​How can we avoid becoming fearful about future possibilities?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So when we start feeling fearful about some subjects, how do we deal with it? See we need to distinguish between possibilities and probabilities.
Possibility means actually anything is possible. Right now I am sitting and the roof can fall. So that is possible.
But if we start worrying about possibilities, we will become paralyzed. We will not be able to do anything. We have to look at probability.
What is likely to happen? See if I am going on a road, accident can happen to anyone. But it’s not that accidents happen all the time. They are relatively infrequent.
But if say, my car’s brake is not working, then the accident is not just possible, it has become probable. So when something is a probability, I take practical steps for dealing with it. But if something is a possibility, we often put ourselves into unnecessary anxiety.
Not just it’s unnecessary, it’s unproductive. If there is a practical danger about which I can do something to deal with, then I can do it. But otherwise, simply worrying doesn’t help.
So that’s the first thing. Whenever we start feeling worried about something, we can think, okay, how likely is this to happen? At one level we can say anything can happen. But life also has a particular order and certain things are not very likely to happen.
So if we look back at our own mind’s patterns, we will find that almost 90% of the things that we worry about, they don’t happen. Most of the things that we worry about, they don’t actually take place. Sometimes problems come in some other ways.
But most of the things that we worry about, they don’t really happen. That’s why, rather than worrying, serving any constructive or protective, preventive purpose, worrying simply dissipates our energy. So first is at least to intellectually understand.
Now, it is not that we can avoid worry entirely. But it is that we can avoid unnecessary worry about things by looking at what is realistic, what is probable or what is simply possible. I am very sorry to interfere, but let’s assume there is some probability.
There is some probability of certain things. How do you cope with that situation? How do you have completely faith in Krishna and whatever He wants? See, faith in Krishna doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t prepare ourselves. There is one aspect of faith in Krishna, is also knowing that Krishna has given us the intelligence to deal with the problems.
So, we do what we can to deal with the problem. That is the way we express our desire to Krishna also for a solution to the problem. That is because we also have been given free will, so we choose to use our free will properly.
So, rather than expecting or demanding complete faith in Krishna, faith is something which grows naturally. Slowly it grows. Just like a baby is not going to become a teenager in one day.
So, our faith is also not going to grow overnight. So, at a very practical level, faith simply we can say it means taking one step forward when the whole path is not lit. I have a torch light, with that I can see one step ahead of me.
Now take one step forward. And then torch light also moves ahead. I can see one more step forward.
So, like that, to expect that I will have complete faith in Krishna, I would say at this stage it is unrealistic expectation. What we can do is, okay, I don’t know what is going to happen in the future, but let me take one step forward. Can I do this one thing? Yes, I can.
Can I do one more thing? I can. I can do one more thing. And that way, the tendency of the mind is to look either too much in the future or too much in the past.
If we can focus on now, the present and the immediate future. There are always things which we can do in the present to prepare for the immediate future. For the remote future we can’t prepare much.
Something we can prepare but not much. So, if you could analyze, what are the things that you become anxious about? So, first is, I think, I will separate between possibilities and probabilities. Second is that we try to figure out, it is not that the mind becomes anxious about new, new things every day.
There are sometimes new anxieties, but overall there are certain major anxieties which keep recurring. So, then we can write down those anxieties. As long as thoughts are in the mind, just keep going round and round, they congest the mind.
Just get the thought out and then write, after you have written it down, the mind becomes a little unburdened. Because the thought is now going round and round. Then after that, once you calm down a little bit, look at what all you can do to deal with it.
And then write it down. I am doing this, I am planning to do this, I have already done this. And then, at the bottom of it, write down a prayer to Krishna.
Krishna, I am trying to deal with this in this way. Please give me the intelligence to do whatever is the best. Please give me the strength to serve you.
And then you can keep this in a small sheet with you. Or you can keep a small page or note in your phone or whatever. And then whenever the mind starts troubling with the worry, just refer back to it.
See, ultimately, bhakti is transcendental. But in the sadhana stage, sadhaka stage, often we connect with Krishna not so much through kriti. Kriti means affection.
But we connect with Krishna primarily through buddhi, through intelligence. That’s why if we have some intellectual framework for guiding our thoughts towards Krishna. The scripture is already there.
But when we read scripture, we may not find immediately something in scripture that is directly relevant to us. So, we can customize the scriptural teachings for our purposes to address our specific mental anxieties. And then you read it regularly.
Whenever the mind starts getting agitated, read it. You find yourself calming down. Maybe at the end of the day, you have written a prayer.
That prayer you can offer to Krishna. And that will help you to calm down. And by this, slowly the faith will increase.
And Krishna also knows our capacity. If you are a mother, you know, you are not able to expect your child to do something unrealistic. Child is a small child, they can do this much study, they need to play, they need to do so many things like that.
Krishna also doesn’t expect at our stage full faith in Him. So, even if we have sometimes doubts, sometimes fears, we deal with them and come back to Krishna. If you do that gradually, the krame krame, step by step, the faith will increase.
And then the inner stability and security will become much more. Did I answer your question? Thank you.