Fear

Human beings are receptive and reactive to various emotions. According to shastras,  our actions revolve around nine basic forms of emotions - Love, Anger, Fear, Disgust, Curiosity, Compassion, Bravery, Mirth and Peace. Each emotion evokes a set of reaction or counter emotion to complete an action. It is difficult to determine which of these nine emotions plays the most important role in one's life, since the relationship between the emotion and human is relative; for a priest may be Peace plays the most important role, whereas for a soldier Bravery defines most part of his actions. Similarly, people with various goals and orientations in life have different emotions playing significant roles to base their actions.  But, is their something called the Strongest Emotion? An emotion that surpasses every emotion and dominate our minds, body, soul and actions? Well, there are thousands of literary works, essays and poetic expressions to emphasize that "Love" is the strongest human emotion. To quote Charles Chaplin, "You need power only when you want to do something harmful, otherwise Love is enough to get everything done." But, how much of this is true? There is no dearth of love in the Universe, yet countries are at war, sects are at war, genders are at war...even worst,  love itself is at war with customs and traditions. No, love is not enough to get everything done. Certain aspects of this emotion can play important role, like we can love the music or food or attire of someone, someplace but we can't love the complete entity of that place or person. We choose the areas of love, we choose or decide in our heads the things that will evoke love, anger, or disgust. Mostly we choose which emotion will stimulate by which action... Except one - Fear. 

I love observing people around me, kids, young, old...all the people I come in contact with on a daily basis, or occasionally. And I have observed that Fear is the strongest emotion that can get everything done. The fear of losing a job, the fear of losing a loved one, the fear of being reprimanded for doing or not doing something, the fear of getting hurt, the fear of rejection, the fear of death, the fear of inviting the wrath of almighty, the fear of failure, the fear of being abused...the list is never ending. This emotion doesn't let us choose...it chooses us! It is unpredictable, unexpected and of course unwelcome. Yet, all around us, from day till night this emotion follows us. Which action or words will grip us with this emotion is unknown...this fear of unknown is the strongest form of emotion that define our lives. After all humans are animals too and animals learn to identify with this emotion from birth living in a prey-predator situation. Humans are social animals and our Predators often don't have shapes, legs and hands but that still make us Preys...and preys only identify with one emotion - Fear.                     

Vibes...

Being 40 plus, mother of three and a "homemaker", I would often get invites from my neighborhood  (and sometimes not so neighboring) families for Paath, Jagaran, Satsang and general "Puja" ceremonies. I assume that this phenomenon has to do with the general mindset of this country that after you cross 40, and if you are not into clubbing and partying, you are a perfect satsang material. Although I don't tag myself as being an atheist, but every time I attend these gatherings I can't help noticing the non existence of the very power for which all meticulously gather together. I have noticed  one lady of the house not letting the daily maid ( who happens to be non hindu) clean the "Puja area" or  touch the utensils to be used for preparation of "prasad". I had felt the absence of the "Vibe", the positive energy, which is synonymous with  almighty. Come to think of it,   every action in  our life is based  on the  positive and negative vibes that  we  absorb  from our surroundings.  When we enter a new place, we  can immediately feel  a sensation  that tries to  connect  us with that surrounding,  sometimes  we feel like leaving that environment after spending  ten minutes, sometimes  we feel like spending more time in that place.  It's  all about  the  Vibes that ambience send across to our mind and signals  our  body to behave  accordingly.  Same  applies to people also. Our body emit vibes too. Sometimes  we  feel uncomfortable in  someone's presence,  an  acquaintance or stranger,  even though  they have never harmed or been rude to us .  Similarly we feel very  happy meeting someone  known or stranger  and immediately "click". This clicking and non clicking has a lot to do with the vibes we  receive from  these people. So, next time if a person  seems pleasant , give some credit to their vibes before  praising the fragrance, knowledge ,  confidence  and of course the looks/ beauty.  Pay little attention,  the Vibes are all around us, I found my share of positive vibes at some of the weirdest places of life - the chaos of  Pubs,  Public transport,  my  Kids' messy bedroom, my mom's kitchen  and  my spouse's  workstation. And whatever relationships I live, I live them based on these vibes and not on the basis of social obligations and diplomacy. I still go to the  "Puja" and  "Paath " gatherings  whenever I am invited,   but   I m yet to feel the  Vibe of "HIS/HER" presence.