Dear Divine Souls,
Jai Shri Krishna
The world is full of fear: fear of others, fear of ourselves, fear of the future. Fear exists as long as there is misunderstanding; and there is no peace as long as there is fear. It is our misunderstanding that the material world is a reality. We are actually dreaming in the night of ignorance and we mistake this dream to be reality. The world is full of fear on account of this misunderstanding; hence there is no peace. How can this worldly fear be removed?
Imagine a man is dreaming while asleep in his air-conditioned room on a soft comfortable pillow. In his dream, he sees that he is in a forest and a tiger is chasing him. He is running for his life in immense fear. The man begins to sweat while sleeping on his bed. He tosses and turns and appears to be distressed. The man eventually shouts, “Help! Help! Somebody save me from the tiger! I’m going to be killed.” In reality, there is no forest or tiger but his fear is real. How can something unreal have such an effect?
The cries of the man wake up his wife who then tries to pacify him. She knows that her husband is seeing a bad dream. If her husband continues to cry for help, the wife may even begin to laugh, because she know it is not real. To save him from the non-existent tiger, she can do only one thing: she has to awaken him from his sleep.
In the same manner, when people, afraid of worldly pain, request a learned person for help and advice, the learned person often just laughs. He knows that there is only one remedy: to wake up to the reality.
Satsang is an endeavour to become awakened. The scriptures and saints awaken us. A true teacher (sadguru) is an awakened person who can pull us out of the dream state.
The tiger in the forest in the air-conditioned room is false. Once this reality is realised, the fear is gone! With the removal of misunderstanding, the fear goes and peace is established.
In the Ayodhyakaand of the Ramcharitmanas, Goswami Tulsidasji has written:
hoi bibeku moha bhrama bhaagaa
taba raghunaatha charan anuraagaa /
raama brahma paramaarath roopaa
abigata alakha anaadi anoopaa //
"It is only when true discrimination dawns that the errors of delusion disappear. Then, with the coming of spiritual enlightenment, is born devotion to the feet of Lord Rama. This is the highest spiritual wisdom: to be devoted to the feet of Rama in thought, word and deed."
I pray that through the medium of satsang, we continue on our journey to become enlightened and free of all misunderstandings, and hence free of all fear.
With Blessings,
Bhaishri
