Suppose we are in our home theater, and we find a horror movie playing on our TV when we had no desire to watch such a movie. We would just change the channel.

If we compare our inner world to a theater, our mind is like a TV screen which features movies of various kinds. On that inner screen, a horror movie sometimes starts playing. For example, whenever we face some external danger, our mind starts racing with a wild imagination that paints dreadful scenarios. When a horror movie is unfolding on the inner screen, we may get so overwhelmed that we passively keep watching that movie till we end up in a state of panic or paranoia or paralysis.

Such morbid fearfulness, the Bhagavad-gita (18.35) cautions, represents a perverse determination whereby we hold on thought-patterns that hurt us. How can we let go of such thought-patterns? By redirecting our attention to something other than the mind’s movie. It is our attention that powers the movie being played. If we don’t pay attention to a movie, it stops playing on the screen of the mind. 

Therefore, when a horror movie is playing on our inner screen, we need to direct our attention toward something else, something more meaningful, something more urgent. Unfortunately, in moments of fear, nothing else may seem to be more urgent, or we may not be able to think of anything toward which we can redirect our attention. 

How can we prepare for such emergencies? By providing ourselves, in advance, some alternative engagements that can captivate and calm us. Such engagements, which can redirect our attention, may include: reading wisdom quotes; hearing soothing music; reciting scriptural verses or chanting sacred mantras. The specific engagement that we find helpful may vary based on our interests and tastes, yet the underlying purpose remains the same: to redirect our consciousness. When we thus shift our consciousness away from the horror movie running on the screen of our mind, that movie will stop, and we’ll find ourselves slowly but surely coming out of the crippling grip of fear.

Summary: 

When fear starts a horror movie in our mind, what powers that movie is our attention — shift our attention elsewhere and fear will lose its grip on us. 

Think it over: 

  • When fear overwhelms us, what happens in our inner world? 
  • How can we free ourselves from the grip of fear? 
  • What resources can help you redirect your attention amid moments of fear?

***

18.35: And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness and illusion – such unintelligent determination, O son of Prutha, is in the mode of darkness.

Audio explanation of the article is here: https://gitadaily.substack.com/p/stopping-the-minds-horror-movie

To know more about this verse, please click on the image