We have different fears such as fear of losing what we have, fear of failure, fear of shattering our dreams, fear of the unknown, and so on. By and large, all the fears are the result of ignorance. Since we are not aware of the whole of our existence, we cling to whatever we are aware of and develop a fear of losing that. Since we are not aware of the whole of our potential, we cling to our dreams and therefore have a fear of shattering of dreams. Since we are not aware of inner happiness, we look for that happiness in the success in the external world and become fearful of failure. Since we are disconnected from our inner being, we cling to this body and therefore are always afraid of something unknown. Most people feel that success and accumulation will make them secure. In reality, success and accumulation always make us more insecure since our dependency on the material world increases and we become more and more ignorant of our inner world.
Not so that it is impossible to be aware but we choose ignorance over awareness because that is an easy option. Awareness requires effort. For example, it is very easy to make opinions about anybody but is difficult to verify the opinions. It is easy to stick to our viewpoint and debate but it is difficult to understand the perspective of the other person and then take him along. It is easy to analyze a thing in isolation but difficult to see the context and background. Our brain has been evolutionarily tuned to minimize the efforts and choose an option that consumes less energy. That is why we generally choose the easy option of being ignorant rather than being aware without realizing that these easy options have huge long-term costs in terms of fear.
It is not easy to sit in meditation to be aware of our inner reality. In fact, the story of Ramayana also symbolically represents the inner journey as well. Like Manthara, our Chitta (past emotional memories) make us afraid of different fears, and like Kaikeyi, the Mana (active emotional mind), becomes emotionally aggressive, and like Dashratha, our Buddhi (intelligence) comes under the control of emotions. The problem is generally that Chitta, Mana, and Buddhi are in a hurry to make decisions, and out of such hurriedness they choose an easy option. If they choose to be aware, our lives will not be driven by fears but rather will be driven by awareness.
If Chitta makes some effort, it can easily be recalled that most of our fears are the result of our own mental stories. For example, we were so afraid of death during COVID-19, just some time back and almost all the rest of the fears disappeared. Now when the fear of COVID has disappeared, the other fears have taken over our lives. If the present fears disappear, some other fear will take over. That means nothing can make us fearless in this world unless we connect to the consciousness. It was only when Manthara and Kaikeyi surrendered to Rama, they became assured and fearless.
Similarly, Bharata (our energy to execute and plan the work) was also full of fears as to what people would say if he took over the rulership of Ayodhya. He also did not want to stay away from Rama. That is one of the biggest fears of the people moving along the spiritual path. Why should we continue to live in this world? An easy option is to take Sanyasa. This world demands attention and energy. However, Rama set an ideal through Bharata that this world is like a laboratory and we need to do work, as per our nature, by surrendering the fruits of the work to Rama. It is not this world that binds us rather it is our desire to take credit or debit of the results that binds us. If we don't take the debit or credit, this world is one of the most beautiful laboratories to experiment with life. That's a difficult path and we generally choose an easy path to be happy with the social validation, appreciation, and credit and therefore develop fears of criticisms.
Hanumana (energy of concentration on the inner world) can do a lot of damage in the absence of awareness. Hanumana in his childhood tried to eat up the Sun because he was not aware. That is why the energy of concentration can harm us without awareness. Many people enter into the occult world without that inner connection and end up making their lives a living hell. When Hanumana came into contact with Rama and regained his energies, he could enter the inner world to search for Sita. That is what all of us do when we meditate in our inner world to find the whereabouts of our own creative energy with the help of concentration. But generally, we choose an easy path to concentrate on the external objects to get success and material pleasure rather than the inner world.
Lakshmana (energy of knowledge) also becomes quite arrogant if he is not with Rama. When knowledge is with awareness, we never become ignorant because we are always aware of the limitations of the knowledge. Knowledge with awareness of its limitations becomes wisdom. However, the same knowledge without awareness soon gets converted into arrogance and is quite harmful to our spiritual growth. Rama sent Lakshmana even to get the knowledge from Ravana when he was about to die and that is the difficult path of awareness. We need to listen to the viewpoints of even the worst of our critics to be truly aware of the reality. We generally choose an easy path and become arrogant of whatever little knowledge we acquire during our lifetime.
Sita (inner creativity) gets tempted by a golden deer and finally lends into Lanka. We have that inner creativity to make this world beautiful. However, we get caught in the temptation of the golden deer and in the process, lose creativity. Creativity demands some time and energy to nurture it. We choose an easy option and kill our creativity. Our passive interests like watching TV, gossiping with friends, taking liquor, having parties, and having fun take over and we miss on the creativity. Once lost, it is quite difficult to get it back and generally, we end up living a life driven by our habit patterns. Habits are easy to form and difficult to change. It's easy to enter into Lanka but takes one whole year of effort for Rama to bring Sita back.
Sugriva (initiatives) is also shadowed by his brother Vali. Whenever he tries to fight Vali, he takes away half of his energy and Sugriva gets defeated. We also want to take so many initiatives in life but doubts take over half of our energy and we continue with the routine. It is only when Surgiya meets Rama, He kills Vali from a distance hiding behind the trees. That is what happens to us when we commence our journey on a spiritual path. Initially that awareness helps us indirectly to overcome our doubts and laziness and we take small steps. Later as we move along the path, it becomes more and more obvious. Rama no longer needs to hide behind the trees. Initially, Sugriva will have all sorts of doubts about the capacity of Rama. Later, the army of the same Sugriva will help Rama build a bridge on the ocean.
Ravana (Ego) is the most difficult to gain awareness of. It has an entire kingdom of Lanka with so many magical powers. It takes different forms and even if we are able to cut one of its heads, it appears again in a different form. We generally choose an easy way out and again start living driven by that other head of ego. It needs complete wisdom of our inner being. That was possible only when Vibhishana told Rama that the life source of Ravana was in his navel. Then only Rama could hit an arrow on the navel of Ravana and he got killed. We generally choose an easy way out to live with our egos and accordingly, our ego keeps driving our lives.
Thus sum total of the easy options makes our lives difficult and fearful. The more our emotional mind and intellect choose easy options, the more our energy to plan and execute the work is driven by the easy options, the more our concentration is focussed on the worldly things, the more our knowledge is followed by arrogance, the more our creative energy is trapped in greed, the more our initiatives are surrounded by doubts, and the more our ego is disconnected and full of arrogance, the more our life becomes fearful. We have a choice at almost each of the moments to live with awareness or to get caught in an infinite loop of fears and doubts. We just need to be aware and the consciousness is always there to guide us to live a fulfilled life. After all, we are consciousness and consciousness is living through us. Then why not live fully and make the most of this life rather than wasting the precious gift of the divine in fear and doubt?
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