Fear seems to have become the biggest stress factor. Fear lies in the subconscious and surfaces when we anticipate imminent loss of life, property, loved ones or prestige, for example. The greatest fear of all is that of death.

The fear of death, it is said, is worse than death itself. What people fear most is untimely death, and this fear is growing because of the increasing uncertainties of life today. Our increasing tendency to violence has created conditions in which death is just a careless moment away.

Medical science has not yet found a cure for fear. It calls for a spiritual solution. First of all, it requires an attitudinal change. Fear paralyses the mind. Take on any situation calmly and with courage.

Another change needed is in the way we look at adversity. All the tests that we face in life, regardless of whether we pass them or not, make us stronger and equip us to face better similar tests in future.

Fear of death stems from a wrong identification of the eternal Self with the perishable body. It can be overcome by the realisation that we are souls and the soul is immortal, as the Gita says. What we call death is nothing but the departure of the soul from the body after its role in the present body is over.

Living in soul-consciousness over a long period empowers us to overcome the fear of mortality. While attitudinal change can help us overcome fear to some extent, complete freedom from it requires attention on our karma.

There are some people who do little, but make others do a lot. Brahmn, the pure Consciousness, too, is actionless — but in Its presence, everything else works. Observe an infant. It does little other than kick about, cry and laugh but it spurs everybody into willing action. The mere presence of an infant brings joy.

What makes a baby so lovable, asource of joy for all? The answer is simple but profound: a baby is free of desires. It has biological needs like hunger and thirst but, other than these, ababy has no desires. Its eyes reflect its state of freedom from desires. The great scriptural texts have exalted the state of desirelessness as the ultimate state. Besides babies, only one other kind of being has eyes that reflect total desirelessness: the realised person.

Man begins his life without desire (as an infant), goes through life’s tribulations and, eventually, through spiritual evolution, once again becomes free of desires as a man of realisation. The first aspect of life management is desire management. Desire per se is neither trouble nor a cause of bondage, but when it increases in quantity and decreases in quality to unmanageable levels, it can destroy us.

The scriptures divide life into four stages and at each stage, there are specific rules to be followed. If each stage of life is lived by its founding principle, desire management will be spontaneous.

We move through discipline, spirit of service and self-enquiry to abidance in the Self, and achieve the transcending of desire to reach the state of desirelessness.