so much so, but still it is there,
but I've seen how the US army trains.
They're training them to, “Come on, we’ll do this to them!”
All kinds of vulgar words, "And we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that."
This is how we've been pepping up the armies.
But I feel the elite forces everywhere in the world are not trained like that.
They’re trained to be very, very equanimous, to be focused, to be meditative,
to not react, but to respond according to the situation.
This element should be brought into the forces in a big way,
at the fundamental basic training, that you only respond - you don’t react.
This will make a world of difference in the way you operate.
Whether it's with your family, or with the business outside, or with the actual job that you’re doing, wherever it is;
your essential nature of the human being is this - which no other animal is capable of - is:
we don’t have to instinctively react, we can respond consciously.
This is where we can employ our intelligence; otherwise, there is no room for intelligence!
The only reason why we are dominating this world is because of our intelligence, not because of our physical strength.
If we do not exercise what is strongest in us,
then we're losing out, big time.
So, we must shift every human being - not just a soldier - every human being,
from a state of compulsive reaction, to a conscious response.
This is my fundamental goal with every human being.
If only human beings were consciously responding (Applause)
they would do their best, isn't it? To the best of their intelligence and capability.