Be in charge of your thoughts

By. Prashant Solomon

(published in Inner Voice column, page 13, Hindustan Times, May 23, 2005)

Temptations and malicious thoughts do enter human minds. Sometimes a violent, malevolent or dirty thought suddenly rushes into the mind, causing guilt, fear, anger, greed or lust. Persons who are positive in their outlook and believe in God can overcome such thoughts through prayers.Many people, however, feel guilty about them. They should not. We are as much in control of our thoughts as we are of our enemy shooting arrows at us. We should not duck. Rather, we should shoot back with positive thoughts.

We can also shield ourselves from this onslaught through the virtues of faith and love. Even the greatest men including Jesus Christ and Buddha, have gone through their share of temptations, fears and worries. Christ was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days while he prayed and fasted. Buddha worried about old age, sickness and death when he was Prince Siddhartha.

These masters could not control negative thoughts, but they chose not to nurture these evil seeds.

As a seed needs nutrition to grow, so do thoughts -- good or bad. As a garden has flowers and weeds, we have our positive and negative thoughts. Both can grow if nurtured. The idea is to cut out the bad thoughts through faith, love and patience. Having a bad thought is not a sin. Nurturing and harbouring bad thoughts is the root of all evil. Replace the weeds of negativity with the flowers of positivity and the garden of your mind will produce trees of virtue and faith.