"We become what our thoughts are". These thoughts on the validity of the objective world and the value of the joys derivable therefrom, though they emanate from Ajnana do shape us from within. The reason why we are caught in this mould lies in the absence of four requisites:
- Attention towards Adhyatmic Gain (spiritual progress);
- Steady Faith;
- Devotion and
- The Grace of God.
Even if one of these four is absent, man cannot experience the highest Bliss of the Absolute.
Our enquiry should not be directed to the obvious and the superficial. This line of inquiry will only mislead us into believing what is not the Cosmos. It makes us forget that it is our mind that has generated this panorama of cosmic proportions and presented it to us as Truth.
It is indeed strange that this huge Cosmos depends ultimately on whether 'I' cognise it as such or not! "If you feel it is there, it is there; if you feel it is not there, it is not there!" This means that we have to go deep into this process of the mind of man. Is there any occasion when our assertion leads to the existence of a thing and our negation results in its disappearance? Or, is this conclusion a figment of the imagination?
Inquiry on these lines would undoubtedly reveal the Truth. When the rope is seen in darkness, by mistake, by ignorance, the serpent arises and appears in its place, displacing the truth of the rope. For some reason, when the truth is known, and the onlooker feels, "This is no serpent; it is a rope", the serpent disappears, for it was mere 'falsehood'. So, feeling or thinking is able to create the serpent and also to destroy it. Assertion creates; negation destroys. Both are mental processes which can be classified as 'thoughts'.
