Social Consciousness: Fearlessness is divine

Krishna, in the opening line of chapter 16 of the Gita, mentions several divine qualities, and the first quality is fearlessness. We may normally understand that we must be bold in any situation. But the meaning is different for a spiritual seeker.

In the familiar example of Buddha's encounter with the dreaded killer Angulimala we saw that Buddha was fearless even as Angulimala approached him menacingly. Angulimala felt insulted and was also surprised that a monk kept walking without batting an eyelid.

'Stop', he shouted at Buddha. Buddha said, 'I have stopped, but you have not stopped', and kept moving. Angulimala was surprised and then an interesting conversation took place between them. Buddha had stopped disliking or hating anything in the world, he had transcended likes and dislikes, and he did not see an enemy in anyone.

Angulimala saw threat everywhere and he countered it by terrorizing people. The Upanishad says, 'fear is when you see the second (an enemy)'. There is no fear if you see divine in everyone. That is what transformed Angulimala. Buddha's nature was sattva, an enlightened vision. That is fearlessness in an enlightened person.

This advice applies to all worldly situations. A parent has fears about the child's education or about the child's future. Someone has fears about his job security. The poet Bhartrihari lists out a long list of fears – we are afraid of eating for fear of falling ill, if you have money, you fear the king, a beautiful woman is afraid of oldness, a strong person is afraid of another strong person, a scholar is afraid of a fellow scholar excelling him and so on. The way to fearlessness is rational thinking and analysis. It is by having a big picture of the situation he is afraid of.

The Mahabharata gives another advice. There are fears or threats for the whole society. Many people spend sleepless nights worrying about what is happening to the country or culture or family values and such. 'There is no point worrying about something on which you have no control', says the Mahabharata, 'but if you can do something, do it without a second thought'. For instance, we have no control on the drift of the economy or external threats to the country.

One has to understand one's role in the whole scheme of things and see what can be done. Alertness and perception of threats are needed in any situation, but irrational fear is a sign of ignorance.