Just below the hill of Bodhnath, Richard (now Radhanath Swami) saw an interesting sight. A European tourist, over six feet tall, with muscles bulging from beneath his T-shirt, was marching through the field carrying a large bag of groceries. Suddenly, from out of the forest, a gang of brown monkeys surrounded him. Although each monkey was only a fraction of his size, they knew how to find his weakest point and attack. They snarled and bared their teeth, threatening him with intimidating gestures. They took small leaps toward their target, succeeding in attacking his mind. Finally, one of the little monkeys stalked right up to him and seized the grocery bag from his hands. While the monkeys clustered around the bag to devour the groceries, this giant of a man slipped away.
Seconds later, a skinny little Nepalese boy of about eight years old appeared on the scene and skipped towards the monkeys with a stone in his hand. The gang of bandits screeched, terror in their eyes. Suddenly, they abandoned the food and fled in all directions. The little boy collected up the groceries and sat down to dine. Meanwhile, the monkeys anxiously watched from a distance. I was amazed. What had just happened here? That playful boy was hardly the weight of one bicep of the Herculean European. The monkeys were unfazed by the threats of the giant because they sensed fear in his mind. But they feared the child because he had no fear of them. Richard (now Radhanath Swami) thought:
“We are vulnerable to defeat when our minds succumb to fear. The foreigner was unfamiliar with monkeys, but the Nepalese tot had lived around monkeys all of his life. So we fear what we don’t know. Through knowledge of our spiritual nature and sincere faith in God, we can overcome all fear. Please, Lord, bless me with such courage as I find my way to You.”
I once heard Radhanath Swami ask a question to the audience, “Who is our greatest enemy? A clue for you to guess- he’s also our best friend.” I was perplexed by the riddle. Radhanath Swami then revealed the answer, “If uncontrolled, our mind is the worst enemy, and if controlled he becomes our best friend.” To overcome fear, Radhanath Swami’s advice is we need to tackle the mind. He gives a simple example, “Have you seen how peacefully a child sleeps in the lap of his parent, even in a noisy, crowded train? The hustle-bustle disturbs everyone, but not the child-due to his implicit faith in the protection of his parent.” Similarly if we have implicit faith in the protection of God, we can overcome all fears in life.
Radhanath Swami explains that all fear originates in an unbalanced, unrealistic material conception of life. When we seek our sense of identity, self-worth, security and pleasure exclusively from our material positions and possessions, we open ourselves to fear. Why? Because the material realm is characterized by constant, unpredictable changes, which often threaten to destroy or harm whatever is dear to us. Therefore Radhanath Swami advices all seekers of Truth, “The more things change, the more we need to embrace the things that don’t change. The more we harmonize with our eternal spiritual nature, the more we become fearless.” Understanding that we are, at our core, spiritual and, hence indestructible, fills us with an unshakeable self-security; we recognize that worldly upheavals that affect our material assets have no power whatsoever to hurt us. Moreover, understanding that a benevolent God is ultimately orchestrating all material happenings helps us to see order amidst change, plan amidst chaos.
This shift of focus from self to God, Radhanath Swami assures, releases large reserves of mental energy, which are presently choked by our worry about the future. Radhanath Swami’s essence of all advice is, “Chanting God’s names gives us the calmness to see that most fears are imaginary, not real. The more we become free from fear of the future, the more we can fully absorb ourselves in our present duties.”
Source: http://www.radhanath-swami.net/overcoming-fear-by-connecting-to-god/overcoming-fear-connecting-god
