HOW TO OVERCOME FEAR - 5
I can never forget the sweet serene face of a child I saw sixty years ago. I was on board the S.S. Versova, travelling from Mumbai to Karachi. Suddenly, a terrible storm arose. Thick clouds appeared in the skies, covering face of the sun, and the day become dark as night. Huge waves lashed against the steamer which tossed as a paper-boat. All the passengers were filled with terror. It looks as though we were doomed to a watery grave. In the midst of this sorrowful scene sat a little child – barely six years old – calm, serene, undisturbed by the shrieking storm and the rolling wave.
I was, then, about ten years of age: and I marvelled at this child’s unruffled serenity in the face of death. I said to him: “The steamer is about to sink: are you not afraid?”
With a cherubic smile he answered: “What have I to fear when my mother is near?”
I can never forget those words. When in the depths of despair and sorrow I have repeated the words to myself, repeated them again and again, I have felt relieved: “What have I to fear when my Mother is near?”
Our Mother – the Mother Divine – is so near to each one of us. Closer is She than breathing and nearer than hands and feet. Alas! We have turned our faces away from Her. In our shouts and shows, our engagements and occupations, our business and commerce, we have forgotten Her. We have lost the child-like spirit. To be child-like is to renounce criticism, is to rejoice in life, is to share all we have with all men, is to love and laugh. We think we have grown up and no longer need the Mother’s loving care. We need to become children again, friendly and loving towards all – not critical, never fearful.
We need to contact the Mother. This is done through meditation and prayer and constant repetition of the Mother’s Name, Writing the Name, again and again, is a great help. To start with, it may appear laborious, but as concentration develops, writing the Name becomes a source of indescribable joy. As you keep on writing the Name, again and again, one blessed day you lose yourself: you find the Mother! This is all that matters.
It must not be forgotten that it is impossible for me to find the Mother through my own efforts and endeavours. It is only through the Mother’s grace that She is found. On our part we must make an attempt to radiate thoughts of love, to speak words of comfort, to live a life of service and sacrifice.
“You are not lonely, O, Arjuna!” says Sri Krishna to His beloved disciple in the Gita. “I am with you, within you, all around you. Whatever you eat, whatever you give, whatever you do, do it unto Me!” So may our petty wills be blended with the Will Divine. And in the measure in which our wills are blended with the Will of God, in that measure do we grow into the likeness of God. Then we think as God would have us think: we speak and act as God would have us speak and act. Then it is that fear vanishes from our life as mist before the morning sun. and we move through life trusting every ray of the sun and every drop of rain, every rose and every thorn, every stone and every grain of sand, every river and every rock, trusting the sun and moon and stars, trusting thunder and storm, trusting every thing and everyone, giving the service of love to all.
Significant are the words of Saint Francis: “Where there are compassion and wisdom, there can be neither fear nor ignorance.” The secret of fearlessness is sympathy, is compassion, is love for all. When love, unselfish love, enters into the heart, fear departs.
-To be concluded
(Author: Sri J P Vaswani)
I can never forget the sweet serene face of a child I saw sixty years ago. I was on board the S.S. Versova, travelling from Mumbai to Karachi. Suddenly, a terrible storm arose. Thick clouds appeared in the skies, covering face of the sun, and the day become dark as night. Huge waves lashed against the steamer which tossed as a paper-boat. All the passengers were filled with terror. It looks as though we were doomed to a watery grave. In the midst of this sorrowful scene sat a little child – barely six years old – calm, serene, undisturbed by the shrieking storm and the rolling wave.
I was, then, about ten years of age: and I marvelled at this child’s unruffled serenity in the face of death. I said to him: “The steamer is about to sink: are you not afraid?”
With a cherubic smile he answered: “What have I to fear when my mother is near?”
I can never forget those words. When in the depths of despair and sorrow I have repeated the words to myself, repeated them again and again, I have felt relieved: “What have I to fear when my Mother is near?”
Our Mother – the Mother Divine – is so near to each one of us. Closer is She than breathing and nearer than hands and feet. Alas! We have turned our faces away from Her. In our shouts and shows, our engagements and occupations, our business and commerce, we have forgotten Her. We have lost the child-like spirit. To be child-like is to renounce criticism, is to rejoice in life, is to share all we have with all men, is to love and laugh. We think we have grown up and no longer need the Mother’s loving care. We need to become children again, friendly and loving towards all – not critical, never fearful.
We need to contact the Mother. This is done through meditation and prayer and constant repetition of the Mother’s Name, Writing the Name, again and again, is a great help. To start with, it may appear laborious, but as concentration develops, writing the Name becomes a source of indescribable joy. As you keep on writing the Name, again and again, one blessed day you lose yourself: you find the Mother! This is all that matters.
It must not be forgotten that it is impossible for me to find the Mother through my own efforts and endeavours. It is only through the Mother’s grace that She is found. On our part we must make an attempt to radiate thoughts of love, to speak words of comfort, to live a life of service and sacrifice.
“You are not lonely, O, Arjuna!” says Sri Krishna to His beloved disciple in the Gita. “I am with you, within you, all around you. Whatever you eat, whatever you give, whatever you do, do it unto Me!” So may our petty wills be blended with the Will Divine. And in the measure in which our wills are blended with the Will of God, in that measure do we grow into the likeness of God. Then we think as God would have us think: we speak and act as God would have us speak and act. Then it is that fear vanishes from our life as mist before the morning sun. and we move through life trusting every ray of the sun and every drop of rain, every rose and every thorn, every stone and every grain of sand, every river and every rock, trusting the sun and moon and stars, trusting thunder and storm, trusting every thing and everyone, giving the service of love to all.
Significant are the words of Saint Francis: “Where there are compassion and wisdom, there can be neither fear nor ignorance.” The secret of fearlessness is sympathy, is compassion, is love for all. When love, unselfish love, enters into the heart, fear departs.
-To be concluded
(Author: Sri J P Vaswani)
