Fear of death - an update

I have had a chance to speak with numerous folks about the events of 26/11 in Mumbai. There were numerous innuendos of conspiracies and how they could have been more than 10 terrorists that landed on the coast. One said maybe as many as 100 and how this was all political and timed to be right before elections in India. I heard two comments that made my heart stop:

One was from Najeeb. One of his private students was in the Oberoi hotel with a group that was gunned down on the 18th floor. He survived by staying still and pretending dead and apparently his Iyengar yoga experience helped. He took a bullet in the leg and one grazed his leg. He spent 16 hours in a vent along with two others drinking water dripping from an AC unit. They were eventually rescued by the commandos. It was a remarkable story of being fearless and calm in a very difficult and stressful situation.

The second came from one of my managers. He said "when you have no fear of dying" you can be extremely destructive. The terrorists in Mumbai had no fear of dying, so even a small group of 10 was able to achieve such destruction. How empowered that feeling became. These guys had no fear of death. Wow, that was a chilling realization! The sutras teach us to not have that fear, and if you can achieve it, you have achieved a level of courage that can be very constructive, but I never thought about the destructive forces that such lack of fear creates, especially of dying. I realized I had encountered situations myself where the lack of fear simply made someone so empowered and as a result extremely destructive. There is always a dark side to the bright side. I fear the dark :)

This is a great question for the Sutra experts? Is eliminating fear always the best?

Namaste

The Yogi

FEAR = FALSE EVIDENCE APPEARING REAL.

A very wise person told me last night "Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real".... It made it all real for me about the current state of affairs inside and outside my life. We are being gripped by fear - not necessary and uncalled for fear. What are we really afraid of? Our own shadows? Our own insecurities?

So as I take off for Mumbai (and then immediately to Pune), I say goodbye to my fears, I have to ... that is the only way to move forward. I arrive on the 10th, Guruji's 90th birthday and hope to attend a few functions while being at work. It will be intense and I expect little sleep. I hope to practice yoga with one of my teachers privately. I will be thinking of my munchkins. I am not taking any books, no reading, just long shavasanas on the flights.

Watch for posts, pictures and possibly videos from my trip.

Namaste

The Yogi