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REACTIONS OF FEAR
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An employer poscd a qucstion: How much two and two make? One of the candidates answered, "Four." Another said, "Twentytwo." Still another said, "Sometimes lour and sometimes twentytwo." The third man was selccted for the post. It was a simple question which clicited three different answers. Two of the answers were absolute, arising from an inflexible, monistic point of view, while the third signified a pluralistic, many-sided approach. The latter answer was practical, complete, not partial.
The arithmctic of life is in fact very simple, but it has been complicated beyond measurc. Here is a verse from onc of my poems:
The book of life is simple and easy to read; The translation thereof is ever complicated.
So complicated indeed as to become unintclligible. Many a time it so happens that the original book is very lucid, but the person who translates it into another language, makes it so complicated as to render it difficult to understand. The very purpose of translating a book is to make it accessible to more people, but is the translation is intricate, that purpose is defeated. One needs still another exposition to make the second one intelligible, ad infinitum.
Take, for instance, the word "Indra". One translator rendered it as "Shataritu" which is a synonym of Indra. Had he used the original word, all, whether learned or not, would have understood it without any difficulty. But only the learned could make out "Shataritu" - a bookish word not accessible to all. This complication of an originally lucid text is a great fault in translation.
Man's life, too, is very simple. So are his necessities. But the analysis thercof is often so complex as to render it quite unintelligible. A man stands stalled at every step; he can make neither head nor tail of it. For example, take the maxim, "Don't be afraid!", or "Never fear anything!" Completc absence of fcar mitigates disease, keeps old age and death at bay. It is a very simple proposition. But man cannot understand it. He fears disease, old age and death. The more he is afraid, the sooner do they assail him. How does it come about? Poor man is not to be blamed! It is beyond him-something hidden in the depths of his being manifests itself.
The internal secretions and the fluids released by the Karma sharir greatly influence a man's attitude, thoughts and actions. His basic temperament and emotions are controlled thereby. A man so affected is not capable of understanding the truth, the simple arithmetic of life. No one who is influenced by another can perceive reality as it is. Total freedom from all kinds of conditioning is an essential pre-requisite for the discovery of truth. A man, acting from direct perception of reality, encounters few difficulties, but even God
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