Now let us look at mindset. When doubts cease, mindset comes into play. Mindset is the very opposite of doubt. Here we know exactly what we want and do our utmost to get it.
This is good from the point of view of will power. However, in another way it is bad, because it makes us unreasonable, inconsiderate, adamant and obsessive. We want things to be done only in our way.
We will never rest until we get what we want. Our level of expectations is very high. We have no adaptability or flexibility. If we don’t get what we want, we become discontented, frustrated, angry, unhappy and depressed. We grumble, complain and lash out at others making their life miserable.
Most of us oscillate between doubt and mindset. Sometimes we are plagued by doubts and at other times we are adamant and obsessive about what we want. As long as this keeps happening, it saps our mental, intellectual and spiritual energy.
We will never progress in life since there are no vibrations coming from us to make this happen. If we measure the rate of our vibrations on a scale of 1 to 100, when we are born we are vibrating at 100 per cent. Up to the age of about seven years, we continue to vibrate at 100 per cent frequency.
After the age of seven, it starts declining drastically. Our karma gets completely activated when we are 13 and it consolidates by the time we are 17 or 18. When we are 18, our vibration frequency can even come down to zero, if our karma is very bad.
That is why we see many children who are brilliant in studies till 12 or 13, suddenly slide downhill after that. So, the rate of our vibration decides our success and happiness in life. Our elders were aware of this.
That is why each household used to follow traditions which used to preserve the vibrations in a child - lighting lamps, applying kumkum [vermillion powder], reciting mantras and slokas [hymns], reading the epics and scriptures, celebrating festivals, singing bhajans, telling children divine stories, etc.
All these customs keep our vibrations intact. This spiritual culture is woven predominantly around our soul. Most of us here have come through this culture. It is because of this that our vibrations are at least retained at this level now.
Mindset + Doubt = Delusion. Delusion leads to imaginary illusions in life. For example, if somebody knocks at the door, we imagine that there is a thief outside. Such fears are often induced in us during our childhood. Parents try to control their children by saying - “The devil will come and pounce on you” or If you don’t stop your tantrum, the policeman will come.” These threats turn into subconscious fears which sap our will power. This in turn increases our insecurity, doubts and mindsets.
Mindset creates expectation and expectation creates superstition. If we feel that things should happen only in a certain way, it leads to superstition in life.
We need not go into the innumerable superstitions that our fertile brains have created - a cat should not cross our path, a mirror should not break, a lamp in the puja room should not fall. All this is nonsense. We had not taken care to keep the lamp properly, so it fell. God has not created a special environment in our puja room to make only our lamp fall. Instead of exercising our common sense, we have all acquired a wonderful Master’s degree in our lives!
Today we are all MDs - Mindset and Doubt. We should come out of these things which are restricting our development in life. Otherwise we will never evolve.
Extract from ‘The book of direct truths, subtle truths and the mystical truths of Devi Mahatmyam’ by Shri Shri Nimishananda