When I think of all the procedures one has in life, I can say that one of the worst thoughts is that of a dentist’s drill. Quite strange since my father was a dental surgeon who actually did not like to have a member of the family in his chair but did it all the same. I have to say that when I think of the instruments on his tray, the dental drill makes me turn pale. However, when the twinges in my jaw got too unbearable and frequent, I gritted my teeth and rang up the office to make an appointment.
I was quite relieved when my father’s secretary informed me that he could only really see me after a week. They were full of appointments, but I was extremely pleased to have a reprieve. When he came home for his customary 6 pm tea, he was quite amused that I had rung up to make an appointment for myself.
Going with trepidation, I entered the surgery. He said, “Don’t worry, it’s not going to hurt.” I got into the chair and remembered the days when I used to get into the chair and make it go up and down for fun. The problem with me is that I have a very small jaw and therefore when he said, “Open your mouth please”, I obliged as much as possible under the circumstances. “Can’t you do better than that?”, he grumbled. Well, two instruments had already blocked any other space available in my mouth. He triumphantly probed at the most painful spot and said, “This is the one that’s giving you trouble. I’m afraid it’ll have to come out”. Ok, I mumbled, through swabs of cotton wool, keeping my fingers crossed, praying for less pain.
“Don’t be silly”, said Dad, “this is not going to hurt you”. “Come on, open wide and let us try again”. Before I could say Jack Robbins, he had reclined my chair far back so I was helplessly at his mercy. He hammered and chiselled away and when I heard him tell the assistant, “Please pass me the pliers”, I thought that’s it, I’m going to either scream or faint.
The ordeal was over soon. Although he was gloating over the fact that he had done an excellent job, he showed me a tooth with his pincers, that was spouting enormous quantities of blood. “Now then”, he said, “that wasn’t so bad”. I could have shrieked at his complacence. “Now go home and try and rest, I promise you, you’ll feel better by the evening.”
He came home exuding confidence and self-assurance. On finding me still in agony, he said, “What’s all the fuss about? It’s a straight-forward tooth extraction, and being a milk tooth, should not hurt so much”. I groaned, opening my mouth as much as I could which was precious little. He took one look and stammered, “Goodness me, I have pulled out the wrong one!”
Oh dear, know exactly how you feel, dentists petrified me too until I found Arun Kumar, a schoolmates husband and now his daughter Taniya!
Fear comes in many shapes sizes and forms. When it is broken down into segments and seen to bear of something it becomes an unresolvable enemy, haunting and terrible. When one form of fear goes another one appears. Life then becomes fearful and impossible to live.
So what’s the solution to this ubiquitous fear?
The Mystic says people continue to live in fear of something or the other because there’s a payoff in living in fear. Payoffs are as many as fears. Self-pity, grief, resentment, hatred,guilt,apathy,anger and worst if all pride.
The Mystic says the one singular way of overcoming fear is to relinquish the payoff. Prayer combined with this relinquishment as the payoff keeps arising, is the perfect solution.