in the south of Orissa and the border of under predation who resides a big
mountain called Mahindra Giri that is elephant country and there are elephant
trainers out there once I was passing by and I found elephants shackled with a
rope tied to a peg stuck in the ground I
asked the Mohammed elephant trainer how come you have managed to tie this huge
elephant with a little peg to the ground
he said Swamiji when the elephant was yet a baby at that time it was tied with
the peg now when it was a baby did not have the strength to yank the peg out
and it became conditioned if this rope is tied to the ground then I have cannot
pull it out now then it's become a full-fledged animal it can even yank out
a trick where its conditioning is preventing it from doing so you see
there are these fleas now fleas have this ability to jump 16 feet
at least that's what Wikipedia claims 16-feet but you do an experiment you put
fleas into a tin box where they only have one foot space to Yama now they
will jump a few times and then they will realize that we cannot jump more than
one foot after that you open the lid they will keep jumping one foot they
will never try to jump more than that they have become conditioned similarly
our behavior becomes conditioned you see the mind has got its conscious aspect
and its subconscious aspect
the conscious aspect is what you are aware of and then there is the
subconscious aspect of which we are not even aware supposing a dog scared yet
the Wits out of you when you were a three-year-old now you develop this
phobia for dogs and even you don't realize why it is happening to me but it
is embedded in the subconscious so every time a dog makes its appearance you
become scared you can keep on struggling consciously but you will have to correct
the subconscious in other words conditioning and habits are so vital to
our human nature practically 90% of our behavior and thought is determined by it
the way we think is not consciously decided at every moment such conscious
choices are few and far between invariably we involuntarily respond to
situations without as a result of our habits in other words
our habits have conditioned us and our conditioning creates the way we think
the way we respond if your conditioning is to be pessimistic and you hear from
Swamiji it's better to be optimistic and positive you see all right now let me be
optimistic and positive it will be a struggle if you wish to be optimistic
and positive you will have to change the habit and conditioning so that optimism
becomes a spontaneous response that comes from inside
so habits will require practice
practice is important the knowledge we have heard we will need to practice it