How to Remove Negative Thoughts
THE KING AND HIS BALD HEAD
"God Word- Teachings of Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji"
Once there lived a king who became bald-headed all of a sudden. He summoned famous physicians of that time and commanded them to cure his baldness. He threatened that if they could not bring back hair on his head, they would be beheaded.
Many physicians lost their lives in this way. Eventually, a physician came forward and offered to treat the king's baldness. After having spent a lot of money and time, the physician prepared a pill and said, "O King! this pill is a sure remedy for your baldness. If you consume this, your baldness will go away. But there is one condition. The thought of an inverted copper vessel should not come to your mind when you swallow this pill."
The king agreed and took the pill from the physician.
Whenever the king tried to take the pill, he would remember the words of caution of the physician and as a result, the thought of an inverted copper vessel would invariable come to his mind. The king would keep the pill back into a medicine box immediately. Many years elapsed this way and the king did not get the opportunity to swallow the pill.
The physician was therefore able to save his life by putting forward this condition, the king could not take the pill to discover if it was really a cure for his baldness or not.
Seekers confront similar problems every minute. Whenever they sit for meditation or prayer, bad thoughts start haunting their minds. The physician exploited this weak nature of the king's mind and saved his own life.
It is the nature of the mind to get attracted to objects and remain attached to them for some time. When discrimination dawns upon a person, he realizes there is something superior to worldly objects. Such realization is on account of intellectual power.
The initial attraction towards objects was due to the impulsive nature of the heart. The heart is stronger than the intellect. No amount of intellectual exercise will help if the attitude in one's heart does not change.
There is an easy way to overcome this problem!
Stop thinking about them and start reading the glorious stories of the Lord.
Evil thoughts are caused by bad actions from earlier in life (or even previous lives).
Bad actions are like the king and physician's actions. Bad thoughts are like the copper vessel, they keep on coming when you do not want them to appear.
Overcoming these two is like Lord Raama's war against the vanara king, Vali. It is said that the strength of anyone fighting against Vali (face to face), his powers would immediately merge in Vali, thus rendering his opponent weak and defeated. Knowing this, Lord Rama stood behind a tree and shot an arrow to kill Vali.
Similarly, one should kill bad thoughts by standing under the tree called God, with the help of arrows called the Divine stories. When we get immersed in His glorious stories, our heart will automatically change and we will be getting rid of evil thoughts. Thus even without actually aiming at it, one will be getting detached from bad thoughts.
The path to control the mind involves, not suppression of thoughts but careful monitoring of the thought process and redirecting the thought in a positive direction to win over the mind. By doing so one can effortlessly achieve bliss.
LESSONS FROM THE NARRATION ABOVE
Watch Your Thoughts!
Bad Thoughts should NOT be Suppressed.
Change Your Bad Thoughts : Redirect Your Thoughts to the Divine Stories of the Lord.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE STORY
i. Your body is like the house for the Divine Light. The king became attached to the body (house where the Divine resides), thus he became vain thinking about his looks and wanted to cure his baldness.
ii. If a physician put forward a cure that did not work, the physician would die. One physician exploited the weakness of the king's mind which would continuously think of something it was asked not to think about. Thus the physician's life was spared.
iii. Our mind is easily attracted to negative or bad thoughts. In order to remove bad thoughts, good thoughts must be planted through reading or listening to the Divine stories of the Lord.
iv. Continuous thinking of the Divine stories, singing of holy songs and keeping good company, results in my heart being drawn towards God and the Divine within my own heart. I will develop positive qualities and attitude. The bad thoughts are automatically removed without any effort.
v. When there is a continuous stream of God consciousness one effortlessly experiences bliss from within the Heart.
