Abhayam means we are always afraid. We are always agitated, anxiety, because I am thinking, “I am this body.” But if you are completely realized that you are not this body, you are something else, spirit soul, then I am immediately free from anxieties. That is called abhayam — no more fear, no more anxiety. Because everyone is ultimately afraid of being killed. But if he understands fully that he is not this body, then killed or not killed, he is not any attached to this body. Narottama dasa Thakura says, therefore, deha smrti nahi jar, samsara bandhan kaha tar[?]: “If one becomes free from the bodily concept of life, then where is material miseries?” Material miseries does not affect him. He know that… Just like I am putting on this shirt. If it is torn, so am I affected? I am not affected. I am within this shirt. Similarly, if I am fully convinced that I am not this body, then if there is some injury or some disease or some mishap in the body, I am not concerned because I know that I am not this body. That is self-realization.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gita 16.5 — January 31, 1975,
Honolulu