HOW TO OVERCOME FEAR? - 5

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HOW TO OVERCOME FEAR - 5

 

I can never forget the sweet serene face of a child I saw sixty years ago. I was

on board the S.S. Versova, travelling from Mumbai to Karachi. Suddenly, a

terrible storm arose. Thick clouds appeared in the skies, covering face of the

sun, and the day become dark as night. Huge waves lashed against the steamer

which tossed as a paper-boat. All the passengers were filled with terror. It

looks as though we were doomed to a watery grave. In the midst of this

sorrowful scene sat a little child – barely six years old – calm, serene,

undisturbed by the shrieking storm and the rolling wave.

 

I was, then, about ten years of age: and I marvelled at this child’s unruffled

serenity in the face of death. I said to him: “The steamer is about to sink:

are you not afraid?”

 

With a cherubic smile he answered: “What have I to fear when my mother is near?”

 

I can never forget those words. When in the depths of despair and sorrow I have

repeated the words to myself, repeated them again and again, I have felt

relieved: “What have I to fear when my Mother is near?”

 

Our Mother – the Mother Divine – is so near to each one of us. Closer is She

than breathing and nearer than hands and feet. Alas! We have turned our faces

away from Her. In our shouts and shows, our engagements and occupations, our

business and commerce, we have forgotten Her. We have lost the child-like

spirit. To be child-like is to renounce criticism, is to rejoice in life, is to

share all we have with all men, is to love and laugh. We think we have grown up

and no longer need the Mother’s loving care. We need to become children again,

friendly and loving towards all – not critical, never fearful.

 

We need to contact the Mother. This is done through meditation and prayer and

constant repetition of the Mother’s Name, Writing the Name, again and again, is

a great help. To start with, it may appear laborious, but as concentration

develops, writing the Name becomes a source of indescribable joy. As you keep

on writing the Name, again and again, one blessed day you lose yourself: you

find the Mother! This is all that matters.

 

It must not be forgotten that it is impossible for me to find the Mother through

my own efforts and endeavours. It is only through the Mother’s grace that She is

found. On our part we must make an attempt to radiate thoughts of love, to speak

words of comfort, to live a life of service and sacrifice.

 

“You are not lonely, O, Arjuna!” says Sri Krishna to His beloved disciple in the

Gita. “I am with you, within you, all around you. Whatever you eat, whatever you

give, whatever you do, do it unto Me!” So may our petty wills be blended with

the Will Divine. And in the measure in which our wills are blended with the

Will of God, in that measure do we grow into the likeness of God. Then we think

as God would have us think: we speak and act as God would have us speak and act.

Then it is that fear vanishes from our life as mist before the morning sun. and

we move through life trusting every ray of the sun and every drop of rain,

every rose and every thorn, every stone and every grain of sand, every river

and every rock, trusting the sun and moon and stars, trusting thunder and

storm, trusting every thing and everyone, giving the service of love to

all.

 

Significant are the words of Saint Francis: “Where there are compassion and

wisdom, there can be neither fear nor ignorance.” The secret of fearlessness is

sympathy, is compassion, is love for all. When love, unselfish love, enters into

the heart, fear departs.

 

-To be concluded

(Author: Sri J P Vaswani)

 

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya….

 

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