LIVE WITHOUT FEAR

Time was when plane-travel was considered pleasant and luxurious. Now the situation has turned round about. Even before you board a plane, you are subjected to a series of tests at the airport, which is more than those conducted on a condemned criminal. And after you enter the plane, you have to be suspicious of co-passengers and you have to be watchful not to display any odd mannerism like looking at your watch often, lest sky-marshals should pounce on you with handcuffs at the ready and drag you off to the police-room at the next port of call, where you would be interrogated and called upon to provide proof of your innocence.

A recent survey revealed that more than 60% of the people are living in a state of insecurity, which is only another name for fear. Is this not a serious social problem that merits the attention of thinkers and religious leaders? But what have they done to dispel the universally widespread fear-psychosis? A thundering silence on their part seems to be the answer. In regard to terrorism we are inclined to chant with Erich Fried:

“It has happened

and it goes on happening

and will happen again

if nothing happens to stop it”

Against this background, we the common people are thrown back on our own resources to fend for ourselves as best we can. Let us accept the challenge as we have no other go and try to analyse as to what we can do in the matter.

I have explained in earlier Classes that the life-energy commencing as an embryo in the mother’s womb builds for itself a set of internal and external organs and limbs and arrives on terra-firma in order to live out a life-span of 75 years or so. During this period the life-energy has to purge itself of its imprints and attain to a state of purity, which is its inherent nature. This it does by undergoing pleasure-and-pain experiences falling to its lot.

Now I will relate to you a story about Prahaladan, the son of the demon Hiranyakasibhu, as given out by Ramana Maharishi who was a master-raconteur. While Prahaladan’s mother was carrying him in her womb, she had listened to spiritual instructions from Sage Naradar and so her son was born with divine qualities although in the Asura (demon) clan. The monarch of the nether-world had decreed that no-one in the kingdom should offer worship to his sworn enemy Lord Narayana, the Sustainer of the Universe. Everyone had to chant ‘Om Namo Hiranyakasyabhaya’ in place of ‘Om Namo Narayanaya’. The crown-prince Prahaladan, born a divine child, would however not obey his father who, in desperation, committed him to school after instructing the Tutor Chandamarkkan to reform Prahaladan. The teacher failed to accomplish the task in the face of the crown-prince’s obduracy. The boy, on the other hand, converted his classmates to Narayana-bhakti and this was an additional source of worry to Chandamarkkan who, as a last resort, warned other boys that the King could deny them means of livelihood if they were to incur his displeasure by following Prahaladan. During the lunch break that day one boy voiced this misgiving, to which Prahaladan replied categorically, “Even before you were born, the heap you had to consume and clear had been kept ready for you and you come into the world only for that purpose. Lord Narayana would provide all facilities for you to perform the task allotted. And you depend neither on the King nor anyone-else for your livelihood. Make bold to chant ‘Om Namo Narayanaya’ and it would free you from the very misery of searching for a livelihood!”

The lesson is clear: We should not add to our store of adverse imprints through our negative deeds and unfulfilled desires. In addition we should develop constant Awareness of the Goal of Birth, which is the Absolute wherein we live and move and have our being.

Coming to this Path is the purpose of the sixth sense mankind is endowed with. The awakening itself arises only after many thousands of births and deaths. The births and deaths occurred only to the physical bodies but the Indweller is immortal. You have been That all the time and you are That even now. You have forgotten your own source and origin, which is the Almighty and that is the basic reason for your fear. As long as you think you are only a fraction and identify yourself with the role you are enjoined on to play, you have only the mental strength of a fraction and that is the fear which you experience of one thing or another all your life.

Intone the sentence I give now as a mantram: Only when the mode of living comes into consonance with the Purpose of Life, will misery abate and not until then. Come to the Path straightaway. You have nothing to lose but the shackles of Fear but you have a brave new world to win …..

- Excerpt from Sage TGN’s Talk on ‘Live Without Fear’

(Await Next Message: “What to do, if caught in a hijack…”)

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