Fears

[Guest guest]

Dandavat pranams to all,

 

One devotee was asking about anxiety, so I sent him the below essay I wrote long

time ago. I thought I could share it also with you.

 

ys: Avadhuta Raya das

 

FEARS

 

I decided to write about this topic because I heard that fear is one of the

anarthas (an impurity, unwanted obstacle) in our spiritual life, which disturbs

our endeavor to constantly think about Krsna. Of course, there is also a

positive, healthy fear but lets go now step by step in elaborating on this topic

- fear.

 

Fear in the material world is actually the perverted reflection of one of the

seven secondary rasas (relationships) with Krishna (amazement, humor, chivalry,

compassion, fury, fear and dread). Material fear usually appears in those people

who are not surrendered to Krishna or who don’t cultivate Krishna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada describes it as one of the animalistic functions namely eating,

sleeping meting and defending or in some places he writes fearing instead of

defending. In his Gitavali Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura say that fear arise

because of false ego of ‘I’ and ‘my’ conception and it is increased by the six

enemies (of the mind: lust, anger, greed, bewilderment). Fear is due to worrying

about the future and our absorption in the illusory energy-bhayam

dvitiyabhiniveshatah syat (Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.2.37). "Oh, what will happen

with me, my possessions and my plans?" Thus fear becomes a prominent problem in

ones life, fearing constantly from birth, death, old age and,

disease. This fear we can find even in devotees. "I hope I will not die before

I attain perfection", "Will I satisfy my spiritual master and the devotees",

"Will I get initiation before I die?" etc.

 

His Holiness Bhaktitirtha Swami in his book ‘Leadership For An Age Of Higher

Consciousness’ makes the following division of the prominent fears of nowadays

people.

 

War: Fear of third world war; of regional and civil wars; of racial wars; or of

religious wars.

 

Crime: Fear of attack or abuse by criminals; or of exploitation by soldiers or

policeman.

 

Oppression: Fear of denial of civil or human rights.

 

Inadequate service: Fear of poor medical care or of insufficient educational

facilities.

 

Excessive taxation: Fear of heavy inequitable taxes.

 

Destitution: Fear of homelessness; of inability to purchase and maintain a home;

or of loss of job, health insurance, or pension.

 

Philosophically considering, because Krishna is the original source of fear, and

because we are all His small part and parcels, fear also exists in us in smaller

or bigger degree. Anxiety, distress and lamentation in this material world are

all caused by our fear that is the perverted reflection of a spiritual fear in

the spiritual world. So, what kind of fear is that spiritual fear in Krishna and

His loving devotees? The fear that Krishna and his devotees are experiencing in

different pastimes is completely different from our material fear. It results

ultimately in increasing of the spiritual bliss and pure love. For example, when

Lord Caitanya was just a baby crawling in the yard, one day a snake appeared

before Him, and the Lord began to play with it. All the members of the house

were struck with fear and awe, but after a little while the snake went away, and

the baby was taken away by His mother. Other interesting instances were at the

bathing place at Ganges. He used to play

jokes on the neighboring girls who engaged in worship of Siva in hopes of

getting good husbands. The Lord naughtily appeared before them and said, "My

dear sisters, please give Me all the offerings you have just brought for Lord

Siva. Lord Siva is My devotee, and Parvati is My maidservant. If you worship Me,

then Lord Siva and all the other demigods will be more satisfied." Some of them

refused to obey the naughty Lord, and He would curse them that due to their

refusal they would be married to old men who had seven children by their

previous wives. Out of fear and sometimes out of love the girls would also offer

Him various goods, and then the Lord would bless them and assure them that they

would have very good young husbands and that they would be mothers of dozens of

children. There is one more wonderful example, which must be mentioned. It is

from the Padma Purana where Satyavrata Muni speaks to Narada Muni and Saunaka

Rsi the famous Sri Damodarastaka. In the second verse he

describes Krishna’s fear in the following way. "Seeing the whipping stick in

His mother’s hand, He is crying and rubbing His eyes again and again with His

two lotus hands. His eyes are filled with fear, and the necklace of pearls

around His neck, which is marked with three lines like a conchshell, is shaking

because of His quick breathing due to crying. To this Supreme Lord, Sri

Damodara, whose belly is bound not with ropes but with His mother’s pure love, I

offer my humble obeisances."

 

Let’s now see how fear can be positive for our spiritual advancement. In the

Varnasrama system, the first step in spiritual life is to be a brahmacari in the

ashrama (spiritual school) of a guru for the purpose of getting a spiritual

training about rules and regulations of civilized, religious life and an

education in the scriptural knowledge of Vedic wisdom. During the study, the

student develops the feeling of responsibility of executing different duties by

which he can attain the highest purpose of life, self-realization. As long as he

doesn’t develop higher taste for those activities a healthy fear helps him to

continue with the execution of his spiritual activities. In another words, he

will be afraid to disobey the teachings and the spiritual practice as taught by

his spiritual master. This is what Srila Prabhupada called ‘fear from maya’.

Interestingly, he also said that we westerners are not enough afraid from maya.

In the Bhagavad-gita we find how Krsna was awaking fear in

Arjuna to inspire him to fight. "If, however, you do not perform your religious

duty of fighting, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties

and thus lose your reputation as a fighter. People will always speak of your

infamy, and for a respectable person, dishonor is worse than death." (Bg

2.33-34) To not be appreciated, for Kshatriya, that is worst than death.

Further, to execute his duty the brahmana is made afraid by wise words, the

knowledge of the scriptures. "If you don’t perform your duty you will not attain

the ultimate goal of life, love of God and liberation." To a vaishya - a

merchant, we can say, "If you don’t perform your duty you will not make any

profit and you might loose even that what you have now". Thus, injecting some

healthy fear in the realm of good reason can be helpful for the continuation of

performing duties. Now, the devotees of Krishna should have some fear of not

following the instructions of the spiritual master. And actually, to not

follow his instructions is the worst offense because of which one might not go

back to Godhead even after thousands of lifetimes - as Srila Prabhupada said.

Therefore, following the instructions of the spiritual master must be one’s life

and soul and then as Srila Prabhupada say, one don’t have to worry even about

going back to Godhead.

 

When one attains an elevated platform of devotion to Krsna fear can become an

objection for further advancement. For example, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in

his Caitanya Siksamrita explains how fear is there in the lover rasas. "When

devotees with meager rasa hear about conjugal relationship with Krishna, they

cannot believe that that kind of relationship with the Supreme Lord is possible,

and moreover, they fear that it is offensive even to think about such thing.

Thus, fearing of fall down from the path of devotion, they reject the

possibility that a conjugal relationship with Krishna exists, declaring it to

be, a mere perverse concoction. Only when they attain a higher qualification by

good fortune, they realize, "Oh, I was such a fool! I have criticized elevated

souls!"

 

For the end, here is an interesting story, a conversation that occurred between

Krsna and Draupadi. After quite some time of the event when she was attempted to

be stripped she met Krsna and in the conversation with Him she asked why didn’t

He help her immediately when she was praying to Him. Krsna told her that in the

beginning she was thinking not only about Him, that only He can help her but she

was thinking about other personalities as well who could save her. She was

putting her hope one by one in different personalities like grandfather Bhisma,

the five Pandavas, Duryodhana, the king Dhritarashtra, and Dronacarya. However,

realizing that no one of them will help her she began to pray to Krsna only,

thinking about Him with full surrender and hope. Krsna said: this is what I was

waiting for, that you put all your faith only in Me, that you only surrender to

Me and seek protection only from Me and that’s why I saved you from being

stripped." In the BG 18.57-58 Krsna say: "In all

activities just depend upon Me and work always under My protection. In such

devotional service, be fully conscious of Me. If you become conscious of Me, you

will pass over all the obstacles of conditioned life by My grace. If, however,

you do not work in such consciousness but act through false ego, not hearing Me,

you will be lost." Thinking that somebody else than Krsna will help us in our

life will only result in fear, hopelessness and anxiety. If we want to get free

from anxiety, then the best course is to understand Krsna and be situated always

in Krsna consciousness. In that way we will be free from all material fears.

It’s also only the Supreme Lord who can take away all our material fears. Once,

Indra directed the following words to Lord Nrsimhadeva: "You are so kind toward

us that by killing Hiranyakasipu You have removed fear from within our hearts

and have given us the chance to place Your Lordship within our hearts again."

Therefor, when we seriously take shelter only of

Krsna and surrender to Him fully, all negative fears will be removed from our

hearts, including the fear of being thrown back into the cycle of so many

species of life. Engaging the mind and the sense in Krsna consciousness, the

ultimate result will be achievement of Krsna-prema, or love for the lotus feet

of Sri Krsna. Hare Krsna.