Food For Thought

Monday, May 25, 2009

' Our Thoughts Have Power - Harness that Power '

P.Natarajan.

To begin with, a story comes in my mind which is connotative to the topic in question. A poor farmer who was undergoing problems one after another for sometime, decided to show his horoscope to an accredited astrologer. The astrologer did some calculations of the farmer's running period and was shocked to find the impending disaster that the farmer would die on the very same night. The astrologer decided not to reveal his findings and instead asked the farmer to meet him the next day. The astrologer was sure that the farmer would not be alive to meet him the next day.

The farmer , as he was returning , encountered heavy rains and thunder and ran for shelter. He went into a place which happened to be a very old 'Sivalaya'. The farmer was a staunch devotee of Lord Siva and bowed before the Lord in reverence. He was also shocked to note that the told temple was in a dilapidated condition.

The farmer closed his eyes for a while in prayer. As the rains started to pour more heavily, the farmer's thoughts ran very wild. In a sort of deep meditation, he began to think in an inspiring manner :-



'If only I had the money, I would renovate this temple in a grand manner...He was drawing a new picture or image for the Temple..., in his thoughts, he built a beautiful 'Rajagopuram', then he started to build a pure gold shield all round the temple tower, went on to erect an 'Yagasala' where he invited a large number of Vedic Priests and Acharyas who also recited the four Vedas and Upanishads. The farmer 'performed ' Kumbhabhishegam ' mentally and thus his thoughts was filtering in a noble way.

The rains stopped after a while and as the farmer opened his eyes, he saw to his horror a black cobra was about to jump over him. He made a lightning exit from the temple which also crashed down as it was no more possible to bear the onslaught of the rains in its conditions.

He went on to meet the astrologer the next day. The astrologer was doubly shocked to see him alive, but quickly came to his senses. He began to think that if a person were to come alive from the throngs of death, it could be possible astrologically only if he had built a Temple and performed Kumbhabhishega. The astrologer was blissfully unaware of the fact that the farmer had built a temple and performed kumbhabhishega in his thoughts itself.

The episode above depicts that our thoughts have power and are great source of inspiration. The mind invents and Scientists are born by their discoveries of thoughts. The World and its People are the thoughts of the great Creator. God gives lives to men and matter. The great Banian Tree is born from the seeds which looked very small and insignificant when they were planted.

Thoughts and thinking are like the processors of mind. Cognition, sentience,
consciousness, idea, imagination - all these result as a chain reaction. The biology behind the thoughts are neurons which are nothing but excitable cells. Neurons respond to stimuli and inturn send responses to the other parts of the body.

Thinking is an intelligent exertion at finding an answer to a question or a problem. It is termed as cognitive psychology or in simple words 'insight'. The central issue in philosophy of mind is its or brain's relationship with the physical body.

The Tamil Poet Bharathiyar sings:-
" ( in Tamil) Enniyya mudithal vendum ", the second line reads
" nallave ennal vendum". Bharathiyar emphasizes in these two lines that, it is essential that one should work out his thoughts into action and it is essential that the thoughts need to be wholesome and good".


The butterfly does not look beautiful in the nascent stage. The tree sheds its old leaves in sun light and regenerates new fresh and colorful leaves again.The Nature shows the way to human beings. God has planted the power of thinking in humans' minds. He need not fear of the past nor worry about the future. He can concentrate on the present for it offers many opportunities. This is known as the thory of positive thinking.

A core of rupees look small before a living legend as his thoughts can create crores after crores of wealth. As we do exercises to keep the body fit, generating good thinking serve as an exercise to keep the mind from bad thoughts. Bharathiyar sings that the thoughts which are of pure in nature make the man as God.

What is life, but an angle of vision. The maxim ' the child is the father of man' has come to stay as it is necessary to think of tomorrow or the future, not alone the present.

Our thoughts have power. Be it meditation, prayer or simply focused intention, the power of thought can change our attitudes, emotions, physical bodies, even the physical world around us. Harness that power.

A German proverb says ' the heaviest baggage for a traveller is an empty purse'. Don't you agree that this proverb is as a result of thoughts of some German Fellow. To quote Lord Tennyson ; " Knowledge Comes, But Wisdom Lingers".

pn