On Fear

Fear is what I fear a lot. Although at times it has been a motivating factor…but that adds to negative self esteem. I would never prefer doing a thing out of the fear of the outcome if I wouldn’t do it. But at times :

“Fear is useful”
-One of the Greek kings to Achilles in Troy.

It was the fear of being dominated by a superior species that caused the mice to live in hidden places. But after so many years of evolution it is the mice and the rodents that survive and not the dinosaurs….I wonder whom to refer as superior??
But again there is a difference between mice and men (Although they are a lot of similarities as well)….getting driven by fear hurts our ego….but we do it more often.
At times we may term it as common sense….like not walking in the middle of the highway for obvious reasons….but this should be treated as an exception.Hindu philosophy talks about Nirbhay and Abhay.The two words are slightly different.

Nirbhay: A person is bold if he is nirbhay. He knows the fear… is aware of it but he overcomes it through his mighty will. Just like the warriors.

Abhay: A person is said to be abhay when he is unaware fear. This is an idealistic state.When the Buddha was about to seek salvation all the Asurs and devtas attacked him so that he became afraid and his meditation is spoiled….the devtas were afraid of buddha's tapas as they thought he was doing it to dethrone them from their respective heavenly positions…..but the Buddha seeked enlightment…he had abhayum as he saw oneness in the universe…it’s like my hand moves towards me is there a reason I should fear it??So the Buddha which means the awakend one didn’t recognize fear….ultimately made him what he was. i.e The Awaken one (Buddha)

Buddhism talks about mortal human beings as well. On the same lines it encourages people to do good always….why?? because they firmly believe in oneness of the universe just like the Buddha believed. Doing good to others is doing good to your own self…and vice versa.

Now the question arises that is it possible that mortal people like us to have these qualities. I’d say why not. In fact the goal of religion is the same. Be it any religion….every religion talks about Vedanta…the philosophy of fearlessness.
Ever religion talks about fear nothing but god.
Every individual has a certain quotient of these qualities…we’ve acted defiantly sometimes or the other in our lives when we felt like taking a decision and going with it.It is the abstraction of the same.Vivekananda wasn’t vivekananda since childhood….he was Narendra….but even as a child he saw qualities of Abhayam…under his guru he expanded this reserve of abhayam which brought dept in his meditation which ultimately helped him to stick to his quest for the ultimate truth without getting distracted by various forms of fear.
Arjuna got afraid before the battle of Kurukshetra….as he didn’t wan’t to draw weapons against his own beloved people…..He was a warrior….he had Nirbhayam…no doubt….but Krishna showed him the “virat swaroop” and cleared his doubts that it is Krishna himself who is present everywhere in friends and foes equally….so there is nothing to fear as such as is he who is present every where….Arjuna like the others is just a tool which is used to execute things planned by him….every single organism has a part to play in things planned…..may be that is why committing suicide is considered sinful by all religions as it indicates the will of an individual to walk out of the script voluntarily…which is like disrespectful for the god as he is the one who knows our capabilities and assigns works, tasks or problems accordingly….quitting therefore should never be considered as an option.
Now the question arises: Was the suicides committed by the freedom fighters (like Azadjee)and war widows during ancient times were sinful….the answer is an emphatic no…why??….is there a logical explanation to it….yes….god is god and men are men because

“God sees motives men see actions”-Anonymous

Sacrificing for the sake of honor has to be treated differently…..i’d say it is not an act of cowardice….but an example of Nirbhayam at it’s heights.

As knowledge is useful only if it applicable to real life ….let us try and map these things to real life situations….We do not have to face situations as the great Arjuna every day…but on careful examination we will see that more often in life we neeed to take decisions….whereby the choices are limited and the things are not as clear and specific as black and white……there are shades of grey though which cloud the mind…..fear..accompanied by doubt surround us and under such pressure cooker situations we need to take decisions….what we crave for in the background is fearlessness….so that we can take a decision and stick to it.