Courage With Awareness – In Gita Verse 6.34 The mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Kṛṣṇa, and to subdue it, I think, is more difficult than controlling the wind.
A warrior like Arjuna says that to subdue the mind is more difficult than controlling the wind. He has fought many wars and not only fought but won also, and when he says this it’s a wake up call for everyone of us. We need to understand one thing that to go inward it needs courage. To fight even the world war we need strategy but when it comes to subdue our mind we need courage and awareness. It’s not a question of any strategy or strength but courage with awareness.
If there is no awareness, mere courage can be dangerous, because instead of becoming self-confidence it can become an insane ego. Courage is power, but awareness is the eye. One can walk with courage but only with awareness can one see where one is going.
You may have heard the story of a blind man and a lame man. There was a fire in a jungle, and the blind man and the lame man had to save their lives. The blind man could run but could not see. In a jungle that has caught fire, it is as good as inviting death if one who has no eyes begins to run. The lame man could see but could not run. What is the value of eyes that have no legs? Then they thought of a way out and saved their lives. What was the method? Very simple. The blind man carried the lame man on his shoulders.
This story is not of a blind man and a lame man, it is a story of courage and awareness. If one has to save his life in a jungle of ignorance that is on fire, it is necessary to make awareness sit on the shoulders of courage.
In the beginning there is no big difference between a coward and a courageous person. Both have fear. The difference is, the coward listens to his fears and follows them. The courageous person puts them aside and goes ahead. The fears are there, he knows them, but the courageous person goes into the unknown in spite of all the fears. Courage does not mean fearlessness, but going into the unknown in spite of all the fears.
When you go into the uncharted sea, like Columbus did, there is fear, immense fear, because one never knows what is going to happen and you are leaving the shore of safety. You were perfectly okay, in a way; only one thing was missing – adventure. Going into the unknown gives you a thrill. The heart starts pulsating; again you are alive, fully alive. Every fiber of your being is alive because you have accepted the challenge of the unknown.
To accept the challenge of the unknown is courage with awareness. The fears are there, but if you go on accepting the challenge again and again, slowly, slowly those fears disappear. The joy that the unknown brings, the great ecstasy that starts happening with the unknown, makes you strong enough, gives you a certain integrity, makes your intelligence sharp. You start feeling that life is not just boredom. Life is an adventure. Slowly, slowly fears disappear and you go on seeking and searching for new adventures.
Courage with the awareness is risking the known for the unknown, the familiar for the unfamiliar, the comfortable for the uncomfortable arduous pilgrimage to some unknown destination. One never knows whether one will be able to make it or not. It is a gambling, but only the gamblers know what life is.
It is better to learn from Arjuna’s words so that we can subdue the mind – Let everything arise out of your awareness. And the miracle of awareness is that without your saying anything, without your doing anything, it simply dissolves all that is ugly in you into all that is beautiful.
I wrote in Bhagavad Gita Verse 6.33 blog – Awareness is a transforming force. Whatsoever deepens with your awareness is virtue. Whatsoever disappears with your awareness is sin.
Don’t label any act as sin, virtue, right, wrong – acts don’t have that quality. It is your awareness. Just try it and you will be simply amazed that there are things in you which cannot stand in front of awareness, they simply disappear.
Awareness functions almost like magic.
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