Art of Positive Thinking

SR No.: 006586
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Health Harmoney
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 246
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

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THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING
From the very beginning, from childhood, certain beliefs take root in our life — the feeling for discipline and mental qualms save us from committing many evils.
The revered Kaluganiji once told a moving tale about a youth preparing to go to foreign ports for the purpose of acquiring wealth. He said to his young wife, “I'm going abroad to earn money. Family honour lies in your custody now. Please keep chaste! Let not the family name be besmirched. Do take care. Still, the mind is very fickle, and if you can no longer endure celibacy and may want to indulge in sex, search out for your partner the man who goes to the most remote part of the forest for his morning ablutions." For a long time after the departure of her husband, the modest wise observed great restraint and remained chaste. None could find fault with her conduct. But when years passed away without any news of her husband, her endurance broke down and she felt in her stirrings of desire. The human mind functions in a queer way. Even great hermits and ascetics are sometimes assailed by temptation. It is unimaginable how their consciousness lapses, the virtue of a lifetime spent in meditation stands vitiated in a minute. On the other hand, we hear of great reprobates achieving salvation almost on their death bed. Insensitive wretches suddenly regain sensitivity and become enlightened, and people say of such a person, “He pursued all vices throughout, but lived the last ten days of his life in the manner of the greatest ascetics." Such sudden transformations are not unknown. One who is awake may fall asleep; another in oblivion may wake up suddenly at any time. · So the wife who was no ascetic but an ordinary woman found herself assailed by lust. Yet she remembered her husband's counsel. She asked her servant to fetch her the man who went farthest into the forest for his morning ablutions.
In due course, the man appeared before her. The wife asked the stranger why he went so far into the forest. He demurred, “I don't know! I feel so abashed!" On being pressed further, he confessed that he could not endure anyone seeing him naked. "I don't want anybody -- not even a bird -- to have a glimpse of my private parts," he said. "I feel so shy. Even the earthen pot of water I carry for washing, I keep in a covert place – I won't let even a lifeless object be a witness to my ablutions!"
Thereupon, the young wife said at once, "Sir, I feel very grateful to you for enlightenment. It was kind of you to come here. You may go, now."
She had suddenly grasped the meaning of her husband's parting adjuration! The sense of shame is a tremendous thing; there is great safety in it.
AW.