While going to bed at night, sometimes thoughts of issues and problems that seem to have no solution may nag you. They keep swimming in the rut of the mind and, try as you might, it refuses to go away. However, with the help of many methods such as chanting, prayers or repeating a divine name again and again, sleep may come and stay well through the night too.
When you wake up early in the morning, the mind is in its most subtle state, where glimpses of knowledge may also be revealed that can give solutions to the problems. The solutions can be a great eye-opener that may have the answer for a single persistent question. For instance, if you have been pondering and contemplating about the importance of spirituality in the present day education system or what are the effects of the lack of it on the minds of students, then you may wake up with a thought like this.
Whenever a person is chanting prayers, shlokas or mantras that are considered powerful, there is a subtle field of energy that is released by every particle of sound. The more the chanting and prayers, and the longer its duration is, its regularity and intensity keep constantly releasing energy particles around the person that functions as a shield. That is the reason why we have many Kavachams—shields—in our Sanskrit prayers such as the Shashti Kavacham or the Narayana Kavacham.
The right knowledge is a protection. When we are using our sense organs of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling in the most divine manner, there is a sound field that is created around the body, and especially the mind. This sound field is made up of sound particles, but to the outer ear it is rather silent. It is not audible nor is the presence of an aura perceptible to the eyes. That field retains cosmic energy and keeps radiating it all the time.
What happens when we are abundantly surrounded by this field of energy? One thing is the number of difficulties in life will reduce. Every difficulty is simply a thought. So when thoughts are reduced, the difficulties will also reduce. If at all there is a difficult situation, the presence of this energy makes us acutely aware of why it came at all in the first place. So the process of learning from mistakes is enhanced. Once the confirmed knowledge and learning happens, then the difficult thought exists no more. It just moves away like a broken cloud in the presence of bright sunshine.
So, watch out for these answers as you wake up. Its presence is so subtle that it will not be clearly evident and available for long. The moment you step out of the bed and begin your run of the mill activities of the day, the educative thought disperses like mist in the mountains. It is not available for holding on to but for learning from such thoughts that bring with it their solutions for our questions. The author is Acharya, Chinmaya Mission, Tiruchi (www.sharanyachaitanya.blogspot.in)