Hari OM
'Freedays' are the 'gather our thoughts' days; Q&As; a general review of the week so far…
Fear, as we saw in Guru-ji's article on Choose-day, is a debilitating response to life. Yet so often we let it come upon us. For things such as phobias, there are methods of managing or even desensitising ourselves in order to overcome the fear induced by them. Some of them may be rational, such as having had a negative experience with a spider after which we are likely to be more cautious around them again, but may also build a phobia as a result. Then again, we sometimes have a phobia of spiders even when we never actually see them in our daily lives - and that is irrational.
There are other fears, though, which do not have a specific focal object. We may simply be of a 'nervous disposition'. Some of this, if we understand the role of karma and the jiiva, will be down to vaasanas being played out. If we don't subscribe to the concept of 'paying our debts' in this way, we may put it down purely to biochemistry. There is certainly an element of that - but the chemistry is triggered by 'flight or fright' and that falls back in the realm of the suukshma shariira and once again the numinous spiritual element of our existence.
The 'therapy' for this fearful state of being is to learn more about what is real and what is not. Viveka and vairaagya are the tools by which we can 'medicate' and 'remediate'.
