Be Unafraid By: Osho

Teach your children to be fearless, says OSHO, so that they can face any challenge in life

The child is born so utterly helpless into a world he knows nothing of. Naturally he is afraid of the unknown that faces him. He has not yet forgotten those nine months of absolute security and safety, when there was no problem, no responsibility, and no worry for tomorrow.

To us, those are nine months, but to the child, it is eternity. He knows nothing of the calendar, he knows nothing of minutes, hours, days, months. He has lived an eternity in absolute safety and security, without any responsibility, and then suddenly he is thrown into a world unknown, where he is dependent on others for everything. It is natural that he will feel afraid. Everybody is bigger and more powerful, and he cannot live without the help of others. He knows he is dependent; he has lost his independence, his freedom. And small incidents may give him some taste of the reality he is going to face in the future.

Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by Nelson, but in fact the credit should not go to Nelson. Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by a small incident in his childhood. Now history does not look at things in this way, but to me it is absolutely clear.

When he was just six months old, a wild cat jumped on him. The maid who was looking after him had gone for something in the house; he was in the garden in the early morning sun and the fresh air, lying down, and the wild cat jumped on him. It didn’t harm him — perhaps it was just being playful — but to the child’s mind, it was almost death. Since then, he was not afraid of tigers or lions; he could have fought a lion without any arms, with no fear. But a cat? That was different. He was absolutely helpless.

Seeing a cat, he was almost froze; he became a six-month-old child once again, defenceless, with no capacity to fight. In the small child’s eyes, the cat must have looked very big — it was a wild cat. The cat may have looked into the eyes of the child.

Something in his psyche became so much impressed by the incident that Nelson exploited it. Nelson was no comparison to Napoleon, and Napoleon was never defeated in his life; this was his first and last defeat. And he would not have been defeated, but Nelson had brought in 70 cats at the front of the army.

The moment Napoleon saw those 70 wild cats, his mind stopped functioning. His generals could not understand what had happened. He was no longer the same great warrior; he was almost frozen with fear, trembling. He had never allowed any of his generals to arrange the army, but today he said, with tears in his eyes, “I am incapable of thinking — you arrange the army. I will be here, but I am incapable of fighting. Something has gone wrong for me.”

He was removed, but without Napoleon, his army was not capable of fighting Nelson, and seeing the condition of Napoleon, everybody in his army became a little afraid: something very strange was happening.

A child is weak, vulnerable and insecure. Autonomously, he starts creating an armour, a protection, in different ways.

A man living out of fear is always trembling inside. He is continuously on the point of going insane,because life is big, and if you are continuously in fear...there is every kind of fear. You can make a big list, and you will be surprised how many fears are there — and still you are alive! There are infections all around, diseases, dangers, kidnapping, terrorists...and such a small life. And finally there is death, which you cannot avoid. Your whole life will become dark.

Drop the fear! The fear was taken up by you in your childhood unconsciously; now consciously drop it and be mature.And then life can be a light which goes on deepening as you go on growing.

Beyond Psychology, courtesy Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com