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THE FEAR COMPLEX
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scold too much are apt to become perverse. But even parents who pamper their children, only serve to spoil their wards. The senses are like children; these need to be handled with care. When treated right, they function perfectly. However, too much concern with the body, with one's looks, constant thought thereof, can create a dangerous situation, both physically and psychologically. It has been observed that those who shirk hard labour and seek too much comfort often attract diabetes. In ayurved this malady is significantly called "Sukhasak", i.e., "Comfort seeker". Heart trouble, too, is common among those who do not labour, who lie idle all the time. Their arteries get thicker, so the circulation of blood is adversely affected. Physicians of old advised rest to heart patients, but modern doctors counsel otherwise. They say, "Have a stroll. Do some light exercise so that the blood circulation is normalized." The modern physician does not encourage lethargy and may thus be said to be approaching, willy-nilly, a spiritual attitude.
Too much solicitude about any person or thing is also productive of fear. It is necessary to take care that one's clothes are clean and in good taste. But to be preoccupied with clothes to the exclusion of everything else is not at all desirable, for it only serves to create a climate of fear. One becomes more and more obsessed and is consequently steeped in fear. Any kind of preoccupation is bound to create more fear. Search for greater comfort, greater adornment of one's person, too much preoccupation with dress are all ways of nourishing fear. Fear is thus firmly entrenched in our lives.
Sudden fear-unimaginable and unexpected is the fourth kind of fear human beings are liable to. Such sudden fear may be quite imaginary or it may have a basis in reality. Something happens and leaves an imprint of fear on the mind. There is nobody who has never had a mishap. All of a sudden, like a bolt from the bluc, something fearful happens. A man in perfect condition rises to go. Suddenly he stumbles against something and staggers, and fear siezes him. Another man goes for a bath. He misses a step and slips down into the stream, and is about to be drowned. Sudden fear takes hold of him in that moment. Some untoward event occurs and a man is struck with terror and he flees in fear. All these escapist tendencics arise because of sudden fear. Accidents occur in the sky, on earth and in water; these involve pedestrians as well as men travelling by air or sea. All men are liable to these.
The fifth state of fear is that of suffering, of pain. Disease, old age, etc. constitute the root of pain. There is hardly a man who has not suffered from some disease at one time or the other. Nowadays, even a child emerging from the womb is discovered to be diseased. From the moment of embryo formation, it nurtures disease. Thanks
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