As a thinker said, ‘We cannot always choose the music life plays for us but we can choose how we dance to it’. You are not a helpless puppet in the hands of an unknown puppeteer. Everything in life is a reflection of choices you have made in the past. To bring about a more successful and happier result, you now have to make different choices.
The power lies in you. You have the power to create your own destiny. With this new-found confidence, you can sculpt a brilliant future for yourself. Nobody can predict your future. Only you can create it—with your thoughts. One thought can change the pattern of your life. Sometimes society, nation, the whole world can transform with just a thought.
Thoughts are like bacteria. They multiply fast and change the fabric of your life. A thought pops up in your mind. If you identify with it without the intervention of the intellect, you get caught up with it and it imprisons you. Thereafter you cannot think any other way, however bizarre and unreasonable the thought may be. Shakespeare’s Othello had no doubt that he was right and strangled his wife Desdemona to death! Macbeth thought there was no other way of becoming King than by killing King Duncan. Similarly, we are all locked on to a particular way of life, not realising there are better alternatives.
The law is—As You Think So You Become. Your thoughts are the blueprint which pan out as your personality and circumstance. A happy mind creates a happy world; an ill-tempered mind projects an angry world. A small mind is focussed on petty, insignificant things. A mature mind sees beauty and grandeur in the universe. If your environment is not conducive, you cannot go out into the world to change it. Change your thoughts. Miraculously, the situation begins to change.
You cannot achieve greatness with a small mind. You have to first think big, beyond yourself. But you have desires to fulfil, money to earn, family to look after and you get bogged down with just this. To achieve excellence, you do not need more degrees, better skills or enhanced connections. All you need is improved thoughts! This is easier said than done. You need guidance to bring about this change.
India is blessed with a galaxy of great thinkers who left a rich legacy of wisdom that transforms ordinary mortals to extraordinary immortals. They prescribed ways to expand the mind, rise above petty considerations and move from mediocrity to excellence, from limitation and bondage to that limitless state of infinite Bliss. The byproducts are immense success and happiness.
It is a myth that spiritual life entails shunning of wealth, family and the good life. Do not renounce wealth. Give up the greed that comes in the way of acquiring wealth. Be content with what you have. With a calm mind the intellect can aspire for more. Fix a higher ideal. Work dedicatedly for the welfare of others. Prosperity and happiness will come to you!The whole world is in a frenzied chase after enjoyment. The more you indulge the less you enjoy. The way out is regulated contact with sense objects. So that the thrill of the first contact continues till the last day of life!
You have conflict with the people you love most because of attachment. Attachment is love polluted by selfishness. Attachment springs from insecurity and lack of self-sufficiency. The law is—Attach you suffer. Attach you lose. The way out is ‘detachment’ or true love. Love people for what they are. Have no expectations, make no demands. Your love will be returned in ample measure and you will have amazingly satisfying relationships.
Life is as uncertain as a drop of water on a lotus leaf. Even during your life you are consumed by disease, sorrow and arrogance. Understand the futility of worldly pursuits. Seek the permanent. With the knowledge of the higher, enjoy the passing, ephemeral joys. Upgrade your feelings and thoughts. Keep the company of good people, loving and uplifting thoughts.
As the mind expands to accommodate the higher, you get disengaged from the lower. You grow into a towering personality, independent of the world. Ultimately, you take that giant leap into the realm of the Infinite!(Create a better future for yourself with Jaya Row’s latest book, Good Karma: Make the Right Choices for Tomorrow, available on Amazon)