Acharya Mahaprajna
Every man today is afraid. Even the greatest businessman is not free from fear. Nor is the teacher. He may not talk of his fear before others. Nevertheless, deep inside he is forever afraid as to when and how a student might haul him up and give him a beating. Or he fears that false allegations might be brought up against him by the Minister or other officials in the Department of Education and that he might be dismissed.
Fear pervades everywhere, because everywhere we find negligence, forgetfulness and untruth. Wisdom is asleep. Only the intellect is awake. But mere intellect cannot dissolve fear: The population is increasing. A day might dawn when man will not be able to procure any corn for eating. If the population goes on increasing at the present pace, the day is not far when man will not be able to find room enough for walking. Neither a house nor food will be available to him. The scientists are scared of all these problems. The common man has no such fear because he knows little about his situation and does not think about it. The scientist knows and he calculates the consequences.
After a hundred years, the present-day reserves of coal and petrol will stand consumed. All sources of energy will be exhausted. What would be the state of the world then? The scientists are concerned about it, not others. Others cannot even imagine such a condition. The sharper the intellect, the greater is the fear. It is not the office of the intellect to wipe out fear; rather it tends to produce new fears. Fearlessness comes with wisdom. When wisdom is awakened, man sees things as they are. Seeing things as they are implies living in the present to accept what is. To accept an event as it is, is not necessary to yoke fear with it. The capacity for such realism comes with wisdom. Inner awakening and transcendence of the outer - that is what being realistic means.
