THE ROOT CAUSE OF FEAR!!

The root cause of fear!!



Recently, in an interview, I was asked, “What is the root cause of fear?”
I said, “Undoubtedly, LOVE.”
The interviewers looked at me, skeptically, and said, “please justify.”
And thus I began…


“There’s just no fear, when one has nothing to lose.” This is a maxim heard so often. And it’s probably, one of the very few ones that I find realistic and acceptable.

Have we ever wondered why we fear the terrorists or any other anti-social element, for that matter? Why do we fear our children travelling in crowded trains or buses? Why do we fear every time our children don’t return our calls or don’t reach home on time? Or why do we fear when our spouse is stressed about work? Why?

There’s a simple four-letter word that is, according to me, the root cause of all kinds of fear :: LOVE!

It is to be noted that LOVE is the root cause of fear, but it isn’t the cause of “phobia” or obsessive fears that are related to the psyche. Anyways, what makes me say that love causes fear? So, in order to combat fear, should we just not love anyone? Sounds strange! You must be wondering that, here are people trying to make us love mankind, and here I am, advocating just the opposite. But am I really advocating that? That’s a different question altogether, that isn’t much relevant here.

So, back to the statement I made earlier: “love is the root cause of the smallest of fears, to the greatest ! ”

Here are a few examples that make me think so ::


Consider a guy in love with a girl. He “fears” asking her out. He “fears” calling her up daily, though he wants to, because he “fears” that she’ll know that he loves her. Every morning, he “fears” that someone else has proposed to her and that she’s gone forever. Now suppose, the guy gets the girl. Then he starts “fearing” that her parents would come to know, his parents would come to know, and their relationship wouldn’t last. What does this tell? “love causes fear.”. now suppose, the guy doesn’t get the girl. Leave apart the pain of heartbreak, but at least, there’s no fear. He doesn’t “fear” texting her or calling her daily because there’s nothing to lose. And that takes me back to the first statement of my answer, “there’s just no fear when one has nothing to lose.”

Now here’s a story depicting mother-child love, and of course, the resulting fear. A child travels by train daily, and suppose, we are talking about few days post-7/11 when mutiple blasts had rocked the city of mumbai. A mother wants her child to give her a “miss-call” everytime he reaches college. And the child is an adult who can take care of oneself, yet there’s “fear” in the eyes of his or her mother. The security has been beefed up in the city and every one knows that the trains would not be targetted again. Yet, there is “fear.” The same scenario is applicable to all those wives whose husbands travel for work and vice-versa. The “fear”, though unnecessary, exists because “love” exists.

No one cares if some unknown person dies. This is evident by the apathy shown by people whenever they see someone dead on the road. There’s, obviously, a moment’s prayer but more importantly, it results in “fear”…fear that their loved ones too, could meet the same fate. Isn’t that why every mother wants her child to drive cautiously? There’s fear, because there’s love.

This was all about the small, mundane fears. Let’s look at the larger picture. We fear our country being attacked because we love our country. We fear the anti-social elements, not because we “hate” them, but because we “love” our country. It may be safe to say, that in this case, even the root cause of “fear” of the terrorists, “fear” of hijacks, fear of bomb-blasts, “fear” of loss of national integrity, is “love” for the country, “love” for the people, “love” for mankind.

And I concluded, emphatically with the statement, “ Thus, I say, love is the root cause of all kinds of fears. Hence, proved and justified.”.........


P.s… Luckily, the panel didn’t have any counter-question in mind and blindly accepted my hypothesis, but I am sure, you have. Each one of you has a right to question my thinking, and counter my opinions that I have put forth here. There’s just one condition:: You need to give me an answer along with a simple, logical explanation (please note, do not give me psyche related answers, coz we are talking about fears, not phobias) to the most frequently asked question, “WHAT CAUSES FEAR?”