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Fear and illness*

You must not fear. Most of your troubles come from fear. In fact, ninety per cent of
illnesses are the result of the subconscient fear of the body. In the ordinary consciousness
of the body there is a more or less hidden anxiety about the consequences of the slightest
physical disturbance. It can be translated by these words of doubt about the future: “And
what will happen?” It is this anxiety that must be checked. Indeed this anxiety is a lack
of confidence in the Divine’s Grace, the unmistakable sign that the consecration is not
complete and perfect.

As a practical means of overcoming this subconscient fear each time that something of it
comes to the surface, the more enlightened part of the being must impress on the body the
necessity of an entire trust in the Divine’s Grace, the certitude that this Grace is always
working for the best in our self as well as in all, and the determination to submit entirely
and unreservedly to the Divine’s Will.

The body must know and be convinced that its essence is divine and that if no obstacle is
put in the way of the Divine’s working, nothing can harm us. This process must be steadily
repeated until all recurrence of fear is stopped. And then even if the illness succeeds in
making its appearance, its strength and duration will be considerably diminished until it
is definitively conquered.

— The Mother 1

*Heading provided by the Editor

1 The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother, Volume 15. Cent. ed. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo
Ashram Trust; 1978, p. 151.

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