In scope of discussing sloka 1.17 about samprajna and its relation to vritti-nirodhah I’ve been asked a good question about the mechanisms of such relation, that is, about the REASON of this, or rather, about the mechanism of changing one’s emotional attitude to the core of the problem within the process of its comprehension (this been what we talked about in previous posts). I believe it is reasonable to give the answer here.
I consider the answer to be that in each situation the way of emotional response is not the only available yet it depends upon the role a person plays in this situation. Or more exactly, the image that he identifies himself with. In this way the person himself (if he does identify himself with some image) considers his mode of response/attitude to the situation to be the only possible one. And indeed, we often hear “Of course I felt hurt/offended” in the situation where another person would say that he “of course” got mad or grew sad… On top of everything else one’s comprehension of the situation core implies understanding of the fact of one’s playing such a role, and it by itself disengages the person from this role and thus from emotions associated with it.