The Death of Fear

“The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.” — Dialogue from the movie Troy.

Death was one of the scariest words in my life until existential crisis hit me. Right from childhood, whenever I have heard that word, it scared the shit out of me. No kidding. I then felt that I am not alone in this. It gave me a bad and sad feeling that tomorrow it might be my turn or worse, someone I love.

My life changed its mundane route when I started doing solo traveling and out of the blue, a new perspective flew inside of me. I met new people, strange people, creative and quirky, weird and smart, stubborn and intelligent, funny and philosophical.

During that time, suddenly, I heard the news that my neighbor's 14 year old son died in an accident. I was 18. I knew him. He was my friend. I liked him. He was full of joy. I felt sad.

The only question that popped up in everyone’s mind was ‘Why?’

Nobody had an answer. Nobody will have an answer. And most importantly, nobody should try to find an answer. It’s the ‘Universal Reality’.

That incident changed me. Until then, it was always this ‘insecurity’ within me that didn’t let me take any risk, do anything unexpected and monotony dominated my life.

Automatically, my horizon to live life broadened and surprisingly it altered its very own nature. It was so refreshing (not depressing) to know that everyone is afraid of a thought that they will die one day. It’s just that some people take that to the grave and some pave a whole new path before they rest in a grave.

I completed my graduation. That incident was still with me. I started to earn good money. That incident was with me. I got married. That incident is still with me.

But the only difference is that ‘The Fear of Death’ is now converted into ‘The Death of Fear’

In this course of time, I did things I never imagined I would. I did stand-up comedy. Although I couldn’t nail it, I tried writing and publishing books. Unfortunately, none of the books became a best-seller. I didn’t stop. I started rapping songs. It didn’t take me anywhere. Finally, I changed my career thinking ‘I am going to die soon and I should keep on trying on things I love’.

After a year of doing an engineering job, I switched to content writing, full-time. In the beginning, I was no one. I had been an empty flask until in 2016, I started my own writing company. It is currently among the Top 10 in India.

We fear doing what we love. We are horribly frightened of brutal failure. We are afraid to propose to the person of our dreams. We are scared to try new things. We don’t travel on ‘Less Traveled’ roads. For us to live gracefully, all the above should DIE.

This couldn’t have been possible if I didn’t try new things for 5 long years.

This wouldn’t be true if I had not taken any risks or leap of faith.

This couldn’t have happened if I had the fear of death.

That was my moment of ‘The Death of Fear’

Steve Jobs, in his speech, said, “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.” It’s as simple as that — Since it’s an inevitable truth of life, we should accept it wholeheartedly and use it optimistically to make our life worth living.

We all know the famous Robert Frost’s, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Let your fear die before we all die. Amen.