Satyopanisad

[Guest guest]

Swami! Because of wrong direction in our thinking, we feel dejected restless and

often fail in our attempts. Kindly show us the way out of it.

 

For all these agitations, disturbances, disappointments, depressions and

failures, your wrong way of thinking is responsible. It is totally misdirected.

Whatever may happen in life, you should think, " This is good for me " . You should

know that everything that happens ultimately turns to your own good. This is

called positive thinking. Today you are full of negative thoughts. How do you

expect to know and experience God?

 

Your body, mind, intellect and the senses are completely negative, but your

spirit, conscience, or Atma is positive. God is your conscience. Do you know why

you are not able to realise and experience God? It is entirely due to these

negative thoughts and attitudes. So, positive thinking and positive actions are

very essential for spiritual progress. Only then will you be peaceful, blissful

and successful.

 

Take your own example. It is absolutely because of positive thinking that you

are able to plan your academic programme and prepare yourself accordingly, as

also aim to secure a good rank in the examinations and later a job. But planning

to study whatever would fetch you a very fat salary, help you to go abroad, earn

more money and marry a girl who would get you a large amount of dowry, is

negative thinking.

 

Turning to parents, educating you is absolutely positive but making a business

out of the education given to you is negative thinking. For a doctor to treat a

patient and cure is a positive approach, but if the money is the criterion for

the treatment given to the patient, it is a negative approach. We should today

fill our hearts with all positive thoughts like divine feelings, divine

sentiments and good thoughts. Then only you will experience God who is

sat-cit-ananda , the absolute positive. Therefore, it is necessary for you to

take everything as good for you. This is positive thinking. Come what may,

problems, difficulties, troubles, failures, losses, blame and what not! You will

know later that all this had happened for your own good.

 

A small story. There was a king who had a fancy one day to cut a sugarcane all

by himself to small pieces and eat it piece by piece. While he was cutting, as

ill luck would have it, he had cut his finger. The minister who was by his side,

remarked " Oh King! You have cut your finger. This is good for you. " On hearing

this remark; the king grew wild, and thought, " What! How can this, my having

lost my finger be good? What would the minister say if I lose my head too? " So

the king ordered, out of fury and anger, that the minister be put in prison.

Then the minister said, " Oh King! This imprisonment is my good fortune " .

 

After some time, the king went hunting all alone to a nearby forest. He lost his

way and was noticed by some tribals moving in that area. They were actually in

search of a man suitable to be sacrificed to propitiate their deity at the end

of their ritual. They caught hold of the king and took him to their head priest.

After checking the king thoroughly, the head priest said, " We can't kill this

king and make an offering to our deity as one of his fingers is missing. A

handicapped or crippled body is unfit to be an offering. " Saying so, he let the

king go away from there.

 

On the way the king realised the truth of what the minister had said, " This is

good for you " when he had cut his finger. He summoned the minister and said, " Oh

Minister! How true is what you said! It was just because of the fact that I had

lost my finger that the tribals set me free, unharmed. Now I have one doubt. You

remarked that it was good for you when I put you behind bars. How has this

imprisonment turned out to be good for you? " Then the minister replied,

'.Certainly! Had I not been kept in the jail, I would have followed you. The

tribals after leaving you, would have caught hold of me, killed me and offered

me to their deity in your place. So this punishment has been my good fortune " .

This is positive thinking and attitude. Then happiness and success follow you.

 

akkaraku rani cuttamu

mrokkina varamiyani velpu

moharamuna tanekkina parani gurramu

grakkunna viduvangavalayu gadara sumati

 

This Telugu poem, means, `A relation who doesn't come to your help in time of

need, a God who doesn't grant you boons even after you pray, a horse that

doesn't run in the battlefield, will have to be given up immediately, Oh! Wise

one! Is it not so?'

 

Here, in this poem, first of all, know that it is addressed to a Sumati, a wise

one. It is true that you have to sever connections with a relation who doesn't

come to your aid in the hour of your need, give up the horse that fails to run

in the battlefield, and forget a God who doesn't grant you rewards even after

you pray. Here, you should note one important point. Why don't you think this

way? Before you blame your relation that he is not of any help to you when you

need him most, why don't you think for a while whether you have ever been of any

help to your relation when he needed you? A horse that doesn't gallop in the

field must be given up, but why don't you question your competence in horse

riding? God who doesn't respond to your prayers is not God. But do you deserve

what you desire and pray for? This poem is meant for that person, Sumati who

thinks positively before blaming anybody. This is how your thinking process

should be.