What are the causes of fear?

If we understand the causes of fear, we automatically get the solutions then, to get out of the fear. Here, from the treasure of understanding given by Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, we get the precise reasons for fear.

Worried about Future

Many fears arise as a result of our worries regarding the future. “What will happen tomorrow?”, amidst such thoughts, people pass their days with fear and worry. Upon receiving a letter from Income Tax, a constant fear of “What will happen now?” keeps haunting the person. All day long, worries and inner afflictions keep happening. After giving exams, if students get over-worried about what their results would be, then fear arises. Even at the time of giving an interview for a job, the worry of “What if I fail?” impacts their potential adversely.

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says that, “If you’re fearful thinking about future, then know that an adverse internal meditation that hurts oneself (Aartadhyan) has happened. During Aartadhyan, one keeps troubling one’s self by worrying what will happen if things go this way? what will happen if things go that way? One keeps feeling such fear.” Aartadhyan means one does not cause any pain to others, but keeps being sad. As a result, one himself undergoes a lot of pain, resulting in a cause of fear.

Hatred, Dislike, Contempt

Fear is a result. Hatred, dislike and contempt are working in its root cause. For example, when a police officer knocks on our door, immediately fear arises within. Why? Because there is some kind of hatred-dislike towards the police. What if we receive from the lawyer a summons notice to appear in court? Immediately, we begin to shiver. Because there is a dislike for the court. Not only that, if we feel afraid of any living being, be it lizard, cockroach, scorpion, snake, then understand that there is certainly some dislike-contempt towards it.

We hear so many people saying that, “I don’t like my job, I get scared of my boss.” Many people say, “I don’t like bitter medicine, just by taking its name, shiver runs down my spine.” This is how, for various things and persons, we recklessly keep declaring, “I don’t like’. As a result, aversion arises towards it, and gradually fear develops out of it. Not just things, even if some person from our close circle is ‘disliked’ by us, then gradually fear develops for the person as well. Always, thing that we dislike, its fear gets in. If we don’t like some person, then the moment we see that person, we feel scared. It’s a rule that whom we disdain, its fear gets into us for sure. Because saying, “I don’t like” creates a psychological effect. However, if for the same person, we say, “I like”, then we don’t feel scared of them. For those who we feel aversion towards, if in our mind, we keep seeking forgiveness for them, and five to twenty-five times, we go on saying, “S/he is good. Is kind”, with that as well, the knot of hatred will untangle and the fear shall disappear. Subsequently, the interactions become pleasant.

Here, from Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, we get to understand the relationship between dislike, contempt and fear.

Dadashri: You continue to disdain, so you feel fearful. Upon disdaining, you feel afraid. Did some of it come in your experience?

Questioner: Yes, it did, but does disdain come first or fear?

Dadashri: First, it’s disdain. Fear is not first. How does disdain arise? If you have heard that these police people are very bad, if that knowledge has occurred to you, so first disdain enters. Based on this knowledge, you will say, these police people are very bad. If you have gathered knowledge that the most bad people of all are policemen, that is disdain, and then is fear. Fear is the result of disdain. Based on knowledge, contempt enters; and with contempt, fear arises. Then, that fear keeps growing day after day, and if the policeman happens to come to his house, then he becomes uneasy, even if the policeman has just come to ask a question!

Questioner: May have come to inquire about the neighbour’s address.

Dadashri: Yes, he has come to ask the neighbour’s address, but from the moment he arrives, one feels scared.

Here, Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan explains through an example of a policeman that based on the worldly knowledge one has acquired, dislike, disdain usher in, and fear begins to develop. Now, if true knowledge comes in, then dislike, disdain do not remain, and one can be freed from fear.

Imagination

Majority of the times, it is imagination that’s working behind the fear of ghosts, spirit and witches. That which is given to be heard over and over again, according to that, our intellect starts designing imagination, and thereby, one senses ghosts even when they are not there. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, while narrating an incident of his own life, says, “These imaginary ghosts that are there, they kill. Nothing else kills.”

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan’s elder brother’s first wife had passed away. This incident, that happened when Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan was thirteen years old, reveals the reality vis-à-vis the imaginary fear.

Questioner: You said you had a fear of ghosts, so had you seen one?

Dadashri: When I was thirteen years old, I had got fever and I was sitting in a room with doors closed. Right across, there was a cupboard which didn’t have doors. In it were shelves indeed. These cupboards are three-four shelves high, but without any doors. Once as I opened my eyes, I could see blur; there, I saw my sister-in-law. I started seeing Manibhai’s first wife (that had passed away). One whom Manibhai was earlier married to, that Surajbhabhi, I began to see her. And I had seen their son, I started to see both the son and the sister-in-law. I said, ‘Where did these two come from?’ That too, I could see her going up and down with the son. And then, she would climb the first shelf, and again I would see the son. She would climb to the second shelf, the son was to be seen. I said, ‘Is this a ghost or what?’ People were saying that she died and has become a ghost. So, in the drowsiness of fever, this is what I saw. I became fearful. Whatever I had believed in, is what appeared. She became a ghost, that knowledge had manifested. And people had installed the belief that ghosts exist, hence it was seen. I then got tired and became fearful. Eventually, I just closed my eyes and opened the door. So, the ghost was not to be seen anymore. These all imaginary ghosts! What we imagine is what we see. What we think of, so we see. Therefore, we must understand that whatever beliefs we establish, accordingly they yield results.

Since Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan had a construction business, he had to be out until late. His nature was such that since childhood, he would combat fear. One of such incidents is being described here. Based on the courage he exhibited, we get the keys to liberate ourselves from imaginary fear and causes of fear.

Dadashri: Once, we had a small gutter project underway at Palej-Bareja. That night, I was walking in the dark. In the construction business, work often runs late, and then one has to travel in the dark. It had become quite dark. So, a ghost was seen, could see it moving around. 

Now, there was nothing as such. A bare tree stump stood there without any leaves or branches, so it looked like a human being. So, I thought, what these people said was right, that the ghost stays at this place. Hence, there also I did the same. I said, ‘Come, let’s go only after touching it.’

From the beginning, I had a habit of confronting things head-on, so I walked up to the ghost, boldly… being a Kshatriya (warrior nature) at source! Upon approaching it, I touched it, and it turned out to be just a stump! Saw the bare tree.

We too suffer from such imaginary fears. There, if we gain true knowledge, we realize that there was no such thing to keep fear of.

Suspicion Based on Societal Beliefs

Most of the time, based on societal beliefs, wrong suspicion sets into our mind, and consequently, it gives rise to fear. There is a similar incident from the life of Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, where the reality becomes clear in the face of fear arising from false suspicions. When we understand the porosity of such suspicions, its fear dissipates very easily.

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan was into the construction business. When he was around twenty-four years old, it so happened that he had to go to a work site. He rode there on his bicycle, and by the time he returned, it was already eleven-thirty at night. In pitch darkness, on a dusty road, he was driving his bicycle with great speed on his way home. On the road, there was a Mahuda tree (Madhuca longifolia). Those days, people often talked about a ghost living on the Mahuda tree. He remembered that talk. Just then, about two hundred feet away, he saw large flames of fire lighting up and extinguishing, lighting up and extinguishing. He wondered then, ‘What if it was a ghost that people talk about?’ On one hand, he did feel fearful, but Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan’s nature had always been courageous. Wherever obstacles came, there, like a Kshatriya (warrior), he had the habit of confronting them head-on and also the self-confidence that nothing would happen to him! He decided that if there was a ghost, he would not run away in fear, but rather confront it.

Showing courage, he increased the speed of his bicycle big time, and along with the bicycle, plunged into the spot where he was seeing fire. But there was no ghost there! There was a man who was lighting a cigar. Param Pujya Dadashri, along with his bicycle, fell on that man. The man started shouting, ‘Hey man, are you going to kill me or what?’ Then, Dadashri took him and got his bandages done, gave him some money, and left from there.

Through this incident, Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, at his young age, concluded that in the pitch dark, amidst wind, the man was trying to light up his cigar with a matchstick. However, due to wind, the matchstick kept extinguishing; so he was repeatedly relighting it. The flame of the matchstick was actually small, but due to imagination, it appeared big. People had said, there is a ghost in Mahuda, which led to suspicion, and resultantly, fear arose. If it had been someone else, seeing the flames, they would have run away and would have reinforced people’s belief that ‘there is a ghost in Mahuda’. Whereas, Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan showed courage, due to which the popular belief was proved wrong. Upon fact being revealed, the fear vanished.

Superstitions

Many a times, without thinking, people believe in what they hear, as a result of which, superstitions get established in society. For example, there is a belief that when a person dies, Yamraj (God of Death) comes to take his life. When a dog cries at night, people believe that Yamraj has come, the dog alone is able to see him, now he will take his life and go. Not only that, those who have committed sins in their life, Yamraj keeps beating them on the way, and takes them away giving great pain to them. Even the description of Yamraj is so terrifying that by just imagining him, fear arises. At the time of death, the very name of Yamraj makes one tremble, and children also get very scared. With big-big teeth and nails, and long-long horns, the Yamraj sits on a buffalo and comes. He wears black clothes and his face is very frightening.

When Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan was thirteen years old, he happened to spend one night in the service of an elderly uncle in the neighbourhood. Uncle was sick and had been counting his last days. Based on what he had heard at that age, fear arose in Dadashri that Yamraj will surely come and take away Uncle; hence, he stayed up all night. For just a while, he fell asleep, and then, as soon as he woke up, he saw that Uncle was alive. That’s when, tremendous thinking regarding the fear of Yamraj began to churn inside Param Pujya Dadashri’s mind, that what actually is the real fact here. Then, he started investigating about it at various different places. Even after hunting a lot, he didn’t get to know the true facts. Hence, he continued to ponder over it. Finally, at twenty-five years of age, he discovered that there is no such creature by the name Yamraj, there is no God even (of Death). There is no Yamraj, but there is Niyamraj (the Rule of Law). Rules only are governing this world. The entire world is based on law. There is no other entity ruling the world. Every living being is born according to the law, dies according to the law; night falls according to the law, the day dawns according to the law; the law of Nature only is such! By revealing this true knowledge, he showed people the path to becoming fearless and combat such prevalent reasons for fear.

Ignorance

Ultimately, at the root of all causes of fear, lies ignorance. Incomplete knowledge creates fear. Just like, we are passing through a jungle and someone says, “There are tigers and lions on the way.” So, we immediately get afraid of going on that path. At the slightest sound of roar, we lose our senses and tremble with fear. Later, when someone gives us complete knowledge and says, “There are tigers-lions, but they are in a cage”, then immediately, the fear vanishes and we are able to cross the path peacefully. This means, if there’s complete knowledge, then fear leaves, but with incomplete knowledge, the fright remains. Let’s take another such example. At night, while we are sleeping, we see a snake entering into our room; then, until it leaves, we don’t get sleep. But when we come to know that the snake has left, then automatically fear leaves. The knowledge of intellect is incomplete. To some extent, fear can be removed by the knowledge of the intellect. But to become totally fearless, Self-realization is essential.

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says that, “There is no need to be afraid in this world. Whatever is going to happen, will happen to the pudgal. Nothing will ever happen to the Self.”

Matter means one that fills up (gets charged) and empties (gets discharged). Mind-speech-body are of a charge - discharge (fill in - empty) nature, are destroyable, are temporary, while the Soul is eternal, is permanent.

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says that if goods get stolen from some merchant’s shop and the merchant yells and shouts, “Everything of mine has been stolen!”, we tell him that, “Sir, not yours; everything of the shop has been stolen.” So, he understands. Similarly, nothing goes away from the Soul (the Self), what is going is all that of matter (the body complex). So, all of the external circumstances affect the matter alone (the body complex), they cannot touch us (the Soul) - once this knowledge is attained, we attain freedom from all kinds of fears forever. When we realize that our true Self is Soul only, and the experience of Soul remains present, then a complete state of fearlessness manifests. But until such a state is achieved, it is essential to exercise caution in fear-inducing situations, but it is not necessary to be fearful.