Fear

'Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, 

Nor the furious winter’s rages'.

           William Shakespeare ( Cymbeline)

Fear is very simple, spontaneous thing occurring most of the time without provocation, takes an instant to emerge but stays on to affect only adversely all the good things which give joy. The why of fear is unknown. It is intuitive, a gut feeling we desparately want to be untrue, we sincerely wish it should not happen come what may. But while praying thus we keep clinging further to our worst fears.

Fear is the commonest of all maladies. It is an instant poison we involuntarily gulp in and the effects follow quite naturally marring our simplicity to believe, our ability to trust and our strength to surrender. Enveloped by fear our vision blurs, our reasoning takes the back seat and our vulnerability to mistrust and suspicion takes over. Hapless we become caged in fear, we grapple with our inherent capacity to believe and we let go the positive approach become conspicuous by absence when faced with our worst fears.

What makes us feel and nurture fear? What are we afraid of? Why is it so common? Who is not afraid? Does fear differentiate in gender, age, ability, position, status??

Fear is in itself a negative phenomenon and like all other negative things it has ample scope of spreading over its clutches without any discrimination. In itself fear is a dark force, thick dark cloud which covers all positive things life, the sun, light, hope, trust, belief. In all the years that I have lived, I have not come across a single person who is not afraid, who does not have any fear whatsoever. 

Fear is like a hunch, sometimes an intuition, too depending on our own value assignment to things, persons and whatever ...w h a t e v e r we deem as dear and cherishable. The more we deem a thing precious, the more we cling to it and become afraid of 'losing'.The more we possess and value- health, relationships, kith and kin, status and prestige, wealth and prosperity, the more fear we tend to have of losing them. Actually anything that we value the most makes us afraid of its probable loss. The biggest fear is fear of a loss- loss of dear one-despite the certainty of imminent death we are never ever able to accept it as the reality of life. The very thought of losing a dear one is enough to cast a spell of gloom and grief. We are never prepared to overcome this fear because death symbolises the end, it shuts, makes no return possible, causes pain and uncertainity, enigma associated with it is scary, it un -nerves. But there are people who cannot afford to be afraid. Can the soldiers be afraid of dying or else would they be able to save us, our contrymen? 

Besides, we 'know and do not know' that this world is 'maya', not real, just a facade. Afterall it is not easy to believe everything we live with our five senses to be untrue !! The bigger the fears which - if they come true, lead us to point of no return. 

It is very important to remember that 'the mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.' (John Milton). We can also create our own destiny by affirmations we give to our thoughts- nrgatively if our thoughts run in that direction and vice versa. We cannot afford and should not close our eyes(like a pigeon) to fear (the cat) by posing it does not exist. If and when it does, fear must be encoutered head on and rationally thought of, analysed, discussed with mentors and done away with. It has to be managed or else fear can become unimaginably unmanageable! It is like a phantom who can become real and swallow us unawares. 

Srimad Bhagwad Gita's biggest exhortation is 'ma shuchah- dont be afraid' ( ch.18) but then the Arjuna in us need Lord Krsna who could convince us with why and how of it. It is important to cultivate the desire to 'let go' and also to look upto persons, scriptures, Mentors, friends who we feel may offer us guidance or advice, 'satsang' and wisdom, answers and solutions. Above all it is the most important thing to realise that fear exists and affects our thoughts, perspective, vision and attitude. Just imagine if all the philosophers, statesmen, freedom fighters had been afraid , full of fear of the consequences, would we be breathing today the free air with our 'minds without fear and head held high' ? Definitely, the answer is NO.

It is our own responsibility towards- first and foremost- to our own selves to be vigilant actually against all things negative( including fear) that tend to beseige us. We need to cultivate gratitude and prayer more for 'we are blest by everything/ everything we look upon is blest' (WBYeats)