Live Without Fear Of The Past Or Future
Satsang: Swami Sukhabodhananda
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How can we overcome fear?
First understand that most fears are nothing but movements of thoughts. What exactly is a thought?
A thought is a language that we give for words, pictures and feelings. Put in a different way , a thought is just a movement of word, picture and feeling.You interpret a thought in your mind in a language that you are afraid, and you experience fear.
What happens when you are in a state of deep sleep? In that state there are no thoughts, and you experience no fear at all. If there is no thought, there is no fear. When you are in deep sleep, a snake may glide close to you, but you are not afraid. On the other hand, when you are awake, the sight of even a coiled piece of rope can fill you with fear, because you think that the rope coiled is a snake. We can only advise all those who are afraid ... plan for your future; there is no harm in that. But your fear about the future would only ruin your happiness.In order to protect your wealth, plan where to keep it safe; plan how to insure it against theft and so on! To live in fear, without doing any of these things is meaningless.
Where and how do we search for God?
Remember that God hides within you, but you don't see Him because the one place you will never look is inside yourself. You will search everywhere, but never within yourself.Therefore, paradoxical as it sounds, it is nevertheless true that you lose sight of God because He is hiding within you.
Look at what God has given us; much more than what we see around us. Our intelligence buddhi is the prime gift. Yet, are we loving and grateful enough to God who has given us all these? Do we have even a little of the gratitude a dog has towards its keeper? No! That is why Dattatreya considers the dog as one of his gurus.
Dattatreya draws four lessons from the dog. A dog doesn't count its misfortunes or grieve over them. That is, a dog doesn't live in the past. It doesn't make long-term plans either. It doesn't live in the future. It lives instinctively , from moment to moment. A dog's life is one unbroken straight line marked by love, devotion and gratitude to the one who sustains it. Devo tion is its defining property .
Can we give up being ble about our past misfortunes miserable about our past misfortunes and mistakes? Can we desist from gloating over some lucky events of the past? Can we stop worrying about what is going to happen to us in the near or distant future? Can we accept life on its own terms? Can we learn simply to be loyal to God and rely on Him for all we need and want?
Note that these are disciplines we impose on ourselves. When we reach this stage, we will have achieved a mental state that looks with equal ease at happiness and sorrow, at misery and luxury; in short, we will have seen God in ourselves. This is the essence of the great Sanskrit saying, “Tat twam asi“ “You are That“, or “You are the object of your search“. A believer's spiritual journey is a discipline for reaching this stage of supreme Self-realisation.
First understand that most fears are nothing but movements of thoughts. What exactly is a thought?
A thought is a language that we give for words, pictures and feelings. Put in a different way , a thought is just a movement of word, picture and feeling.You interpret a thought in your mind in a language that you are afraid, and you experience fear.
What happens when you are in a state of deep sleep? In that state there are no thoughts, and you experience no fear at all. If there is no thought, there is no fear. When you are in deep sleep, a snake may glide close to you, but you are not afraid. On the other hand, when you are awake, the sight of even a coiled piece of rope can fill you with fear, because you think that the rope coiled is a snake. We can only advise all those who are afraid ... plan for your future; there is no harm in that. But your fear about the future would only ruin your happiness.In order to protect your wealth, plan where to keep it safe; plan how to insure it against theft and so on! To live in fear, without doing any of these things is meaningless.
Where and how do we search for God?
Remember that God hides within you, but you don't see Him because the one place you will never look is inside yourself. You will search everywhere, but never within yourself.Therefore, paradoxical as it sounds, it is nevertheless true that you lose sight of God because He is hiding within you.
Look at what God has given us; much more than what we see around us. Our intelligence buddhi is the prime gift. Yet, are we loving and grateful enough to God who has given us all these? Do we have even a little of the gratitude a dog has towards its keeper? No! That is why Dattatreya considers the dog as one of his gurus.
Dattatreya draws four lessons from the dog. A dog doesn't count its misfortunes or grieve over them. That is, a dog doesn't live in the past. It doesn't make long-term plans either. It doesn't live in the future. It lives instinctively , from moment to moment. A dog's life is one unbroken straight line marked by love, devotion and gratitude to the one who sustains it. Devo tion is its defining property .
Can we give up being ble about our past misfortunes miserable about our past misfortunes and mistakes? Can we desist from gloating over some lucky events of the past? Can we stop worrying about what is going to happen to us in the near or distant future? Can we accept life on its own terms? Can we learn simply to be loyal to God and rely on Him for all we need and want?
Note that these are disciplines we impose on ourselves. When we reach this stage, we will have achieved a mental state that looks with equal ease at happiness and sorrow, at misery and luxury; in short, we will have seen God in ourselves. This is the essence of the great Sanskrit saying, “Tat twam asi“ “You are That“, or “You are the object of your search“. A believer's spiritual journey is a discipline for reaching this stage of supreme Self-realisation.
