I YEARN TO KNOW.  DO THOU REVEAL THYSELF UNTO MY SOUL.  DO THOU OPEN MY SPIRITUAL EYES AND LEAD ME ON.”  Student, don’t treat this lightly.  Listen not to that conceited or blinded brother of yours who says he does not care for God—­who says he can go on without the aid of God.  Listen not.  Listen not.  The strongest and greatest pray often.  Only they do not talk of this to others.  They never make a show of their devotion.  But they have all prayed and do all pray.  They believe in personal effort—­they also believe in Divine leading and guidance.  Learn to be “lead by the Spirit.”  Everything shall come to you in this way.  You will also notice that the Fearless Man is not a mere God-fearing man.  He is a God-loving Individual.  He loves God for God’s sake largely.  That man who is fearful in spite of his devotion to God is a sham devotee.  But the grace of the LORD’S name is such that it shall purify the most impure of heart.  It shall build up even a sham devotee into a real devotee who in time shall transcend all limitation.  Therefore have faith in God.  “Be regular” in your devotions.  Also remember that each trial is a pain accompanying spiritual regeneration—­each pain a process of strengthening the herald of a mere glorious dawn of wisdom.  Hence give up a grumbling.  The great God whose Infinite power regulates the motions of planets and yet takes note of the sparrow’s fall has your soul’s best interest at heart.  All you do, all you say, all you feel, all you hope, all your experiences—­all, all is His will.  Man’s Will is God’s Will.  God’s Will is Man’s Will.  And who can define God?  God alone has the power to define Himself.  He has defined Himself as the Universe—­Bramhanda.  Nothing is impossible for the devotee of God.  Let him but be willing to work and God shall give him everything.  Regular devotion to God will surely develop extreme Fearlessness.  “God is Love.”

(2).  KNOWLEDGE (Gnayanam).

Fear is due to ignorance.  When in the dark of night you mistook the rope for a snake, you shrieked out in terror.  Cause?  IGNORANCE.  But when you saw the rope as a rope, you laughed out in amusement.  Cause?  KNOWLEDGE.  All your fear is due to your ignorance of your real nature.  All the fear at the last is fear of death.  You have to realise through knowledge of the Vedanta that you are birthless, deathless.  You have to unfold by meditation a consciousness of your Real Self.  I give you hereunder a meditation exercise that will help you in this direction.

MEDITATION EXERCISE NO. 1.

Retire into the SILENCE.  Shut off all thoughts and purposes relating to the external world.  Try to realise that you, the Real Ego are not the body but that it is a mere garment you have put on for functioning on the physical plane and which you shall put off some day.  Try to realise that you are immortal and that although a thousand bodies might come and go, you, the Ego, shall be as alive as ever.