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NEGATIVE THINKING
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you like - wealth, family, kingdom or glory. But you must give up your search for truth." Nachiketa said, "O God, I want to find Life Eternal. I long for Truth and desire nothing else."
Similarly, the dialogue between Maitreyi and Gargi in the Upanishads and Kamlavati's message in the Uttaradhyan highlight this very truth — that nothing avails but the Truth. All temptations lead astray. The man who, freeing himself from greed and fear, succeeds in evolving a positive and constructive approach, continues steadfast in his resolve. He progresses by leaps and bounds; on the other hand, the man who is caught in the cycle of negative and destructive thinking is overthrown.
Let us concentrate on the fundamentals. The question then arises as to what force directs our life. What is the central fact within whose periphery our life moves? Let us explore it, calmly and wholeheartedly. If we persevere we shall see that greed is what actuates our life. Let us concentrate on that. Greed has given rise to attachment and ignorance. It has created an illusion which haunts man evcrywhere, and in which he is eternally caught. One wonders sometimes why man, like a bullock working a crusher, going round and round everlastingly, should condemn himself to be a galley slave. What is at the bottom of it all? The poor bullock has been labouring hard from time immemorial. There seems to be no end to its drudgery. It appears to be a short distance to cover but the journey is never done. There is one small mercy shown to the bullock - its eyes are muffled with blinkers. Ifits eyes had been left uncovered, there could be trouble. The bullock-driver is clever. He muffles its sight, so that the bullock never knows where it is going. Does it say to itself, "I'm ever moving, without a pause. I must have covered a lot of distance!" The poor thing does not know it is merely going round and round, without making progress in any direction. The bullock working a mill goes round and round all its life. If, at the close of its life, it is asked, how much distance it had covered, what could it say? Nothing at all. It had been only treading a beaten track!
Let us concentrate on the centre, get hold of the fundamental urge. If the spiritual practitioner practising meditation does not get hold of the basic urge, the central inclination, if he does not explore it to the full, his meditation would not be very successful. He has to explore the central motive to find out what element is responsible for the creation of negative emotions, wherefrom these negative emotions arise. If he can grasp the root thereof, his meditation is bound to be successful. He will know then where anger comes from, where pride and fear originate. He will know the root cause of all the negative emotions.
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