How are terrorists so fearless?

If fearing or defending is one of the four activities common to humans and animals, then how are terrorists who are ready to lay down their lives so totally fearless?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And… If fearing or defending is one of the four activities common to humans and animals, then how are terrorists, who are ready to lay down their lives as suicide bombers, so totally fearless? Answer… Terrorists may be fearless at a physical level, but they are extremely fearful at a mental, intellectual level.
And that fearfulness is manifested by their extreme intolerance to any form of criticism of their belief systems. That’s why the religion that produces suicide bombers in the maximum quantity is historically and contemporaneously known to be infamous for its intolerance to any form of criticism. Because ultimately the fearing is inherent to material existence.
And if the fearing is not expressed at the physical level then it will have to be expressed at some other level. So in the case of terrorists, they have been brainwashed by a particular misinterpretation of a revealed book, by which they come to believe that if they lay down their lives for blowing up thousands or hundreds of innocent people, who they think are against God, then by such brazen acts of terrorism, which also takes their lives, they think that by laying down their lives, they will go to paradise and they will enjoy forever over there, with so many angelic girls and a lot of wine and delicious foods and things like that. So, these people, because they have developed blind faith in these belief systems, are utterly convinced that if I lay down my life then I am sure to go to paradise.
And because of this belief system they become fearless. But actually, that fearing propensity, it may be removed from the physical level, but now it has been directed entirely to the intellectual level. And that’s why those who have this belief system, if their religious teacher is criticized, their holy book is burnt or damaged, then these people become so intolerant and they are ready to slit their throats and kill those people who dare to criticize their religious system, religious beliefs.
This is how actually speaking, their fearing is expressed. They are fearful of any rational examination of their belief system. Because they subconsciously are very insecure that if their belief system does not withstand rational scrutiny, then their belief system will come crumbling down due to the challenges posed to it by rationality.
And when it comes crumbling down, along with that their whole conception of the purpose of life, the morality to be adopted in living one’s life will also come crumbling down with that. And they are more afraid of that than death. That is why they are ready to kill anyone if that person so much as starts criticizing their belief systems.
So here it is important to understand that it is not necessary that just belief in a next life will necessarily have positive or beneficial results. The difference between the Vedic understanding and the understanding of such terrorists about the next life is radically different. These terrorists have an understanding of paradise also in materialistic terms.
They also think that in paradise they will have so many virgin girls to enjoy with. So their whole idea is so body centered their conception of the self is extremely materialistic. And because the conception of the self is materialistic, they may to some extent have strict moral principles where they expect women to dress in particular ways and they are ready to kill women if they are suspected of adultery.
So they are very strong and strict about restricting this worldly materialism but they are utterly sold out to other worldly materialism. That means I give up the material enjoyments of this world so that I can enjoy in a far greater way in the next world but both at a material level. So actually their religion is not transforming them from being materialist to becoming spiritualist.
They are still as materialistic as everyone else except that their materialism may have kept it suspended temporarily so that they can regain it later with far greater interests. So the essence of religious practice is to change a person from being materialistic to becoming spiritualistic. To change a person from being lover of matter to lover of God.
If that doesn’t happen then the belief system is just materialism masquerading as religion. It is at best religious materialism or it is materialistic religion depending on what is the emphasis. But either way it will not lead to any tangible raising of consciousness of people from say ignorance of passion to goodness.
And at times because the belief system has been monopolized and perverted by materialistic leaders be they politicians or be they intellectuals then it can become a tool in the hands of self-interested people to mislead and exploit gullible people who have blind faith in these belief systems. So therefore, their fearing is expressed through their insecurity about their own belief systems. Thank you.