The Fearlessness of the Surrendered Heart
Having given everything to the Beloved, the devotee has nothing left to defend and so becomes fearless.
Narada observes that fear springs from the anxious guarding of what we believe to be ours — our bodies, our reputations, our plans. The devotee who has surrendered all to the Beloved has nothing left to protect and therefore nothing left to fear. This abhaya, fearlessness, is one of the surest fruits of true surrender, for the heart that rests wholly in God cannot be threatened by what merely touches the perishable. Such fearlessness is not bravado but the quiet courage of one secure in a love that death itself cannot sever. The mystics of every age have testified that perfect love casts out fear.
Having given all to the Beloved, the devotee has nothing left to fear.
The fearlessness of surrender recalls the New Testament teaching that 'perfect love casts out fear,' as well as the Gita's listing of abhaya among the marks of the awakened.
Narada Bhakti Sutras
Written about in
- What the Narada Bhakti Sutras say about freedom
Fear is traced to the guarding of what we think is ours. Hand it all over and there is nothing left to defend, which is a practical account of fearlessness rather than a mystical one.