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TOTAL FREEDOM FROM FEAR
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and from acquisitiveness. These are the three great causes intimately connected with our character. Every man knows what fear acquisitiveness creates. A man leaves for the bazar, but midway to it he remembers that he had forgotten to lock his room. Immediately he turns back in fear lest some thief should get in. Why this fear? Because he is so attached to things which he has accumulated that he cannot look upon with equanimity the prospect of being deprived of these. There are many people who do not even make use of their accumulation. At the time of making yearly accounts on the occasion of Diwali, or Ramnaumi, they calculate what profits they have and how much their wealth has increased, and the very thought of it gives them such deep satisfaction as nothing else in the world can. The mere realisation that "I have so much!" is highly gratifying. Apart from that, their vast accumulation has no meaning whatsoever; it has no utility; it is never consumed. But the very fact of possession makes them so happy that it becomes for them the summum bonum of life. And yet this very realisation that "I have so much" can create such fear that the man knows no rest all day and night. He is afraid of being cheated by his manager, his partner, his servant, his workers, his brother and his father. He is for ever tormented by fear. A man finds great psychological satisfaction in possession, but this is for ever accompanied by fear that he may in some way be cheated of his possessions. Gratification is momentary, but fear is constant. Accumulation is the greatest cause of fear.
Untruth, too, is a great cause of fear. Thoughtlessly one tells a lie but afterwards one is constantly possessed by fear of being exposed.
Violence too is born of fear. As long as a man is possessed by violence, untruth and acquisitiveness, non-fear cannot come to him. Destructive desperation, yes, but no constructive non-fear. A man may grow so reckless, that he is not afraid of anything, and in such a state he is liable to commit great atrocities. Such a man will never experience true non-fear which is always constructive.
I happened to talk to Baba Nagpal. I found that the dominant note in his worship of divine power is that of character development. The Baba says, “I have no charm or amulet to give; I don't believe in conjuring. I only say to the people, 'Look to your character; pure food and pure conduct; without these there can be no salvation'." It is a great utterance.
Anandghanji, the celebrated Jain master from Gujarat, was a great yogi. He had acquired a great many siddhis (supernatural powers). Wherever he went, people flocked to him in great numbers - the rulers and the ruled, the high and the low. It was said that the saint could fulfil every kind of wish. So there was always a crowd beside him. He could not have a moment to himself. It became a
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