Safe Harbour On Both Sides

The same approach should be applied in life. If you’re angry, let it cool. Only then decide how to respond. In a negative state, no one can think clearly. In anger, a person can’t make the right decision. Shakespeare expressed this beautifully: “Do not heat your furnace so hot for your enemy that it burns you instead.” Indeed—hatred burns first inside you. The effect on others comes later. But you suffer first and most. So why do something that might hurt others, but will surely hurt you? If you truly love yourself, that is enough; all you need to do is stop hating others. In this world, the secret to loving yourself is also to love others. A person filled with hatred spreads thorns all around him—and makes life difficult for himself as well as others. A life built on hatred shows that a person is not balanced inside. Byron rightly said: “Hatred is madness of the heart.” Just as mental madness is a loss of sense, madness of the heart is the loss of balance and seriousness. No one respects mental madness—and in the same way, we should avoid madness of the heart too. All India Radio, New Delhi, on 13-14 December 1984.