Striving Towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

We waste so much of our lives being scared of stuff. Here’s a silly story that makes the point: there was this guy who tried to get rid of the darkness in his house by literally carrying buckets of darkness outside. Yeah, seriously. He spent years doing this completely pointless task.

Obviously it didn’t work. Why? Because darkness isn’t a thing you can remove—it’s just the absence of light. If he’d just lit one small candle, the darkness would’ve been gone instantly.

Fear Works the Same Way

Fear is just the absence of faith. Get more faith, and the fear disappears. It’s like how a relationship falls apart without trust—you can’t have real love without it.

Here’s a great story about this from Sufi literature:

The Mullah’s Wedding Night

Mullah Nasruddin got married one morning, and that same night he and his new wife were crossing a river in a boat with their relatives. Out of nowhere, a huge storm hits. The boat’s rocking like crazy, everyone’s freaking out and thinking they’re about to die—including the bride. But Mullah’s just sitting there, totally calm.

His bride notices and asks, surprised, “Aren’t you scared?”

Instead of answering, Mullah pulls out a dagger and holds it up to her throat like he’s about to attack her.

She doesn’t even flinch.

He asks, “Aren’t you afraid of this dagger?”

She says, “The dagger might be dangerous, but the person holding it is my loving husband. So no, I’m not afraid.”

“Exactly!” Mullah says. “These waves might be dangerous, but Allah who’s moving them is full of love. So I’m not afraid.”

That’s What Faith Looks Like

Mullah had faith, so he could stay calm and loving even in a terrifying situation. Without that faith, he would’ve been just as scared as everyone else.

Stop Obsessing About Death

Some people go from psychic to astrologer, obsessing over their horoscopes, trying to figure out exactly when they’re going to die. Their horoscopes become “horror-scopes.” They’re so worried about when they’ll die that they forget to actually live! And all that fear? It destroys them mentally and physically.

Don’t be that person.