The secrets of fearlessness

“A devotee who surrenders to Krishna, ‘You are the controller; I am yours.’ That devotee actually becomes completely fearless, and could be peaceful and blissful in any situation, even in the most frustrating difficulties.”- Radhanath Swami

Prabhupad gives us that nice painting in Bhagvad Gita where mayadevi is puppeteer and we are puppets. And through the strings of the three modes of material nature, she is just making us dance in so many ways. And yet, we are so foolish, we are thinking, ‘I am dancing according to my wish.’ But actually we are being controlled.
The mode of passion is pulled, the string of passion pulls: “Let me eat this; let me touch this; let me see this.” The modes of ignorance string pulls: “Let me go to sleep; let me forget this nonsense by some intoxication; I am suffering, let other people suffer.”
We are thinking we are the controllers!
The mode of goodness string is pulled: “I am the beneficiary; I am giving charity; I am helping others in making them happy.”This way we think we are the doer. But actually we are the puppets in the strings of maya.
Srila Prabhupad, he prayed to be a puppet. In Jaladuta he prayed, “Let me be a puppet Krishna, and dance and dance as you make me dance.” What we must understand is, we are always puppets. We are always puppets of Krishna. He is the ultimate controller of all the controllers: tumhisarveshwara. Do we want to be controlled by Krishna as a loving servant, or do we want to be controlled by material nature through the three modes? But (either way) we are always under control.
A devotee who surrenders to Krishna, “You are the controller; I am yours.” That devotee actually becomes completely fearless, and could be peaceful and blissful in any situation, even in the most frustrating difficulties.

Radhanath Swami revels the secret of the fearlessness of the little Gopas

The demigods they were looking down. They were aghast, because even though they are demigods, they drink nectar – heavenly nectar which is supposed to give you some sort of immortality – they were constantly in fear of Aghasura, because he was such a dangerous devouring demon. So here are these demigods like Indra, who have thunderbolts, powerful bodies, long lives, tremendous intelligence, weapons and armies; they are fearing Agha.
Here are the little cowherd boys. What are their weapons? They have there flutes, buffalo horns and little sticks for herding the cows. But yet, they all just looked at Krishna, smiled and laughed, and danced right in to the mouth of Aghasura. And they were saying, “Let us go in. Krishna will save us.” Haribol! Now, that’s fearlessness.
You cannot become fearless by any amount of high tech security devices in your home or your car. We see wealthy people; they have gates and guards and all kinds of cameras to protect them, but still they are in fear. And even if your body becomes powerful, and you are great with weapons, still you fear.
The little Gopas, they were fearless – something that the demigod’s could not fathom – simply because they completely depended on Krishna. They had complete faith in Krishna. They took shelter of Krishna. Therefore, they just looked at Krishna, and just laughing they ran right in to the mouth of Aghasura. That is fearlessness.

“Sukhdev Goswami told MaharajParikshit that the way to become free of fear is to hear about, chant and remember Krishna, the Supreme personality of Godhead. There is no other way to be fearless. Therefore, there is no other way to find peace, real happiness.” – Radhanath Swami.

Radhanath Swami explains the fearlessness of George Harrison

It’s an example of how when one receives the mercy of a great soul, how one’s life can be transformed, and one can become fearless. I happened to be meeting with some very, very dear friends of George Harrison. Prabhupad called him Sriman George Harrison ‘Hari’s son’. He was an object of Prabhupad’s mercy. Prabhupad loved him very much. In fact during Prabhupad’s last lila in Vrindavan, he took off one of his rings and gave to Tamal Krishna Goswami Maharaj and said, “Give this to George.” Prabhupad was remembering him because of his wonderful service attitude. The people I was talking to, they knew him (George) very well and knew his family very well. They were saying to me something that astounded them. They had never seen anything like this in their entire lives. These people are in their fifty’s.
They said, “George was completely free of any fear of death. In fact, he looked forward to death, because he knew without doubt that Krishna was waiting for him.” This is what they were telling me. He used to tell them, “This material existence is a miserable place of bondage. The only real happiness is in Krishna. And therefore, I have no reservations. I tried to save my body as far as I could. But now that I see it is not possible, I am waiting with anticipation for death, because I know the soul is forever and Krishna will protect me.”
We have never seen anyone so naturally and completely free of fear of death! And he was actually very happy about it, smiling, joking! And then they told me, this is what they told me:“He refused to take any pain killers or medications in the last stages, because he was so eager to get the full experience of death. He did not want anything to distract his attention away from that experience of dying.”
He wrote a song in the 70’s,‘The art of dying’ – that nothing is better than the art of dying. He actually believed that. He was living in a beautiful mansion; he had wife; he had a child; but at the time of death he just understood that Krishna is the Supreme controller. That can only come – such a consciousness can only come – by causeless mercy.