Pran Rangan: One Who Has Conquered The Mind - Has Conquered the World

This is often said that one, who has conquered the mind, has conquered the world. On conquering the mind, one gets connected to the Almighty and starts seeing his divine presence in every thing – living and non-living. Now a question arises as to what are mind and its nature. The following paragraph by Osho highlights its nature. “Mind is simply a combination of all the thoughts, of all the clouds. Mind has no independent nature of its own. When all the thoughts are gone and the sky is clean and clear, you will see that everything that you have paid so much attention to is nothing but emptiness. Your thoughts were all empty. They contained nothing, they were void. Whatever you thought they contained was your own energy. You have withdrawn your energy -- just the empty shell of the thought falls down. You have withdrawn your identity and immediately the thought is no longer alive. It was your identity that was giving it life force.” Mind has a collection of our various memories. It is a treasure house of our all experiences. Our good or bad experiences, thoughts and emotions are stored in it as memories, which were felt by our sense organs. They become our beliefs, which constitute our value system. Mind along with all its memories assumes significance and thus gives birth to Ego. Whatever we experience whether good or bad, happiness or sadness, it is judged against our beliefs and memories. This clearly shows that we live in our past but not in the present. Whatever pleasant or unpleasant occurs in our life it has nothing to do with the soul. We judge the pleasant or unpleasant from the perspective of the mind, which gets conditioned as a result of our interaction with others. It means that it is the decision of our mind what is pleasant or what is unpleasant. So, mind makes us happy or unhappy. When the mind is overflowing with unhappiness, we will find unhappiness all around us and when it is overflowing with happiness, we see happiness all around us. In order to be happy, we will have to tame our mind. It is, therefore, evident that we are the creator of our mind, which dons a garb of our individuality and is driven by our ego. We have energized our ego so much that it starts leading an independent life, overwhelming us. Firstly, we have created the mind and then have strengthened it. Secondly, we have been overpowered by it so that we have lost our independent and divine nature. Our soul, representing the divine essence, is overshadowed by our mind. So, the mind acts as a bridge between our soul and us. The relation of the mind with the soul is quite deep. Soul is the miniature form of divine universal spirit. This is capable of divine creativity but we are not able to make good use of this. We have forgotten how to utilize our creative force; it has become a mystery to us. To revive our divine nature, we have to fill our heart with the love and absolute devotion for God. With His grace, we will become full of love and compassion; we will then start treating all with love and compassion; we will see His divine essence in all. With love and compassion for all, we can tame our mind. Our ego will also start dissolving. Overflowing with divine love, we will be able to have power over the vagaries of mind.

Pran Rangan: Wish Tree - Grow it By Evolving to a Higher Consciousness

The universe is His creation which runs according to the rules and regulations made by Him. Our soul is part of Him and therefore we have a miniature form of Him in us. We all have His divine attributes and creativeness in us. So we all can become divine and creative like Him. The God has created inherent powers by which we can achieve everything provided we make proper use of those powers. Our life can become happy and full of love if we so desire. It is a universal law that we can make our life prosperous and happy, wherever we are and what type of life we have led. In order to do this, we have to tap the divine power lying dormant in us. We want to achieve everything of our own. We take the assistance of the ego to fulfill our desires and ambitions. The ego goads us to accumulate wealth, acquire power, name and fame. We lose our peace in the process of achieving all this and we always have fear of losing them. We are ignorant of mysterious divine power within us, which can help us achieve any thing we desire. The divine power can be called “Kalpa Vriksha” or Wish Tree. (In Hindu religious scriptures, the banyan tree is considered Kalpa Vriksha and is given a status of sacredness. Many Indian communities worship it in order to get their wishes fulfilled.) With its help of our Wish Tree, we can achieve any thing provided we know how to. We all have power to make the Wish Tree to fulfill our wishes and desires and it will never disappoint us. It is quite easy to do so. Our thoughts activate Wish tree. Our thoughts are keys to its functioning. Our emotions influence our thoughts. The Wish Tree knows and understands well the true nature of our thoughts and emotions. Whatever thoughts we have, influenced by the emotions, Wish tree accepts them as our desires and fulfills them in our life. It can not differentiate between good and bad desires but it simply fulfills them, which is its function. It entirely depends on us whether we choose good or bad desires. If we have bad thoughts or imaginations of bad circumstances, the Wish Tree will send bad or unhappy energy waves in the universe and with the help of nature, will transform them into bad or unhappy events, which will then occur in our life. Similarly, if we entertain good and happy thoughts, the Wish Tree will send good and happy energy waves into the universe which will create good and happy events in our life. There is a caveat that Wish Tree will recognize and fulfill positive affirmations if constructed positively only like “I have to pass the exam or I have to achieve this.” It will not fulfill positive affirmations constructed negatively like “I don’t have to fail this exam or I can’t afford to lose this.” Such thoughts will not produce positive results. The positive energy waves transmitted by our thoughts into the universe will be multiplied manifold to bring positive events provided there is no trace of negativity in them. If such positives thoughts are repeated many times, the positive results will come faster. A subtle, invisible yet powerful and creative divine spirit permeates the whole of universe. The realm of divine spirit has no boundaries. It has limitless capacity to fulfill the wishes of all of us. Everyone has a seed of the Wish Tree in us. We have to create conducive environment to grow it by evolving to a higher consciousness, while our positive thoughts will serve to nurture it.

Pran Rangan: Give Joyfully

"Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:38). We live in a highly materialistic society with myriads of temptations to hoard wealth and things, which have become a status symbol. We compete with each other to maintain as high a materialistic status as possible. We are consumed by selfish consumerism. If we fail to do so, we feel miserable and if we can do it, it is at the cost of our health and happiness. We are so busy in accumulating things that giving away something to someone doesn’t come to our mind. We recoil at the thought of giving away as our desire to hoard is very powerful. But giving is joyful if we give something without expectation of any return. Not only is it joyful but it brings abundance to the giver. The law of giving- The Law of Giving states that which you give, you receive, and that the more you give, the more you receive. Whatever you want, you have to give it first. The corollary to the principle of giving and receiving is that we give only to ourselves. As we are all One, when we give to another, we are really giving to ourselves. By giving something away first, you are opening up the channels between you and the universe for you to receive more. The more you give away, the wider the channel you have created, therefore the more you will be able to receive in return. Giving and receiving always occur in balance. It is as important to receive gratefully as it is to give voluntarily, generously, and with no expectations. Giving gives pleasure- It has been documented that volunteering keeps the mood of the volunteer elevated for some hours. This phenomenon is dubbed "the helper's high". It is based on the theory that giving produces endorphins in the brain that provide a mild version of morphine high. It has been found that the same area of the brain that is activated in response to pleasure lights up when the participants in the study thought about giving money to a charity. Giving is mutually beneficial- Altruism toward our fellow human beings simultaneously serves us. It is a mutually healing. Dalai Lama has rightly commented that true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion... Many believe that by helping and serving others, we help ourselves in the process. This is illustrated by a story of Mahatma Gandhi who when settled in a village immediately began to serve the needs of its people. When a friend inquired if his reasons for serving the poor were purely humanitarian, Gandhi answered, "Not at al. Rather," he said, "I am here to serve myself only, to find my own self-realization through the service of others." Many ways of giving- Apart from giving money and things, there are many ways we can help. We can help by holding the elevator, dropping a coin into a homeless person’s hand, or pitching in to help with a loved one’s chore. We can give heartfelt “thank you,” or even a letter letting someone know how much he or she helped. We can smile and say- God bless you- if someone cares for us. We can be more courteous in our daily life. Two areas where many of us can be stingiest are blessings and forgiveness. If we want to have blessings and forgiveness of others and the God, we should give generously blessings and forgiveness to others. Such spiritual generosity must be extended to all things, not just other human beings.

Thich Nhat Hahn: Kiss The Earth

Walk and touch peace every moment. Walk and touch happiness every moment. Each step brings a fresh breeze. Each step makes a flower bloom. Kiss the Earth with your feet. Bring the Earth your love and happiness. The Earth will be safe when we feel safe in ourselves.