Our real emotions

Emotion is the movement of the subtle psychic personality. This emotion is not what we experience in the form of anger, or passion, or frustration; it is not even what we experience in the form of love or compassion. Rather it represents a state of harmony between the gross nature and the subtle nature. What we express in our life is only a reaction that takes place between our feelings and their association with the mind. For example, why do you get angry? It is because of an association between the energy of the heart and the present experience of the mind, and that triggers off your reaction. Jealousy acts as a similar trigger. Anger, violence, crime, compassion, equanimity, serenity are all expressions of an interactive process which is taking place between head and heart.

The yogic term for emotions is bhavana, where there is harmony between head and heart. In order to awaken the bhavana, the real emotion, the first condition is that we have to stop reacting. When you react, intelligence becomes clouded; viveka, the discriminative ability, no longer exists, and personal peace is lost.

Yog also says: be involved. It is an involvement that is flowing, and therefore, you do not experience struggle - flow is passive and struggle is reaction. This is the stage we have to come to in order to experience the harmony between the gross and the subtle nature.