"The conquering of fear is the beginning of wisdom." 
' J. M. Cousteau

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

"Never fear shadows,
it simply means that there is light shining
somewhere nearby"

Fear is a funny thing the more you think of it, the more you feel it. You can get afraid, shit sacred of life and the 'unknown' around and within and around you for absolutely no reason. Life is like that. How does one overcome fear? Think, and you'll know that one cannot overcome fear totally. Accept the fact, simply because it is a defense mechanism bestowed upon every living being by the Creator. But we overdo the thing. We relate fear to everything that we feel is repulsive, or unknown, or things we are not good at doing or are uncomfortable with. A lot can be done to overcome such fears, while keeping the defense mechanism intact.

Here is beautiful true story which enunciates how blind fear can be. This incident happened at least 50 years ago, in a small village along the Mangalore coast in India.

Amba, a frail woman of 60, grandmother to at least 10 teenaged children and a mother of eight grown up ones ' she was the master of her household. Her day began at four in the morning, a bath, followed by puja, supervising the milking of at least 15 cows and buffalos and so on. She loved every one of them all men, women, children and animals in her life. One night she was worried about little calf which was delivered about ten days ago and it had wandered off into the meadows to graze and never came back with rest of the herd. She could not finish her dinner, that night, her mind kept wandering to the lost calf and the sorrowful cow in her back yard. What maternal instinct! She stepped out in the moonless night, far away into the jungle. She could see nothing. She carried a stick with her for support and a rope to tie the calf when she would find it. Leaning over the stick, the old woman waddled her way up the mountains where the cows went to graze. She thought she saw an animal. Its touch was soft and smooth, she held the noose around its leg and tied it to the tree nearby and was happy that she found the calf. She returned in the middle of the night, it was past 1 am and slept peacefully.

Next morning her youngest son was shocked to see what his mother had done. She had unknowingly tied a tiger cub to the tree! What guts! The frail Amba had tied a nearly eight month old tiger cub to the post! In the morning she was shocked but more concerned about the lost calf. That's life and that's love. Unconditional love, which came naturally to the old village woman.

When love blinds the vision, mind is free from fear. It is in such moments of innocent fearlessness that man can exceed his powers and reach out to the impossible and achieve it. Love and negative fear can never co-exist in the mind. A fearful mind cannot love and is shut out from all positive things in life. Therefore it is important to learn the knack of being fearless. Free of undue worries and free from fear. Have full faith in the omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient power that pervades all creation. IT IS. Believe it and you will rid your mind of fear, doubt, disappointment, and all negation that results of it.

Some tricks to overcome fear. Fear of material things, like wild animals, insects, darkness, heights, etc can be overcome by first 'mentally' doing those things and then facing them in reality. Strong will power and sheer determination will help you in doing this; whereas, subtler fears; fear of the unknown, fear of loneliness, etc can be overcome by strong faith in God. Faith can move mountains and it can move away your fears too. Courage comes from strong faith. Therefore take courage!