HOW TO OVERCOME FEAR - 2
There are some, however, who, even in this fear-ridden age, bear witness to the ideal of fearlessness. One such was Kagawa. He lay in a hospital threatened with total blindness. He spent many months in a dark room with thick bandages covering his eyes. They said to him: “Your health is gone: your sight is gone. Are you not afraid of approaching death?” He calmly answered that there was nothing he feared in this spacious, star-lit, God-filled world.
“As I lie in this dark room,” he said, “God still gives light. Pains that pierce the very fires of Hell itself sweep over me. Yet, even in the melting fires of Hell, God’s mercy, for which all of earth’s manifold treasures would be an utterly inadequate exchange, still enfolds me.”
“To me all things are vocal,” he continued. “Oh, wonder words of love! The bedding, the tears, the spittle, the perspiration, the vapour of the compress on my eyes, the ceiling, the matted floor, the voice of the chirping sparrow without, all are vocal. God and every inanimate thing speak to me. Thus even in the dark I feel no sense of loneliness.”
“You suffer so much,” they said to him. “And you cannot see. Don’t you find it inconvenient?”
“Yes,” he answered, “but it is inconvenient for people not to have wings, isn’t it? If, however, they invent airplanes, these take the place of wings. The same is true regarding external eyes. If they go blind, it is simply a matter of inventing internal sight. My God is light itself. Even though every outward thing is shrouded in darkness, in the inner chamber of my soul, God’s Eternal Light shines on!”
Kagawa believed that the sufferings that come to us are part of the Divine Plan which is working in and through our lives. The All-loving and All-wise Architect of the universe means no harm to anyone. Every arrow of pain has a purpose behind it. Every experience of misery and agony comes to teach us a lesson we need to learn. But this becomes clear to him who joyfully accepts everything that comes to him, attempting to avoid nothing.
Joyful acceptance of God’s will, - is what leads to holiness and harmony. The way that leads to the Lord may be paved with suffering and sorrow: but the pilgrim, who accepts all experiences of life in the true spirit, is released from the clutches of sin and earth-desire. Such a one finds no burden oppressive, no suffering irksome.
We do not have to wait for some great crises to occur in our life to see if we have learnt to walk the way of acceptance. We must joyfully welcome God’s will in all the interruptions and irritations with which our daily lives are full. In every simple task, in every trial that comes to us unmasked, let us see the working of the Will Divine. Let us accept all, giving thanks to God for every little happening, knowing that there is a meaning of mercy in all that occurs. So may we be enriched in purity and perfection.
When Kagawa was threatened with blindness, many felt puzzled. Kagawa has surrendered his life to God, they said. Why does God not take care of him? Why does God let the light go out from his eyes? They could not understand, as we do not understand when we see a man of God suffer.
To them Kagawa said: “In the darkness I meet God, face to face. Here lies the reason for this long blindness. This is the purpose back of this wearisome confinement. I am being born, - born of God. God has some great expectation regarding me.”
The expectation was more than fulfilled. Kagawa came out of the hospital and, through him, God’s message travelled to millions of mankind. He became a channel of healing to many, leading them out of poverty into plenty, out of unrest to rest, out of sorrow into joy, out of weakness into spiritual strength, out of darkness into light. Through him new life was poured into innumerable “dead souls”.
When Kagawa lay ill in the hospital, friends visited him and, if only to comfort him, they said to him: “With so many things waiting to be done, don’t you find this long illness tedious?”
Listen to Kagawa’s answer. “I realise that a lot of work is waiting,” he said. “But work is not the purpose of my life. I am given life that I may live. It is impossible for me to stupidly moon away this present precious moment in boredom by idly thinking of tomorrow. My life is focused in this one moment. My present task is here and now to fellowship with God on this bed of pain.”
“I am not thinking of tomorrow or the next day,” Kagawa added, “or even of this day’s sunset hour. I am concerned only with being, this present moment, without any sense of tedium, with God. And for me constantly praising God for the joy of the moments live with Him there is no such thing as tediousness.”
Here is the secret of the truly fearless man. He is not anxious about the tomorrow. The tomorrow, he feels sure, will take care of itself. He knows that, in this world of transitoriness only the present moment belongs to him. The moment just over is no longer his: the moment to come may not belong to him at all. And the present moment is best utilized not in worrying over what may have happened or what is yet to happen, but in praising God for the joy of living with Him.
-To be continued
(Author: Sri J P Vaswani)
There are some, however, who, even in this fear-ridden age, bear witness to the ideal of fearlessness. One such was Kagawa. He lay in a hospital threatened with total blindness. He spent many months in a dark room with thick bandages covering his eyes. They said to him: “Your health is gone: your sight is gone. Are you not afraid of approaching death?” He calmly answered that there was nothing he feared in this spacious, star-lit, God-filled world.
“As I lie in this dark room,” he said, “God still gives light. Pains that pierce the very fires of Hell itself sweep over me. Yet, even in the melting fires of Hell, God’s mercy, for which all of earth’s manifold treasures would be an utterly inadequate exchange, still enfolds me.”
“To me all things are vocal,” he continued. “Oh, wonder words of love! The bedding, the tears, the spittle, the perspiration, the vapour of the compress on my eyes, the ceiling, the matted floor, the voice of the chirping sparrow without, all are vocal. God and every inanimate thing speak to me. Thus even in the dark I feel no sense of loneliness.”
“You suffer so much,” they said to him. “And you cannot see. Don’t you find it inconvenient?”
“Yes,” he answered, “but it is inconvenient for people not to have wings, isn’t it? If, however, they invent airplanes, these take the place of wings. The same is true regarding external eyes. If they go blind, it is simply a matter of inventing internal sight. My God is light itself. Even though every outward thing is shrouded in darkness, in the inner chamber of my soul, God’s Eternal Light shines on!”
Kagawa believed that the sufferings that come to us are part of the Divine Plan which is working in and through our lives. The All-loving and All-wise Architect of the universe means no harm to anyone. Every arrow of pain has a purpose behind it. Every experience of misery and agony comes to teach us a lesson we need to learn. But this becomes clear to him who joyfully accepts everything that comes to him, attempting to avoid nothing.
Joyful acceptance of God’s will, - is what leads to holiness and harmony. The way that leads to the Lord may be paved with suffering and sorrow: but the pilgrim, who accepts all experiences of life in the true spirit, is released from the clutches of sin and earth-desire. Such a one finds no burden oppressive, no suffering irksome.
We do not have to wait for some great crises to occur in our life to see if we have learnt to walk the way of acceptance. We must joyfully welcome God’s will in all the interruptions and irritations with which our daily lives are full. In every simple task, in every trial that comes to us unmasked, let us see the working of the Will Divine. Let us accept all, giving thanks to God for every little happening, knowing that there is a meaning of mercy in all that occurs. So may we be enriched in purity and perfection.
When Kagawa was threatened with blindness, many felt puzzled. Kagawa has surrendered his life to God, they said. Why does God not take care of him? Why does God let the light go out from his eyes? They could not understand, as we do not understand when we see a man of God suffer.
To them Kagawa said: “In the darkness I meet God, face to face. Here lies the reason for this long blindness. This is the purpose back of this wearisome confinement. I am being born, - born of God. God has some great expectation regarding me.”
The expectation was more than fulfilled. Kagawa came out of the hospital and, through him, God’s message travelled to millions of mankind. He became a channel of healing to many, leading them out of poverty into plenty, out of unrest to rest, out of sorrow into joy, out of weakness into spiritual strength, out of darkness into light. Through him new life was poured into innumerable “dead souls”.
When Kagawa lay ill in the hospital, friends visited him and, if only to comfort him, they said to him: “With so many things waiting to be done, don’t you find this long illness tedious?”
Listen to Kagawa’s answer. “I realise that a lot of work is waiting,” he said. “But work is not the purpose of my life. I am given life that I may live. It is impossible for me to stupidly moon away this present precious moment in boredom by idly thinking of tomorrow. My life is focused in this one moment. My present task is here and now to fellowship with God on this bed of pain.”
“I am not thinking of tomorrow or the next day,” Kagawa added, “or even of this day’s sunset hour. I am concerned only with being, this present moment, without any sense of tedium, with God. And for me constantly praising God for the joy of the moments live with Him there is no such thing as tediousness.”
Here is the secret of the truly fearless man. He is not anxious about the tomorrow. The tomorrow, he feels sure, will take care of itself. He knows that, in this world of transitoriness only the present moment belongs to him. The moment just over is no longer his: the moment to come may not belong to him at all. And the present moment is best utilized not in worrying over what may have happened or what is yet to happen, but in praising God for the joy of living with Him.
-To be continued
(Author: Sri J P Vaswani)
