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Bharat Savur

Prone to anger — the easiest thing to do would be explode, but the better thing to do would be train yourself to be a good-natured person.

Rajesh rages, rants and raves. When his wife finally divorced him, he was shocked. "I'm the angry type. If my wife didn't understand me, who will?" he moaned. One Sufi school puts the ball right back into his court. "Fine," it says. "You're the angry type. But, you don't have to prove it all the time. So, why not act as another? And be a star?"

So, Rajesh is asked to play Brijesh, a happy-go-lucky, good-natured guy. "But I warn you," threatens Rajesh, "After those three hours of acting, I'll be my old angry self again."

"Sure," agrees the Sufi director. "As long as you deliver Brijesh's lines convincingly, never mind what you do later." So, Rajesh rehearses at being Brijesh — calm, good-humoured. Then gives a great performance night after night. Midnight, he storms out to paint the town red with his rage. The Sufi director quietly increases the time-span of the performance.

As his role expands, Rajesh gets to know Brijesh intimately, right down to his ready smile, his easy outlook. So much so that others begin to identify him as Brijesh. He even gets a kick when fans shout, "Hey! There's Brijesh!" And Rajesh actually begins to like Brijesh, identifies with him on several aspects, finds they have many things in common. "He's a good guy," Rajesh says about Brijesh. The Sufi director smiles. His play has been a success.

In real life, Rajesh has changed, but, strangely, he is not Brijesh. He is still Rajesh — calmer, more patient, happier, able to laugh at himself, but still Rajesh. That's why the Sufis included acting as a vehicle of change in their vast repertoire.

And mystic George Gurdjieff put a western twist to this eastern wisdom by experimenting with `contrast emotions'. When you are happy, feign sadness and cry your eyes out; when amused, feign hurt and sulk your socks off; when unmoved and calm, explode in anger and blow your head off. The reasoning: when you emote the exact opposite of what you really feel, you realise immediately the control you have over your emotions. This realisation tickles your fancy. You begin to observe yourself. And gradually become aware that these emotions are not you.

It's Rajesh awakening to his true self and conceding. "Maybe I'm not really the angry type." Though often, it's amazingly tough to let go of a familiar self-image, a reluctance to discard a well-worn shirt however frayed at the edges.

During this period of adjustment, it's best to relax and stop thinking too much. Since the mind has no self-image to hold on to, it feels disconnected, empty. This temporary disorientation creates a tension in the body because the mind is literally clawing at thin air. If Rajesh waits this out too passively, he'll get alarmed and return to being his old irascible self again. For, the tension of not knowing what's happening builds into this subconscious uneasiness that he is not being himself, that something is very wrong somewhere.

The fact is: everything is being righted everywhere. New energies earlier held down by anger are rising. It's a new way of being. It's like when onstage, an actor pauses for two seconds and there's nothing but a breathing hush. A special relationship rises between the actor and audience expressed in one collective sigh of delight as the actor delivers her finale. Rajesh is in this pause, bewildered, unable to relax because he doesn't know how to handle this switch from sound to silence.

Before the new energies take the old rage road, I'd suggest some explosive weight-training after the mandatory warm-ups to provide a playful outlet for them.

Like the overhead medicine ball throw. Stand with feet comfortably apart. With the medicine ball in your hands, raise your arms overhead. Pre-stretch your ankles, knees, hips and shoulders as you raise the ball, then bend at the waist with swift smoothness simultaneously slamming the medicine ball against the ground. Catch the ball as it bounces back and rapidly move towards the starting position again. A few reps of explosive action would have Rajesh breathing deeply and feeling a sense of reality coursing through his body as his breathing returns to normal. His stretched body will relax and he'll feel more easy with himself.

I'm not advising soft music, dim lights, scented candles because passivity won't work for Rajesh. The more he tries to relax, the harder it is for him to relax. It's exactly as Theatre-Games author Clive Barker observes, "The actor's chief problem: the harder you try, the worse it gets." To be relaxed is to be free, natural and spontaneous. And a Rajesh needs hard exercise to reach that stage. Physical workouts liberate the Rajeshs from the limbo in which they live.

The raging Rajeshs often return from peace-therapies feeling and looking like zombies— see their eyes. They need a follow-up strategy to complete what those therapies started. A great physical workout harnesses unleashed energies, elevates the body's peace-hormones that match the mind's hush. Act to action and ... a star begins its ascent.

The write is co-author of `Fitness for Life'

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