By: Mark Fleming
Source: The Daily Guardian https://epaper.thedailyguardian.com/2025/10/31/delhi-01-november-2025/
Dated: November 1st, 2025

Fear is often described as the seventh vice – after lust, anger, greed, attachment, ego, and laziness. The reason is that fear is an overwhelming emotional response to situations and people that paralyses us from making powerful decisions, and reduces the quality of life. It robs us of our ability to be the best we can be. It can often be controlled on the surface, but the underlying force, which shapes our behaviour, is very difficult to control.

There is an ancient saying: “An intellect that has fear or doubt is led to destruction, and an intellect that has love and faith is led to victory.” It means that fear and doubt affect our ability to decide and discern the correct way to live. Fear means I lose out, I panic and become confused. I come under the effect of negative emotions and my self-respect diminishes; I lose happiness and peace of mind. Whereas, love and faith give strength and my thinking is one single line of congruence, leading to victory within. The scenes and people involved pass by, and I am left with an inner state of stability. 

The journey of spirituality teaches us to constantly give importance to what is going on inside – in stark contrast to what the world generally recommends, which is to pay close attention to what is going on outside. People say: “I believe it when I see it.” Those with a spiritual perspective say: “I believe it, so I will see it.” This understanding frees us from so many limitations and enables us to transform our lives. Fear of anything, be it fear of being wrong, being alone, being with people, being in the spotlight, being ignored, looking like a fool, or of failure, is in the main, based on the fear of loss.

Fear is usually due to an attachment that I have that is being challenged. Yet, we are continuously in a state of change. We are moving along parallel with time. Our perception of the self and others, of situations and scenes from the past or the imagined future, are all being seen and experienced from whatever current state of consciousness we are in. Because our consciousness can change quickly, sometimes in a second, it means instantaneously, our perceptions of the past and future can suddenly change. This is an indication that the things I fear are controllable and I can release myself from any fear by going on the internal journey; doing the inner work.

We are all spiritual beings, human beings, souls occupying a physical form. The soul is originally pure in nature and is full of peace. The journey of life, indeed lives, is to regain and experience the true inner qualities of the soul – peace, love, joy, wisdom, and purity. When we cannot truly experience this, then we turn to substitutes. It becomes important then to retain our attachment to those substitutes, in fact we cannot help but do that. To free ourselves from these attachments, those things and people we fear losing, we must go to the centre of our truth. This is in direct contradiction to what happens in the physical dimension. If there is something we do not want in the physical world, we pick it up and throw it away. In the spiritual dimension we must not touch that which we do not want. If we do not want to live in fear, then do not touch that which triggers the fear. Do not touch the feelings that trigger the fear. We need understanding of the trigger, but we must not enter into the feeling, otherwise we are just reinforcing the fear. We need to keep returning to the centre – reminding the self that I am a peaceful, love-full, powerful being. Sit in the cave of this inner awareness and yet continue to live a full life, with all its duties and requirements, in a state of peace and joy.

We have a tendency to give importance to people, things, and events, that is we raise the value of them in our minds in relation to ourselves. As soon as we do that, we open ourselves to worry, stress, and fear. We must take everyone and everything off any kind of pedestal we may have placed them on. The more we go into the depth of this understanding, the more fears automatically disappear. I realise just how much authority I have – to choose my own thoughts, full of power, and free from fear.

Mark Fleming teaches Rajyoga meditation 
at the Brahma Kumaris Global Retreat Centre, Oxfordshire, UK.