Don’t be afraid of drums

Why humans get frightened unnecessarily ? Know how to overcome it. Solution extracted from Panchatantra

Frightening is a gift to humans, it triggers the brain to do reflex action. It helps us to run when a stray dog attacks us or a wild animal in our colony. But feeling afraid when it is not needed eats you psychologically. This creates anxiety, later into serious mental health issues.

Are you scared to get rejected? Exam fear? If you are getting scared unnecessarily, there is a beautiful story in the Panchatantra which gives us a solution.

There is no medication or other proven medical treatment to come out of this. All you need is to just read the below story.

Once, a fox named Gomaayu was wandering in a forest, feeling very thirsty and hungry. Then he came across a deserted battle-ground where two armies had fought a long time ago. There was a drum fallen in the midst of some plants. Whenever the wind blew the creepers next to it stuck it hard creating weird sounds. The fox heard it. He immediately panicked and thought- “Alas! I am in for destruction. Before I am seen by the creature making this sound, I will go elsewhere. Or, maybe I should not do it immediately. Here fox had a choice to run away or look into it. Fox gathered some courage and went to have a look. It moved slowly and forward to see it but when it saw it was just a drum!.

The story has an inner meaning. Here fox depicts human thoughts. Fox roaming around the jungle feeling hungry and thirsty tells us about human hungriness to achieve his/her goal which is not in their hand most of the time.

Like the fox, we get scared because of our thoughts. Nobody can control the wind, likewise, nobody can control his/her thought. Thoughts have no boundaries.

Fox goes in the search of the source of sound(thoughts) and it encounters a drum. Drum in this story depicts bad memories one has experienced in their life.

When the fox knows about the drum which was scaring it, it decided to open and see what is inside. After opening it sees that it has nothing inside but a piece of leather and sticks. Similarly, humans bad thoughts/lack of motivation arises from his/her bad experiences or failure. One must crush the bad memories to stay away from negative thoughts like how fox did in the Panchatantra story.