Fear of Ghosts

 

Photo Credit: Aeon

Fear of Ghosts

When we hear people talking about ghosts and see the fear writ large on their face – we wonder where this fear comes from! Especially of something which one has never seen! This only implies that one of the very important faculties in a human being is going out of control. Compared to other creatures, a human being has a very vivid sense of memory. We can remember every aspect of what happened yesterday. Because of this memory, we are able to understand how to handle today’s situations. This is what we are calling knowledge or information. What we understood, grasped, or experienced yesterday is today's knowledge.

This vivid sense of memory and an extraordinary sense of imagination are two aspects of the mind that set us apart from an earthworm, a grasshopper, and every other creature. But these are two aspects that most human beings are suffering.

So, all that is happening is that one is suffering one’s imagination. We are just watching a horror movie. Why not enjoy it? The problem is, it is badly directed. Our memory and imagination are out of control. The drama is just going on by itself.

People say, “This is human nature.” This is not human nature. This is the nature of people who have not taken charge of human nature. If we knew how to manage our psychological drama, we would have made ourselves blissful, not fearful. This is the essence of the Satguru’s work – to bring some sense to the drama so that we become directors of our own drama.

The ghost lies in the mind, by planting the seed of meditation in the sadhak, the Satguru over time exorcises the ghost. The mind is very fickle and unstable – it keeps gathering impressions over several births and those impressions remain as a sense of fear.

Once we overcome that sense of fear through Guru’s grace, life becomes simple and uncomplicated, filled with love and bliss.