Question: Would you please explain what fear is and what causes it?

Sri Chinmoy: What is fear? Fear is something that does not allow us to enter into infinite Freedom. It is something that constantly binds us. It is something that constantly tells us that we are entirely different than or separate from others, that our existence is only for ourselves. Fear can exist in all parts of our being: our body, vital, mind and heart.

Physical fear cannot be conquered until psychic fear is conquered. When we have fear in the physical body and in the physical mind, it manifests as our need for some kind of immediate relief or release. Fear comes in like a thief and we cry for protection.

But this physical fear is not the only fear: there are other fears as well. If one has fear in the heart or the vital, he then has to overcome this fear or transform this fear into strength with the soul's light. Otherwise, fear will kill its victim like slow poison.

Why do we fear? We fear because we have separated ourselves from God's Love and we are apt to think of God the Omnipotent, not God the All-Love. But even the omnipotent God is not a God that threatens or strikes us with an iron rod every time we make a mistake. Our conception of God is so peculiar. We feel that God is like a primary school teacher, who is ready to beat us black and blue if we deviate an inch from the path of truth. But that conception of God is absurd. There is no such being as God the tyrant. There is only one God, and that God is God the Love. This God does not punish us. This God is constantly shaping us in His own Way. It is He who is the Doer, it is He who is the Action and it is He who is the Enjoyer, both in the action and in the result. But we feel that we are the doers, and that if we do something wrong, God will punish us mercilessly. But this is not so. It is God's Dream that each individual embodies. It is God's Reality that each individual has to manifest here on earth. It is in each human being that God's Reality lives.