No one wants to die but then no one escapes death; it is the ultimate truth
The word FEAR has two meanings – Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise. Now it depends on each one of us as to what we want to do. There is no doubt about the fact that today this four-letter word has taken possession of almost everyone’s life and has become the biggest stress-producer. That is why Les Brown, a famous motivational speaker, rightly said: “Too many of us are not living our dreams, because we are living our fears”.
According to behavioural psychologists, fear lies in the sub-conscious and surfaces as and when a situation arises, which could be related to a possible or imminent loss of life, property, loved ones or prestige. However, it has been found that the greatest fear of all is, of course, death, because all physical relationships and material possessions are lost with death. That is why it is said that the fear of death is worse than death itself.
People fear untimely death the most, because of increasing uncertainties in life. No one wants to die, but death is a certainty. Death evokes fear, avoidance, and superstition in people’s minds. Despite scientific advances, people still feel vulnerable, for anything can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Our increasing tendency to violence and growing mechanization have created conditions in which death is just a careless moment away. One reason for this insecurity is that more and more innocent people are getting killed in human made situations, which may not even be of the victims making. While we do get reconciled to the death of innocents in natural calamities or accidents by telling ourselves that it was willed by fate or that it was beyond our control. But acts of wanton killing carried out by humans often leave a deep scar within us, because they shake our trust in fellow human beings.
Till date, no cure or formula has been found by scientists for fear. So, how does one get over it then? Simply, by understanding a fact that ‘one only loses by giving in to fear’ as it is just a ‘false evidence appearing real’. Hence, one must understand that it is actually a malady of the soul and calls for a spiritual solution, rather than a scientific or medical one. It requires an attitudinal change, because fear paralyzes the mind.
The behaviour of pigeons illustrates this well. Frozen with fear when they see a cat, pigeons just shut their eyes instead of flying away. Hence, by practicing to stay calm will change the tendency to be frightened by unexpected or adverse circumstances.
Another change that is needed is in the way we look at adversity. We must realise that all the tests that we face in life, regardless of whether we pass them or not, make us stronger and equip us to face better similar tests in future. So, if we dodge these tests for fear of failure or loss, we will advance in life no more than a student who refuses to sit for examinations out of examination phobia.
Similarly, to overcome fear of death, we just need to realise the basic truth that we are souls and not body, and the soul is immortal. This is the first lesson of the Bhagavad Gita. The soul is an actor and the body is its costume. It takes rebirth, casting off one body to take birth in a new one. So, what we call death is nothing but the departure of the soul from the body after its role in the present body is over. Doesn’t it sound Simple? While attitudinal change can help us overcome fear to some extent, complete freedom from it requires attention to our karma.
(The author is a spiritual educator)
