HOW TO OVERCOME FEAR? - 4

[Guest guest]

HOW TO OVERCOME FEAR - 4

 

Fear is a poison that quickly circulates through the entire system, paralyzing

the will, producing a queer sensation in some parts or the other of the human

body. Fear is a great foe of man. Overcome fear the moment it appears or it

will overpower you. And fear is a merciless master. Strike fear with the weapon

of the Spirit, -the word of God. Utter the sacred Name dear to you, the Name of

the Beloved: Krishna, Shyama, Rama, Jesus, Buddha, Nanak. Utter it, again and

again. Utter it in child-like faith, and He whom you call will rush to your

aid. Say aloud some prayer which has an appeal to your heart. Recite prayer

lines which may appeal to you: recite them, again and again, until fear departs

and you feel strong as steel.

 

Is not fearlessness the first essential condition for spiritual growth? Sri

Shankaracharya, -one if the greatest teachers of all time, -urged that he who

would walk the way must have vajur hrdaya, - a heart strong as a thunderbolt.

When Swami Vivekananda returned from his American tour and entered upon his

work of regeneration in India, the one message which he delivered, as he

travelled from town to town, from village to village, in this ancient land of

heroes and sages was: “Be fearless! Be bold!” Listen to his words: “Stand up,

be bold, be strong! Strength is life, weakness is death. Weakness is the one

cause of suffering. We become miserable because we

are weak. We lie, steal, kill and commit other crimes, because we are weak. We

suffer, because are weak. We die, because we are weak. Where there is nothing

to weaken us, there is no death, no sorrow.”

 

I recall a moving incident in the life of Swami Vivekananda. He is in America,

speaking to large audience on the wisdom of India’s Rishi’s and Saints. He

urges that the way is not for weaklings: the way is for heroes, for those who

would be fearless in the face of every calamity, even death.

 

A few young men wish to put the Swami to the test. They know of so many who are

wonderful preachers but whose life, alas! Does not bear witness to what they

teach. Does Swami Vivekananda belong to the same class? They invite him to

deliver a lecture. Gladly he goes to their meeting. He speaks to them of faith

in God as the secret of the true life. And the man of faith, he urges, is

fearless in the face of difficulty and danger.

 

Suddenly there is the sound of pistal-shots. Bullets fly past the Swami, just

grazing his ears. Pandemonium reigns in the hall. Men rush out: women shriek in

fear, and some of them drop down in transient unconsciousness. In the midst of

this confusion, there is one man who stands firm, immovable as a rock, fearless

and bold. He is Swami Vivekananda. The bullet that is not meant for him cannot

touch him: the bullet meant for him will seek him out even if he is protected

by a thousand body-guards.

 

Soon the shots cease. The Swami picks up the thread of his talk he left it a

long minute ago. People return to the hall. Women wake up from their fainting

fits. Things return to normal and it seems as though nothing untoward had taken

place.

 

When the lecture is over, the young men meet Swami Vivekananda. “Forgive us,”

they say to him. “The shots were fired by us to see how fearless you were. Your

courage and your confidence put us to shame. Verily, Swami! You are among the

most fearless men on earth. Pray forgive us!”

 

Why is it that the vast majority of us perpetually in fear of something or the

other? Perhaps, one reason is that we are lonely. The deepest tragedy of the

modern man is his loneliness. In spite of an ever-increasing number of clubs

and cinemas, museums and parks, hotels and restaurants, at heart we feel so

lonely. A distinguished visitor to America was taken to a big cinema-house.

Throngs of people stood in rows awaiting their turn to get a ticket. Asked for

his opinion, the visitor said, “The Americans must be very lonely at heart:

else there would not be endless queues at cinema houses!”

 

Yes, - if we will confess the truth to ourselves we will not deny that we feel

lonely. We lack the security of protection. We are like the child who, taken to

a fair, lost its mother in the crowd. With this difference that the child rent

the air with its cries for the mother, “Ma! Ma!”, but we have forgotten even to

cry for our Divine Mother. We are like the orphan who was never tired of

complaining that there was no one to care for him in this big, boisterous

world. It is this sense of loneliness that leads to a feeling of frustration,

and so many of us do not find it worth while to live in the world. Not long

ago, a multi-millionaire brought an end to his life after leaving a brief note

on his writing-table, “I feel lonely. Therefore, I kill myself!”

 

Life is become a burden to untold millions. Only a few commit suicide. The rest

die what are regarded as natural deaths but which are, in many cases too

premature. So many feel lonely: and loneliness sits as a heavy burden on the

heart, sapping its strength, eating into its vitals. Heart diseases are on the

increase. Hypertension is become a common ailment. Nervous breakdowns take a

heavy toll. A heart-specialist said to me only last evening: “Not a day passes

but I am called to the bed-side of a dying heart-patient. It was not so a few

years ago.”

 

We feel lonely: we feel lost: we feel abandoned: we feel forsaken and forlorn.

Again and again, we lose the sense of security which belongs to us as children

of God: we fall into the abyss of fear.

 

-To be continued

(Author: Sri J P Vaswani)

 

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya….

 

A friend in need is a friend, indeed. If there is one friend who rushes to your

help whenever you are in need, He is God! Cultivate friendship with Him, love

Him – not yourself!