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NEGATIVE THINKING
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The demon said: "You are very stubborn, utterly heartless and cruel. Here you seem to be engaged in religious meditation, and the springs of love are drying up in your heart. He alone may be said to be religious whose heart is full of compassion. But your son is being tortured to death and you are so pitiless that you wouldn't move your little finger to save him. Better give up your obstinacy even now or your remaining two sons will meet the same fate as your eldest son. Away with hypocrisy! Better save your sons!"
All this had no effect whatsoever on Chulnipita. The demon killed the middle son, cut him into pieces, and fried him in scalding oil and smeared Chulnipita with his son's blood.
Chulnipita continued unswerving. The demon did with the youngest son as he had done with the elder ones. But Chulnipita continued in religious meditation as before.
All Chulnipita's sons were killed. But Chulnipita continued firm. The demon was crestfallen, filled with despair. Yet he would make one more attempt, without hope. He said, "Chunipita! You're very obstinate. I'm now going to kill your mother Bhadra and I'll cut her into pieces, and fry her in the cauldron."
This threat Chulnipita duly registered. He thought: "This vile savage will stop at nothing. He can do anything. He has killed my sons. And now he is going to kill my mother." Chulnipita's affection for his mother overwhelmed him quite. His firm resolve melted into thin air, and he rose up to chase the wicked personage before him. The evil spirit rose into the sky and disappeared. Chulnipita happened to catch hold of a pole and he started hurling curses on it. Thereupon all the members of his family came running to him. None of his sons had been killed. Nor had any harm been donc to his mother. There was no cauldron and no bodies quartered into bits. All was illusion, the demon's trick.
This myth may be interpreted to mean that an evil sprit appeared and perpetrated atrocities. However, in the context of meditation or yoga, it might be interpreted in a different way altogether. There was no spectre; there was nothing. The negative, destructive thoughts of the individual rose to the surface and these wove a net of illusion in which the individual was badly caught and he imagined his sons killed and his mother threatened with death. When the ycle of negative thoughts came to a close and his meditation ended, everything vanished; nothing was left.
Every man living in this world of ours is acquainted with violence, murder and suicide. He knows that there exists in this world, theft and pillage and all sorts of crime. He is acquainted well enough with the prevalent disorder and criminal mentality. All these are imprinted on his mind. There are many things which he experiences for himself, and others which he hears happening to
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