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POSITIVE THINKING
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scers keeping their balance and meeting gross anger and insult with perfect grace and forgiveness. They never react or display anger despite repeated provocation.
A great saint of Maharashtra called Eknath went to take his bath in the stream. As he came out of the stream, a miscreant spat on him. The saint went back for a dip in the stream to wash off the defilement. But as soon as he started on his way back home, the miscreant repeated his act of desecration and the saint was obliged to have a bath again. This went on for a while. For twentyone times, the man spat on the saint as soon as the latter came out of the stream and each time the saint went back for a purificatory bath. At last the man gave up in despair and prostrated himself before the saint, sccking forgiveness for his misconduct. The saint took him up in his arms and embraced him and said, "Brother! You are a great friend of mine. Usually I have a dip in the bosom of Mother Godavari once a day, but today with your cooperation, I had the good fortune to rencw myself in the sacred waters twentyone times. I feel blessed. You are my benefactor!"
How is it that certain things come to pass despite factors which are not conducive to them? That certain things happen despite apparently unfavourable circumstances only goes to prove that irresistible inward feeling manisests itself in outside behaviour. Other factors become secondary and ineffective. The first cause reigns supreme. Inward feeling is the primary thing, the first cause. As long as the individual docs not get within himself through meditation, as long as he does not delve deep so as to touch his innermost bcing, the outcr influences play a disproportionate rolc and the man is dominated by these. But the man who, through meditation, comes to know his inner being, who is intimately acquainted with the moving spirit within, transcends outside influcnccs.
In ancient literature are mentioned ten kinds of dharnia, four or twelve kinds of concentrated observation and countless ways of enlightenment. These multiple expositions serve to help the seeker tocstablish direct contact with thc inner spirit, the inmost bcing, so as to awaken pure and concentrated consciousness.
What distinguishes a meditator from a non-meditator, the man of religion from the non-religious, is the fact that a meditator, through sell-observation, is ever activating and intensifying his constructive vision. Thconc who docs not do so and instcad wallows in the stream of negative emotions is rightly called irreligious. That is the only distinction between the religious and the non-religious, between a meditator and a non-meditator. Only on that basis can a man's bclaviour and conduct bc truly explained.
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