Fear is not Real

The acronym “Fear” means “False Evidence Appearing Real !!” While danger is real, fear is a choice !! If you are afraid of something, then you have not understood it fully !! The fear of fear is worse than the fear itself !! When you face difficult times, know that challenges are not sent to destroy you; they are sent to promote, increase and strengthen you.

This is the time when Covid 19 is actually ruling the world. The fear it has created is unimaginable. Fear of contracting the disease and the 3 lockdowns from 25-3-20 to 17-5-20 has kept the majority of the people inside their homes.

These lockdowns were required to enable people understand the disease and not to overwhelm the hospitals; besides understanding the pattern of the virus spread, the preventive measures one adopts to keep the virus at bay like social distancing, wearing mask, washing hands with soap/sanitizer, having Kabasura, a Siddha drink, regularly would keep Covid 19 out of bounds !!

Patience and understanding are required. We should remember that if we confront a lion in the jungle we have a problem; but if we have a machine gun in our hands that we know to use the lion is only in danger !! If we observe safety precautions always, eat healthy food, harbor positive thoughts and not see the television for long, we do not have to fear the coronavirus.

Facing what one has to face is important with a deep rooted Faith that God would not give anything which we would not be able to solve. Having Faith in the Creator, Faith in our medical team, Faith in the Government and very soon there would soon be a vaccine for this or after a while the virus would get mutated. Now is the good time for us to eliminate the fear totally and go about our work in a “New Normal” situation !!

Mahatria has beautifully encapsulated a story from the Mahabharat which could be a “good parallel” to the situation we are facing. The story goes like this: Krishna and Balarama (Brother of Krishna)were walking through a forest. It was night time and they were tired. They made an agreement between themselves that each of them would take turns to be awake while the other one slept. First, Krishna went to sleep and Balarama stayed awake.

As Balarama was loitering here and there, a monster appeared in front of Balarama and screamed at him. Balarama was frightened as he had not seen any such thing before. Due to this Balarama shrank in size and the monster grew up in size. Once again the monster screamed at Balarama. Balarama was petrified and the monster became bigger and Balarama became smaller. Once more the monster screamed and Balarama could not take it anymore, he swooned and fell down loudly saying the name “Krishna.”

Krishna woke up when he heard his name and found Balarama was lying down. He thought Balarama was sleeping and so he took guard and stayed awake as per their agreement. The monster came and screamed at Krishna, Krishna asked the monster, “What do you want?” Upon asking that Krishna grew big in size and the monster became a little smaller. The monster appeared again and screamed at Krishna. Krishna asked the monster, “What do you want from me?” Krishna grew larger and the monster became smaller. Once more the monster appeared and shrieked at a much louder voice. Krishna asked, “ What do you want?” Upon hearing that the monster became reduced to a small dragon fly size !!

Krishna took the little monster and tied it up to the folds by a knot in his dhoti. The Sun did rise and the two of them started walking. Balarama told Krishna, “You know what happened last night when you were sleeping?” A huge monster appeared and threatened to gobble us both. I found it very tough to deal with him. Krishna took the little monster gently from the knot of his dhoti and asked Balarama, “ Are you talking about this monster?” Upon seeing the monster, Balarama was bewildered and shocked beyond belief !! He mumbled, “But, yesterday night this little monster was very big, how come it has become so small ?? Krishna smiled and they continued walking…

Vyasa in the voice of Krishna says, “ When you avoid what you must face in life it becomes bigger than you and takes control over you. When you face what you must face you become bigger than it and you take control over it. The monster that Vedayyas is referring to are the challenges that we face in life – and Vedayyas wants us to understand through the voice of Krishna, if you keep avoiding what you must face these challenges become monstrous and they gain control over you. Instead if you face what you must face you become larger than it and gain control over it. You should understand that the problems in life , the furnace called life, the experiences in life are not to burn you but to transform you into glittering silver.

So, now from now on it is good for us to understand that any problem or predicament or challenge in life is given to us to make us become what we can become. Taking lessons from this story, we need to understand the fear and “FACE THE FEAR” Embrace “the new normal.” What cannot be understood, cannot be controlled. Understand the pandemic understanding that Fear is unreal go about your life doing your best. Your best is yet to come !!

All the best,

Ramkumar S

www.sramkumar.in