The struggle of "Faith: a little star" against the "Fear: a blackhole"

Fear is a very strong and contagious emotion. Howsoever secure we are, it takes hardly any time to be fearful. We are driving on the road having fun and talking to our fellow travellers. Suddenly, we see an accident along the side of the road and all the fun disappears immediately. We become full of fear again. Howsoever hard we prepare for the exam, we develop fear when examinations are near. Howsoever fit we are, we develop fear when we visit the hospital for a medical examination. 

Fear seems to be constantly chasing us like our shadows. It doesn't seem to be leaving us even in our dreams. The fear of loss of a friend, a job, money or family members or name or fame, and at the most basic level, the fear of losing a life. I feel that all of us will agree that the more we identify with a thing and the greater the fear of losing it.

We identify most with the body and therefore our greatest fear is the fear of death. We may be appearing for the most important exam of our life and we feel strong tremors of an earthquake. We all will start running for safety. When it comes to fear of death, there is hardly any other fixation that survives that fear.  

We have very strong bonds with our parents, kids, siblings, and close friends. Fear of losing them is an almost equally strong fear. As we grow old, we see the value of money in our life. We need money for everything ranging from buying grocery products to luxury cars. That's why we develop a strong attachment to money and naturally develop a fear of losing money. We also see the strong impact of the community we live in on our life. The police, municipal authorities, civic bodies, neighbors, bosses, subordinates, colleagues, etc all play very crucial roles in our life. We interact with them on an almost daily basis. That's why working relations with them play a very critical role in ensuring the smoothness of our daily life. That's why social approval becomes very important in our lives and we fear doing something that is not considered to be morally or ethically right by society. Sometimes, we get name, fame, and recognition in this society due to certain positions or knowledge we possess and therefore we start giving huge premium to that. The more premium we put on such positions or knowledge and the more afraid we become with the apprehension to lose those positions or knowledge.

As against this, the faith is very weak. In the moments of loss of parents, kids, siblings, friends, money, social approval, name, fame, or positions, our friends and well-wishers tell us to have faith. But, why do we not have that faith? 

We become good at what we practice regularly. Since we live all our life around fear, we get used to fear. Most of our decisions in life are centered around fear. Most of the sensory inputs are also around these fears since the entire society is too obsessed with these fears. The decisions about the streams of career, the schools and colleges we choose, the job we do, the decisions to invest money, to decisions to explore and make friends, etc, all are centered around fear. Fear is all the time in our minds. Neither we want to lose what we have nor do we want to lose what we dream to have. We want to play safe so that our dreams are not shattered. We choose everything with that fear in our minds all the time. 

Fear is not merely a psychological phenomenon. Rather, it has deep roots in our bodies. Each time we encounter something fearful, we feel different unpleasant sensations in our bodies. Our unconscious mind has very strong memories of these sensations and even the slightest trigger may reactivate our emotional mind and make us feel fearful. 

As against this, we hardly practice faith. Leave aside establishing a connection with the consciousness. Since our practice of faith is so weak, in moments of stress and pressure, fear takes over and faith subsides. Fearful reactions and responses take us further away from the faith. This is the story of most of our lives.

There is an easy way out. All of us have moments when we have no fear. Waking up in the morning, sitting idle for some time, while on holiday, going to bed to sleep, etc. We have many moments when we are relatively relaxed. If we start re-establishing that connection with the consciousness in these moments, we will slowly sow the seeds of that connection. These seeds will not grow into plants immediately. But we have to keep sowing the seeds. As and when the weather conditions are appropriate, the seeds start growing into plants and soon start giving fruits. Our action point is to sow more and more seeds of awareness. 

The moment we observe as a witness, we change our nature of fear and connect to the faith. While walking in the park, I often see the brain constantly running after one thought to the other. As it comes out of this train of thought, it starts connecting to nature. The birds, the air, the animals in the park, and fellow human beings. Without assigning any meaning. It just observes. In these moments, it just loses its own identity and connects to the wider reality. The more moments of observation, the greater the connection to the true self and the lesser the fear.