Acharya Prashant (AP): The question is that 'why doesn’t one experience so much of fear?' He is quoting a specific incident from yesterday when he saw a large dog and that aroused fear in him. Tell me – what is it that you take as a problem – the fact that you saw the dog and had to turn around, change your path or that you remember that incident even till now?
Questioner (Q): Both of them.
AP: A flying stone is coming your way, towards you. Won’t you change your position? Won’t you dodge it?
Q: Yes.
AP: How much time does that take? But what if that incident becomes a memory, a mark on your mind?
I am fond of saying that these are the two kinds of minds: One, it is like a mirror, one in which incidents happen and are forgotten. A big dog comes in front of that mirror, it shows up in the mirror. But is the dog still in the mirror, after the dog is gone? The mirror reflects the dog only as long as the dog is there. This is the mirror kind of mind in which incidents do not leave a trace behind.
And then, there is the photographic plate – once it captures an image, the image stays on it – that is the other kind of mind. So, once a dog comes in front of it, the dog gets imprinted. Now, even after the dog is gone, the image is still there. It continues to be there. And this, that continues upon the mind even in absence of the fact is imagination. There is nothing right or wrong about responding in a particular way, but to carry that reaction into the future as a burden upon the mind, that is surely bothersome.
