Question
I have an issue on my mind that I would like you to address. Fear, how to deal with it, what the scriptures say about it. I must say it is one of the main issues that everyone is facing these days, more than usual. There is fear of Covid, fear of vaccination, fear of each other because of this issue that divides us, fear of losing personal and even constitutional rights, fear of losing financial stability and fear of the transformations that are taking place on a global scale.(Just to mention a few things!)
Answer
Dear Bhaktin ***,
All human emotions are of spiritual origin. The matter has no emotion, being an impersonal energy that gives a result of inertia. Rupa Gosvami includes fear (bhaya) as one of the twelve main spiritual rasas.
However, this spiritual emotion becomes contaminated and takes material connotations due to the action of Maya. Fear is presided over by a Deva, like greed, lust, compassion, and so on.
When the spiritual soul forgets to be spiritual and identifies with a material body has all the reasons of the world to have fear. Our physical and subtle bodies are very fragile and anything can happen to us and everything and everyone around us. So it’s normal to have fear in a fearsome world.
Fear can be overcome only with transcendental realization. Once we realize or at least start to realize, that we have nothing to do with our body and external environment we understand that there is nothing that can hurt us. As Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita says, nothing can hurt a spiritual soul. And same with our subtle body. An advanced devotee does not have material psychological pains.
So Krishna consciousness is the tool to overcome fear. Just continue doing what you are doing and you’ll see the results.
– Manonatha Dasa (ACBSP)
From the book “On a Silver Platter”
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