I was once taking a walk in India I was crossing a bridge and I found a person
in tattered clothes standing on the railing of the bridge he seemed to be
gathering his resolve to take a leap into the water seeing what he's about to
do I screamed stop now he hesitated and the moment was lost you see people who
are thinking of committing suicide if they lose the moment the thought process
change I said jump down he jumped down I said what were you going to do he said I
was going to commit suicide I said but don't you know if you voluntarily reject
your body you know what will happen in your next life God will not give you the
grass body you will become a ghost for some time you want to become a ghost
then you better not commit suicide I said why did you think of taking such a
step he said God has not given me anything I am poor I have no treasures
I'm impoverished I said that's all right I'll arrange to give you I've got many
devotees you want 10 lakh rupees yes yes yes yes I'll arrange for it
but you have to give me one thing in return he said what I said give me your
two legs two legs I can't do that your two legs are more valuable than 10 lakh
rupees if they were not you'd say all right fair deal here they are give me 10
lakh you were saying God has not given you anything he's given you two legs
which are more priceless than 10 lakhs all right never mind I'll give you five
lakhs give me your two eyes
re-enable I can do that so that they are more valuable than five lakhs
I'll give you 2 lakhs give me your hands and I started pricing the different
organs and limbs that he had got and I said look your net worth is in millions
you are saying God has not given anything God has given us all the
essentials the resources required for success if we are not feeling that we
are succeeding we must look inside us what is inside us the mind this mind is
very important in the bhagavad-gita as shri krishna has focused on it he says
Hudur a dot Mahna Mahna Mahna Mahna sod hate at mahatma Nobin Herat my very pure
Otteman aha he says archers this mind is so vitally important it can be your
worst enemy and it can be your best friend so I don't make your mind your
friend lift yourself by the mind don't degrade yourself by our mind the Western
philosopher john milton put it nicely when he said the mind is a place of its
own and in itself can make heaven out of hell and hell out of heaven this mind is
such sitting in a heavenly environment if the mind is agitated and disturbed it
can make you experience the torments of hell
and sitting in a hellish condition if the mind is calm peaceful and blissful
it can make you experience the joys of heaven so that is why if we wish to
progress if we wish to realize our god-given potential we need to learn how
to manage the mind very often we overlook the simple truth and we always
talk about success on the outside and measure it with external parameters how
much wealth do we have how high have we risen in the profession how popular are
we in society these external things we see them as parameters of success but we
forget the simple truth first of all you need to succeed on the inside to enrich
your inner life and the external success will be a natural consequence how and
why I wish to help you understand this mind of ours is like a factory that
creates thoughts what are thoughts they are little bundles of energy the more
science evolves the more it realizes that everything is energy matter is also
energy the Vedas go beyond and say space is also energy the mind is also energy
the ego is also energy Bhoomi Epona
mano buddhir eva hungary t ma baina prakruti rostered ha Arjun sri krishna
says in the seventh chapter of the bhagavad-gita everything in this
material realm is different aspects different kinds of my energy so our
thoughts are little bundles of energy there are waves in the atmosphere you
cannot see them but they are there
rapidly alternating electromagnetic waves if somebody is mobile is not off
suddenly it rings during the lecture ring what happened you see that wave was
there the mobile he caught it if you take a radio set and start turning the
knob one after the other you start getting your stations AM FM all these
waves are present similarly our thoughts are also in the form of waves and they
are impacting us every thought is having its consequence if you keep on harboring
thoughts of anger it will reflect on your face people will say hey stay away
from him he seems to be an angry guy do you see somebody else and say who
look so simple so innocent you look at someone else and say subhanAllah what
are chant alotta seems to be a cunning guy he look at somebody else and says
she seems totally trustworthy now how is it that you reach these intuitive
judgments because the thoughts that the purse
harbors the chisel ones appearance like a sculptor that is the power of thoughts
not only that they impact further our health
there is now whole branch of psychosomatic science in medic the
medical field where they study the connection between the mind and the body
and they are understanding that the mind has a connection with the body when we
Harbor poisonous thoughts thoughts of hatred anger fear they poison our blood
and they create ill health and when we Harbor healthy wholesome thoughts they
lead to good health in the yoga Vasisht this is an ancient scripture Lord Rama
when he traversed his kingdom he found people are sick
he found vrdr illness and this moved him to pity so he came back to his guru
spiritual preceptor maharshi Vasisht and he said guru t what is the cause of VRD
or illness mercy Vasisht gave a very insightful answer he said rom disease
begins in the mind when people Harbor negative thoughts thoughts of anger
tension stress anxiety this disrupts the manomaya kosha
the mental sheet that disturbance then agitates the
pranamaya kosha the vital energy sheet that agitation then manifests in the
grass body the under my coach as disease that is why nowadays the concept of
holistic health the World Health Organization also has adopted this
definition of health as the physical mental social and spiritual well-being
of an individual so those who wish to learn to be truly healthy they must not
just do your arsons they must also learn the art of mind management