When you are afraid of something, you become weak. The powerful mind which can think becomes numb and dumbfounded. Thus you end up making wrong decisions and waste your life energy on contemplating and correcting them.
Fear need not be caused only by objects that may be direct like a Snake. Large part of the fear in you is caused by people whom you interact with on a day-to-day basis. For example, let us say you are building a house and have a contractor do the job for you. If he delays the work and you have overpaid him for what he has already done, then you become scared whether he will complete the project and worried that you have already paid more. This will make you suspect him, even if he had some genuine reasons for the delay and make you blurt out when you talk to him, may be spoiling what otherwise was going fine. Just an example. In the job, you have the fear of some one taking your work away by shooting down your ideas. You wait for approval nods even in a small conversation and feel no good if people around you are disapproving. I guess fear is the reason why people keep checking emails or their mobile phones..in some sense.
All these are a result of fear that follows you like a shadow wherever you are and whatever you do.
I feel thats the reason why Shiva wore a snake around his neck?? To show that the fear is always there with you symbolically, may be...
You live with fear and I feel to overcome it is not so easy. It is there all the time. It comes many a time because of the fact that you always have 'expectations' on the outcome of something and then a fear gets 'tagged' to it automatically. Will the expectation be met? Will those people allow this to happen?....all these automatically and very subtly get added and haunt you without your knowing.
So I feel the first thing to sharpen your mind....this is a separate topic. I will talk about this in another post. However, assume you have a razor sharp mind which is trained to be in the present. Again, this is the toughest part. And remember this also sets a goal and hence a fear tag.
The point is, a sharp mind and intellect makes you to be aware of whats happening around you all the time and be present. This means, you cut down lot of thought flow that goes back and forth about people, about things and you have less fear or eventually nothing at all. You just live now and here. This is very hard to achieve and you cant measure it. When you measure, it is not there. So, it is something that may happen to you like a satori if you keep practising something.
I feel 'Belief' is a great remedy. You can start believing in people, things around you. Remember your child. He trusts you and is fearless. He is so comfortable living with people. As you grow, trust deficit grows. When you are with people whom you love, you dont have fear. Love is a great remedy again. Belief, Love etc. all help you overcome fear. Also, the fact that you love and believe, you automatically stop differentiating YOU from some one else. Every one becomes part of you.
But you may ask how do you love?
I would say 'Unask' - your basic condition was that.
Go back to basics!
