You Need To Overcome Fear

By: Swami Sukhabodhananda

Most often, our lives are wasted in fear! In order to drive away darkness from his house, one man was found carrying out bucket-loads of darkness and emptying them a futile task. His preoccupation with driving out darkness took him nowhere. Darkness is absence of light. If only he had attempted to light a small lamp, darkness would have disappeared!

Fear is like darkness. Absence of love is fear. Once the lamp of love is lit, fear would disappear. How does love blossom between a man and a woman, for example Love is born out of trust. If two individuals don't trust each other, there can be no love or affection between them.

Here's a Sufi story: Mullah Nasruddin was married just that morning. The same night, he and his wife were travelling in a boat across a river, along with their relatives. Suddenly, a storm broke out, making the river turbulent. The boat was rocking wildly. Everyone including the bride was full of fear. But Mullah Nasruddin remained calm. The surprised bride asked, "Arent you afraid?" Mullah, without replying, took out a dagger from his waistband and raised it as though he was going to slit her throat. There was no reaction on her face. He asked, "Are you not afraid of the dagger?" and she said, "The dagger could be dangerous, but the person who is holding it, is my loving husband. So I am not afraid. Exactly! " exclaimed Mullah. These waves may be dangerous but Allah who is moving them is full of love. So I am not afraid!

Mullah Nasruddin had implicit faith in Allah. Hence, he was loving and compassionate. Without love and compassion even Mullah would have trembled with fright, just like others in the boat.

If we are afraid, it only means that we do not trust existence.

We would have come across many who say, I am God-fearing! This is nonsense. We should love God, not fear Him. It should be God loving, not God fearing.

Swami Vivekananda said, 'Be fearless'. Fearlessness is the message of the Upanishads. Some go from one astrologer to another with their horoscopes to find out when death would strike them. To them, horoscopes are horrorscopes. They are more afraid of when they would die rather than what they would do while alive. This fear could devastate them both mentally and physically.

While talking about mortal fear, Rabindranath Tagore said, "Long before you were born in this world, compassionately, God made sure that there was milk in your mothers breast. So, have faith."

Those of you who are afraid... plan for your future; there is no harm in that. But when you fear the future, it will ruin your happiness. In order to protect your wealth, plan where to keep it safe; plan how to insure it against theft. To live in fear, without doing any of these things is meaningless.

Instead of conjuring fearful images like, 'What if I fail in the examination?' and thus spending time weakening yourself, use it fruitfully to prepare and pass the examination. Life is a series of examinations; we need to pass them with flying colours. This is a gift we can offer to God. Faith does not crave for miracles. But it often happens miraculously. Faith does not move mountains but gives the power to climb one. Help is just a prayers length away. Good understanding is better than silver or gold. So experience the richness of love and fearlessness.