Do we dare to think? By Swami Sukhabodhananda

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Do we dare to think? By Swami Sukhabodhananda
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Each one is a victim to ones inner conditioning
ones inner programming. Look at the following
intriguing incident - Every night, a baby
elephant was tied to a pillar, and in the
morning, it was untied. This went on for many
years. One night, it so happened that Mahout
forgot to tie the elephant to the pillar. Next
day morning, when Mahout tried to take out the
elephant, it was not moving for the elephant
felt it was tied. So the mahout had to pretend to
untie the elephant and then it moved. The
elephant was conditioned to the tying and untying
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Hence, it was blind to the fact that it was not
tied. This is true for many people. Our
conditioning is killing us but still we continue
to be in the conditioning, which is, false. Even
the false can truly bind us like in the above
example of the elephant. One has to be extremely
alert. This is a salient point I am unfolding to
you.   To think without the tyrant thinker is to
be free from thought   The whole principle of
yoga is based on three basic facts (a)  Understand
the mind, (b) Transform the mind and (c)
Transcend the mind.
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One should see the fact that our mind is nothing
but thoughts. Thoughts, in many cases, have more
impact than the situation. This has to be
understood deeply and not merely intellectually.
Let me illustrate this with an example. A lady is
invited to a 5 star hotel. This being her first
visit to a 5 star hotel, lady reaches early and
goes on a tour of the hotel. Seeing the beautiful
ambience of the hotel, she felt extremely happy.
As people start coming in, she sees how
beautifully they are dressed and what costly
jewellery they are wearing. She feels that, in
contrast to other guests, her dress and jewels
are acutely ordinary.
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Initially, if you see, she was happy, and now
when she finds others are well dressed, she is
unhappy. The situation is not different, but mind
due to comparison has brought in pain. See how
mind impacts. One has to understand this fact.
Most of the time, we are busy changing the
situation hoping we will be happy. But we dont
take time to see what is our state of our mind.
In most situations, mind has deeper impact in
life than the situations
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Secondly one has to transform the mind. Minds
prime function is interpretation. Our
interpretation can be whipping or uplifting. Let
us say a child has failed in an examination.
Mother gives herself an uplifting talk. She says
that next time her son will study hard and pass
the examination. Father whips himself by saying
my son is a gone case he will never come up and
he is spoilt. So, parents desirous of
transformation should be disciplined to give
uplifting self-talk. Lastly, transcending the
mind is through meditation. Meditation is not a
process of thinking. Thinking is the first step
but one has to transcend thinking.