Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

I have been speaking about the qualities and virtues a seeker and seeking must have. Today I thought, I would tell you something that has always appealed to me. I also received some letters where people complain about negative thoughts. I have written a little long letter to somebody who has the problem of thinking negatively.

Only when the mind produces a thought, you know that the thought has come. And if that thought happens to be negative, what will you do? You have no mastery over it. But the mind does something, it produces a negative thought and the mind itself is telling you it is negative. So what are you supposed to do? Understand that it is negative and don’t pursue it or follow it. Disregard it.

As many times as the mind produces a negative thought or thoughts, so many times you disregard. So you develop the habit of disregarding until at last the negative thought will have no influence in you. It is such a simple process! See, you are taking only the mind for its partial function. All the thoughts are produced by the mind. At no point of time the mind tells you “Mister, Listen, I am going to produce a bad thought. Will you allow me to do so? Shall I produce it or not?” This kind of an interrogation is not there. So what will you do?

It is your mind that for some known or unknown reason produces negative thoughts and the same mind tells you that they are negative. What does it mean? Suppose you are walking and while walking there is a thorn or a glass piece on the path. You notice it. What will you do? You simply place your step away from it in a safeguarded manner and bypass it. In the same manner, when the mind tells you that it is a negative thought, it is sufficient warning that you should not have any trek with it. That is all what you should do. Instead of doing that patiently and repeatedly, people are fretting and fuming saying that it has come, it has come, it has come, as a result of which the agitation is more and the negative thought also will be more.

The right attitude will be understanding that it is negative, don’t act upon it (or) follow it. Mind by its very nature is thinking and it should think one thought after the other, one thought after the other, plural thinking will take place. When such thinking takes place, all that you have to do is follow those things which you are finding beneficial and necessary and simply disregard the others. If you adopt this policy, you will find the negative thoughts will become weaker and weaker and either they will normally stop coming or even if they come, it will be just like writing in water.

At any point of time, you have no control over your thought process. But you must be able to interact with them effectively. In Aparokshanubhuti, Sankara explains, त्रिपञ्चाङ्गान्यथो वक्ष्ये, Tripañcāngānyatho vakshye (Aparokshanubhuti 100). There are fifteen limbs for the sadhana, ātma-jñāna-sādhana. All these are mentioned in yoga-sadhana with their special and special meaning.  But Sankara interprets all of them in the advaitic or jñānātmic manner. So here is one.

Sajātīya pravāhasca vijātīya tiraskṛtiḥ – Niyama means a kind of a law, a discipline, a kind of an adherence. So you must have a note of adherence in you, by virtue of which sajātīya pravāhasca, you encourage and allow thoughts which are in conformity with whatever you propose to do, thoughts which are in conformity with your sādhana, with your brahma-cintana. Find everything as God. Consider everything as Brahman. Do not entertain the thought that something is different. “No, No, how can I accept everything as Brahman or God? There are thieves and dacoits here.” But they also have a jīva, a soul. That soul is God alone. Why don’t you recognize that? “My mind will not allow me. How can I think like that?” This is your problem.

Sajātīya pravāhasca, your role is to see God in everything, Brahman in everything, seeing Brahman in everything. There are poisonous substances in this world, poisonous chemicals in this world. You yourself generate carbon dioxide poison and you live. While you want oxygen, you are leaving carbon dioxide. Is there any worse harmer than ourselves? We are taking food, the whole world is craving after food. Every time after taking food we have to pass urine and also stool. Both of them are waste and foul matter. Without generating and discharging it, can we live? What are you trying to say? It needs everything to make this world. So what you have to do is, sajātīya pravāhasca, encourage thoughts which are desirable.

Vijātīya tiraskṛtiḥ - And discourage and dissuade thoughts which are undesirable. So when negative thoughts come, all that you have to do is, “They are negative. I don’t want.” Never fret, never fume, never become intolerant. Allow the negative thoughts to come but do not be disturbed by the negativity, learn such a poise, such a composure that this negative thoughts will not the least affect you. It is one thing to create commotion that they have come. It is another to remain unruffled in their presence. Tell me which is better? Is it not to have negative thoughts better or whether negative thoughts come or not it is not in our hands, even when they come, remain unruffled. When you remain unruffled, two will be the consequences. One- The negative thoughts will have no purpose, meaning or relevance. Two - Even when they come, they will have no effect on you.  Having no effect on you is a better safety and a better outcome than the thoughts not appearing at all because the appearance or otherwise of the thoughts does not depend upon you. So let us be prepared to have these thoughts for some reason, at the same time remain unruffled.

The one sādhana that I repeatedly say is avoiding the undesirable, dissuading them and inviting and encouraging the desirable. Eliminating the undesirable and incorporating the desirable is a process that should go on, will go on till the last breadth. It is all so beautiful, so nice, so logical. Bring the most wicked man before me, I will tell him “I accept you.”

“Do you agree that you are wicked?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like it?”

“No."

“Do you want to get rid of it?”

“Yes.”

So simply remain, when wickedness and wicked thoughts come, simply dissuade them and don’t act upon them. The same mind which brings these also tells you that they are wicked, so there is a great safety and a refuge for you.

Oh! How much people suffer! Sometimes I am wondering why nobody is there to tell them this truth.

Eliminating the undesirable, incorporating the desirable is such an inner regulation and refinement that it gives you paramānanda straightaway. And knowledgeable and discreet people adopt this discipline.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.