Skip to main content

Fear of the Unknown

Fear of the unknown plays a big role in our lives. We keep sticking to the sickening routine because we do not know what lies in the domain of the unknown. We like to use the tested brands, buy flat in a known area, like to visit the places for which we have got the feedback, continue with the jobs and businesses that we do not like, continue in the suffocating relationships, and so on. Somehow, we have great fear in the domain of the unknown.

On the other hand, we have people like Columbus and Vasco Da Gama who dared to travel in ships crossing the continents to an unknown world in an era when there were no mobiles or communication systems and these new continents were not even known. How did they have so much confidence in their dreams? What gave them the courage to enter into the sea full of storms and tough weather conditions, with almost 100% chance of losing their lives, to follow a very foggy vision of their dream? Where did this dream come in the first instance when the entire society was busy celebrating its ignorance?

What inspired Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, Paramhansa Yogananda, Shankaracharya, Buddha, and Mahavira to follow that unknown path? A path that is followed by none of their contemporaries. A path having no goal or destination. A path of in fact dropping all the goals and destinations. Why would somebody like Buddha leave all the comforts of the palace and go to the forest and remain hungry? Why would Rama go to the forest when Bharata, for whom Kaikeyi asked the boons, is himself dying to bring Rama back to Ayodhya? Why would Sri Aurobindo who is so well educated that he can write poetry in many languages, leave all the glory in his footsteps and leave worldly pursuits? Why would J Krishnamurti throw away the golden cage set up by his well-wishers? 

Fear is a product of laziness. All the infants are free of fear. They just want to explore freely because freedom is our basic nature. Slowly, our society makes us lazy. It confines our exploration to the domain of the known. Only the books that fit into the syllabus should be read, we should strictly adhere to the social and organizational norms, and so on. Slowly this conditioning gets into our bones. In a strange and stupid bargain, we negotiate comforts giving away our freedom and that is the beginning of our slavery. Not so that it is difficult to see the cage as a cage but we do not want to see it. Because we are used to the comforts and pleasure of the golden cage. That is why we are afraid. Just like a drug addict afraid to miss the next dose of the drugs. Freedom comes with awareness. Awareness of the open sky to fly. Yes, there will be challenges but the challenges make us explore new possibilities. Once we come out of our comfort zone, our instincts become active again and we can now listen to the silent song of nature and sing with it.  

प्रवाह

flow.pravah@gmail.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why life is so stressful?

The present-day society is the most comfortable in the entire history of humanity. We have invented machines to carry out work at home, have built highways, can fly conveniently across countries, have comfortable homes, have information of almost every kind at our fingertips, and also have AI to help us make use of the information. Advances in robotics have made many apparently impossible tasks quite easy to perform. Yet, so many countries are at war, people are suffering from psychological disorders, depression, there are broken relationships everywhere, and people are under tremendous stress. What has gone wrong in the process? Why is development not bringing happiness? Because we have chosen "comforts" over "growth". Because we have chosen "fear" over "love". Doesn't that sound strange? Why would somebody choose "fear" over "love"? Probably, we are not aware of it while making these choices. Our unconscious mind process...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Comfortable Life full of Fears

 Why did Buddha reject the offer of a comfortable life as a prince from his father? Why do most people grab such an opportunity? Why do most people struggle all through their lives to get such a comfortable life? It is because most people can't see what Buddha could see. That is exactly why Buddha wanted to tell the secret to the entire world.  Buddha asked questions to his charioteer about disease and death. He could have closed his eyes to the suffering of the people and sat happily inside his palace. But he enquired into the nature of death and diseases, the old age and pains thereof. He asked whether anyone can avoid suffering, and came to know that it is not possible to avoid the sufferings of old age, diseases, and death. He was determined to find a solution and therefore delved deeper and deeper into the nature of suffering and its source. His inner journey revealed the secrets that he shared with the whole world. The real cause of suffering is ignorance.  We form ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A "home" decorated with "bonsai"

 Somebody gifted a plant sometime back. When I look at the plant on the Table, it appears to me as if the plant had the potential to grow into a big tree, but we confined the little plant within the limits of the pot, and it has grown strangely. It has a thick stem but has small leaves and branches. We have designed the plants to look the way we like. What "I" want is more important than what the "plant" is. The plant will grow the way "I" like it to grow. And then, "I" would also claim that "I" love the plant.  Yesterday, I went to a coaching institute to get some test series for a competitive exam for my daughter. The guide there spoke for around 40-45 minutes on the risks and chances of getting selected in different competitive examinations. So much competition. Fear is instilled into the minds of the students from the very beginning. Everything is around fear. If they are not able to get enrolment in a professional course , they wi...
Post a Comment
Read more