Question: How can we overcome fear?

Sri Chinmoy: Fear can be in the physical, vital, mental and even the heart. First of all, one has to know where the fear looms large. If there is fear in the gross physical, then that person should concentrate on the navel chakra. If one can concentrate on the navel centre and be one with the life force, the life energy in the physical, then one can conquer fear there.

If one wants to conquer fear in the vital, then one should concentrate on one’s own inner being. But this is difficult for beginners. So I tell them that if they want to conquer fear in the vital, they should try to expand the real vital in themselves. We have two types of vital. One vital is aggressive and the other vital is dynamic. The dynamic vital wants to create something sooner than at once in a divine way, in an illumined way. So if we can concentrate on that vital, or focus our attention on that vital, then we expand our consciousness in the vital. Then there can be no fear.

To conquer fear in the mind, one has to empty the mind daily. The mind is full of doubt, obscurity, ignorance, suspicion and so forth. Early in the morning you can try, say for ten minutes, not to have any thoughts — good, bad, divine or undivine. If thought comes, try to kill it. Then, after some time, allow only the divine thoughts which are your friends. In the beginning you do not know who your friend is and who your enemy is. You have to be very careful. Later on, you can allow to enter only your friends, that is to say divine thoughts, progressive thoughts, illumined thoughts. These thoughts will undoubtedly conquer fear in the mind on your behalf. Feel that your mind is like a vessel. First you empty it and then you wait for Peace, Light and Bliss to descend. But if you do not first empty the vessel, then Peace, Light and Bliss will not be able to enter.

Why is there fear in the physical, in the vital, in the mind? Precisely because we do not want to expand our consciousness. I am separate from you. You are separate from me. That is why I am afraid of you and you are afraid of me. But when we realise the Highest, immediately we feel the length and breadth of the universe as our very own. In expansion only can we expel fear. If we expand our consciousness, then we become part and parcel of others. We belong to others, others belong to us. How can we be afraid of anybody else when we represent divinity in humanity and others represent the same divinity in humanity? So there can be no fear.

Now, fear in the heart. The aspiring heart has no fear, but the unaspiring heart has fear. The aspiring heart has a flame — a burning flame that mounts towards the highest. Where there is light, there cannot be fear. Now, how to conquer fear in the unaspiring heart. Here you have to take help directly from the soul. When you meditate on the heart centre, every time you breathe in, try to feel that you are digging inside. This is not violent digging. No. It is only a divinely intensified feeling you have inside your heart that you are going deep, deep, deep within. Each time you breathe in, feel that you are going deep within. And then, a few days or a few months later, you are bound to feel a twinge or hear a very tiny sound. When you hear the sound, try to see if the sound is caused by something or if it is spontaneous. We need two hands to clap. But here in the heart, sound is not produced by two things struck together; it is automatic, spontaneous. So, when you feel that sound inside, like a celestial gong, then you are bound to conquer fear in your unaspiring heart.