MAN CAN ACHIEVE WHATEVER

 

Man can achieve anything the mind is capable of thinking. This is a very common law, a very elementary law that if you keep thinking of a certain object, you can materialise the object. We are not talking of magical voodoo; that is nonsense. But if you have a burning desire to achieve a specific goal and think about it positively, you can achieve whatever your thought commands you to achieve.

Any person can make a resolution that in five years, I am going to be a millionaire, and he will be a millionaire! Firstly, that burning desire to achieve is needed. Secondly, the proper planning should go behind it. The planning should be such that at the end of one year, I must reach a certain level; at the end of the second year, I must reach this level; third year, that level; fourth that level, and within the fifth year, I am a millionaire.

That is something different from daydreaming. You can daydream, and in fact, most people daydream about things – wishful thinking, I am this, I am that. But here we are talking about solid, concrete thoughts where there is a determination to achieve something, and you are capable of achieving anything your heart desires.

When you associate this thought with meditation, your meditational practices will make your thoughts more potent. That same power can be misused; it can be abused. This is the thing which is happening in many movements I have seen and studied that teach this principle of how the power of the mind can be used to achieve one’s goal. They show you how to achieve this power. But then, this power can be misused if you are working on the mind level only.

By studying these systems, you might gain greater power of the mind, which means that you are using a more significant section of the mind, and therefore the mind becomes more powerful. In your mind, you might have the destruction of another or covetousness, or you might have a terrific amount of negativity in your mind. By using that greater power, you could bring that negativity into reality. You can harm people and destroy people. All this is possible.

THERE HAS TO BE A COMBINATION OF MIND, HEART AND GRACE

All these different mental systems work on the mind level only. The difference in our system is that every time you sit down to practice, as the awareness of the mind becomes more significant, the heart opens up simultaneously, and greater love flows. You put one of our meditators, a regular meditator, among those from other organisations, and they will look like robots. You will point out very quickly, without difficulty, the person who meditates in our system. You will see the love radiating, the love just flowing from the person. And, because that heart has opened, you would become incapable of projecting that negativity. You will project only love more and more powerfully as you become more regular and more established in your meditation.

Through our simple practices, the mind and the heart are opened, and when the mind and the heart are opened, they cannot remain empty. It becomes filled with Grace, the Grace of Divinity. We call it Gurushakti. How can you go wrong? What else do you need in life? What do you need? You need to love, and if you want to become lovable, become loving first. For if you are loving, automatically you become lovable. You have a magnetic pull. Your very presence creates an atmosphere. You must have experienced this many times. You go into a certain home, and things are so gloomy because of all the negativity in the home – the atmosphere. You wish you could just leave immediately. Then you might be in another dismal company, and a person with that love and positivity walks in, and the whole atmosphere is changed, just because of that one person, and a joyousness sort of descends.

That is the difference between the systems of yoga, or whatever you wish to call it, that works on the mind only. It has to have a combination of mind, heart, and Grace, for, without that, nothing is achieved which is worthwhile achieving. If you want to attain extensive wealth, you do not need heart there; you can acquire extensive wealth with the mind. But are you going to be happy? I would still like to meet a happy millionaire, and I have known many!

Because his mind and soul are in those millions and how to accumulate more and more, and the more his mind is involved in that, the closer his heart becomes, and he does not know what happiness is. Yet, I have been in a hut and sat down on the floor, breaking bread with very poor people. (A chapati made of raw flour, the Indian corn, about a quarter, half an inch thick – with a bit of yoghurt and a chilli). I would sit and eat their food with them and break their bread, and there was so much joy and happiness and so much love. It is so tangible; you could feel it as a solid object. What great joy, what great happiness! And after lunch, the peasant picks up his plough on his shoulder and goes back to the fields. What great joy. One has found contentment in that chapati and a little yoghurt and the chilli. Another man has seen all the discontent in the universe despite owning millions.

IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO OPEN THE HEART

Do you see how important it is to open the heart? And every great teacher in the past has taught this message. What did Jesus teach? He taught nothing else but love. What did Buddha teach? Nothing else but love. What did Krishna teach? Nothing else but love. The emphasis was not on the mind. It is good to develop the mind. Why not? But we know the limitations of the mind also, for the mind is limited, while the heart is unlimited. But when we combine the greater development of the mind with the opening of the heart, these few days we are on this planet could become more joyful and smoother. Forget about self-realisation; forget about it! Just make today a good day.

A LIFE WELL LIVED

I love one story I always tell. How will we make today a good day or tomorrow a good tomorrow? Say for five seconds you have negative thoughts in the mind. Then consciously, for the next six seconds, have a good, loving, positive thought. You have one second in the credit balance.

Negative thoughts will come thereafter because we are in the habit. So, for the next ten seconds, there will be negative thoughts in the mind. For the next eleven seconds, consciously, let us have a good, positive thought—another second in the credit balance. And at the end of the day, when we go to bed and we total this up (just a mental addition), you will find that your day has been lived in a credit balance. You are not in the red. That is why they call hell red. Fire, burning, burning, burning! And believe me, you will never have insomnia—the greatest cure. You will sleep so, so beautifully – like a baby. So beautifully rested because your day has been well-lived, and you can analyse with your mind that “I am in the credit balance.”

Now you multiply that many times, one month’s time, 365, one year… times 10, 20, 30, as many years as you want to live. Then when you leave this body, you can very safely say, “Well-lived this life, well-lived.” That is the riches that we are after. Our birthright, always.

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1978 – 16