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CHANGE OF HEART-A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT
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Man is also oppressed by the fcar of the present. He is afraid of this or that, afraid of a thief breaking into his house, afraid of his boss - the fear of the present is a permanent trait. Man is not without fear even for a single moment. At all times and on all occasions, sitting or standing, awake or asleep, eating and drinking, he is oppressed by an unknown fear.
Then there is the fear of the future-born of imagination. It is no less terrible. Man continually says to himself, "I'm getting older and feeble. Shall my children take care of me? Shall I get meals at
egular hours? If I fall ill, who will look after me?" One thought after another keeps worrying him.
A man was greatly afflicted by fear. A sensible friend asked, "What is it that you are afraid of?" He replied, "A dark phantom follows me constantly. I perceive it at all times, waking or asleep, while moving about, eating or drinking, it is never absent, and I live in constant fear of it." The wise friend prepared an amulet and gave it to him. The man wound the amulet round his arm and his fear evaporated. The black phantom disappeared. But after two months the man again approached his friend. His friend asked, "You're not afflicted by fear any more, are you?" The man replied, "Well, the dark phantom worries me no more, but a new fear has taken its place. ! am now continually afraid of losing my amulet!"
Man is afraid of the past. He is also afraid of the present, and of the future too. Memory persists, thought worries and imagina. tion fills one with fear. Everything becomes frightening. Man walks in fear every moment of his life. But man is also responsible for developing fearlessness. He is also able to make such progress in this direction that neither time, nor place, nor death itself causes him any fear. He grows to be absolutely fearless. He transcends fear altogether.
Such a development takes place of itself while man is practising meditation. Fear comes to an end. Man has been able to live with snakes in amity, even with snakes whose very thought at first makes him tremble with fear. Likewise man has been able to establish friendship with ferocious beasts who kill man for food. Man has developed friendship; he has also developed fearlessness. As nonviolence, fearlessness and friendship evolve, all living beings grow friendly.
When one living being attacks another, it is mainly for two reasons fear and hunger. The cow, the buffalo or the bullock assume a threatening posture towards man. Why? Chiefly due to fear. While travelling on the highway, we often witness the cows and the buffaloes start in fear at the sight of the multicoloured flag carried by the forcrunners. An investigation revealed that the animals are not afraid of the cloth, but they are mightily affrighted
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