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THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING
To change a living creature, which is possessed of an independent consciousness, is a complicated task. And to transform human consciousness is still more intricate, because a man is possessed of logic, intellect, and all other qualities of consciousness in their most developed form. To transform man is really a very complex affair. The transformation of human consciousness is just not possible without first learning the technique thereof. After all it is not a matter of merely changing one's circumstances. A man thinks in terms of changing his circumstances, he works for that, finds the right means and possibly does succeed in his aim. But to change one's consciousness which is inseparably connected with memory, with one's impressions, one's virtues and faults, is very difficult. One's mental impressions are deep-rooted; impressions from the distant past arise and infect the whole of one's life. To change all that is not easy.
Strange things happen in life. Quite inscrutable! We were told of a nun haunted by a phantom. Her agony was great; it continued for months. All remedies failed. Charms, iteration of the deity's name, and reverent worship were of no avail. Something would take hold of the nun and make her say, "We are taking revenge. In the last birth but two, she misappropriated our money. We kept this money with her as a pledge. When we demanded it back, she clean denied it. We are now avenging that lie. We shall make her suffer yet." When the apparition would go away for some time and the nun felt a little better, she would say, "Never should one purloin another's property. The consequences thereof are terrible."
For a few months, the nun suffered greatly. The phantom gave her no rest. One day, the phantom spoke thus: "We could have killed her. Our appetite for revenge is most keen. But this woman is continually praying to God and is very regular in her devotion. We couldn't kill her. But we have made her suffer greatly. Now we depart."
After the apparition left, the nun became perfectly normal.
We may explain this incident psychologically and dismiss it as an illustration of a feeble mind. But this is one aspect of the matter. There is another way of looking at it. Every living being reaps what he sows. All that one has accumulated - good or bad - -yields fruit. Accumulations are also of two kinds-natural accumulation and acquired accumulation. Acquired accumulation of mental impressions goes on yielding fruit for a long time. One's hereditary acquisition of character and impressions over a thousand years matures in time and yields fruit and a man sometimes changes beyond recognition. He reveals hitherto unsuspected possibilities. That is why it is said that the transformation of man's consciousness is not an easy task. Many restraining influences come
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