Question: Can you say something about the overcoming of fear?

Sri Chinmoy: Fear is one of our most troublesome difficulties; fear is extremely hard to overcome. But we do conquer fear on the strength of our oneness. When we establish our oneness, we always conquer fear.

A child has established his oneness with his father. The father is perhaps six feet tall, stout and strong. But the father does not create fear in the child’s existence; the child is not at all afraid of his father. Why? Precisely because he has established his oneness-reality with his father. Therefore, there is no necessity on his part to be afraid of his father.

The creation which is around us is frightening us, threatening us. It is causing unnecessary fear in our mind or in our earthly existence. Why? Precisely because we have not yet established our oneness-reality with the world around us. If we pray and meditate soulfully, we establish a free access to the inner reality, which pervades the entire outer world. For a seeker, the paramount thing is to dive deep within and discover the road that leads to the all-pervading oneness-reality. On the strength of our inner cry, which we call aspiration, we climb up and reach the high, higher, highest state of consciousness, where it is all oneness. Where there is oneness, inseparable oneness, there cannot be even an iota of fear. Fear looms large when the sense of separativity looms large. Fear exists just because we want to remain separated, consciously or unconsciously, from the all-pervading Reality which we eternally are.

Fear most of the time is in the mind and not in the heart. The aspiring heart knows how to establish its inseparable oneness with the reality that is within and without. But the doubtful, suspicious and sophisticated mind finds it difficult to see eye to eye with the reality that is blossoming right in front of us. The mind suspects the reality before it. And there even comes a time when the mind, to its wide surprise, doubts its own judgement. At that time the mind feels a tremendous sense of dissatisfaction. Once it was the judge and now it has become a victim to its own judgements. But the heart, right from the beginning, tries to identify itself with the reality around it. And on the strength of its identification with the reality, it absorbs what the reality is and what the reality stands for. So if we live in the aspiring heart, the heart that cries for the all-pervading oneness-reality, the torture of fear can easily come to an end.