Don’t be God-fearing. Be God-loving. That
too, love the God, within you. Heed your inner voice. And do only what gives
you joy.
My friend bought me a drink the other
day. In fact, he bought me a few! But he did not drink. I knew he had had a
problem with alcohol some years back. He had struggled to quit it for several
years. In vain. Until, as he told me, “Sai Baba appeared in my dream and
ordered me to quit.” So, he has been off alcohol all these years. I asked him
if he was enjoying abstinence. He confessed that he hated it. But he said he
was “scared of Baba’s wrath” if he violated the “order” and so he motivated
himself each time to stay away. Which is why, he claimed, he often entertained
friends so that he could have the “joy of being in a bar”. I told him, at the
cost of sounding rude, that he may have got off alcohol, but he was still “alcoholic
in attitude”. I said, “Don’t do anything out of fear. Baba may have given you
the right direction – because you indeed had a drinking problem. But there’s no
point fearing him. By doing that, you are only suppressing your desire out of
fear that you will be otherwise reprimanded. Act freely. Drink responsibly,
drink with awareness, and you will never overdrink. By abstaining, and craving,
you are only creating a context for you to slip back, one day, when your
resolve will break, let’s say when you are angry with yourself or the world or
even with Baba, your suppressed desire will explode and you will hit the bottle
again!”
My friend politely refused to take my
advice. And I appreciate it. To each one their own.
I strongly believe that the human mind
tries to trick itself by bringing the fear factor into play in most situations
where individual actions require justification in a social context. The mind
revels being gripped by fear – of someone or something. Fear of God,
especially, is a convenient way to justify decisions relating to personal
choice. In fact the whole issue of morality is debatable and is governed by
this kind of fear. For instance, many believe that to have an extra-marital
affair is a “sin” that “God will never forgive”. Some see eating non-vegetarian
as sinful. Others think that drinking alcohol will tantamount to being disrespectful
to their religion. And some think of women in their menstrual cycle going into
the kitchen or prayer room as sacrilegious. My humble view is that morality is
like body odor. It’s intensely personal. And if it is not dealt with properly, honestly,
by the individual concerned, it stinks. Period. I don’t see any role for (an
external) God to play in any of our human choices – especially those that are driven
by our very human, sensory cravings! Therefore, if we drop this fear of an
external God that’s in us, we will be free.
The only person you are answerable to
is the one you see in the mirror. The only voice you must heed is the one you
hear from within. When you operate from the core of loving whatever you do – be
it drinking, be it eating meat, be it having an active sex Life with multiple
partners, be it choosing to pray to a Higher Energy the way you want to and
when you want to – you will experience a great inner peace. Because in doing
all of that, and more, you are going with the flow of energy from within you, from
your individual Godhead. It is only when you run scared that you run
confused. Where there’s confusion, how can peace prevail?
Just don't know what to say Avis sir, the post has had me thinking from morning. It once again proves how much I fear'fear'. Don't know at all what this is all going to lead to; seriously in a sense of deep confusion and am wondering about my day-to-day actions.
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