Question: How can we eliminate fear?
Sri Chinmoy: We can eliminate fear by increasing or expanding our consciousness. Fear comes into existence because we constantly or deliberately isolate ourselves. You are afraid of someone because you have a sense of separateness. You and I are separate individuals. But if you expand your consciousness, you will feel that my nose, my ears, my eyes all belong to you — they are part and parcel of your existence. I know the strength of my fist. If I strike myself with it I will definitely be hurt. But I know that my arm and my hand belong to me. My hand is not going to hurt me. My nose is not going to be attacked by my fist. Why? Because my entire body is one existence, and all its parts know and feel this. So when we expand our consciousness we can feel this same identity, this same oneness with someone whom we now call a stranger. In this way we can easily eliminate fear.
Sri Chinmoy, Fifty Freedom-Boats to One Golden Shore, part 2, Sri Chinmoy Centre, New York, 1974