Thought Power

Excerpts: Thought Power-Its Physics and Its Philosophy Chapter 1

By Swami Sivananda

Thought Excels Light in Speed

While light travels at the rate of 1,86,000 miles per second, thoughts virtually travel in no time.

Thought is finer than ether, the medium of electricity. In broadcasting, a singer sings beautiful songs at Calcutta. You can hear them nicely through the radio set in your own house at Delhi. All messages are received through the wireless.

Even so your mind is like a wireless machine. A saint with peace, poise, harmony and spiritual waves sends out into the world thoughts of harmony and peace. They travel with lightning speed in all directions and enter the minds of persons and produce in them also similar thoughts of harmony and peace. Whereas a worldly man whose mind is full of jealousy, revenge and hatred sends out discordant thoughts which enter the minds of thousands and stir in them similar thoughts of hatred and discord.

The Medium Through Which Thoughts Travel

If we throw a piece of stone in a tank or a pool of water, it will produce a succession of concentric waves travelling all around from the affected place.

The light of a candle will similarly give rise to waves of ethereal vibrations travelling in all directions from the candle.

In the same manner, when a thought, whether good or evil, crosses the mind of a person, it gives rise to vibrations in the Manas or mental atmosphere, which travel far and wide in all directions.

What is the possible medium through which thoughts can travel from one mind to another? The best possible explanation is that Manas or mind-substance fills all space like ether and it serves as the vehicle for thoughts, as Prana is the vehicle for feeling, as ether is the vehicle for heat, light and electricity and as air is the vehicle for sound.

Thoughts Are Tremendous Powers

Thought has got tremendous power. Thought can heal diseases. Thoughts can transform the mentality of persons. Thought can do anything. It can work wonders. The velocity of thought is unimaginable.

Thought is a dynamic force. It is caused by the vibrations of psychic Prana or Sukshma Prana on the mental substance. It is a force like gravitation, cohesion or repulsion. Thought travels or moves.

Marvels of Thought-vibrations

Every thought that you send out is a vibration which never perishes. It goes on vibrating every particle of the universe and if your thoughts are noble, holy and forcible, they set in vibration every sympathetic mind.

Unconsciously all people who are like you take the thought you have projected and in accordance with the capacity that they have, they send out similar thoughts. The result is that, without your knowledge of the consequences of your own work, you will be setting in motion great forces which will work together and put down the lowly and mean thoughts generated by the selfish and the wicked.

Diversity of Thought-vibrations

Every man has his own mental world, his own mode of thinking, his own ways of understanding things and his own ways of acting.

Just as the face and voice of every man differ from those of another man, the mode of thinking and understanding also differs. That is the reason why misunderstanding easily occurs between friends.

One is not able to understand rightly the views of another. Hence friction, rupture and quarrel occur within a minute even amongst fast friends. The friendship does not last long.

One should be in tune with the mental vibrations or thought-vibrations of another. Then only can one easily understand another.

Lustful thoughts, thoughts of hatred, jealousy and selfishness produce distorted images in the mind and cause clouding of understanding, perversion of intellect, loss of memory and confusion in the mind.

The Cell-theory and the Thoughts

A cell is a mass of protoplasm with a nucleus. It is endowed with intelligence. Some cells secrete, while some cells excrete. The cells of the testes secrete semen; the cells of the kidneys excrete urine. Some cells act the part of a soldier. They defend the body from the inroads or attacks of foreign poisonous matter and germs. They digest and throw them out. Some cells carry food materials to the tissues and organs.

The cells perform their work without your conscious volition. Their activities are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system. They are in direct communion with the mind in the brain.

Every impulse of the mind, every thought, is conveyed to the cells. They are greatly influenced by the varying conditions or states of the mind. If there are confusion, depression and other negative emotions and thoughts in the mind, they are telegraphically transmitted through the nerves to every cell in the body. The soldier-cells become panic-stricken. They are weakened. They are not able to perform their function properly. They become inefficient.

Some people are extremely body-conscious, and possess no idea of the Self. They live irregular, indisciplined lives and fill their stomachs with sweets, pastries, and so on. There is no rest for the digestive and the eliminating organs. They suffer from physical weakness and diseases. The atoms, molecules and cells in their bodies produce discordant or inharmonious vibrations. They have no hope, confidence, faith, serenity and cheerfulness. They are unhappy. The life-force is not operating properly. Their vitality is at a low ebb. Their mind is filled with fear, despair, worry and anxiety.

Radium and the Rare Yogi

Radium is a rare commodity. Yogins who have controlled their thoughts are also very rare in this world, like radium.

Just as sweet perfume continuously emanates from an incense stick, so also divine perfume and divine effulgence (magnetic, Brahmic aura) radiate from a Yogi who has controlled his thoughts and who is constantly dwelling on Brahman or the Infinite.

The effulgence and perfume of his face is Brahma-Varchas. When you hold in your hand a bouquet made of jasmine, rose and Champaka flowers, the sweet perfume pervades the whole hall and tickles all alike.

Even so the perfume or fame and reputation (Yasas and Kirti) of a Yogi who has controlled his thoughts spreads far and wide. He becomes a cosmic force.

Thought—Its Weight, Size and Shape

Every thought has got weight, shape, size, form, colour, quality and power. A Yogi can see all these thoughts directly with his inner Yogic eye.

Thoughts are like things. Just as you hand over an orange to your friend and take it back, so also you can give a useful, powerful thought to your friend and also take it back.

Thought is a great force; it moves; it creates. You can work wonders with the power of thought. You must know the right technique of handling and manipulating a thought.

Thought—Its Form, Its Name and Colour

Suppose your mind is rendered perfectly calm, entirely without thoughts. Nevertheless, as soon as thought begins to rise, it will immediately take name and form.

Every thought has a certain name and a certain form. Thus you find that every idea that man has or can have, must be connected with a certain word as its counterpart.

Form is the grosser and name the finer state of a single manifesting power called thought.

But these three are one; wherever there is one, the other two also are there. Wherever name is, there are form and thought.

A spiritual thought has yellow colour. A thought charged with anger and hatred is of a dark red colour; a selfish thought has a brown colour and so on.

Thought—Its Power, Workings and Uses

Thought is a vital, living dynamic power—the most vital, subtle and irresistible force existing in the universe.

Through the instrumentality of thought you acquire creative power. Thought passes from one man to another. It influences people; a man of powerful thought can influence readily people of weak thoughts.

There are nowadays numerous books on thought-culture, thought power, thought-dynamics. A study of them will give you a comprehensive understanding of thought, its power, its workings and usefulness.

We Live in a Boundless World of Thoughts

Thought alone is the whole world, the great pains, the old age, death and the great sin, earth, water, fire, air, ether. Thought binds a man. He who has controlled his thoughts, is a veritable God on this earth.

You live in a world of thoughts. First is thought. Then there is the expression of that thought through the organ of speech. Thought and language are intimately connected. Thoughts of anger, bitterness and malice injure others. If the mind which is the cause of all thoughts vanishes, the external objects will disappear.

Thoughts are things. Sound, touch, form, taste and odour, the five sheaths, the waking, the dreaming and deep sleep states—all these are the products of mind. Sankalpa, passion, anger, bondage, time—know them to be the result of mind. Mind is the king of the Indriyas or senses. Thought is the root of all mental process.

The thoughts that we perceive all round us are only the mind in form or substance. Thought creates, thought destroys. Bitterness and sweetness do not lie in the objects, but they are in the mind, in the subject, in thinking. They are created by thought.

Through the play of the mind or thought upon objects, proximity appears to be a great distance and vice versa. All objects in this world are unconnected; they are connected and associated together only by thought, by the imagination of your mind. It is the mind that gives colour, shape, qualities to the objects. Mind assumes the shape of any object it intensely thinks upon.

Friend and enemy, virtue and vice are in the mind only. Every man creates a world of good and evil, pleasure and pain, out of his own imagination only. Good and evil, pleasure and pain do not proceed from objects. These belong to the attitude of your mind. There is nothing good nor pleasant in this world. Your imagination makes it so.

Excerpts: Thought Power-Its Laws and Its Dynamics, Chapter 2

Thoughts Chisel Your Countenance

Your face is like a gramophone record or plate. Whatever you think is at once written on your face.

Every vicious thought serves as a chisel or needle to write down the thoughts on your countenance. Your faces are covered with the scars and wounds which are made by the vicious thoughts of hatred, anger, lust, jealousy, revenge, etc.

From the nature of the scar on your face, we can at once read your state of mind. We can at once diagnose the disease of your mind.

He who thinks that he can hide his thoughts is a dunce of the first water. His position is like that of the ostrich which, when chased by the hunters, hides its head underneath the sand and imagines that it cannot be seen by anyone.

Face is the index of the mind. Face is the mould of the mind. Every thought cuts a groove in the face. A divine thought brightens the face. An evil thought darkens the face. Continued divine thoughts increase the aura or halo.

Continued evil thoughts increase the depth of dark impressions, just as the continued striking of a vessel against the edge of a well while drawing water makes deeper and deeper hollow on the vessel. The facial expression truly advertises the inner state of the mind or the true contents of the mind.

The face is like an advertisement-board wherein is advertised what is going inside the mind. Your thoughts, sentiments, modes and emotions produce their strong impressions on the face.

In your face, you can hardly hide your thoughts. You may wrongly think that you have kept up your thoughts in secret. The thoughts of lust, greed, jealousy, anger, revenge, hatred, etc., at once produce their deep impressions on your face.

The face is a faithful recorder and a sensitive registering apparatus to register and record all the thoughts that are in your mind.

The face is a polished mirror to indicate the nature of the mind and its contents at a particular time.

Thoughts Feature the Physical Expressions

Mind is the subtle form of this physical body. The physical body is the outward manifestation of the thoughts. So when the mind is wrought, the body is wrought too.

As a man of rough appearance generally cannot invoke love and mercy of others, so a rough-minded man cannot invoke love and mercy of anybody.

Mind very conspicuously reflects on the face its various states which a man of intelligence can very easily read.

The body follows the mind. If the mind thinks of falling from a height, the body prepares itself immediately and shows external signs. Fear, anxiety, grief, cheerfulness, hilarity, anger, all produce their various impressions on the face.

Your Eyes Betray Your Thoughts

The eyes which represent the windows of the soul bespeak of the condition and state of the mind.

There is a telegraphic instrument in the eyes to transmit the messages or thoughts of treachery, depression, gloom, hatred, cheerfulness, peace, harmony, health, power, strength and beauty.

If you have the faculty to read the eyes of others, you can read the mind at once. You can read the uppermost thought or dominant thought of a man if you are careful to mark the signs in his face, conversation and behaviour. It needs a little pluck, acumen, training, intelligence and experience.

Negative Thoughts Poison Life

Thoughts of worry and thoughts of fear are fearful forces within us. They poison the very sources of life and destroy the harmony, the running efficiency, the vitality and vigour. While the opposite thoughts of cheerfulness, joy and courage, heal, soothe, instead of irritating, and immensely augment efficiency and multiply the mental powers. Be always cheerful. Smile. Laugh.

The Creative Powers of Thought

Thought creates the world. Thought brings things into existence. Thoughts develop the desires and excite the passions. So, the contrary thoughts of killing the desires and passions will counteract the former idea of satisfying the desires. So when a person is impressed with this, a contrary thought will help him to destroy his desires and passions.

Think of a person as a good friend of yours and there the thing is created as a reality. Think of him as your foe, then also the mind perfects the thought into an actuality. He who knows the workings of the mind and has controlled it by practice is really happy.

Similar Thoughts Attract Each Other

In the thought-world also, the great law “Like attracts like”, operates. People of similar thoughts are attracted towards each other. That is the reason why the maxims run as follows: “Birds of the same feather flock together,” “A man is known by the company he keeps.”

A doctor is drawn towards a doctor. A poet has attraction for another poet. A songster loves another songster. A philosopher likes another philosopher. A vagabond likes a vagabond. The mind has got a ‘drawing power’.

You are continually attracting towards you, from both the seen and the unseen sides of life-forces, thoughts, influences and conditions most akin to those of your own thoughts and lines.

In the realm of thought, people of similar thoughts are attracted to one another. This universal law is continually operating whether we are conscious of it or not.

Carry any kind of thought you please about with you and so long as you retain it, no matter how you roam over the land or sea, you will unceasingly attract to yourself, knowingly or inadvertently, exactly and only what corresponds to your own dominant quality of thought. Thoughts are your private property and you can regulate them to suit your taste entirely by steadily recognizing your ability to do so.

You have entirely in your own hands to determine the order of thought you entertain and consequently the order of influence you attract and are not mere willowy creatures of circumstances, unless indeed you choose to be.

Spanish Flu and the Contagion of Thoughts

Mental actions are real actions. Thought is the real action; it is a dynamic force. It may be remembered, thought is very contagious; nay, more contagious than the Spanish Flu.

A sympathetic thought in you raises a sympathetic thought in others with whom you come in contact. A thought of anger produces a similar vibration in those who surround an angry man. It leaves the brain of one man and enters the brains of others who live at a long distance and excites them.

A cheerful thought in you produces cheerful thoughts in others. You are filled with joy and intense delight when you see a batch of hilarious children playing mirthfully and dancing in joy.

A thought of joy in us creates sympathetically a thought of joy in others. So do sublime elevating thoughts.

Keep a good and honest man in the company of a thief. He will begin to steal. Keep a sober man in the company of a drunkard. He will begin to drink. Thought is very contagious.

The Application of a Psychological Law

Keep the heart young. Do not think: “I have become old.” To think “I have become old” is a bad habit. Do not entertain this thought. At 60, think “I am 16.” As you think, so you become. This is a great psychological law.

“As a man thinketh so he becometh.” This is a great truth or truism. Think, “I am strong,” strong you become. Think, “I am weak,” weak you become. Think, “I am a fool,” fool you become. Think, “I am a sage or God,” sage or God you become.

Thought alone shapes and moulds a man. Man lives always in a world of thoughts. Every man has his own thought-world.

Imagination works wonders. Thought has tremendous force. Thought as already said, is a solid thing. Your present is the result of your past thoughts and your future will be according to your present thoughts. If you think rightly, you will speak rightly and act rightly. Speech and action simply follow the thoughts.

Understand the Laws of Thought

Every man should have a comprehensive understanding of the laws of thought and their operations. Then alone can one live in this world smoothly and happily. He can utilize the helping forces to serve his ends in the best possible manner.

He can neutralize the hostile forces or antagonistic currents. Just as the fish swims against the current, so also he will be able to go against the hostile currents by adjusting himself properly and safeguarding through suitable precautionary methods.

Otherwise he becomes a slave. He is tossed about hither and thither helplessly by various currents. He is drifted like a wooden plank in a river. He is very miserable and unhappy always, although he is wealthy and possesses everything.

The captain of a steamer who has mariner’s compass, who has knowledge of the sea, the routes and the oceanic currents can sail smoothly. Otherwise his steamer will be drifted here and there helplessly and wrecked by dashing against some icebergs or rocks. Likewise, a wise sailor in the ocean of this life who has a detailed knowledge of the Laws of Thought and Nature can sail smoothly and reach the goal of his life positively.

Understanding the laws of Thought, you can mould or shape your character in any way you like. The common saying, “As a man thinketh so he becometh,” is one of the great laws of Thought. Think you are pure, pure you will become. Think you are noble, noble you will become.

Become an embodiment of good nature. Think good of all. Do always good actions. Serve, love, give. Make others happy. Live to serve others. Then you will reap happiness. You will get favourable circumstances or opportunities and environments.

If you hurt others, if you do scandal-mongering, mischief-mongering, backbiting, talebearing, if you exploit others, if you acquire the property of others by foul means, if you do any action that can give pain to others, you will reap pain. You will get unfavourable circumstances or opportunities and environments.

This is the law of thought and nature. Just as you can build your good or bad character by sublime or base thinking, so also you can shape your favourable or unfavourable circumstances by doing good or bad actions.

A man of discrimination is always careful, vigilant and circumspect. He always watches carefully his thoughts. He introspects.

He knows what is going on in his mental factory what Vritti or Guna is prevailing at a particular time. He never allows any evil thought to enter the gates of his mental factory. He at once nips them in the bud.

By his good thinking, by watching the nature of his thoughts, by introspection, by active noble thinking, the man of discrimination builds his noble character, forms his high destiny. He is careful in his speeches. He speaks little. He speaks sweet loving words. He never utters any kind of harsh words that can affect the feelings of others.

He develops patience, mercy and universal love. He tries to speak truth. Thus he puts a check on the Vak-Indriya and the impulses of speech. He uses measured words. He writes measured lines. This produces deeply profound and favourable impression on the minds of the people.

He practices Ahimsa and Brahmacharya in thought, word and deed. He practices Saucha and Arjava (straightforwardness). He tries to keep up balance of mind and to be always cheerful. He keeps up Suddha-Bhava. He tries these three kinds of Tapas (physical, verbal and mental), and controls his actions. He cannot think any evil. He cannot do any evil action.

He prepares himself to get always favourable circumstances. He who spreads happiness will always get such favourable circumstances as can bring him happiness. He who spreads pain to others will, doubtless, get according to the law of thought such unfavourable circumstances as can bring him misery and pain. Therefore, man creates his own character and circumstances, by the manner of his own thinking.

Bad character can be transmuted into good one, by good thoughts, and unfavourable circumstances can be changed into favourable circumstances by doing good actions.

Thought—A Boomerang

Be careful of your thoughts. Whatever you send out of your mind, comes back to you. Every thought you think, is a boomerang.

If you hate another, hate will come back to you. If you love others, love will come back to you.

An evil thought is thrice cursed. First, it harms the thinker by doing injury to his mental body. Secondly, it harms the person who is its object. Lastly, it harms all mankind by vitiating the whole mental atmosphere.

Every evil thought is as a sword drawn on the person to whom it is directed. If you entertain thoughts of hatred, you are really a murderer of that man against whom you foster thoughts of hatred. You are your own suicide, because these thoughts rebound upon you only.

A mind tenanted by evil thoughts acts as a magnet to attract like thoughts from others and thus intensifies the original evil.

Evil thoughts thrown into the mental atmosphere poison receptive minds. To dwell on an evil thought gradually deprives it of its repulsiveness and impels the thinker to perform an action which embodies it.

Thoughts and the Waves of the Sea

Thoughts are like the waves of an ocean. They are countless. You may become desperate in the beginning of your attempt to conquer them.

Some thoughts will subside while some other thoughts will gush out like a stream. The same old thoughts that were once suppressed may again show their faces after some time. Never become despondent at any stage of practice. You will surely get inner spiritual strength. You are bound to succeed in the end. All the Yogins of yore had to encounter the same difficulties that you are experiencing now.

The process of destruction of mental modifications is difficult and long. All thoughts cannot be destroyed in a day or two. You should not give up the practice of destroying the thoughts in the middle when you come across some difficulties or stumbling blocks.

Your first attempt should be to reduce your wants and desires. Reduce your wants and desires; then, the thoughts will decrease by themselves. Gradually all thoughts will be extirpated.

Colour and Influence of Saintly Thoughts

The Buddha declared, “All that we are is made up of our thoughts.” It is our thoughts that cause the round of births. So, we should always strive to purify our thoughts.

When we go and sit near a sage, we feel a unique calmness; but if we are in the company of a bad and selfish person, we feel uneasy. It is because the vibrations of peace and calmness emanate from the aura of the sage, whereas from the aura of the selfish person emanate vibrations of evil and selfish thoughts.

The second effect of thought is the creation of a definite form. The quality and the nature of a thought determine, the colour and the clearness of that thought-form. A thought-form is a living entity and it has a strong tendency to carry out the intention of the thinker. Blue thought-forms denote devotion.

The thought-form of self-renunciation is of the lovliest pale azure with a white light shining through it. Thought-forms of selfishness, pride and anger are of grey-brown, orange and red colour, respectively.

Thought-dynamics in Universal Environs

Thought actually leaves the brain and hovers about. When a thought, whether good or evil, leaves the mind of a person it gives rise to vibrations in the Manas or mental atmosphere, which travel far and wide in all directions.

It enters the brains of others also. A sage living in a Himalayan cave transmits a powerful thought to a corner of America. He who tries to purify himself in a cave, really purifies the world, helps the world at large. Nobody can prevent his pure thoughts coming out and passing on to those others that really want them.

Just as the sun goes on continuously converting into vapour every drop of water that is on the surface of the earth and just as all the vapour thus rising up gathers together in the form of clouds, all the thoughts that you project from your own lonely corner will mount up and be wafted across space, join similar thoughts projected by those who are like you and, in the end, all these holy thoughts will come down with tremendous force to subjugate undesirable forces.

Excerpts: Thought Power-Its Laws and Its Dynamics, Chapter 2

By Swami Sivananda

Thoughts Chisel Your Countenance

Your face is like a gramophone record or plate. Whatever you think is at once written on your face.

Every vicious thought serves as a chisel or needle to write down the thoughts on your countenance. Your faces are covered with the scars and wounds which are made by the vicious thoughts of hatred, anger, lust, jealousy, revenge, etc.

From the nature of the scar on your face, we can at once read your state of mind. We can at once diagnose the disease of your mind.

He who thinks that he can hide his thoughts is a dunce of the first water. His position is like that of the ostrich which, when chased by the hunters, hides its head underneath the sand and imagines that it cannot be seen by anyone.

Face is the index of the mind. Face is the mould of the mind. Every thought cuts a groove in the face. A divine thought brightens the face. An evil thought darkens the face. Continued divine thoughts increase the aura or halo.

Continued evil thoughts increase the depth of dark impressions, just as the continued striking of a vessel against the edge of a well while drawing water makes deeper and deeper hollow on the vessel. The facial expression truly advertises the inner state of the mind or the true contents of the mind.

The face is like an advertisement-board wherein is advertised what is going inside the mind. Your thoughts, sentiments, modes and emotions produce their strong impressions on the face.

In your face, you can hardly hide your thoughts. You may wrongly think that you have kept up your thoughts in secret. The thoughts of lust, greed, jealousy, anger, revenge, hatred, etc., at once produce their deep impressions on your face.

The face is a faithful recorder and a sensitive registering apparatus to register and record all the thoughts that are in your mind.

The face is a polished mirror to indicate the nature of the mind and its contents at a particular time.

Thoughts Feature the Physical Expressions

Mind is the subtle form of this physical body. The physical body is the outward manifestation of the thoughts. So when the mind is wrought, the body is wrought too.

As a man of rough appearance generally cannot invoke love and mercy of others, so a rough-minded man cannot invoke love and mercy of anybody.

Mind very conspicuously reflects on the face its various states which a man of intelligence can very easily read.

The body follows the mind. If the mind thinks of falling from a height, the body prepares itself immediately and shows external signs. Fear, anxiety, grief, cheerfulness, hilarity, anger, all produce their various impressions on the face.

Your Eyes Betray Your Thoughts

The eyes which represent the windows of the soul bespeak of the condition and state of the mind.

There is a telegraphic instrument in the eyes to transmit the messages or thoughts of treachery, depression, gloom, hatred, cheerfulness, peace, harmony, health, power, strength and beauty.

If you have the faculty to read the eyes of others, you can read the mind at once. You can read the uppermost thought or dominant thought of a man if you are careful to mark the signs in his face, conversation and behaviour. It needs a little pluck, acumen, training, intelligence and experience.

Negative Thoughts Poison Life

Thoughts of worry and thoughts of fear are fearful forces within us. They poison the very sources of life and destroy the harmony, the running efficiency, the vitality and vigour. While the opposite thoughts of cheerfulness, joy and courage, heal, soothe, instead of irritating, and immensely augment efficiency and multiply the mental powers. Be always cheerful. Smile. Laugh.

The Creative Powers of Thought

Thought creates the world. Thought brings things into existence. Thoughts develop the desires and excite the passions. So, the contrary thoughts of killing the desires and passions will counteract the former idea of satisfying the desires. So when a person is impressed with this, a contrary thought will help him to destroy his desires and passions.

Think of a person as a good friend of yours and there the thing is created as a reality. Think of him as your foe, then also the mind perfects the thought into an actuality. He who knows the workings of the mind and has controlled it by practice is really happy.

Similar Thoughts Attract Each Other

In the thought-world also, the great law “Like attracts like”, operates. People of similar thoughts are attracted towards each other. That is the reason why the maxims run as follows: “Birds of the same feather flock together,” “A man is known by the company he keeps.”

A doctor is drawn towards a doctor. A poet has attraction for another poet. A songster loves another songster. A philosopher likes another philosopher. A vagabond likes a vagabond. The mind has got a ‘drawing power’.

You are continually attracting towards you, from both the seen and the unseen sides of life-forces, thoughts, influences and conditions most akin to those of your own thoughts and lines.

In the realm of thought, people of similar thoughts are attracted to one another. This universal law is continually operating whether we are conscious of it or not.

Carry any kind of thought you please about with you and so long as you retain it, no matter how you roam over the land or sea, you will unceasingly attract to yourself, knowingly or inadvertently, exactly and only what corresponds to your own dominant quality of thought. Thoughts are your private property and you can regulate them to suit your taste entirely by steadily recognizing your ability to do so.

You have entirely in your own hands to determine the order of thought you entertain and consequently the order of influence you attract and are not mere willowy creatures of circumstances, unless indeed you choose to be.

Spanish Flu and the Contagion of Thoughts

Mental actions are real actions. Thought is the real action; it is a dynamic force. It may be remembered, thought is very contagious; nay, more contagious than the Spanish Flu.

A sympathetic thought in you raises a sympathetic thought in others with whom you come in contact. A thought of anger produces a similar vibration in those who surround an angry man. It leaves the brain of one man and enters the brains of others who live at a long distance and excites them.

A cheerful thought in you produces cheerful thoughts in others. You are filled with joy and intense delight when you see a batch of hilarious children playing mirthfully and dancing in joy.

A thought of joy in us creates sympathetically a thought of joy in others. So do sublime elevating thoughts.

Keep a good and honest man in the company of a thief. He will begin to steal. Keep a sober man in the company of a drunkard. He will begin to drink. Thought is very contagious.

The Application of a Psychological Law

Keep the heart young. Do not think: “I have become old.” To think “I have become old” is a bad habit. Do not entertain this thought. At 60, think “I am 16.” As you think, so you become. This is a great psychological law.

“As a man thinketh so he becometh.” This is a great truth or truism. Think, “I am strong,” strong you become. Think, “I am weak,” weak you become. Think, “I am a fool,” fool you become. Think, “I am a sage or God,” sage or God you become.

Thought alone shapes and moulds a man. Man lives always in a world of thoughts. Every man has his own thought-world.

Imagination works wonders. Thought has tremendous force. Thought as already said, is a solid thing. Your present is the result of your past thoughts and your future will be according to your present thoughts. If you think rightly, you will speak rightly and act rightly. Speech and action simply follow the thoughts.

Understand the Laws of Thought

Every man should have a comprehensive understanding of the laws of thought and their operations. Then alone can one live in this world smoothly and happily. He can utilize the helping forces to serve his ends in the best possible manner.

He can neutralize the hostile forces or antagonistic currents. Just as the fish swims against the current, so also he will be able to go against the hostile currents by adjusting himself properly and safeguarding through suitable precautionary methods.

Otherwise he becomes a slave. He is tossed about hither and thither helplessly by various currents. He is drifted like a wooden plank in a river. He is very miserable and unhappy always, although he is wealthy and possesses everything.

The captain of a steamer who has mariner’s compass, who has knowledge of the sea, the routes and the oceanic currents can sail smoothly. Otherwise his steamer will be drifted here and there helplessly and wrecked by dashing against some icebergs or rocks. Likewise, a wise sailor in the ocean of this life who has a detailed knowledge of the Laws of Thought and Nature can sail smoothly and reach the goal of his life positively.

Understanding the laws of Thought, you can mould or shape your character in any way you like. The common saying, “As a man thinketh so he becometh,” is one of the great laws of Thought. Think you are pure, pure you will become. Think you are noble, noble you will become.

Become an embodiment of good nature. Think good of all. Do always good actions. Serve, love, give. Make others happy. Live to serve others. Then you will reap happiness. You will get favourable circumstances or opportunities and environments.

If you hurt others, if you do scandal-mongering, mischief-mongering, backbiting, talebearing, if you exploit others, if you acquire the property of others by foul means, if you do any action that can give pain to others, you will reap pain. You will get unfavourable circumstances or opportunities and environments.

This is the law of thought and nature. Just as you can build your good or bad character by sublime or base thinking, so also you can shape your favourable or unfavourable circumstances by doing good or bad actions.

A man of discrimination is always careful, vigilant and circumspect. He always watches carefully his thoughts. He introspects.

He knows what is going on in his mental factory what Vritti or Guna is prevailing at a particular time. He never allows any evil thought to enter the gates of his mental factory. He at once nips them in the bud.

By his good thinking, by watching the nature of his thoughts, by introspection, by active noble thinking, the man of discrimination builds his noble character, forms his high destiny. He is careful in his speeches. He speaks little. He speaks sweet loving words. He never utters any kind of harsh words that can affect the feelings of others.

He develops patience, mercy and universal love. He tries to speak truth. Thus he puts a check on the Vak-Indriya and the impulses of speech. He uses measured words. He writes measured lines. This produces deeply profound and favourable impression on the minds of the people.

He practices Ahimsa and Brahmacharya in thought, word and deed. He practices Saucha and Arjava (straightforwardness). He tries to keep up balance of mind and to be always cheerful. He keeps up Suddha-Bhava. He tries these three kinds of Tapas (physical, verbal and mental), and controls his actions. He cannot think any evil. He cannot do any evil action.

He prepares himself to get always favourable circumstances. He who spreads happiness will always get such favourable circumstances as can bring him happiness. He who spreads pain to others will, doubtless, get according to the law of thought such unfavourable circumstances as can bring him misery and pain. Therefore, man creates his own character and circumstances, by the manner of his own thinking.

Bad character can be transmuted into good one, by good thoughts, and unfavourable circumstances can be changed into favourable circumstances by doing good actions.

Thought—A Boomerang

Be careful of your thoughts. Whatever you send out of your mind, comes back to you. Every thought you think, is a boomerang.

If you hate another, hate will come back to you. If you love others, love will come back to you.

An evil thought is thrice cursed. First, it harms the thinker by doing injury to his mental body. Secondly, it harms the person who is its object. Lastly, it harms all mankind by vitiating the whole mental atmosphere.

Every evil thought is as a sword drawn on the person to whom it is directed. If you entertain thoughts of hatred, you are really a murderer of that man against whom you foster thoughts of hatred. You are your own suicide, because these thoughts rebound upon you only.

A mind tenanted by evil thoughts acts as a magnet to attract like thoughts from others and thus intensifies the original evil.

Evil thoughts thrown into the mental atmosphere poison receptive minds. To dwell on an evil thought gradually deprives it of its repulsiveness and impels the thinker to perform an action which embodies it.

Thoughts and the Waves of the Sea

Thoughts are like the waves of an ocean. They are countless. You may become desperate in the beginning of your attempt to conquer them.

Some thoughts will subside while some other thoughts will gush out like a stream. The same old thoughts that were once suppressed may again show their faces after some time. Never become despondent at any stage of practice. You will surely get inner spiritual strength. You are bound to succeed in the end. All the Yogins of yore had to encounter the same difficulties that you are experiencing now.

The process of destruction of mental modifications is difficult and long. All thoughts cannot be destroyed in a day or two. You should not give up the practice of destroying the thoughts in the middle when you come across some difficulties or stumbling blocks.

Your first attempt should be to reduce your wants and desires. Reduce your wants and desires; then, the thoughts will decrease by themselves. Gradually all thoughts will be extirpated.

Colour and Influence of Saintly Thoughts

The Buddha declared, “All that we are is made up of our thoughts.” It is our thoughts that cause the round of births. So, we should always strive to purify our thoughts.

When we go and sit near a sage, we feel a unique calmness; but if we are in the company of a bad and selfish person, we feel uneasy. It is because the vibrations of peace and calmness emanate from the aura of the sage, whereas from the aura of the selfish person emanate vibrations of evil and selfish thoughts.

The second effect of thought is the creation of a definite form. The quality and the nature of a thought determine, the colour and the clearness of that thought-form. A thought-form is a living entity and it has a strong tendency to carry out the intention of the thinker. Blue thought-forms denote devotion.

The thought-form of self-renunciation is of the lovliest pale azure with a white light shining through it. Thought-forms of selfishness, pride and anger are of grey-brown, orange and red colour, respectively.

Thought-dynamics in Universal Environs

Thought actually leaves the brain and hovers about. When a thought, whether good or evil, leaves the mind of a person it gives rise to vibrations in the Manas or mental atmosphere, which travel far and wide in all directions.

It enters the brains of others also. A sage living in a Himalayan cave transmits a powerful thought to a corner of America. He who tries to purify himself in a cave, really purifies the world, helps the world at large. Nobody can prevent his pure thoughts coming out and passing on to those others that really want them.

Just as the sun goes on continuously converting into vapour every drop of water that is on the surface of the earth and just as all the vapour thus rising up gathers together in the form of clouds, all the thoughts that you project from your own lonely corner will mount up and be wafted across space, join similar thoughts projected by those who are like you and, in the end, all these holy thoughts will come down with tremendous force to subjugate undesirable forces.

Excerpts-Thought Power-Value and Uses of Thought Power Chapter 3

By Swami Sivananda

Doctors Can Heal by Suggestion

Doctors should have a thorough knowledge of the science of suggestion. Sincere, sympathetic doctors are very rare. Doctors who have no knowledge of suggestion do more harm than good. They kill patients sometimes by unnecessarily frightening them.

If there is a little cough of an ordinary nature, the doctor says: “Now, my friend, you have got T.B. You must go to Bhowali or Switzerland or Vienna. You must go in for a course of tuberculin injection.” Poor patient is frightened. There is not at all any sign of consumption. The case is an ordinary one. It is simple catarrh of the chest from exposure to chills. The patient actually develops phthisis by fright and worry owing to the wrong destructive suggestion of the doctor.

The doctor ought to have told him: “Oh, it is nothing. It is simple cold. You will be all right by tomorrow. Take a purgative and inhale a little oil of eucalyptus. Adjust your diet. It is better you fast today.” Such doctor is God Himself. He must be adored.

A doctor may say now: “Well, sir, if I say so, I will lose my practice. I cannot pull on in this world.” This is a mistake. Truth always gains victory. People will run to you as you are sympathetic and kind. You will have a roaring practice.

There is healing by suggestion. This is a drugless treatment. This is suggestive therapeutics. By good and powerful suggestion, you can cure any disease. You will have to learn this science and practice it. All doctors of Homeopathic, Allopathic, Ayurvedic and Unani systems should know this science. They can combine this system along with their own systems. They will have a roaring practice by this happy combination.

Yogins Preach by Thought-transference

Through their spiritual vibrations and magnetic aura the unknown real Yogins help the world more than the ‘Yogins’ of the platform. Preaching from the pulpits and platforms belongs to men of second grade spirituality, who have no knowledge and never put to use the supernormal faculties and powers latent in them.

Great adepts and Mahatmas transmit their message through telepathy to deserving aspirants in different corners of the world. Means of communication that are supernormal to us are quite normal to a Yogi.

Influence Others by Thought

You can influence another man without any audible language. What is wanted is concentration of thought that is directed by the will. This is telepathy.

Here is an exercise for your practice in telepathy. Think of your friend or cousin who is living in a distant land. Bring a clear-cut image of his face to your mind. If you have his photo, look at it and speak to it audibly. When you retire to bed think of the picture with intense concentration. He will write to you the desired letter the following day or so. Try this yourself. Do not doubt. You will be quite surprised.

You will get success and firm conviction in the science of telepathy. Sometimes, when you are writing something or reading a newspaper, suddenly you get a message from some one near and dear to you. You think of him suddenly. He has sent a message to you. He has thought of you seriously.

Thought-vibrations travel faster than light or electricity. In such instances, the subconscious mind receives the messages or impressions and transmits the same to the conscious mind.

Varied Utility of Thought Power

The science of thought power is very interesting and subtle. This thought-world is more real relatively than this physical universe.

The power of thought is very great. Every thought of yours has a literal value to you in every possible way. The strength of your body, the strength of your mind, your success in life and the pleasures you give to others by your company—all depend on the nature and quality of your thoughts. You must know thought-culture, and develop thought power.

Powers of Thought—Their Value

If you have a comprehensive understanding of the workings of the thought-vibrations, if you know the technique of controlling the thoughts, if you know the method of transmitting beneficial thoughts to others at a distance by forming clear-cut well-defined powerful thought-waves, you can use this thought power a thousandfold more effectively. Thought works wonders.

A wrong thought binds. A right thought liberates. Therefore, think rightly and attain freedom. Unfold the occult powers hidden within you by understanding and realizing the powers of the mind. Close your eyes. Slowly concentrate. You can see distant objects, hear distant sounds, send messages to any part not only of this world, but of the other planets as well, heal persons thousands of miles off from you and move about to distant places in no time.

Believe in the powers of the mind. Interest, attention, will, faith and concentration will bring the desired fruit.

Thoughts Accomplish Many a Mission

You can aid a friend in trouble by transmitting to him thoughts of comfort, right from the place where you are. You can help a friend in search of Truth by thoughts, clear and definite of the truths you know.

You can send into the mental atmosphere thoughts which will raise, purify and inspire all who are sensible to them.

If you send out a loving, helpful thought to another man, it leaves your brain, goes directly to that man, raises a similar thought of love in his mind and returns back to you with redoubled force.

If you send out a thought of hatred to another man, it hurts that man and hurts you also by turning back to you with redoubled force.

Therefore, understand the laws of thought, raise only thoughts of mercy, love and kindness from your mind and be happy always.

When you send out a useful thought to help others, it must have a definite, positive purpose and aim. Then only it will bring out the desired effect. Then only that thought will accomplish a definite work.

Practice Thought-transference

Practice telepathy in the beginning from a short distance. It is better to practice at night, to start with.

Ask your friend to have the receptive attitude and concentration at ten o’clock. Ask him to sit on Vajrasana or Padmasana with closed eyes in a dark room.

Try to send your message exactly at the appointed time. Concentrate on the thoughts that you want to send. Will strongly now. The thoughts will leave your brain and enter the brain of your friend.

There may be some mistakes in the beginning here and there. When you advance in practice and know the technique well, you will always be correct in sending and receiving messages.

Later on, you will be able to forward messages to different corners of the world. Thought-waves vary in intensity and force. The sender and receiver should practice great and intense concentration. Then there will be force in sending the messages, clarity and accuracy in receiving the messages. Practice in the beginning telepathy from one room to the next room in the same house.

This science is very pleasant and interesting. It needs patient practice. Brahmacharya (celibacy) is very essential.

Power of Vigorous, Divine Thoughts

Thought is life. What you think, that you are. Your thought creates your environment. Your thoughts constitute your world.

If you entertain healthy thoughts, you can keep good health. If you hold on to sickly thoughts in the mind, thoughts of diseased tissues, thoughts of weak nerves, thoughts of improper functioning of organs, of viscera, you can never expect good health, beauty and harmony.

Remember that body is a product of the mind and is under the control of mind.

If you hold on to vigorous thoughts, your body, too, will be vigorous. Thoughts of love, peace, contentment, purity, perfection, Divinity, will make you, and also others around you, perfect and Divine. Cultivate divine thoughts.