We all live under the cloud of various fears. We feel secure only when we realize that our true nature is indestructible, as Krishna explains in Chapter 2, Verse 16 of the Bhagavad Gita.
We feel insecure when we limit our identity to this perishable body. The body can perish at any moment, but the energy within it cannot be destroyed. It is the same fundamental energy that pervades the known and unknown universe. There was never a time when this energy did not exist, nor will there ever be a time when it ceases to exist.
Death, destruction, the fear of losing, and every other form of fear can threaten and pull us down only when we identify ourselves with the body. When we believe, “I am this body,” everything that happens to the body begins to threaten our sense of existence.
The body is only a vehicle for a limited period of time. Its purpose is not to give us permanent fulfillment, because everything associated with the body is subject to change and decay. Our deeper purpose is to shed ignorance and realize our pure, imperishable nature. We are not separate from the supreme energy that pervades the universe; we are expressions of that same reality.
There is no immortal individual. The perishable body is constantly undergoing transformation, changing from one moment to the next. But the indestructible reality within us does not undergo that change. It remains what it is.
Our insecurity arises largely from clinging to things that are themselves perishable. Job, name, fame, ego, love, respect, disrespect, social status, family name, money, power—the list is endless. We invest our sense of identity and security in these things, even though every one of them is subject to change. What we possess today may be gone tomorrow; what gives us recognition today may lose its importance tomorrow.
The problem, therefore, is not that these things exist. The problem is our attachment to them and our belief that they define who we are.
Instead of clinging to the perishable, we must turn our attention toward the imperishable—to Bhagavan, who is present in all that is animate and inanimate. When our identity shifts from the temporary to the eternal, fear begins to lose its hold over us.
We may continue to live in this changing world, perform our duties, love our relationships, pursue our work, and experience success and failure. But we need not allow these temporary things to determine our sense of security.
True security comes from knowing that beneath everything that changes is that which never changes.
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