Know that feeling in the stomach when you are gripped by fear? Like when you are waiting for some crucial lab test results or are at the doctor’s office wondering what the verdict might be or are just about to go under the scalpel or for that matter even into that claustrophobic MRI machine?
Switch to another setting. What is the first thought that crosses your mind when your teenage son hasn’t returned till past midnight and hasn’t called either? Is the child alive or is he involved in a deadly accident and all the rest of it?
If it is not health-related perhaps you are seized by doubt and anxiety when you are in the throes of a crisis relating to your job, business, family which you feel could change the course of your future.
What do our spiritual masters have to say about fear and dealing with it? The one thing we all tend to do is to retreat into a shell and imagine that we are alone and singled out for this treatment. The fact is that we are all created in the image of God. It is through our actions and our pre-occupation with the ego and the I in us that we tend to distance ourselves from the Supreme Power and labour under delusions of this kind.
Dr Robert Schuller, best selling author and founder and Senior Minister of Crystal Cathedral, California writes “When you and I have yielded ourselves to God and He has wiped the slate clean, does this mean we will never face fear again? Of course not but God’s promise to the believer is that we can overcome all fear thr-ough the power of His love and faith. Where does fear come from? Not from God. But from the source of all universal negativity — the devil. Philosophically we refer to this source as evil. Neurotic fear that destroys your creative and constructive planning and productivity does not come from God.”
So how does one overcome fear that overwhelms? The answer is not far to seek. By the power of prayer of course. Detailing how this can be accomplished, Robert Schuller adds, “God is more powerful than any negative thought. Command that destructive emotion to get out of your life and call upon God to fill your mind and mood with healthy thoughts, loving emotions and powerful motivations. God will answer your prayer! You will overcome your fears!”
A one-liner that is associated with Kartikeya, or Lord Subramanya, is Yamirukka Bayamen, which translates into, “Why fear when I am with you?”
Going back to scenario one, there are many practical steps that you can take to better your situation even in a medical emergency. You can read up on the subject and educate yourself on the latest breakthroughs, you can list out the simple things that are well within your control (for example, foods that you can eat, things that you must avoid, how to promote and aid healing and keep the patient comfortable), you can talk to people who have been through it earlier, you can scout around and network for the best medical brains, etc. It is only when you snap out of that helpless, self-pitying mood of paralysis that you can function effectively and move ahead. Remember the old saying ‘God helps those who help themselves’?
As Dr Deepak Chopra points out, “When despite our fears and anxiety we say yes and embrace what is, we come squarely into the present moment. From that space of clarity we can make the most life-affirming choices whose benefits will ripple out into the universe for years to come.”
Remember also the many times in which your fears have proven baseless. And if on the rare occasions your worst fears have come true, haven’t you surprised yourself by rising to the occasion admirably and handling the situation much better than you had thought you would? Haven’t you drawn the courage you needed from somewhere and coped marvellously? So why battle fear unnecessarily? If you analyse fear a little deeply and trace its roots and deconstruct it, you will realise how it all works.
Engineer, mystic and author Birinder Bhullar says, “Fear arises from the love for the ‘I’. Fear has its source in attachment. The more attached the self is to something or to a situation, the greater the fear. The self does not want a different reality from what it desires. Humans can control environment to an extent. They carry this too far and think they can control everything in life. When they cannot succeed, it causes deeper fear.”
It’s thus time to get one thing out of the way. If you have done something you shouldn’t have — fudging in exams, stealing (it could be something petty, even a towel or menu card from a hotel room), cheating on a friend or trusted colleague or whoever, and are stricken by fear — you know on whom the onus lies. Perhaps, you gave into temptation, perhaps you thought no one would ever find out or perhaps you thought almost everyone else is doing it so what’s the big deal.
You will end up paying the price for the lapse.
Finally, I would like to end with this inspiring quote from St Teresa of Avila, “Let nothing disturb thee. Let nothing affright thee. All things are passing. God never changeth. Patient endurance attaineth to all things, who God posesseth in nothing is wanting. Alone God sufficeth.”