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XXI. SOURCES OF FEAR
The world we live in is very dynamic-nothing but vibrations, eternal flux. Movement means change of place. We are at a particular spot. As we move, the place changes. Both the conscious and the unconscious world are subject to continual motion, constant change.
Our mind too is very dynamic. It is also running helter-skelter all the time. Now it is in one place, and a little later it moves to another place. The practice of preksha meditation is designed to stabilize the mind. As it is, the mind is in constant motion. It does not stay at one place. The famous psychologist Gland, after making many experiments, concluded that in one minute the mind changes fifteen times. Which means that thought changes its object after every four seconds. Another psychologist Willings also came to a similar conclusion. He found that every one to five seconds attention changed its object. Every spiritual practitioner practising meditation comes to realize that the mind is incapable of concentration on any subject for any considerable length of time. We sit down to concentrate on one object, but attention falters. The change of object or place is a natural process. Thought changes, the object changes, attention changes, everything undergoes a change. Our life is like a motion picture. All the pictures that we have seen on the screen pale into insignificance before the show going on in our mind. A movie lasts for two to three hours, but the cinema of our life goes on for ever. There is constant movement. The scene changes every second. And there is no end to it.
Two friends, both gossips, were engaged in conversation. One of them said, "My grandfather was so expert a swimmer that when he went for a bath to the village pool, he kept swimming there for three days and three nights together. What a remarkable swimmer!" The other said, "Is that all? Now listen! My grandfather went swimming in the sea. He never came back and is still there. He has been swimming for the last fifty years. What a remarkable swimmer!"
The cinema of our life goes on for ever. It never comes to an end. Likewise the procession of our mind with its changing thoughts and passions is ever on the move. Now it is anger, now fear, now lust, or attachment, later hatred or malice, greed and ambition. Different emotions come to the fore one after another and present their image. Among these, fear occupies an important place. Some psychologists admit only three primary instincts-fear, anger and
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