The murderous acts towards innocent civilians in Mumbai have affected the whole world in many ways. The most common effect is the promotion of fear. Fear is an all-pervading component of human society. Actually all living entities are more or less controlled by fear. Animals in particular are constantly in a state of fear and rightfully so. At any moment the entity will become killed and eaten by a more powerful living entity. If you ever watch documentaries on the lives of animals (tigers, fish, birds, etc,) you will notice that there are four common elements of focus in these clips. It is described in the Vedic literatures and obvious through observation that the extent of animals' intelligence is limited to fulfilling the four basic animal propensities. These propensities are eating, sleeping, mating and defending. The intelligence of living entities is present in humans and animals in different degrees in order to direct their bodily sustaining activities. The human’s intelligence, however, has a unique property. The human’s intelligence is capable of existential questioning. In other words the human is capable of asking “Who am I, where did I come from and what is my relation with the rest of the world?” Most importantly humans have the ability to practice a lifestyle so that the answers to these questions are fully realized. One of the natural byproducts of this realization is fearlessness.
Scientists are amazed when newborn animals know what to do to insure safety or gather food. When sea turtles are born on the beach they immediately know that they must crawl back to the sea for safety. Two months or so after a kangaroo is conceived it must crawl from the bottom section of the mother to the safety of their mothers pouch half a meter up. In that pouch the young kangaroo stays in that pouch for many more months without leaving. How does this young entity know how to do this? How does the mother know that this must be done? The mothers and fathers of various species know how to make nests, procure food and defend itself from predators. How do the animals know how to do this? Where is that intelligence coming from?
We can consider the explanation of intelligence as given in the vedic literatures and self-realized sages. Intelligence is defined as "the power to analyze things in their proper perspective." Based on the conclusion of the intelligence the mind initiates the senses and body into action. According to Vedic philosophy, intelligence is ultimately guided by the paramatma. In Sanskrit the word for an individual soul is atma and para means above or supreme. The paramatma is thus the Lord's personal expansion within the heart of every living entity. The paramatma accompanies every atma (individual soul) in its journey through different species of life. According to our desires and karmic qualification the Lord directs our intelligence so that we may attempt to fulfill those desires. As stated earlier the intelligence given to the animals is limited to fulfilling the four bodily (eating. sleeping, mating, and defending.) We can observe that those belonging to the human species have also used their intelligence to fulfill these four propensities. Since the intelligence provided to the human is remarkably more advanced than the intelligence offered to other species, the bodily needs are satisfied in a far more sophisticated manner. The atomic bomb (defending) and skyscraper buildings (sleeping, defending) are prime examples of this. Relatively noble advancements such as advanced medical care and mass communication are other examples of sophisticated application of human intelligence.
Despite the advances in medical knowledge and technology there remains no solution to the basic problems of old age and death. There are also countless diseases that have not been conquered by medical application. On occasion when an antidote to a particular disease is discovered, a new and perhaps more deadly disease will likely take its place. The expectation of old age, disease and especially death are the root causes of human anxiety and fear. Anxiety is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “ painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind usually over an impending or anticipated ill.” Fear is similarly defined as “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.” Disease and old age are the precursor to death. However, if we become diseased there is always the hope that we may return to a healthy state. Old age is a sobering stage as we are aware that death is just around the corner. Nonetheless in old age we are still in our bodies and may have developed valuable wisdom from life’s previous experiences. Death, however, is the point where our relationship with everything that we have accumulated and everyone that we have known in this life is permanently terminated. Your close friends and family will grieve because there is zero chance of being reunited in this world. The person undergoing the exit from his body is horrified by the unknown nature of his future existence after death. The dying living entity is forcefully taken out of his body and placed in a new situation. The ignorance of the passage of the atma after death increases this fear.
Throughout the Bhagavad Gita there are descriptions of the self realized person and his inherent qualities. One of those qualities is abhaya or fearlessness. How does the self realized person view those things which prompt fear and anxiety in most living entities? How does the intelligence and realization of the self realized soul understand his situation such that he is genuinely fearless? As opposed to increasing the sophistication of satisfying our bodily needs, the proper use of human intelligence is to arrive at the realization of ourselves as the eternal atma and to reestablish our relationship with the paramatma. This indeed the primary function of the intelligence and the only path to genuine fearlessness.
to be continued...
Also below are some links that contain a lecture given by Radhanatha Swami in Mumbai. The events hotel attacks) took place just a few minutes walk from the mandir. I would suggest that you listen to this class. OK?
The first link leads to the lectures given in November. The lecture that I am refering to is the last one on the list on this page (you can download from there). The second link is a link is the page where you can listen to the lecture by the streaming method.
Nov 2008 Lectures
