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CREATIVE FEAR
The sense of shame and qualms of conscience are forms of constructive fear. Man fears disease and death, and it is a very old mentality. We are not afraid of indulging our own inclinations to the full; but we fear the consequences. It is absurd to be so afraid. What is to be feared and avoided is the mental inclination, not its result. For aeons it has been man's enduring weakness to spurn the consequences and not his mental inclination, to fear the effect and not the cause! But without cause there can be no effect. So one must beware of the cause.
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We fear the discase, but not the causes which bring it. If we could fear the causes, that fear would be constructive. One aspect of fear is creative. Excessive cating, for example, brings forth disease. So I shall be afraid of eating too much. Bad, unwholesome food brings disease, so I shall always avoid unwholesome food. Strong emotions cause disturbance and bring disease; if I indulge in anger, I would be inviting heart-trouble; my blood-pressure is bound to go up. The whole system is poisoned. Therefore, I shall be afraid of giving way to anger. If we fear the causes which bring disease, that fear is constructive. But when we fall a victim to disease and fear the disease and moan, "What will happen to me now? O God! Why should I be so afflicted?", such fear is not constructive; it only serves to aggravate the disease, brings more trouble. So let our fear be creative and constructive. We fear death but not the causes which bring death. The prospect of death fills us with dismay. But do we realise that indulgence in like and dislike is the chief cause of early, inopportune death? He who is caught in approbation and condemnation, in love and hate, dies carly. Overeating, immoderate sleep, extreme laziness, yielding to strong passions, pride, anger, envy, hatred are all productive of premature death. These we ignore, these we do not fear, but we fear death. Fear becomes constructive when we are apprehensive of all tendencies which bring untimely death. If we keep alert and are fully alive to their danger, then alone has fear a constructive role to play.
Man fears disgrace. He is very jealous of his reputation, of what people think of him. But he does not fear the causes which bring him into disrepute. This is most strange. Our conduct and behaviour is such that it invites infamy. But we only fear dishonour; dishonourable conduct we condone. We say, "Do what we will, we must not be humiliated under any circumstances!" Such fear is futile. If we avoid the causes which bring disgrace, our fear is creative.
In order to make our fear creative and constructive, we must be able to draw a fine distinction between the fear of fear (i.e., our anxiety to get rid of fear) and the fear of the causes which produce
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