Transmute your Holy Anger against Injustice into a Force for Good

Yesterday, I got quite angry when I learned that the Trump Administration aims to slash US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s budget by over 65%.

Then, I started to feel guilty about feeling angry.

During the first 50 years of my life, I had internalized the (wrong) belief that “ANGER = SIN” and “EQUANIMITY = VIRTUE”

Whenever I felt anger in the face of injustice, I repressed and hid it. I would feel ashamed that I got angry in the first place.

In the Western countries where I spent my adulthood, I was told that, as an immigrant or foreigner, I should be “grateful” for the “amazing life” I had and not “complain” as a “victim” when I expressed my anger against unjust acts in those countries.

But in 2020, as I turned 50, my relationship with anger took a different turn.

By mid-2020, the US was the epicenter of COVID-19. I became very upset by how incompetently the Trump 1.0 Administration handled the pandemic.

That’s when I began to reexamine my relationship with anger.

As a follower of Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine), I knew that anger was related to Pitta, or the fire element.

The existential question is: What do you DO with that Fire in you ?

There are 3 options:

- you let that Fire burn out alive (which is likely if your anger escalates)

- you try to tame the Fire (which is hard)

- you channel that fiery energy to do good in the world

Kalaish Satyarthi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, followed the 3rd option.

He transmuted his anger against child exploitation into a life-long crusade to fight child labor and slavery.

In this TED Talk, “How to make peace ? Get angry”, Satyarthi encourages people to channel their anger into action and ideas to create positive change:

“I am urging you to become angry. And the angriest among us is the one who can transform his anger into idea and action.”

Satyarthi is acting as a Ucchusma, the wise king in the Buddhist tradition depicted as a wrathful deity who is able to transmute anger into wisdom and noble action.

The Institute of Indic Wisdom explains that the sacred Hindu text Bhagavad Gita distinguishes two types of anger:

🔹 Dharmajam Krodha (Righteous Anger) — Arises from a sense of justice and duty, driving positive action.

🔹 Kama Krodha (Desire-Driven Anger) — Stems from ego, attachment, and frustration, leading to conflict and suffering.

When anger serves a higher purpose, like speaking up against injustice or protecting a team, it is Dharmajam Krodha — a leader’s tool for transformation.

In “Sainte Colère” (Holy Wrath), the Swish philosopher and theologian Lytta Bassett examines the theme of anger within the spiritual framework of Christianity.

She argues anger is a necessary tool in leading a faithful life.

Against the reduction of Christianity to a beatific love, Basset invites us to “consider anger as a motor (engine) capable of transforming a potentially devastating energy into that violence of life that accompanies the process of every birth.”

Reading this book, I realized the power of REGENERATIVE ANGER that seeks to protect, enrich, and grow Life (as opposed to Degenerative Anger that sucks life out of humanity)

Bottom line: don’t feel guilty for being angry at injustices and wickedness that dominate the world right now.

Like an alchemist, transmute that Inner Fire into a Force for Good.