Scared of Life ?

Hindu Gods are simply great intelligent beings. Through their form and dressing they convey something to human beings. All ancient temples had this beauty and one thing common amongst them -- Linking the external world to the internal. In any Siva temple, the Nandi (which represents the ego) is the biggest when it is far outside the temple and away from the God, its size reduces when we find another Nandi closer to the God inside the temple, and it size is the smallest when in front of God. This actually is symbolic of how the ego naturally reduces as an individual approaches God internal to him in his own life as he evolves towards Self realization.

I have seen many of my friends, relatives, even parents mostly spend time in the fears of future, avoiding certain people, favoring certain experiences to another, worried about their seemingly not-so-perfect past. They believe in God and the Gods more out of fear of the Gods (which they attribute the difficult experiences of their life to) than out of Love. In reality what they are really fearing is their own subconscious mind and the experiences repressed in it !

A devotee who firmly believes in the law of karma knows that the Gods do nothing bad, they are more evolved intelligent souls who are waiting for humanity to catch up and tune into their vast intelligence and wisdom. A true devotee doesn't blame anyone for what happens to him as he knows that whatever happens to him is a result of his own making. Equipped with this wisdom, he bravely faces those challenges and meets them head-on rather than avoiding it.

Lord Siva's form signifies this subtle secret, about how a human should live his life --- facing challenges head-on. A poisonous snake is symbolic of the difficulties and challenging experiences in life which generally people like to avoid/escape. By picking the poisonous snake with His hands and making it His ornamental necklace -- Lord Siva symbolically displays how to truly live life king size by not being afraid of the subconscious ! Then came a ferocious tiger to pounce upon Him (another symbol of a greater difficulty) -- Lord Siva rips the tiger apart and makes the tiger skin His costume with a smile of confidence. (This story is described in one of the scriptures).

The below teaching from my beloved guru who is a form of Lord Siva Himself, is something which i am applying in my life every minute and have also trained my mom to do the same. Undoubtedly she has ceased being depressed/fearful over the past week !

Do not be afraid of the subconscious. It is useless to be afraid of the past. If memories come up from the subconscious as if they happened yesterday, and you begin reacting emotionally and even physically all over again, say to yourself, "Welcome, welcome, welcome, memory from the past. My goodness, you're shaking my emotional body. I remember going through these emotional states years ago, and here we are reliving this film over again. But now I am on the spiritual path to enlightenment. I am the Self. One day I'm going to realize it fully. I only live in this physical body. I use these emotions, but I won't be used by them. They are my tools. So here you are, my memory pattern, trying to make me feel like I did five years ago before I reprogrammed my subconscious and awakened spiritually. Oh, memory from the past, you have tested me well. Thank you." Then, like a good secretary, write down on a piece of paper everything you can remember about these experiences that have come before your vision, and burn the paper when you have finished. Write down the entire experience that you are reacting to emotionally.

This paper-burning serves three purposes. First, it is symbolic to the subconscious that you are not going to react anymore to that particular problem. You have, through the act of writing it down, taken it out of the subconscious. Second, burning the paper means that no one else will read it, which might cause other problems. It also means that through the act of burning subconscious memories, you have released them forever.

When you begin to meditate, you become keen and perceptive enough to begin to see within yourself. Occasionally, you will see into the subconscious area and begin emotionally to relive the past. This means that many of the predominantly strong memory and reactionary patterns of the past loom up before you, one after another, and you may begin to react to them all over again, emotionally and even physically. These are not real experiences. It is only a layer of the subconscious exposing itself to your inner vision, indicating that reprogramming is needed. Handle each layer dynamically. Welcome the thoughts and accompanying feelings in a hospitable way. Do not fear them or regret them, and certainly do not criticize yourself for having them. Simply remove them from the subconscious by writing them down and burning the paper. The reaction will subside, but the memory will linger as an education upon which you can formulate decisions for the future, thus avoiding the same problem.