The power to face is a spiritual power. This power connects to the spiritual heart of the soul. When the soul uses this power to face, what is released is courage, clarity, confidence and the capacity of the spiritual heart. The power to face springs from the ability to be in solitude and introverted. In other words, when we use the power to face, we look inwards to see what is going on inside, activating the third eye, the eye of the soul, to look at the self.
What is happening when I look within, to face my fears, is that I am looking beyond the layers of illusion to the authenticity within me. Those illusions are what become manifest in my personality traits, or ‘sanskars’. These characteristics, ‘sanskars’ are covering up the underlying cause of the fear. I need to connect to the courage that is there within my spiritual heart. I am the only one who can do this. The only one who can look at the fear and understand it. When I do so, I am building an inner capacity, an inner strength.
However, I must be able to recognise the consciousness that I am in, and the awareness that emerges from that consciousness. When I am in the consciousness of being a soul, the awareness is very different than being in the consciousness of being a body. When I am in the consciousness of being a spiritual being, a soul, then I can connect to the spiritual heart, which is often referred to as the genius of the soul, and I find so much beauty and power. The heart loves silence and solitude. If I sit quietly and peacefully, come into the consciousness of being a soul, a being of light, I can hear the whispers of the heart. Then I can let the feelings of internal love touch the core of my being, and therein find the courage to deal with my fears.
Fear is based on illusion. Fear is a disease of this spiritual heart, and it is curable. Originally, the heart is filled with love and light and liberty, which is freedom. As each one moves along through life, sometimes there are experiences that are beyond our understanding, beyond our ability to cope. For example, people that I depended on, people I admired, may have done something to break the trust I had in them. That then lays down the fear of ever trusting again. Or, perhaps I experienced a natural calamity, and in the aftermath of that, the situations I had to bear left me with a fear of poverty. These kinds of fear, that are borne during times of extreme anguish, leave the heart with an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
When I practise meditation, and look deeply into the spiritual heart, I am able to transform the feelings connected to the cause of fear and thereby transform the thoughts connected to that fear. Just changing my thinking alone may appear to have changed the way I respond to the fear, but if I have not worked on the ‘heart of the matter’ then the feelings will emerge again. If I am able to transform the feeling, then I become free of the fear.
Now is the time to face our fears and transform them into a powerful energy, full of love, to create the world of love and peace we want to live in.
Gayatri Naraine represents the Brahma Kumaris at the United Nations in New York.