“Keep your face towards the sun and you won’t be bothered by shadows.”
– Dadi Janki
When faced with problems, it can seem difficult to maintain inner cheer; the mind gets caught up with negativity, fear, or worry. The problem seems bigger than it is and our ability to find solutions and work constructively weakens. Where there is fear, there cannot be peace.
When we have dislike or hatred of another, criticising and looking at weaknesses, we will feel fear. They seem like an enemy. When we concentrate on virtues and skills and talents, then despite any difficulties in the relationship, they seem like a friend, and there is no fear.
We sometimes experience fear due to dependency. We are taught to make our happiness dependent on some future event, condition, person, object, and so on, and then we become afraid of losing it. All desire has fear built in-fear of not getting it or losing it, even before the desire is fulfilled. To be free of fear in life, free of stress, the secret is to want nothing, and then all we need arrives in our life, at the right time, in the right way.
Since the duration of our physical life has no guarantee, we can remain fearless by remembering: This body is perishable, made of matter, and is constantly changing, but I, the soul, am imperishable. I will never die. For this, we need to go deeply into life’s most sacred questions, ‘who am I?’ and ‘who do I belong to’? I am a soul. Do everything in total awareness of being a soul. Become aware that this deepest inner eternal life force is the real self, filled with divine qualities but separate from the body. This quality of stillness, always perfect and pure, fills the soul with an enriching experience of silence, and there is no space for fear. In this way, a problem can be seen to be a game that we can learn from and see how resilient we are. We know that every situation will pass and has something to teach me.
“Who do I belong to?” Fear is truly removed when we connect our mind to God. Our closest relationship is with God. When we connect to the mind of God, thinking elevated thoughts, they bring a feeling of goodness and we create positive energy. This Godly wave of spirituality is silently creating change and crafting the vision of changing this world of suffering, or a kind of hell, into a world of love, peace, and understanding. When we all connect with a soul-to-soul awareness, we are able to see our own virtues and those of others and build beautiful relationships, a kind of heaven.
Chirya Yvonne Risely is a Rajyoga meditation teacher, based at the Brahma Kumaris Peace Village Retreat Center, USA.