THE PHENOMENON
OF THOUGHTS

There is a wise saying, "You are where your thoughts are". It is our own thought content, which makes the world what it is for us. Our good thoughts make our surroundings and things beautiful and bad thoughts make them ugly. It is a great irony, that while all kinds of thoughts, including the most unwelcome and undesirable, force their entry and crowd our minds against our conscious willing and wishing, these can't be controlled or suppressed by force. It is, however, only through understanding and knowledge that the thoughts can be instilled. Several methods have been suggested by the philosophers to combat this problem. An effective way out is to let the thoughts pass one's mind as does the traffic on a busy road and be only a witness to all the thoughts crossing the mind-space and concern oneself with only one thought in which one is interested at any given time. Another way is to replace the negative thoughts by positive ones. As someone advised, "when you are sad or depressed, think of the charm of children, love of friends, beauty of a lady and a kindly heart of a man!"

Similar thoughts attract each other like an echo; they come right back. What we give, we surely get, love for love and fret for fret. This is why a man of goodwill entertaining positive thoughts of love, happiness and peace feels spiritually strengthened because similar thoughts prevailing around in the atmosphere tend to flow towards him. This also explains why a person feels depressed sometimes and at other times finds himself happy without any obvious reason. The fact is that in both the cases, he is operating unawares upon his own assets and liabilities (positive and negative thoughts) which he has accumulated.

Thoughts, by virtue of their nature, need expression. They are always anxious to come to the surface of the mind for expression. The same recurring thoughts make a track, as it were, in the mind of a person and in the course of time, form a habit. One is then caught up in the whirlpool of such habitual thoughts and it becomes very difficult to escape from their clutches.

A thought has, inter-alia, a tremendous, rather unimaginable, speed, force and subtlety. A thought can take one to New York, to the Moon and then to the seabed, all in a few seconds.

Sri Aurobindo, said "The error comes from thinking that your thoughts are your own and you are their maker and if you do not create thoughts (i.e. think) there will be none. A little observation ought to show that you are not manufacturing your own thoughts but rather thoughts occur in you. Thoughts are born, not made." The simple fact that man cannot control his thought-process shows that his thoughts are being created by some other power. In other words, even for his thinking, rational man is in the bondage of nature. For freedom and knowledge, he has to develop some other higher faculty in him. Sri Aurobindo made a classic statement in this: regard, "when thou shalt have gone beyond knowing, then thou shalt have knowledge. Reason was the helper, reason is the bar."

RELAX & MEDITATE

Is the world spinning too fast? Are tensions tearing you apart? These are the kind of questions asked to all those suffering from the modern syndrome of hypertension, which unfortunately seems to be a consequence of present day lifestyles; and the remedy often suggested is meditation. Meditation is suggested and prescribed even by doctors, as if it was a modern day pill. Just like fast food or instant coffee or a short cut to instant success; whereas often, as fast food is termed as junk food, the so called meditation as suggested, does not provide the desired results.

There were several basic cleansing processes required to be followed to clean the body and curb the ever wandering mind in order to achieve the desire purity and stillness. Today's jet-age person wants to attain a short cut to meditation. Without going through the process of cleansing, he wants to attain graduation without even going to school! Thus, the poor success rates.

These days, there is often confusion between relaxation and meditation created by many modern teachers and also the achievers. A person who is tense cannot, meditate, he has to first learn to relax. Today's learned human being requires to be taught how to relax, which should be a natural process. Hence, these learned people need to unlearn in order to relax.

One's body and mind can be both disturbing factors in one's effort to achieve meditation. As long as one's body is aching and the mind is wandering, one cannot meditate.

After achieving mental control, physical control and breath control, one has to control the senses which could be a major distractions and create hindrances in one's ambition to meditate.

Having established control of the senses, one can very easily pour all senses in the desired direction, concentration. When concentration matures, one can identify the self as the subject or the object as the case may be, when one is objectively able to review the subject without being involved in it. When there is a close proximity with the subject, it is termed dhayana, which is meditation.

This continued effort of regular meditation can further culminate into samadhi, when the everlasting bliss or sat-chit-anand is experienced. It can be experienced all here and in this world.

Hence, the need for an average individual experiencing stress and undergoing tensions to adapt a disciplined life and to make a conscious effort to relax. So a conscious attempt at relaxation is the best short cut for modern human beings, and meditation can further help evolving one's spiritual vistas. Thus a tensed person under great anxiety cannot meditate, unless he first learns to unlearn and unwind.