Knowing The Moloch Within
Your fingers run cold and shiver. Your heart rebels to leap out of your throat. There is a clot down in your stomach and cold sweat crowds your forehead. You cannot think, you can not understand. You are frozen to where you are: stunned and unmovable.
You are being consumed, consumed slowly and savored by the object of your fear, as all rationality betrays you and you act but a sad, helpless marionette to the game of the Fiend. You are now the toy of Fear. You are now it's game. You have been played.
But where did this fear come from? Did it come from the object you saw, or the news you heard, or the prospect you imagined? No it did not. It did not come from anything of the outside world; it came from your mind. That object, or that news or that prospect touches at such a corner of your mind that the mind rebels, it wants that thing away, it wants to escape for it believes disagreeable and harmful things are in store for you.
But then again, what is fear? Why do I freeze and act madman when I see a rather sumptuous stray approach me, but cuddle with all fondness my own pet at home? What do I feel when that dog approaches me?
The answer is simple, yet incredible. Vedic Philosophers believe, and very rightly so, that the single cause of fear is the prospect of death. In every thing that frightens an individual, his subconscious mind sees a possible death. The human mind is in a tireless search for three things: self-gratification, self-determination and self-preservation. And anything that threatens to stand in its way inspires fear.
Fear is but a reaction of the mind, incredibly so, to the imaginary prospect of an impending death. Then be it a spider that frightens you, or an armed policeman. The fact is universal: the mind imagines those objects as our Nemesis. And it finds the prospect so disagreeable, so unwanted; it rebels in the form of fear. Fear is the manifestation of our hatred for the Inevitable.
Crippling the Moloch Within
None of us have ever seen death in its face nor do any of us have the slightest idea of what the fearsome, terrible yet mystical and mysterious thing called death is. People say death will come and go and none of us will know when it came. Some people say death stands before the man for a long time before it's time, and at the final hour, brutally throttles him so that he relives every sin of his life before it ends. I do not know what the truth is and I do not intend to find out, nor wish to theorize.
The truth is this. Death is inevitable and whether I understand what it is or whether I don't, I don't imagine a few more years be awarded to me as a prize or taken away as penalty. So to strain my waning intellect and to try and theorize on death is just as useful to me as it is for the Government of India to employ ministries to save the Nicaraguan economy. And so it's no good for me to understand death. What that directly implies is this. I cannot reach the root cause of all fear since it is something I certainly don't want to reach, and so my arsenal against fear is restricted to sheaths that protect me from the symptoms.
Unfortunately, that is true for a common man like you and I. We have no choice but to deal with symptoms. We cannot understand death; so it's mighty unlikely that some among us might develop a method to calm one's mind when it faces us with a rapturous kiss. All we can do is silence the symptom.
The most extreme- but almost fool proof- method to deal with the fear of a certain object is to face it repeatedly. An example will help you. I had this irrational fear for water bodies, and coming anywhere as close as a few hundred meters to a lake from where it's visible would cause me to suffer a strong and uncontrollable phobia. The solution was simple- torturous, but simple. Every evening, my father and I would walk up and down the bund to the lake in our city. The first few days went in horror, but subsequently I got used to it.
I don't particularly look forward to evenings now(since we continue our healthy fear-fighting today), but if I'm asked to live in a ocean view suite for a few days, you might find my in places other than the bathroom after all!
That method doesn't work on people's fears for wild animals; it is not advisable that, to tame your fear, you spend a few evenings in the holy company of a beast. But those who find themselves irrationally afraid of dogs can pet one. Like me; I was mortally afraid of anything that had four feet, a long snout and wagged its tale if I looked at them. But now I cuddle my pooch(named Mango, imagine) more than anybody else in the world.
Then there are really different people who find themselves imagining, unintentionally, horrible fates for themselves and their loved ones. I am talking of those few people who are unfortunately paranoid. People who think they see an ill omen in everything. These people are insecure at heart, have faced something terribly in their past and are afraid it is bound to repeat again. A person who can understand this weakness of his must never hesitate to share his fears with others. Nothing but the assurance from a friend or from family and a little warmth and encouragement of heart can ease their discomfort.
There is no absolute way out of this paranoia: because the cause of this is different in everyone. But there are ways it can be tamed, ways that do normally apply to everyone. It might not look so obvious, but meditation is great help. Sincere and regular meditation, mixed with a little Faith and Belief does, trust me, ease this discomfort. Whether it is true or not is not my concern at all, but reminding oneself that there is an otherworldly Force to assist us boosts oneself more than anything else can.
I did say that fear comes only because the mind takes that object of fear as the possible cause for death. Someone who has faith in God can take this fear in his stride. It probably sounds an obsolete way of looking at things. May it, it really is. But then, it's effective. So may it be obsolete: I really don't bother.
The Conclusion
We saw in our discussion here that fear is but because our mind imagines death in the things that frighten us. We saw the fear is but our reaction to the prospect of death. On the face of it, this explanation to fear is unbelievable. But if you reflect on it for a while, it will be completely obvious that yes, fear is a manifestation of any threat that stands before the path of our want for'self-preservation'.
Death is but a name given to that threat. To deal with fear from objects that we encounter in our everyday life, the rather cruel but almost completely effective way is to spend a little time with them, and I also related an example for this purpose. For those who unfortunately are paranoid, trust in family and friends and faith in God and prayer are the simplest and most effective ways out.
That is all I can say. Please do add your opinions in the comments section if you please to. I welcome you!
