Overcoming Fear

Overcoming Fear

By Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda

Fear is one of the most destructive emotions that an aspirant must conquer if he wishes to advance on the spiritual path. Fear saps one's mental and physical vitality, bringing about many changes in mind and body. In the extreme cases of fear, a person may have his hair turn gray overnight.

Every fearful thought creates an imbalance in the flow of pranas (vital forces), which in turn causes disharmony in the body. This results in the accumulation of toxins in the physical system. Manifold fears that are sustained over time may express themselves as physical diseases.

Further, fear is like a magnet, drawing negative circum­stances. You draw to yourself what you are most afraid of. Fear forces you to think of an object repeatedly, and the act of doing so becomes a kind of mental invocation. You mentally invite what you fear by constantly thinking about it. By fearing an object, you invest it with a certain psychic power, thereby giving greater strength and validity to it.

Fear is not as simple as it seems, for its repercussions are seen to affect many areas of one's life. If you become inclined to fear you will commit every kind of negative deed, because fear is the source of all evils. A fearful per­son loses his willpower. Clarity of intellect and fear cannot coexist; therefore, though a person may seem passive, he gradually becomes a perpetrator of many evil deeds under the pressure of fear.

You must understand that the object you are afraid of is not really the cause of your fear. Fear arises out of one's imagination and is rooted in a negative karma. Suppose, for example, that you died in an automobile accident or an airplane crash in a previous life. You will very likely have an extraordinary fear of automobiles or airplanes in this present birth. In addition, fear of today may have its roots in your childhood.

Because people are pulled by different karmas, they are fearful in different ways. There are com­mon forms of fear that unite everyone. All of us are afraid of death; no one wants to be hurt; no one likes to be criticized; no one wishes to fail in business, to be poor, to be friendless. Some people have abnormal fears that seem highly irrational. A soldier may fight on the battlefield with ap­parent immense courage, but when the doctor is ready to give him an injection he is terrified at the sight of the hypodermic needle! Fear may also express itself in various phobias and perversions. Some people are terribly afraid to touch anything, lest they contaminate themselves with the disease germs that they believe are swarming on every surface. Some people see spiders, scorpions and lizards everywhere and are terrified. Others dread the night that brings nightmares, imagining that the moment they close their eyes, a hideous vampire will arise from a corner of their unconscious and frighten them to death. Thus you see that fear looms no matter where you turn; there is really no escaping it unless you tread the spiritual path.

From an advanced point of view, fear does not exist. If you were to analyze your mind you would find that fear is not real, but rather it is like darkness. Just as darkness results from the absence of light, fear is caused by the ab­sence of knowledge. Instead of fighting it, then, you need to gain an insight into its cause, which is ignorance. When you bring the light of spiritual knowledge, fear disappears.

One of the most important ways of impressing upon your mind the importance of removing fear is to reflect seriously on how fear limits you. A terrible consequence of fear is that it diminishes one's mental power over the course of time. Even though you may not be aware that you are afraid, many fearful impressions still remain in your unconscious, and those impressions keep your mental powers at a low ebb, dampening your talents.

The average person uses only a fraction of his mind because much of it is terrorized by the dragon of fear. If that fear were not there, the human personality would be unimaginably dynamic and amazingly radiant.

One of the most crippling and debilitating forms of fear is the instinctive fear of death that dominates everyone. Raja Yoga says that whether you are learned or illiterate, you have an instinctive fear of death.

You may recall the parable about the parrot that was taught to say the name of Rama. For a long time, hour af­ter hour it repeated "Rama, Rama, Rama..." Yet one day a cat approached its cage, and the parrot forgot the name and started screeching. Similarly, you may intellectually convince yourself that you may have no fear and constantly assert, "I am fearless Brahman. I am Atman" — but again until the cat of death comes. If you really could remain fearless in such a situation it would be wonderful, for you would discover that your personality has changed. If you are not afraid of death, you are well on the way to inner expansion and immense strength and joy; you are on the road to Self-Realization.

Methods for Overcoming Fear

Face the Situations That Evoke Fear

In trying to overcome fear, you must learn to look into the eyes of the situation that provokes it. Avoiding difficult situations becomes the immediate cause of fear. This is seen even in the most trifling of instances. For example, suppose a dog runs after you as you walk down the street, if you show fear, the dog smells that fear, so to speak, and becomes more encouraged. On the other hand, if you keep your mind composed and do not radiate any fear to the animal it will probably back down. It may even retire without causing any hurt at all. But if you show fear and run you will be chased, because these actions encourage the dog.

The same strategy applies to other circumstances in life. Try to look into every condition that seems to instill fear. To look into the very eyes of a problem implies that you maintain a balanced mind with patience, repeat mantra (any divine name), and inwardly affirm that nothing can harm you. You must not run away from an unpleasant situation, for if you do so it will take on a fearful aspect by and by. Frightening situations are like paper giants, fearful from a distance yet harmless when you see them for what they really are.

Control Negative Imagination and Memory

Another important point in trying to avoid fear is that one ought not to rehearse a calamity. Suppose your mind tells you that something bad is going to happen. You then allow your imagination to run wild as you rehearse the calamity, and soon you feel miserable, imagining that all your teeth are smashed, your legs broken, and your fingers twisted. When you misuse your imagination in this fashion, the result is usually worse than the actual calamity. Human beings are superb at rehearsing disasters. On the real stage of life things are much lesser. If you have a strong mind you will realize that ninety percent of fearful thoughts arise out of imagination, not out of reality.

With regard to this, there is a parable about a journalist who met the spirit of cholera and asked, "Where are you going?" And the spirit said," I am going to Egypt where I intend to destroy five hundred persons."

A few months later the journalist met him again and said," You lied, great spirit of cholera. You said you were going to destroy five hundred persons, but five thousand were destroyed." The spirit then responded," I destroyed only five hundred; the rest simply died of fright!"

Thus, learn the art of controlling imagination about the future as well as memory about the past. Do not dwell on the memories of the negative events that have taken place in your life. Though you ought to learn valuable lessons from them, you should not keep the vivid images of painful, fearful experiences before your mind.

Change the Unconscious

The real key to solving the problem of fear lies in changing one's unconscious and filling it with dynamic impressions. To do this, you should first see that you are not leaving your mind idle to gather fearful impressions, and this can be done if you have a plan that fills your daily life with useful activity.

You should also consider the association you keep. Do you keep yourself surrounded by people, movies and TV programs that are negative? If you continually keep yourself in wrong association, then your unconscious becomes filled with negative impressions that incline you towards fear.

According to Vedanta, fear is the characteristic of ether element blended with the earth element. When уou are afraid, you lose your body-idea to a certain extent; and you become oblivious of your body; and at the same time your body becomes rooted in one place, as if paralyzed. Since fear belongs to the ether element, which is the sub­tlest element that goes to constitute your subtle body, its eradication cannot be worked out superficially by ordinary means. You must take recourse to a method that goes deep into your unconscious to remove it.

Pratipaksha Bhavana

Raja Yoga prescribes the method known as Pratipaksha Bhavana for dealing with negative thoughts. This is prac­ticed in three stages: 1. Detach from the negative thought 2. Substitute a positive thought 3. Bring about sublimation of the negative thought.

In your dealings in life, try to be a witness to thoughts of fear. Do not fight a negative though, but simply allow positive thinking to override it. Think of those good qualities that are directly opposed to fear: courage, heroism, dynamic strength, boldness, and self-assurance. Think of those per­sons who possess or possessed these wonderful qualities. Go on asserting day by day: "I am growing in fearlessness. Nothing can harm me."

Try to understand that any affirmation you make should not be sentimental; it must be based upon understanding. Develop a deep-rooted understanding that "Because I am Eternal Spirit, nothing can destroy me. Fire cannot burn me. The wind cannot blow me away. The ocean Cannot drown me. Swords cannot cut me. Praise and censure can­not affect me. I am the Self." If you continue in this vein you will realize that fear simply dissipates. By practicing Pratipaksha Bhavana you can overcome fear; and when fear is overcome positive energy is generated within you.

Surrender to God

Another effective method for overcoming fearfulness is surrender to God. Develop an inward sense of absolute surrender, an awareness that the world is guided by an im­mense intelligence. Feel that if you approach the Divine Self, who's hand guides all, no calamity can affect you in any way. You must develop this kind of immense faith.

In the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama says, "Whoever says that he has taken refuge in Me, I will help him no matter what his situation may be. I will protect him no matter what danger may confront him." There are similar affirmations in all scriptures of the world's religions. If a devotee turns to God, immense strength will save him from any fearful situation he may be in.

Think of Moses when he was leading the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt with Pharaoh and his chariots in pur­suit. There he was at the edge of the Red Sea, not knowing how he was going to lead all those people across it, but he wasn't anxious. He simply trusted in the Lord, and then the waters miraculously divided and a road emerged. Much in the same manner, if you are pursuing what is right you do not care how things happen, because you are infused with a faith that can work miracles.

Vedantic Enquiry

Then there is the Vedantic method of spiritual enquiry by which one reflects, "Who am I?" By faithful practice of this spiritual discipline, one comes to have a profound understanding of the Upanishadic truth that fear arises out of duality. There can be no fear where there is non-duality.

As long as you consider yourself an individual placed in a world with many other individuals each having a different karmic personality — there will be fear for you. You will always feel that whatever you desire is desired by everyone else too. If you develop dispassion, however, then the road toward fearlessness will be opened up to you. Fear and attachment go together. The number of attachments you have is directly proportional to the intensity of fear that you feel in life; so, from a mathematical point of view, if you lessen your attachments fear will gradually diminish. Thus, if you are practicing dispassion, gaining an insight into the fact that objects are illusory and, further, asserting within yourself that you are the all-pervading Self, not this personality, then there will be no fear at all; fear will be cut at its very root.

The Self is called Abhaya Brahman, Brahman who is fearless. If you are meditating upon that Self and assert­ing, "I am fearless Brahman"you are bound to overcome all fear and become the embodiment of all that is Divine.

"Because I am the Eternal Spirit,

nothing can destroy me.

Fire cannot burn me.

The wind cannot blow me away.

The ocean cannot drown me.

Swords cannot cut me.

Praise and censure cannot affect me.

I am the Self."

“International Yoga Guide” Vol. 50, NO. 9, May 2013

...