Apr 29, 2002, 12.44am IST
BRAHMA KUMARI ASHA.
Fear seems to have taken possession of almost everyone in today’s world and has become the biggest stress-producer. Fear lies in the sub-conscious and surfaces as and when a situation arises: of possible or imminent loss of life, property, loved ones or prestige, for example. The greatest fear of all is, of course, that of death, because all physical relationships and material possessions are lost with death. The fear of death, it is said, is worse than death itself. What people fear most is untimely death, and this fear is growing because of the increasing uncertainties of life today. Scienti-fic advances have made life more comfortable in many ways. However, insecurity has also kept pace with progress. Today everyone feels vulnerable, for anything can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Our increasing tendency to violence and the growing mechanisation of our lives have created conditions in which death is just a careless moment away. One reason for this insecurity is that more and more innocent people are getting killed in human-made situations, which may not even be of the victims’ making. While we do get reconciled to the death of innocents in natural calamities or accidents by telling ourselves that it was willed by fate or that it was beyond our control, acts of wanton killing carried out by humans often leave a deep scar within us because they shake our trust in our fellow human beings. Medical science has not yet found a cure for fear. Actually, it is a malady of the soul and calls for a spiritual solution. First of all, it requires an attitudinal change. We need to drill into our minds that one only loses by giving in to fear. It paralyses the mind, rendering it incapable of doing what it can easily do otherwise. The behaviour of pigeons illustrates this well. Frozen with fear when they see a cat, pigeons just shut their eyes instead of flying away. The result? They get killed. By practising to take on any situation calmly and with courage, we will be able to change our tendency to get frightened by unexpected or adverse circumstances. Another change needed is in the way we look at adversity. All the tests that we face in life, regardless of whether we pass them or not, make us stronger and equip us to face better similar tests in future. If we dodge these tests for fear of failure or loss we will advance in life no more than a student who refuses to sit for examinations out of examination phobia. The illusion of mortality is the deep rooted cause of fear. It stems from a wrong identification of the eternal Self with the perishable body. It can be overcome by the realisation of a basic truth: that we are souls and the soul is immortal. This is the first lesson of the Bhagavad Gita. The soul is an actor and the body is like its costume. It takes rebirth, casting off one body to take birth in a new body. What we call death is nothing but the departure of the soul from the body after its role in the present body is over. This is not an esoteric truth just to be wondered at, anyone can realise it by practising meditation. Living in soul-consciousness over a long period empowers us to overcome the fear of mortality. While attitudinal change can help us overcome fear to some extent, complete freedom from it requires attention on our karma. Fear is always about the future but its roots lie in the past. It is the law of karma that we reap as we sow. Fear is punishment for our sins small and big. This is why some people are gripped by fear in a situation which others take lightly. The seemingly baseless and even peculiar fears or phobias that people suffer from — fear of the dark, fear of water, fear of going out alone, fear of certain places — are all in some manner influenced by past actions and experiences. Our mythology eulogises the brave: the story of the doughty monkey prince, Angad, the emissary of Rama, standing his own in the court of Ravana is well known, and Durga, the eight-armed female deity who rides a lion, symbolises feminine courage and power. It is with such courage that countless martyrs braved death and great men like Mahatma Gandhi overcame seemingly insurmountable odds. (The author is director, Om Shanti Retreat Centre of the Brahma Kumaris, Gurgaon)
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