Last week in the wee hours of the morning I had a dream. There was a mighty tiger I saw. Not a zoo tiger or a circus tiger, a real wild mighty beauty of nature. And it was crouching towards me. My heart skipped a beat. The adrenaline rush gave the usual 2 choices- ‘Flight or Fight’. I knew for sure I can’t run faster than the beast. His per hour speed limit beats mine extremely. So no point running. Flight was out. I thought of the second option. Fight?! But hey, have a look at the opponent first. Can I really fight the tiger? My good sense prevailed and fight as an option was also out.
So I just thought perhaps this is what the Divine wish is. This is what it is. I just lay flat on my tummy and began chanting my mantra. Just with this thought that if this life has to end let it end with the Divine name on my lips. Atleast the tiger would have a belly full. Some purpose this life will fulfill even if it is by being someone’s meal. As I kept chanting, the beast came closer and closer. Soon enough I could hear the sniffs all over and could smell the raw meaty odour from all over his face. Sweat kept tricking, I kept chanting for what seemed an era but may have been just a couple of minutes. Then the beast turned and walked away in the jungle from where it came. Just like that. At first I didn’t believe my eyes. I thought it may just turn and come back for me. But when I saw him disappear in the thick of the forest I knew it’s gone. I thanked the Divine profusely. It was like all my senses have just been infused with a new freshness.
When I woke up I tried to reflect on it. I found the tiger was nothing but fear. Come to think of it, isn’t that true. Isn’t the tiger our fear. What does it do? It eats you up. Totally. No matter what is its magnitude. Its very tendency is to cripple. Be it small or big, fear cripples and absolute fear cripples absolutely. It keeps gnawing at you from the inside. To quote Sadhguru, “As long as you’re identified as a physical body, as long as your experience of life is limited to your physical and mental faculties, fear and insecurity are inevitable… Only when a person begins to experience himself beyond the limitations of his physical body and mind, then this person can become free from insecurity and fear.”
Going back to the dream, my fear was very much real so long as I was thinking about life being bound by this body. I kept thinking of options like running away or fighting to save this body. But when I saw deeper I knew fear won’t end by pursuing such options. On the contrary, fear would consume me to the last bit. When I thought of life beyond this physical body I surrendered myself and the fear too, to the Divine. Isn’t Divine the source of all life be it that of a tiny worm or a human being? And it is when I surrendered that I felt liberated. I felt freedom from fear. In my acceptance of my fear lay my emancipation.
One cannot deal with fear without having an understanding of it. And to understand it one has to first accept it. Every fear is like a seed capable of becoming a giant tree if it is mishandled by running from it or resisting it. To uproot the weed you need to get to the root. You need to understand that life is beyond this body and not confined to this body. You need to be mindful of all your fears. You need to have a look at them and see whether they are still a seed or a small plant or have turned into trees already. And above all you need to ACCEPT! Just the way they are. Only then you can address them appropriately. Will you give someone a pill for headache if the person is having stomach ache? No. Fears also have their own strategy to be properly addressed. Small fears require less effort than bigger ones. So first accept and then address.
To sum it up, you can’t run from it, you can’t fight it, you can’t resist it, you can’t ignore it. What is the best that you can do? Just accept it. The way it is and surrender to the Ultimate. It will walk away on its own. Isn’t it better than fear to eat you up? What say?
Here is an interesting article by Om Swami, the Realized Himalayan Mystic to know the source of all fears and how they can be overcome. Read on and understand your fears better – https://os.me/the-source-of-fear/